Been having a bit of an Audio / Bluetooth nightmare.
A few months ago, we bought some new equipment, a TV & headphones.
TV: LG-oled55cx6la (https://www.lg.com/es/television/lg-oled55cx6la)
2 x Headphones: Sony WH-1000XM4 (https://www.sony.com/electronics/headband-headphones/wh-1000xm4/specifications)
We wanted to connect the headphones separately to each of our computers for working (each computer has Bluetooth on the motherboard), and then also jointly for both of us to watch the TV.
To my surprise, the TV would only allow 1 Bluetooth device to be connected at a time. (Surprising, as I hardly think connecting 2 headphones to a TV is an 'edge' case)
So, I found the FIIO - BTA30 transceiver (https://www.fiio.com/bta30) that supported LDAC, that from their site seemed to be what I needed to connect 2 Bluetooth headphones to the TV at the same time.
Once the BTA30 arrived, I then found in the manual that 'if' you connect 2 headphones, then it doesn't use the LDAC codec, and it uses some 'fallback' codec. Wasn't too happy that wasn't stated on the main page of FIIO, since that was basically the ONLY reason I bought the device.
I'm connecting the BTA30 from the TV with an optical cable.
Now the problem. When we connect just 1 headphone, it connects and shows a 'white' light to show it's connected via LDAC. And everything is fine.
When we connect 2 headphones (which isn't that easy, I have to say. We seem to need to restart the device, and then make sure both headphones are turned on at the exact same time, otherwise it just connects 1 of them, and even then, sometimes only 1 connects, and we have to do it all again), then it swaps away from LDAC and shows a blue light. Also, we seem to have to manually disconnect and disable the Bluetooth devices on each of our PCs first, or it just tries to reconnect to them all the time, rather than the BTA30.
When 2 are connected, we get audio problems. Every time a scene goes 'quiet' (Typically in a talking scene, esp between different people talking when they 'pause'), the headphones (or rather I think it's the BTA30?) seems to turn off the sound, even though there is a slight sound, like background sound (very low music or ambient sounds) or something. This makes it sound terrible and very distracting, as the sound goes on/off all the time. It seems fine for the majority of the time, it's only a problem when it goes quietish.
This does not happen when 1 is connected, and it doesn't happen when we connect to our PCs either.
I can only presume that the non-LDAC fallback codec they switch to, is not very good, and causes this?
I did send a support question to FIIO about this, a few months ago, and I got a reply saying it was Chinese new year and they would get back to me. They didn't.
I have updated the firmware to current versions in all devices, BTA30 (BTA30_dfu_FW1.1), headphones and the TV.
So it seems that the device I solely bought because I wanted to connect 2 headphones, doesn't really work that well.
I have considered buying a 2nd BTA30, and daisy-chain it through the first one via another optical cable and the optical out of the first BTA30. And then connect each headphone to it's own BTA30, so then they should both connect via LDAC and 'fix' the problem.
Does anyone know if that is possible, or if there will be some other kind of limitation on that?
Have to say, I've never really looked at Bluetooth before, and from my experience in this, it seems totally rubbish at connecting, syncing and stuff, and I really wish we had just wired them now. But I thought by V5.0 and 2021, it would be good now.
I'm really reluctant to buy another, as I think it's terrible that you are basically forced to do that to get 2 headphones working decently, but if that is my only option, I guess I will have to, just wanted to check.
Any suggestions welcome,
Thanks, Rob.
A few months ago, we bought some new equipment, a TV & headphones.
TV: LG-oled55cx6la (https://www.lg.com/es/television/lg-oled55cx6la)
2 x Headphones: Sony WH-1000XM4 (https://www.sony.com/electronics/headband-headphones/wh-1000xm4/specifications)
We wanted to connect the headphones separately to each of our computers for working (each computer has Bluetooth on the motherboard), and then also jointly for both of us to watch the TV.
To my surprise, the TV would only allow 1 Bluetooth device to be connected at a time. (Surprising, as I hardly think connecting 2 headphones to a TV is an 'edge' case)
So, I found the FIIO - BTA30 transceiver (https://www.fiio.com/bta30) that supported LDAC, that from their site seemed to be what I needed to connect 2 Bluetooth headphones to the TV at the same time.
Once the BTA30 arrived, I then found in the manual that 'if' you connect 2 headphones, then it doesn't use the LDAC codec, and it uses some 'fallback' codec. Wasn't too happy that wasn't stated on the main page of FIIO, since that was basically the ONLY reason I bought the device.
I'm connecting the BTA30 from the TV with an optical cable.
Now the problem. When we connect just 1 headphone, it connects and shows a 'white' light to show it's connected via LDAC. And everything is fine.
When we connect 2 headphones (which isn't that easy, I have to say. We seem to need to restart the device, and then make sure both headphones are turned on at the exact same time, otherwise it just connects 1 of them, and even then, sometimes only 1 connects, and we have to do it all again), then it swaps away from LDAC and shows a blue light. Also, we seem to have to manually disconnect and disable the Bluetooth devices on each of our PCs first, or it just tries to reconnect to them all the time, rather than the BTA30.
When 2 are connected, we get audio problems. Every time a scene goes 'quiet' (Typically in a talking scene, esp between different people talking when they 'pause'), the headphones (or rather I think it's the BTA30?) seems to turn off the sound, even though there is a slight sound, like background sound (very low music or ambient sounds) or something. This makes it sound terrible and very distracting, as the sound goes on/off all the time. It seems fine for the majority of the time, it's only a problem when it goes quietish.
This does not happen when 1 is connected, and it doesn't happen when we connect to our PCs either.
I can only presume that the non-LDAC fallback codec they switch to, is not very good, and causes this?
I did send a support question to FIIO about this, a few months ago, and I got a reply saying it was Chinese new year and they would get back to me. They didn't.
I have updated the firmware to current versions in all devices, BTA30 (BTA30_dfu_FW1.1), headphones and the TV.
So it seems that the device I solely bought because I wanted to connect 2 headphones, doesn't really work that well.
I have considered buying a 2nd BTA30, and daisy-chain it through the first one via another optical cable and the optical out of the first BTA30. And then connect each headphone to it's own BTA30, so then they should both connect via LDAC and 'fix' the problem.
Does anyone know if that is possible, or if there will be some other kind of limitation on that?
Have to say, I've never really looked at Bluetooth before, and from my experience in this, it seems totally rubbish at connecting, syncing and stuff, and I really wish we had just wired them now. But I thought by V5.0 and 2021, it would be good now.
I'm really reluctant to buy another, as I think it's terrible that you are basically forced to do that to get 2 headphones working decently, but if that is my only option, I guess I will have to, just wanted to check.
Any suggestions welcome,
Thanks, Rob.
