Blue Satellite: Premium Sound, Great Build and a few features worth discussing

Hey everyone. Today I'd like to take a few minutes of your time to review the Blue Satellite, a headset that came out in 2017 from company Blue. They have the Blue Snowball, Blue Yetti and some other products you've probably heard of.

A few years ago they made their first forray into headphones with the Blue Mofi's, now called Sadie, and although I have not used that product, I have heard it has an amazing sound. I believe this is their attempt to provide a similar experience with a Bluetooth headset.

So let's get right into it. When I got this headset and opened it up, there wasn't really much there, the hardshell carrying case with the headphones, a 3-meter cable with 3.5 connectors, the typical manuals and a micro USB charging cable.

When I took the headset out of the case, I was blown away by the build quality. These headphones feel nice and heavy. A lot of the other headphones I've seen are made almost entirely out of plastic and although the sound is great, they feel cheaply made. Not so with the Blue Satellite. I could tell just by holding it that I was holding in my hand a studio-grade headset.

There's not as much padding on the headband as I would like. I don't really notice it personally and I've listened for hours at a time before, but I could see why some people might find this headset a bit uncomfortable after a while. It does clamp on your head a bit tightly, but I quite like it. Not as much of a chance for sound to leak, also even without engaging the noise cancellation feature it does a good job of keeping excessive noise out.

Now to describe the headset. It is a little bit heavy because this particular headset has a built-in amplifier. While most other headsets use your device's audio capabilities, you can use the amplifier on this set which makes the sound a little bit louder and brings out more of the clarity, and I do have to tell you for a Bluetooth headset, for sound quality this headset does get a 10 out of 10.

Unfortunately the buttons are not very distinctive on this particular set, but I will do my best to describe them. Starting at the left earcup, on the bottom we have the power button--hold this down until you hear a beeping sound to indicate the Satellite is on and in pairing mode, sorry this headset doesn't have voice prompts. Next to the power button is the micro USB charging slot. You can connect this to a computer or USB wall charger to charge up the headphones. On the earcup itself there are three buttons you need to know about. At the very top is the button to engage the analog amplifier when the unit is turned on. If you put your finger on the amp button and slide back a little there's another button, the Bluetooth button. Bluetooth comes on automatically if you press and hold the power button and there's nothing connected to the 3.5 aux cable, however it can be turned on and off if not connected, (connecting via wire disables Bluetooth automatically.)

There's another button on the bottom part of the earcup, below the amp button. This is the active noise cancellation button, and it works pretty well. For all of you audio purists who complain that headsets like the Bose QC 35's mess up the way the music sounds when the active noise cancellation is on, this headset has two dedicated drivers to deal specifically with noise cancellation, while most of the other headsets with noise cancellation capabilities use the same drivers to play music and cancel out sounds.

Now to describe the other earcup, at the bottom of the earcup is the 3.5 MM cable adaptor to connect to non-Bluetooth devices. ON the earcup itself there are three more buttons you need to know about. At the top is the volume up button. This particular headset's volume, when using with Bluetooth, can be controlled independently of your device. If you slide back just a little bit from the volume up button, you'll find a multi-function button, one press can start and stop tracks, a double-tap will skip tracks and a tripple-tap will go back tracks. A long press can answer and end phone calls.

On the bottom of the right earcup, just below the volume up button, is the volume down button. I like turning up the Satellites to full volume and then adjusting my phone's volume afterward to obtain the most comfortable listening level.

I love this headset. For hours of listening to excellent music, no matter what it is, I give this headset a 4.5 out of 5 stars, but unfortunately there are some cons I'd like to cover.

First of all, I have a bit of a complaint about the battery. Using Bluetooth only, the Satellite's battery can provide approximately 24 hours of play time. Unfortunately this gets reduced drastically when using it with the built-in amp and noise cancellation to anywhere between 8 and 10 hours. There's no way to tell from your device how much battery power is left, and the headset will just die with no "low battery" warning. Also, no voice prompts on this headset. Maybe I'm spoiled, but I've gotten used to most of the headsets I own now having some kind of voice feature, whether it simply says "connected" when it's on or whether it's able to give the device name it's connected to. It beeps when turning on with Bluetooth and beeps again when turned off, if the aux cable isn't connected.

The other complaint that I have is that the included cable does not have a mic or a button to answer and end phone calls or to raise and lower the volume. What is it with companies including a cable without those features when practically every phone and tablet can be controlled from a headset cable?

Overall I'd still say if you have $400 you could afford to spend and you want a great listening experience, buy this headset. You'll hear details in your songs you've never heard before.