Stereo A2DP bluetooth - who's using ? what works ?

[axis77a]

Please excuse Noob q ... but pervious discussions on this are not conclusive ...

The more I read about BT on Orbit / Artemis / P5500 and other HTC devices the more I find its a complete Minefield !!

Who's got it working OK ?
What headsets did you use ?
Is the quality good (ie as good as wired headset) ?
Have you had to do any registry changes (eg bit rate tweaks) ?

FWIW ive got some Jabra BT320's which appear to be a great spec (tiny, interchangeable 3.5mm earphone) but stereo quality is awful - I suspect its the Orbit and that HTC uses a weird A2DP profile (cf other mobile phone makers) so only a few headsets will work with it OK.

Of course o2 (HTC) say its a Jabra Issue and vice versa :)
Here are links to interesting discussions / reviews on this and the Artemis/orbit...

Stereo headset review (but no Jabras) (http://www.mobileburn.com/story.jsp?Id=2770&source=HOME)
Jabra BT320s (http://www.jabra.com/JabraCMS/EM/EN/MainMenu/Products/MobileMusic/JabraBT320s/JabraBT320s)
General Discussion about Stereo Bluetooth on PDA's and Reg fixes (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1350&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1)

[Ipnotik]

I bought the htc s100 stereo bt headset. I had to change some registry settings to have stereo suond and a better sampling.

Definitely the sound quality is horrible. The worst thing that I ever heard in my life. Stay away from it!

[MasK]

I have a Jabra BT320 and sound quality ain't that bad.
Max bitPool settings = 60 will get ya awesome quality.. but it's skipping 70% of the time.
I had to lower bitPool to 45 to have a good balance between quality and performance.
Of course, I have to use useJointStereo=0, if not quality will be mono. <- I wonder why the device comes default like this!!!

STILL.. once in a while, it will skip, depending on my movement or what I do on the PDA. I got pissed one day.. and decided to go back to wires.... which has:
1) flawless quality
2) no skipping or any defects
3) can listen to radio as well

I modified my earpiece to accept the 3.5mm connector, so I'm using my Sony in-ear phones :)

[axis77a]

Thanks for replies .... I did the Reg hacks...

A) From mono to stereo:
HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Bluetooth/A2DP/Settings/[UseJointStereo = 0]
HTC ship their devices defaulted to mono output which is a bit odd considering they tout them as being A2DP compatible.

B) Balance between quality and performance:
HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Bluetooth/A2DP/Settings/[BitPool = 42]

C) HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Bluetooth/A2DP/Settings/[MaxSupportedBitPool= 42]

Where Lowest quality setting is 30 & highest is 60. You have to experiment to see the best that suits you in terms of sound quality & performance (i.e. dropouts). 42 is the value I settled on...... from another post (thanks Zen123) but I'll experiment later.

The quality is slighty better using TCPMP media player than WMP10, (which seems to give a slight speed variation (like old LP's) but the latter allows the controls to work from the BT device.

Turns out the JabraBT320s are pretty good - its subjective but the earbugs (on 3.5mm jack) are perfect for my music (trance).

[morkus]

No problems here using my Motorola HT820 Bluetooth with the Orbit... seems stereo enough to me!

Overall the bluetooth is rock solid and all the buttons on the headphones work great with Windows Media Player. The output of Windows Media Player isn't the best, but if it's control you need and compatibilty with the headphone buttons - its ok.

I really wish there were some Massive sounding bluetooth headphones on the market - nice and bassy, etc... anyone know of any (volume UP!) headphones?

The HT820s are pretty fine for now.


Morkus

[UPO]

I have my Orbit setup with the SE HBH-DS970 Bluetooth headset - works fantastic. I also use it to make hands free calls when driving.

[petezake]

Hello,

i read many about Orbit, A2DP, Quality and so on. The quality seems to be a very subjective thematic. Some say it works fine while other say it sounds horrible.

Have you seen the Parrot Boombox: http://www.parrot.biz/de/produkte/parrotboombox

Do you think the quality reaches a level good enough to fuel the boombox?

After all i read it shouldn't

Greez

[rickgillyon]

I have my Orbit setup with the SE HBH-DS970 Bluetooth headset - works fantastic.
Do you see track information on the headset screen? I don't, which is a bit of a disappointment...