pox67
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2009
- Posts
- 42
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- 14
I have been on the lookout or a set of Bluetooth headphones for a long time. The price has always been too high for something I can't demo here in Australia.
The Sennheiser MM and PCX range looked good but are pretty expensive for something that get mixed reviews on the sound quality side.
In the end I decided to go with a good set of headphones and then throw in a Bluetooth receiver to see if I the quality loss bothered me. Then if I didn't like the Bluetooth I would still have a great set of wired headphones.
What I ended up with was:
Sennheiser HD 25-1 II
Sony DRC-BT60 Bluetooth Receiver
Fiio E5 amp
I used the Senn's with the phone for about 3 weeks cabled before I got the Bluetooth receiver. These are great headphones and sound absolutely amazing. I didn't need any equaliser or enhancements like SRS WOW with them, they sound great on their own.
I included the amp as I was worried the Sony Bluetooth receiver wouldn't be able to power the Senn's. Also I figured it would increase the battery life by splitting the power load between the Bluetooth receiver and AMP.
After receiving the Bluetooth receiver The first thing I did was cut the headphone cable and put on female 3.5mm jack close to the headphones. I actually purchased a 3 metre copper replacement cable for the HD2-1 II's and set the original cable aside. I soldered a 3.5mm male plug on the cut off length of cable for when I want cabled HD25-1 II's.
Then I connected the Bluetooth receiver to the amp and with a short cable and the amp in to the headphones. I used the headphones like this for a couple of weeks to see if sound quality and functionality were acceptable. The Bluetooth receiver and amp would hang down from the headphones and I would use the clips on to pin them to my jacket.
After a couple of weeks I attached the Bluetooth receiver and amp to the headphones. It isn't pretty but it does work and the receiver controls are in easy reach. The amp was stuck to the inside of the headband with black electrical tape and the Bluetooth receiver held on with a black zip tie. The clothing clips were removed from both the Bluetooth receiver and the Fiio amp.
I have paired the Bluetooth receiver to my phone, a HTC Desire HD. Music is played through the PoweAMP app. All the music is 320kb MP3.
The setup is mostly used on my commute to work and back which is about 45 minutes each way. Cabled headphones really annoyed me when commuting as I often got the cable stuck and dragged back. Now I can just throw my phone in my back pack when walking around and all the controls I need are on the headphones.
Going from wired to Bluetooth I did notice a small drop in clarity and clearness. Wired the Senn's just sound more alive but it is hard to pick what is missing when using the Bluetooth receiver. I had thought that the bass booster on the Fiio E5 would be good but it was actually pretty bad. It just added a kind of bassy blanket over the music and muffled any real bass.
It took a couple of days to get used to the sound over Bluetooth but it is acceptable for commuting, the HD2-25 II's still sound great. It was awesome not having a cable to get in the way either!
The Sony DRC-BT60 is great although I have nothing to compare it too. It is compact with a nice little display. From it I can pause, fast forward or reverse, skip songs forward or back, answer calls and adjust volume. It also has an FM radio in there but I haven't used that function.
I haven’t had a lot of calls but the ones I have answered are great. The other party never complains of quality and I hear them very well. I have even been on a train platform as an express train went passed and we could carry on the conversation quite well.
So far I have had no range or interference issue with Bluetooth.
Battery life, with the amp connected I can go a week without recharging either device. They are on low battery by then. That is about 7.5 hours of commuting use and then some other use so I would say about 9 hours. I am more than happy getting a week’s use before a recharge, hell I have to charge my phone a couple of times a day.
This past couple of weeks I removed the amp from the equation to see what the battery life was like. Surprisingly battery life of the Bluetooth receiver was about the same, maybe a little less. I also think the sound is a bit clearer so I have decided to take the Fiio off the phones and just go with the Sony receiver. That should neaten up the look of the headphones a bit.
I am very happy with this setup and would recommend it to others. You can skip the amp and just use the receiver though.
Next I want to try and clean up the look of the headphones so it doesn't look like I have an electrical engineering experiment on my head! It should also be possible to change the battery on the Sony Bluetooth receiver as it is just a single cell LiPo battery. These are widely available through remote control hobby shops. Of course I would then need a new housing for the unit.
I hope this has been of use to anyone else looking for Bluetooth headphones.
