Poly Legend 30

[Vleg30]

I 've just bought a new Poly Voyager Legend 30 headset. It's my third "Plantronics" headset (see background below).  I mention this to make plain I'm not a new user, and I'm intimately familiar with the routines associated with setting up & using a Bluetooth accessory. 

Problems;

1.    The first 0.75 seconds of any audio is not audible through the headset. Email & SMS alerts are therefore effectively muted, as I have these set to short sounds. I assume this is because the amplifier module in the headset is set to sleep when no incoming audio is detected so as to optimise battery life, and it takes it about half a second to wake up & work when incoming audio is detected. Whatever the reason, it's a bit clueless as from the user's viewpoint, you don't hear what you're supposed to hear. Did nobody test this before release? It's hardly rocket science.

2.    Naturally, I have attempted to register the device with HP. To do this you have to know the serial number. On the page where you're asked to enter this there are helpful-seeming guides on how to find the serial number. For my Voyager Legend 30, there's a nice drawing with arrows showing exactly the location on the item on which the serial number should be printed. And there's no serial number printed there. There's a Poly logo, various CE-type marks and other generic stuff, but certainly no serial number. I therefore checked the box (which, thankfully, I still have, and found the serial number on one end under another sticker. 

Attempting to add this device to my profile using the serial number failed, however -- just a 'something went wrong, please try later' message. Clearly then, the HP database knows nothing of Poly (or Plantronics) serial numbers, and HP have no idea that they are not, in fact, printed on the physical item to which they apply. Again, these are avoidable pratfalls. Does nobody actually test the system?

3.    The other problem (far less serious for me personally) is that there appears to be no way to get it to announce the caller's name before answering. This appears to be a policy decision, as there's not even a switch for this in the Poly Lens iOS app (which I'm using to administer the device). However, I do understand that having this active could potentially expose contact names & phone numbers certainly to HP/Poly and potentially to the entire internet, so if this has been withdrawn because of privacy concerns, then bravo -- but that's a first.

It would be remarkably nice to have some solutions or possibly just justifications for the above shortcomings. Number [1] is easily the most serious and seriously impedes functionality.

Background:

My first Plantronics Voyager Legend was bought in 2015. It was 'managed' by Plantronics Hub, a Mac app which just worked, for setting options such as language used, HD Audio on/off and firmware updates. It worked superbly well -- pretty much flawless. The headset was so light you forgot you were wearing it, and accordingly I accidentally wore it into the shower in 2021, as a result of which it failed, entirely predictably. I replaced it with another Voyager Legend with an identical model number, but this one could not be modified by the Plantronics Hub. It was detected, but the app failed to read 'Special Settings' and therefore could update neither them nor the firmware. Plantronics Support sent a replacement, which had exactly the same issues. It did work, though -- albeit not as well as my first one, and I stuck with it until earlier this year (2025) when its battery began to fail, which prevented it maintaining a steady connection after the first 30 seconds of any phone call (in or out). 

Its replacement (Poly Voyager Legend 30) has overall better audio quality once its confounded lazy amplifier starts (see (1) above), and better Bluetooth range (for two devices).

But it's nearly twice the price, no longer comes with foam earbud covers, slightly  heavier and more bulky (probably a bigger battery), and its charging connection is utterly brain-dead.  Apart from its automatic audio-editing (see (1) above), the charging connection is a massive step back. Instead of a USB cable with a clever magnetic 'cup' on one end, into which the bottom end of the headset would almost self-dock, we now have a conventional USB-C socket (with all the bulk that entails) with an idiotically fiddly silicon dust cap. Connecting and disconnecting is now a much more involved and intricate operation that takes about 10-15 seconds rather than around 2 or less. The most irritating aspect of this is that the contacts and the magnet for a 'cup' connection are still there for use with the ludicrously expensive charging case, but you can't use these with a suitably-equipped cable because some bozo decided a USB-C socket was preferable. For whom, and on what planet?

The presence of the USB-C socket defies all logic -- the whole case needs to be bigger all round to accommodate it, and its weight is unwelcome. Worst of all, you can't even adapt an old cable 'cup' to work, because the polarity of the headset magnet has been reversed, so that the 'cup' from the older version is actually repelled. 

The buttons on the main body of the earpiece have also changed, with the main on-off button also used for pairing, start/stop music, etc -- leading to endless hassle & confusion. And having up & down volume buttons is inferior to the older single toggle as they're much harder to find 'blind'.

Ultimately, my priority is to hear alerts when they happen, so (1) above is most of the problem. Solve this, and the product will at least do what it's supposed to do, albeit with sub-optimal behaviour detail.

[williamcreator]

your voyager legend 30 issues mainly come down to design trade-offs that weren’t really thought through. the missing first second of audio is almost certainly due to aggressive power saving the amp sleeps, then wakes too slowly, so short alerts get cut off. the serial number mess and hp registration failures are just poor backend integration after poly’s acquisition. caller name announcements were likely removed for privacy and data-handling reasons. overall, most of these problems aren’t “user error” they’re design choices that sacrificed usability, and the audio cut-off is the one that really needs a firmware fix

[SteffenBaierUK]

Hello @Vleg30 ,

Welcome to the HP Poly community.

This is a peer-to-peer community where:

• A place where you can find great tips and helpful solutions from other HP product users.

If no other volunteers reply, I suggest you contact our Support organization in your region. Details are in my Signature.

Best Regards

Steffen Baier