Bluetooth headset and audio quality

[alreadyinuse]

My wife has a Bluetooth headset, and people have told her that it's easy to tell when she's using it. What causes this? The design of the headset? The audio conversion in the phone?

[Jay2TheRescue]

Originally Posted by alreadyinuse

My wife has a Bluetooth headset, and people have told her that it's easy to tell when she's using it. What causes this? The design of the headset? The audio conversion in the phone?

Most often when using Motorola headsets people say I am a lot clearer than when using the phone handset. Especially my Moto H700. I've been told that headset sounds just as good as a landline. Are they saying they can tell because its better or worse? Motorola headsets are usually very good quality, and when buying BT headsets I never even consider anything else. What brand & model phone is she using it with, how far is she keeping the phone to the headset, and where does she primarily use the headset (outdoors, inside, in the car)?

-Jay

[alreadyinuse]

They say she sounds worse.

V3m. Usually used in the car, but I don't know if that's exclusively when people have commented on the audio quality.

[Jay2TheRescue]

Originally Posted by alreadyinuse

They say she sounds worse.

V3m. Usually used in the car, but I don't know if that's exclusively when people have commented on the audio quality.

You are using it with a Motorola phone. It should not make a difference, but I've noticed that Motorola headsets perform far better when paired with Motorola phones. If it is that bad I would try getting the headset replaced under warranty.

-Jay

[Jerro]

Originally Posted by Jay2TheRescue

You are using it with a Motorola phone. It should not make a difference, but I've noticed that Motorola headsets perform far better when paired with Motorola phones. If it is that bad I would try getting the headset replaced under warranty.

-Jay

Seems correct based on the experience of 2 of my friend one with a Razr, sounds good and the other using a low end Motorola HS with his LG 8300, it buzzes. Yet when he uses his LG in his Acura with the built in Bluetooth, it sounds fine.

[TNDan21]

Motorola Bluetooth headsets are horrible. I've not been impressed with bluetooth headsets but by far Motorola seems to make the worst ones.

[Jerro]

Originally Posted by TNDan21

Motorola Bluetooth headsets are horrible. I've not been impressed with bluetooth headsets but by far Motorola seems to make the worst ones.

My friends works well with his Razr on Sprint. It is Motorolas high end headset.

[Quint101]

I would have said that Motos were the worst bluetooth, but I had only one, the HS820, that crapped out on me. I later learned that the headset I had was one of those subprime headsets that came in a plain box with the manual... so I am holding out hope for them.

I have had mixed results with Jabra. The first one I bought had a low volume... the 2nd one, the BT350 (i loved the vibrate feature), was great... until it didnt turn on one day. I got the BT8010 as a warranty replacement. I really love this one. The volume automatically adjusts to the surroundings... A2DP is a neat feature. The vibrate is still there... the battery is great. I usually get 6-8 hours battery life with little voice use and lots of listening to music. My oly complaint is that once I get too far from the phone (but maintain the connection), the sound is not the same as before... it takes a while before normal quality resumes. All in all, it looks I will be sticking to higher end Jabras for now.

[Jay2TheRescue]

Originally Posted by TNDan21

Motorola Bluetooth headsets are horrible. I've not been impressed with bluetooth headsets but by far Motorola seems to make the worst ones.

Originally Posted by Quint101

I would have said that Motos were the worst bluetooth, but I had only one, the HS820, that crapped out on me. I later learned that the headset I had was one of those subprime headsets that came in a plain box with the manual... so I am holding out hope for them.

I have had mixed results with Jabra. The first one I bought had a low volume... the 2nd one, the BT350 (i loved the vibrate feature), was great... until it didnt turn on one day. I got the BT8010 as a warranty replacement. I really love this one. The volume automatically adjusts to the surroundings... A2DP is a neat feature. The vibrate is still there... the battery is great. I usually get 6-8 hours battery life with little voice use and lots of listening to music. My oly complaint is that once I get too far from the phone (but maintain the connection), the sound is not the same as before... it takes a while before normal quality resumes. All in all, it looks I will be sticking to higher end Jabras for now.

I have 3 HS 820's, 2 H700's, 1 H350, 1 HS810, and 1 S9 (Just bought the S9 yesterday!) With a Moto headset and a Moto phone I am able to leave my phone on my desk and walk all around my 8,000 square foot office and have it work perfectly. It also works in the 2 neighboring suites, and about 1/4 of the parking lot. Especially with my H700's with the noise cancelling callers on the other end have told that the phone sounds just as clear as a landline. The times I have tried other headsets I have not had near the range or sound quality that I enjoy with the Motorolas. An added bonus of the Motorola headsets is that they share chargers with Motorola phones, so you do not need to carry separate chargers when traveling.

-Jay

[Quint101]

Originally Posted by Jay2TheRescue

I have 3 HS 820's, 2 H700's, 1 H350, 1 HS810, and 1 S9 (Just bought the S9 yesterday!) With a Moto headset and a Moto phone I am able to leave my phone on my desk and walk all around my 8,000 square foot office and have it work perfectly. It also works in the 2 neighboring suites, and about 1/4 of the parking lot. Especially with my H700's with the noise cancelling callers on the other end have told that the phone sounds just as clear as a landline. The times I have tried other headsets I have not had near the range or sound quality that I enjoy with the Motorolas. An added bonus of the Motorola headsets is that they share chargers with Motorola phones, so you do not need to carry separate chargers when traveling.

-Jay

That's sweet! The only reason I have stayed away from Moto Bluetooth headsets is the pricing. Motos tend to be more expensive than the others although their mono headsets have dropped in price some. So maybe the A2DP headsets will start to drop in price as well.

