Motorola NTN2570 Bluetooth Mission Critical Wireless Earpiece with 12" Cable

Customer Reviews (1)

Great concept but poor execution...Review by MC

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I ordered this with the PMLN5792 wireless adapter for my Motorola XTS2500 radio. I paid total of $327 for the Headset Kit and the Wireless Adapter. I work for a large police department and decided to buy this to test and see if it would be a good solution to recommend to other officers and to maybe replace the 2-wire setup (mic + custom molded earpiece with soundwave tube) that kept breaking on me every couple of years. The weak point for my 2-wire setup was the plug itself since it would get frayed after hundreds of times me pulling the radio out of the holder to change frequencies. The plug would eventually stop working disabling the earpiece or the mic. This Motorola wireless solution would eliminate that since there would be no plug connected by a wire that would plug into the radio. I had high hopes for it. I've tested it for 2 months. So let's move to Pro's and Con's:

PRO's:
- "cool factor"
- easy setup and pairing
- wireless
- good battery life on the earpiece (approx. 12 hrs with moderate transmitting)
- good quality voice transmission (while transmitting only and NOT while listening)
- good strong bluetooth connection, never had it drop or disconnect

CON's:
- cable is too short between PTT and the earpiece (would be better with just one coil closer to the ear, I clip the PTT to my vest under my shirt)
- horrible sound quality (cannot adjust volume right - I have to keep the wireless PTT unit at full volume and adjust volume to approx. 75% on the radio to be able to hear and understand the transmissions, anything else and it comes through extremely distorted and unintelligible)
- since volume is on high on the unit all the voice prompts and system sounds are deafening
- not good for high noise environment (I could not hear a thing in a crowd or at traffic stop on a freeway)
- earpiece itself is uncomfortable at first and my ear canal hurt for couple of weeks, eventually you get used to it
- earpiece keeps coming out almost constantly while doing traffic control, running, fighting, anything that requires head movements (yes, I did try adjusting any possible way - and I'm sorry Motorola that included retention strap looks and feels stupid)
- earpiece comes out at critical moments (i.e. Foot pursuits) which makes it unsafe and unusable
- proprietary connector for the earpiece part to PTT and non-standard earpiece attachments

CONCLUSIONS:
Unfortunately I cannot recommend this unit to any law enforcement professionals. It falls short on so many levels and it can be a major officer safety issue. It is a great concept but the execution by Motorola came through as poorly thought out and as to maximize their profit by only providing proprietary connections and pieces that cannot be substituted with commonly used parts, i.e. custom molded earpieces cannot be easily connected. I really wanted to like this and I've tried everything I could to adjust and fix things to like this unit. I even rigged my custom molded earpiece to it which made the retention much better but nothing could have been done about the horrible sound quality and ear retention. I dumped it back in my locker on top of countless other "good ideas." If I could I would ask for a refund but it's too late for that now.

In the end I went back to yet another 2-wire setup. Please contact me with any questions. (Posted on 8/19/2016)