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:2005-07-06
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:2005-08-08
Ad personam attacks are really classy. You know that sarcasm gets stripped over the Internet, so please use some emoticons at least.
As for your point... Well, I use my A2DP headphones outside, in a noisy environment, so I couldn't care less if they sound a bit worse than wired headphones. I can't tell the difference when I'm outside (who could, it's just MP3s I'm playing, not FLAC, I'm not an audiophile). And when I'm inside, I opt for the hi-fi stereo sitting on my desk or normal, wired, honest-to-god headphones. Why? Because I don't find the convenience of wireless headphones when I'm sitting at my desk appealing or useful. Recharging them alone is annoying and a pointless exercise if you sit at home with wired headphones on the shelf. And I've used both wired and wireless headphones, both with a computer and with a phone, so I know the ups and downs. A2DP headphones, at home, non-mobile, are pointless. On the road, you'd have to have some pretty good noise cancelling to notice any difference at all. That comes with a price of being run over by a car though.
Member since:
2005-08-08
Could you be more precise about your bad experiences? This really doesn't sound good (no pun intended), maybe it was just WLAN interference? What phone/a2dp device combos did you use?