I am mostly pleased with the Jabra 8010 as a mono headset... the A2DP isnt something to write home about but I like the flexibility that it provides.

[Jay2TheRescue]

Originally Posted by Quint101

That's sweet! The only reason I have stayed away from Moto Bluetooth headsets is the pricing. Motos tend to be more expensive than the others although their mono headsets have dropped in price some. So maybe the A2DP headsets will start to drop in price as well.
I am mostly pleased with the Jabra 8010 as a mono headset... the A2DP isnt something to write home about but I like the flexibility that it provides.

I just bought a Motorola S9 from a local AT&T dealer 2 days ago for $50 after rebates. Is that cheap enough?

-Jay

[RadioRaiders]

Originally Posted by alreadyinuse

My wife has a Bluetooth headset, and people have told her that it's easy to tell when she's using it. What causes this? The design of the headset? The audio conversion in the phone?

Really, there shouldn't be any degredation of voice quality due to using a Bluetooth device. The only things I can think of that would cause that would be:

1) A poorly made, or defective, Bluetooth device
2) The phone being too far from the Bluetooth device
3) Interference on the Bluetooth frequency from other devices (WiFi, microwave ovens, some cordless phones, etc.)

[ATT GuY AG]

i agree with jay, i have several bt sets, i love teh s9, and the h12 pure by motorola, i do not like the blue ant z9, and the jawbone was good but bulky, and i get to test almost every bt that att offers...i can say that i have found that motorola so far has done the best in my opinion...and nokia has a nice bt also.....it varies to be honest.....on alot of things....but the biggest thing is don't get a $40 bt, stay in the range of $90-60 for price anything lowe is crappy for the most part and anything higher is over priced.....hope this helps....

[Alienware_51]

I used to have a moto headset about a year ago, and that one died, plus the voice quality was really bad, it was probably just my headset, but I decided to buy a Plantronics Voyager 520 headset, and it's like a BMW compared to the moto. It has awesome voice quality and 8 hours of talk time, 16 hours of stand by time, for $90.00

[ATT GuY AG]

thats also a great head set like i said it depends on you and alot of variables...glad your happy...

[alreadyinuse]

Originally Posted by RadioRaiders

there shouldn't be any degredation of voice quality due to using a Bluetooth device. The only things I can think of that would cause that would be:

I believe having the microphone further from the user's mouth and at an orientation that is not in the path of the sound coming from the user's mouth could have a negative effect on the voice quality. I wouldn't believe that Bluetooth audio itself could cause degradation since the audio is digitized (to PCM I believe - lossless) to send to the phone, but there could be some less-than-optimal implementations of that digitization or re-conversion in the phone (since it's different than the regular digitization that occurs from the mic on the phone), so that's why I asked the question.

[bobolito]

Oh yes! the Bluetooth link degrades the audio big time! This is the only way Bluetooth headsets can conserve battery so much, plus they have to utilize some compression and error correction as well.

Bluetooth tries to stay as close as possible to the original quality, but still shaves off some of it. Try connecting a Bluetooth headset to your computer and use it to listen to some MP3s or whatever you have in your computer and you'll see it doesn't exactly sound as the original.

Bluetooth audio has two transfer modes, one is high quality (for MP3 players, stereo headsets, etc. ) and low quality (for regular phone calls). In low quality, the bitrate is very low which means there is compression involved and that compromises the original audio quality.

[alreadyinuse]

Originally Posted by bobolito

Oh yes! the Bluetooth link degrades the audio big time! This is the only way Bluetooth headsets can conserve battery so much, plus they have to utilize some compression and error correction as well.

Bluetooth tries to stay as close as possible to the original quality, but still shaves off some of it. Try connecting a Bluetooth headset to your computer and use it to listen to some MP3s or whatever you have in your computer and you'll see it doesn't exactly sound as the original.

Bluetooth audio has two transfer modes, one is high quality (for MP3 players, stereo headsets, etc. ) and low quality (for regular phone calls). In low quality, the bitrate is very low which means there is compression involved and that compromises the original audio quality.

What is the bitrate? What type of compression do they use that "degrades the audio big time"?

According to the spec, the audio is encoded either with PCM or CVSD, both of which are equal to or better than the PSTN encoding. Bluetooth.com | Architecture - Baseband

[Jay2TheRescue]

Originally Posted by bobolito

Oh yes! the Bluetooth link degrades the audio big time! This is the only way Bluetooth headsets can conserve battery so much, plus they have to utilize some compression and error correction as well.

Bluetooth tries to stay as close as possible to the original quality, but still shaves off some of it. Try connecting a Bluetooth headset to your computer and use it to listen to some MP3s or whatever you have in your computer and you'll see it doesn't exactly sound as the original.

Bluetooth audio has two transfer modes, one is high quality (for MP3 players, stereo headsets, etc. ) and low quality (for regular phone calls). In low quality, the bitrate is very low which means there is compression involved and that compromises the original audio quality.

I think that loss of sound quality when listening to *.mp3's is that you are trying to play the sound through an extremely small speaker that was not designed for high fidelity sound (Gosh, I think I'm starting to date myself. Does anyone say high fidelity anymore? At least I didn't say HiFi.) When talking to others using my BT headsets I often get people telling me it sounds just as clear as a landline, especially when using my H700, I guess because of the noise cancelling feature on that model. There may be some loss in compression on paper, but that loss is so small that I do not think the human ear can tell the difference. *.mp3's sound just as bad if you were to hook up a cheap wired cell phone headset to your computer.

-Jay