Ewan's got a fairly honed sense of hearing, which is why Rafe and I packed him off with a Bluetooth stereo headset to investigate wireless sound quality and reliability. Did A2DP pass the test and is it ready for the prime time? A qualified yes for low grade pop listening, but an emphatic no (for several reasons) for anyone serious about their music...
Read on in the full article.
This topic has been hotly debated on S60.com, and it's very strange for me because I honestly (honestly!) never get a dropped signal when using Bluetooth A2DP headphones. I've used the BH-500 and BH-501 (and reviewed both) and I never had any problems with them, not a single cut-out. Yet lots of people including Nokia staff have written on blogs that they do get cut-outs. How can this be?
The only explanation that makes sense is the one Ewan touched on in the article, the bit-rate of the music is the culprit. I'm one of those people who deliberately uses lower bit-rates to store as many tracks as possible on a memory card, but perhaps if I used higher bit-rate tracks I would start getting these cut-outs.
It may be that A2DP is right on the edge of working and not working, just about able to cope with a certain bit-rate but experiencing problems when you go over that. If that's the case, hopefully further developments of the Bluetooth standard will take stereo sound well away from that edge so that all track qualities work.
"Yes, these issues could be dealt with by the BH-500 , which is a little receiver box and has a 3.5mm stereo jack, so any set of headphones can be attached. Frankly that’s silly – the point of the headsets is they have a microphone as well so can be used to go hands free. "
The BH-500 has a built-in microphone! It also has a huge phone-shaped button which is there purely for call-handling, you can see the button in the photo in the article.
You can receive calls (and make calls if you want the last dialled number) by pressing the phone-shaped button. You can be heard quite clearly even if you clip the BH-500 to your belt.
I'm very keen on this little gadget because it means I can store my phone in a bag while still listening to music and taking calls. Phones are heavy, over 100g, but the BH-500 is nice and light and clips to your clothes. It's just like having an iPod Shuffle, but one that can take phone calls too, and because it's got a jack you can use your favourite headphones.
Storing the phone in a bag also means you're not as likely to attract muggers, and the BH-500 is rubber sealed all the way round, it even has a rubber flap on the charging jack, so it's something you could use even when it's raining. I wouldn't want to change tracks on a €700 N95 when it's pouring down with rain, but the BH-500 is just the ticket for that situation as it has built-in music controls.
In my own (totally unscientific 😊 ) experiments I've seen dropouts if I have my PC Suite contacting the phone periodically via bluetooth or if I have other bluetooth programs doing periodic scans (e.g. Jaiku) turning those off -> no drops whatsoever. N95 + BH-500.
The drop outs and stretching of music tempo is the reason I've stopped using my bluetooth headphones. I got fed up with loss of and stretched music, which thanks to this article I now understand what was happening. Back to my Sennheiser PXC300, which despite the wires etc offer a better overall experience.
I really don't get the HB-500's (or other wired bluetooth stereo adaptors). I have a little 2.5-3.5mm adaptor which has buttons for controlling the music and a mic built in. I can't remember how much it cost but it was probably a tenner. This allows me to connect any headphones I want to my phone, make and receive calls, control the music etc. and all with the phone tucked safely away either in my bag (which has a rubberised hole for the headphone cable) or inside my jacket.
I can't see what the difference is between this and the BH-500 except that;
The BH-500 costs �80
The BH-500 requires bluetooth to be on, which hurts the battery
The BH-500, being wireless, can suffer from drop-outs.
I suppose I'm asking what you see as the advantages to the BH-500 system Krisse? The only advantage I can see to using Bluetooth headphones is that they are wireless (which is a nice advantage) except the BH-500 isn't wireless. You have the disadvantage of bluetooth (cost, dropouts, battery) AND the disadvantage of wires! Am I missing something?
I think it's not entirely accurate to say that A2DP is not quote 'there'. The A2DP standard is certainly 'there'. What explains the findings in this article is rather variations between different A2DP implementations.