Eureka! (I think)
If you don’t care about online voice chat & game audio, skip this long message.
So in the civilized gaming world, they can often use wireless headphones to hear game audio and do voice chat at the same time. Just sitting on the couch, with the game on a nice TV. But not in the Nintendo realm. The Switch doesn’t output bluetooth audio even, much less support voice chat in any games not named Fortnite.
Discord solves part of this for Switch users, some 3rd party bluetooth transmitters solve another part, but there’s no solution that gives you both audio sources and supports your voice input on a wireless headset.
Until now maybe? Am trying out the Homespot Pro. It’s a bluetooth transmitter that – crucially – can mix a couple audio sources.
I also ordered Avantree Aria Me ($150) headphones. For the Homespot Pro, your headphones have to support the aptX LL codec to keep the action and audio in sync.
My plan was not flawless. The Homespot Pro description says the headphone mic support “is still in beta, doesn’t work with all headphones (no details on this), and degrades audio quality.” Ok then.
I was also skeptical because I wasn’t seeing any reddit threads or articles about this combo working. I mean, it’s kinda obscure, but there is a small cottage industry in bluetooth audio transmitters for the switch and a decent amount of chatter about this issue/problem. It seems like I should have seen an article or three if this worked.
Got both boxes today. The Aria Me box and extras were especially nice. The Homespot Pro was fine and the instruction booklet was clear. Except… no mention at all for enabling the mic on your wireless headphones. It’s not one of the scenarios in the booklet.
I go back to their site online, and after the beta disclaimer thing, it tells me to hold a button in as I plug the Homespot. Everything hooks up ok, except these beta instructions tell me to push a button and an indicator will blink to show my headphone mic is working. No blinking. Ah well. I turn the Homepro built in mic off.
Game audio sounds good. I make a couple calls. Sure enough, I get audio from both the call and the game. My voice sound fine to the listener. Haven’t tried in on Discord yet, but I’m sure it will be the same.
I’ll have to play online for a few hours to put this through the paces. Using a low latency codec, and then supporting voice on top, maybe it show an ugly side with more time.
But right now, I’m chuffed. I can play online, chatting on Discord or a phone call, and hear the talk and game audio together in my wireless headphones. One of the Nintendo pain points has gone away.