Sennheiser MM 100 Wireless Bluetooth Neckband Headset

This is my first pair of wireless headphones as well as the first neckband ones. I use them only for listening to music, I'm not interested in the headset functionality.

I found their sound quality to be excellent for a wide range of music (but I have to add that I have no high end reference to compare them to). They're initially very comfortable to wear though your ears might start to hurt a bit after an hour or so, especially if you wear glasses. This isn't much of a problem for me as I mostly use them for a short commute. For the same reason I can't really comment on battery life.
There are some flaws but for the current price (£55) they're a very good choice.

Positives:
+ Sound quality is excellent
+ Range when paired with an iPhone 4 is great, close to 10m with a couple of (thin) walls in between
+ Connects quickly and without hassle
+ Quite comfortable to wear at least for a while (depends on your ears), lightweight, secure fit.

On the negative side:
- Poor design of the main button (on/off, play/pause/accept call). It is very clicky and right on top of your ear, which means you hear very loud clicks when pressing it. It feels cheap. It's also impossible to push without pressing against your ear. The other buttons are much better.
- The headset uses the rare 8-pin mini USB for charging instead of the much more common micro USB used by many mobile phones, so you're unlikely to have a spare cable when you need one.
- The plastic neckband flexes but is not adjustable. If you wear glasses it might be somewhat uncomfortable. It's a shame Sennheiser didn't design an option to clip the headset to the arms of glasses.
- Don't expect them to block outside noises.

Seven Month Update
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I thought it was time to write a quick update to my initial review. I've now owned these headphones for about seven months and I'm still really pleased that I bought them. There hasn't been a week when I haven't made use of them. I still like to stick them on when I'm doing the ironing and because they're linked up to my MacBook I can listen to Steve Wright's 'Sunday Love Songs' on Radio 2 streamed from the BBC website (Sad I know!)

As for the comment I made about the sweat on the ear pads after my normal 30 minute run, that still happens but after each run I remove the ear pads and give them a rinse under the tap and leave them to dry. The only thing I have noticed is the charger connector on the headphones has started to turn a little green. I'm assuming it's the salt from my sweat which is starting to corrode the metal connection. So far though it hasn't caused any issues.

One other little niggle, which I think others may have mentioned, is that sometimes the headphones get a little confused and seem to freeze so that none of the buttons work. Searching online the first time this happened I found a lot of comments suggesting you need to dismantle the headphones and touch the internal battery with something metal to basically jump start the headphones back to life. I've found that when the freeze does happen all I need to do is connect them up to my MacBook using the charging lead and within about 20 seconds they've come back to life.

I must point out that I don't actually use these to take phone calls from my iPhone as the main reason I bought them was for running but I will say that when I have tested them on a few calls it's immediately obvious that they're not perfect when the person you're calling says you sound like you're speaking underwater. This isn't a result of the sweating issue as it was like that from day one.

Overall, as I've said, I'm still really pleased with these headphones and would definitely buy another pair if they ever do decide to completely die on me.

Original Review Below
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I bought these headphones earlier this week and they're so good I just had to write a review.

The main reason for wanting a pair of bluetooth headphones was to use while running so I was looking for a pair that were obviously as light as possible and would stay in place.

Being my first bluetooth headset purchase I was a little wary about choosing the right one so I did quite a bit of online research and read a load of reviews of each of the current main players in this market (we're talking Motorola S9-HD, Altec Lansing/ Plantronics Backbeat 903 and of course these, the Sennheiser MM100).

I plumped for the Sennheisers for two reasons, the first was that a lot of the reviews of the other two headphones said that they weren't as well suited to running due to the fact that they either had too much weight across the neck which caused excessive movement (Motorola) or they wouldn't stay in your ears long enough before popping out (Altec Lansing/ Plantronics) and secondly I've owned quite a few pairs of Sennheiser earphones and headphones in the past and they've all been really well built and with pretty decent sound quality (bar one...see my review of the Sennheiser/ Adidas CX680 - http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R15UY53XT9RAAF/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B0035JKJ2W&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=

Anyway, so far I'm really glad I did opt for the Sennheiser MM100. I've just completed my first 30 minute run with them at a maximum speed of about 8 mph and they didn't move a bit... I'd go as far as to say that I actually started to feel that they weren't there at all which is such a revelation after months of putting up with having to continually poke my previous set of buds into my ear to stop them from popping out completely.

I used them with my iPhone 4 and the Nike+ running app and apart from the audio not coming through immediately when you start the app and the guy says 'walk around to activate your sensor' everything worked perfectly. I could sit my iPhone on the ledge in front of the treadmill display so I could monitor my run progress and the track being played and if I needed to change to a different song or adjust the volume I used the controls on the side of the headphones....Brilliant!

Apart from using them for my run, I also popped them on while I was doing the weekly house clean and again they worked great. I was able to leave my iPhone in the kitchen and managed to work my way around the whole of the house listening to my music, changing tracks and adjusting the volume as I went without any breaking up or cutting out.

I've also paired these with my Macbook and (unlike some other reviewer who mentioned the sound quality was awful) I didn't find any problems at all...better yet, if you're listening to music in iTunes, the controls for volume and playback work exactly the same as they would with an iPhone.

This wouldn't be a very balanced review if I didn't mention a couple of slight negatives....and I think they are really minor.

I do generally prefer the in-ear headphone style because they block out the majority of external noise so the fact that these are the over-the-ear variety means the sound can be disrupted by things going on around you. Having said that, at maximum volume I was able to drown out a lot of the sound of me running on the treadmill and the hoover when I was cleaning and at 80db that shouldn't be loud enough to cause any hearing damage.

The second negative might not come to anything but only time will tell. After my 30 minute run the earpads were understandably a little damp with sweat and when I took the pads off, the plastic underneath had some traces of sweat on too. I'm not sure if this will cause any damage over time to the sound output. I'll update this review if I notice that in the future.

Oh....I forgot to mention earlier but the sound quality (considering they're not in-ear headphones) lives up to Sennheiser's reputation. A decent bit of bass with clear mids and trebles.

So, all in all, I'm really pleased with my purchase and would recommend these to anyone looking for a wire-free running (or cleaning) experience.

I bought these as a birthday present for my wife after reading the previous view posted here on amazon. My wife has had them now for about a months time and is very happy with them wearing them everywhere she goes also at home, the only downside with these headphones if you have an iphone is that not all of the mm 100s functions are not available and when you phone someone up who is wearing them outside it picks up the traffic and the wind (if the person is bicycleing so well that it is hard to hear what is being said :(
This said the sound is excellent for the wearer it's super light weight so you quickly forget that you are even wearing them, and they easily fulfill my techy wifes tech requirements. No my only problem is getting her to myself :).