An Aversion to Bluetooth

[Sauerteig]

I am not sure where this belongs, if it is here or in the portable headphone section.

Anyway, I am writing to set forth reasons for my strong aversion to bluetooth. I really don't like it. My woman uses bluetooth and quite often she is delayed or frustrated because the battery is not charged. Beyond that, I set forth these concerns, drawbacks, and criticisms:

- uses battery power on a device. I use a dedicated audio player for most listening. Sometimes I will use newpipe to hear a song I do not have as a digital file. I looked up bluetooth battery usage. Most articles classify this as a myth, but discuss just leaving bluetooth on in the background when not listening. What result though if one listens eight or ten hours a day? This is one of several reasons why I do not use a phone to listen to music.
- makes headphones disposable. The headphones I have settled on are the pioneer hdj-x10. While 350.00 may not seem like much to many audiophiles, I don't want to just throw these aways in two or three years or however long the lithium batteries will last. Replacing lithium batteries on headphones seems even more prohibitive to me...
- pairing up can be finnicky. We use zip car. A lot of the cars don't have a cable plug in, which forces me to use bluetooth. Sometimes it can be a hassle to delete prior entries. Even then, sometimes pairing bluetooth requires more effort than it should. This is less of a concern with a player or device one owns, but even so.
- I do not trust the audio fidelity of bluetooth. A lot of articles debunk this, but I just don't buy it. One is trusting codecs and other things that can be elusive. I do think this is much more of a problem with streaming, which I think is a really dumb idea for variosu reasons.

Thoughts?
Mods if you feel this belongs in a different section please move where it is better suited. Thanks.

 

[Surf Monkey]

I am not sure where this belongs, if it is here or in the portable headphone section.

Anyway, I am writing to set forth reasons for my strong aversion to bluetooth. I really don't like it. My woman uses bluetooth and quite often she is delayed or frustrated because the battery is not charged. Beyond that, I set forth these concerns, drawbacks, and criticisms:

- uses battery power on a device. I use a dedicated audio player for most listening. Sometimes I will use newpipe to hear a song I do not have as a digital file. I looked up bluetooth battery usage. Most articles classify this as a myth, but discuss just leaving bluetooth on in the background when not listening. What result though if one listens eight or ten hours a day? This is one of several reasons why I do not use a phone to listen to music.
- makes headphones disposable. The headphones I have settled on are the pioneer hdj-x10. While 350.00 may not seem like much to many audiophiles, I don't want to just throw these aways in two or three years or however long the lithium batteries will last. Replacing lithium batteries on headphones seems even more prohibitive to me...
- pairing up can be finnicky. We use zip car. A lot of the cars don't have a cable plug in, which forces me to use bluetooth. Sometimes it can be a hassle to delete prior entries. Even then, sometimes pairing bluetooth requires more effort than it should. This is less of a concern with a player or device one owns, but even so.
- I do not trust the audio fidelity of bluetooth. A lot of articles debunk this, but I just don't buy it. One is trusting codecs and other things that can be elusive. I do think this is much more of a problem with streaming, which I think is a really dumb idea for variosu reasons.

Thoughts?
Mods if you feel this belongs in a different section please move where it is better suited. Thanks.

Bluetooth is a game of compromises for sure. At the moment you give up a lot for removing the wires. Battery life, audio fidelity, lifecycle of the BT receiver etc. You’ve effectively identified the main ones for sure.

This is all a function of the tech not being fully ready for prime time yet. The whole Bluetooth system is in constant development. Companies are all fishing around for a better solution. New Bluetooth codecs, new hardware, new “add on” approaches like “spatial audio” and others.

Personally, I do use Bluetooth fairly regularly, but not typically for critical listening. All the issues you point out play into that choice. Bluetooth is lower resolution, has connectivity issues even when transmitter and receiver are close together, chews up battery and is an evolving codec, so moment you buy a product it’s basically obsolete out of the box.

The overriding hope is that someone develops a better wireless system with low latency, uncompressed audio and good connectivity over a reasonable distance. Until then we all have to consider the exact trade offs you outline.

 

[Sauerteig]

Bluetooth is a game of compromises for sure. At the moment you give up a lot for removing the wires. Battery life, audio fidelity, lifecycle of the BT receiver etc. You’ve effectively identified the main ones for sure.

This is all a function of the tech not being fully ready for prime time yet. The whole Bluetooth system is in constant development. Companies are all fishing around for a better solution. New Bluetooth codecs, new hardware, new “add on” approaches like “spatial audio” and others.

Personally, I do use Bluetooth fairly regularly, but not typically for critical listening. All the issues you point out play into that choice. Bluetooth is lower resolution, has connectivity issues even when transmitter and receiver are close together, chews up battery and is an evolving codec, so moment you buy a product it’s basically obsolete out of the box.

The overriding hope is that someone develops a better wireless system with low latency, uncompressed audio and good connectivity over a reasonable distance. Until then we all have to consider the exact trade offs you outline.

So I am correct to doubt the touted fidelity of bluetooth, despite all the "debunking" articles. Same with all the articles that debunk concern about chewing up battery, even as the texxt of the article talks about leaving bluetooth on in the background rather than listening for many hours?
I will add that I don't use bluetooth for anything, not even working out. Once in a while I have to take care not get tangled up in my wire. but plugging in my pioneer hd 10s is a hell of a lot simpler than all the problems we both disceern.

 

[Surf Monkey]

So I am correct to doubt the touted fidelity of bluetooth, despite all the "debunking" articles.

Bluetooth is lossy. So yeah, it has fidelity issues.

Same with all the articles that debunk concern about chewing up battery, even as the texxt of the article talks about leaving bluetooth on in the background rather than listening for many hours?

Well, I have to run Bluetooth on my phone all the time because my smart home needs it to operate correctly. So I can’t really speak to battery drain, but I suppose it must have a noticeable impact.

I will add that I don't use bluetooth for anything, not even working out. Once in a while I have to take care not get tangled up in my wire. but plugging in my pioneer hd 10s is a hell of a lot simpler than all the problems we both disceern.

Right. I get it. Wired is clearly still superior to wireless. Even lossless codecs like Apple’s AirPlay tend to lag and stutter.

 

[Sauerteig]

320 kbps is usually acceptable but I have doubts Bluetooth is on that level...

 

[kevinkar]

For high definition audio I always use wired headphones connected to my DAP or connect the DAP to my home stereo through a digital cable and control the DAP from my listening position. For watching TV/movies/Youtube videos and listening to a random song on my tablets I'll use BT buds and have no problem with that. My buds last about a week using them about 2 hours per night connected to a Samsung Galaxy tablet.

As I rip all my CDs to FLAC, my source material is as good as it's going to be and I have no real issues with that over BT to be honest. Only occasionally do I get some sibilance on some specific songs but I can't really chalk that up to the BT. I think it's just a less than spectacular source.

While I'll set my tablet or phone to LDAC (the highest codec they support with my buds), I rarely have any dropouts or sound quality issues. So I don't have a problem with BT in general. Seems adequate to me for the situations in which I use it.