Is Bluetooth Rubbish or Just My Headphones?

MikeKulls on 15/08/2019 - 16:44

I have a set of JBL Everest Elite 750NC headphones. These work great for music from my phone. However they fail in so many other situations it's not funny. If I get a call then I get no voice and I have to switch HD Audio on and off to get anything. That is annoying but it's possible to live with. The real problems start when I try to connect it to my PC. It's a complete disaster there, I have to disconnect and reconnect multiple times to get anything to work. Sometimes it just never works. It can even result in audio itself crashing on the PC so I have to restart the whole thing. I was going to take the headphones back but I was reading up and apparently Bluetooth itself is a major disaster and then windows bluetooth on top of that is a further problem. Apparently Bluetooth doesn't have the bandwidth to sustain high quality audio and a mic at the same time. So it installs a high quality device and a low quality device. Switching between the 2 causes all sorts of problems.

Anyway, my question is, do other people have the same issues with their audio headphones when trying to make calls on their PC? If I take these back and get Sony or Boss headphones will I get similar issues?

I would add that everything works perfectly with my 10 year old plantronics bluetooth earpiece because it doesn't do high quality audio. I can use that and forget about making calls with the JBLs, it's just more hassle to carry 2 sets.

Electrical & Electronics Headphones JBL

Comments

  • dcep on 15/08/2019 - 16:53
    -2

    Just your headphones

    Get BT5.0 APTX-HD

  • Seraphin7 on 15/08/2019 - 16:53

    I'm no Bluetooth expert, but there is no way that is all operating as expected. Given the item doesn't seem to work properly on two different devices, it sounds like the unit itself is faulty.

  • [Deactivated] on 15/08/2019 - 17:27

    I've had the same issue with a crappy bluetooth transmitter on my PC. Works fine from my mac and phone, thus the problem is with the other device or an incompatibility.

  • donnot on 15/08/2019 - 17:33

    Same issues with my Backbeat Pro's and Meizu EP51's on Windows. Very problematic when using the mic, so I just disable the "hands-free" device and use a wired headset when I need a microphone.

  • pinchies on 15/08/2019 - 17:37
    +2

    IMHO… bluetooth has always been a mess. Every version they say "this time it just works", but as you've shown, there's always caveats or exceptions that give you grief. I was not aware of that high quality audio bandwidth limitation, that might explain a few other quirks I've seen…

    • MikeKulls on 15/08/2019 - 19:32
      +2

      I was reading an article years ago that was talking about standards in general. It actually said that if you want an example of a poorly implemented standard have a look at Bluetooth. From my experience it is always buggy, difficult to get working and quite limited. For example if I walk up to my car listening to headphones then the phone won't connect to the stereo if I turn the car on before I turn the headphones off. I have to restart the stereo a couple of times to get it to work. I could list issues like that for many of our bluetooth devices. Strangely many of my cheaper devices work better, eg my Aldi headphones.

      The thing is if the fault with my headphones is due to poor bluetooth standard then I don't see much point returning them though, and a bit unfair on the company.

  • HighAndDry on 16/08/2019 - 10:21

    It can even result in audio itself crashing on the PC so I have to restart the whole thing.

    This sounds like a PC problem, not a headphone problem.

    • MikeKulls on 16/08/2019 - 23:43

      It's quite possible. Hard to know without buying another set of headphones. Looking online there's definitely problems with windows and Bluetooth mentioned that could explain it. I think I'm just going to give up using them for voice

  • MikeKulls on 21/08/2019 - 14:26

    I have been using my 10 year old Bluetooth headset for the last couple of days. It has been working flawlessly. It will connect to both my phone and laptop at the same time and I can use it from either without switching Bluetooth on or off on either device. So it appears Bluetooth works long ago for low bandwidth devices but A2DP devices not so much.

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