But maybe I’m wrong?
I do appreciate wireless controllers.
But my fucking Bluetooth headphones… if I move around, even carrying my audio source, BT cuts in and out.
In my wife’s Mazda, BT is weirdly delayed so that the first part of navigation instructions are lost if she’s listening to a podcast.
It sometimes is just weird about connecting. Not often but very annoying.
I am a grumpy old man holding a lit zippo high for old school audio cords.
BT in my experience is heavily dependent on the radios on both sides of the connection. I have some cheap headphones that barely functioned five feet away from my old phone, and some decidedly not-cheap headphones that function beautifully up to 30 feet out.
Interference is also a thing. If the band is crowded, like in a heavily BT office, it can be bad times.
I’ll say it for you. Fuck Bluetooth.
I’ve used Bluetooth headphones with my iPhone exclusively for years and they’re great?
There’s something special about Bluetooth implementations in car audio. I usually listen using my AirPods while driving (I know, I know) unless it’s going to be a long enough trip that it’s worth repairing or whatever the Kenwood wants this time.
Yeah, Bluetooth kind of sucks. It’s supposed to “just work,” and when it does it’s fine, but of course it doesn’t always, and when it doesn’t there’s pretty much no response except to go ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I was with you on Bluetooth being useless until I got AirPods. They work long distances from my phone and laptop - I can leave my phone on the first floor of my house and listen to podcast on the 3rd floor or basement, or in my (small) backyard or driveway.
Numerous times on walks I haven’t realized that I didn’t have my phone on me until passing my next door neighbors house and they cut out.
Other Bluetooth h headsets failed when I walked 15 feet away.
Don’t AirPods have some specialized Apple magic in their radio, or is that just in the audio codec/processing?
They do have a different codec and chipset. Maybe they have far more robust error correction.
They certainly don’t have better sound quality though! I’ve certainly had many other sets of cans that sounded better.
Buds <> Cans is pretty unfair, though.
Troubleshooting bluetooth can be incredibly frustrating. I had devices that refused to connect. It turned out that that particular app required location services to be enabled and high-accuracy in order for it to connect to bluetooth. So frustrating, as the app has nothing to do with GPS or location.
I definitely have experience with the cutting out part at the beginning of playback. I think some implementations of Bluetooth put the connection to sleep to save battery and wait for activity to turn it back on. But that means it misses the first .5-1 second of that activity since it can’t turn on fast enough.
AirPods, though, are nearly flawless.
I’m also hardcore on the Fuck Bluetooth train. The bluetooth radio on my otherwise really nice custom stereo setup in my car introduces nearly a full-second delay and sounds noticeably worse than going over an aux cable in terms of fuzziness/clarity. The sound delay isn’t as bad unless I’m hanging out in my car on a break at work watching cooking Youtube videos, but it’s pretty maddening in that case.
My little bluetooth speaker, an Oontz Angle 3, has a smaller audio delay, but it’s still noticeable to the point that trying to follow cooking or cocktail videos in the kitchen is super obnoxious. I’ve taken to just sticking my phone down in a mixing bowl and using the built-in speakers, instead, letting the bowl amplify and direct the sound, rather than futzing with the fucking bluetooth thing.
It takes me 2 or 3 attempts to get BT devices properly paired most times.
Managing multiple devices with one pair of headphones is a PITA too. When I pair them with one, I have to make sure the others are unpaired, and I may have to wander around the apartment a bit to physically locate them all.
Meh. Wired headphones are so much simpler to use.
I don’t know the details, but I believe that’s on Google, some permission change screwed it up .
I’ve ended up getting some cheap BT headphones for doing stuff in the garden,as the wire kept getting in the way, and I was surprised at how well it worked. Granted, there’s a pretty big delay, but I can leave the phone charging and walk around most of the outside of the (small) house and they keep going. But, yeah, if not for that use case, I still would never have used BT, and don’t plan to use more.
I use some cheap, Chinese BT earbuds for hiking that seem to have a range of about 30 feet, and I love them, especially since they’re waterproof and have a very nice charging case. I also use some Samsung Level U Pros, which I have taped together with leukotape, as they simply aren’t up to the conditions that I put them through, but I certainly don’t have any issues with them, either. For my purposes, I can’t imagine going back to a corded set.
Oddly, my satcom does have pairing issues with BT, though, and decides that it needs to be re-paired every 5 uses or so. No clue why. That is highly annoying.
I would connect my phone to my car more often, but my commute is only 30-45 mins, and is not worth the hassle of screwing around with finicky BT.
This is also why I haven’t subscribed to Spotify. Not worth the trouble of screwing around with devices.
And, OMG, what if I get logged out or my password resets!!
I guess I’m lucky my car has a USB port to hook up to audio. Phone plugs right it, transmits audio and gets charged so it can run maps on long trips.
I’ve never even bothered to try and figure out how to use the bluetooth audio.
Yeah, I just use an aux cable in the car because Bluetooth sucks so bad.
I use Apple AirPods, Watch, and Sony headphones daily with my phone. Never have any issues. Except one office I worked with a ton of Bluetooth keyboard/mice and a wall of microwaves that made it unusable.
This thread is very strange to me. Why am I so lucky?