The Bluetooth headset has gone from nifty novelty to ubiquitous accessory. They've become better and better with each generation, so now that they've matured, just how good are they? And what use are they for something other than making you look like you're talking to yourself?
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Member since:2005-08-08
Member since:2005-07-06
I think your ears are broken.
I've tried a Nokia 6300 and an HTC Apache as host devices, and three different phones (Plantronics P590, Jabra BT620s, and some Plantronics earphones I forget the name of). The Jabra worked best, but they all sound fairly poor, with obvious artifacts of heavy MP3-type compression (extremely tinny and artificial upper mids and highs). All three will drop out the audio for a second or two every two or three minutes (the Plantronics P590 is worse), with either host device.
A2DP is just a crap design, and needs to be improved. If you have cloth ears you might not notice the quality issue, I guess, but it's not a subtle thing at all. It's not the difference between my Eggo D77s and my Grado HF-1s, it's just really, really obviously terrible.
edit: oh, and I tried them all for at least one extended trip, so I wasn't sitting at a desk with a ton of interference around.
Edited 2008-10-02 00:14 UTC
Member since:
2005-07-06
...I want a pair of Bluetooth headphones that doesn't sound like crap and drop out every 30 seconds.
Someone fix A2DP already!