Dodgexander
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2007
- Posts
- 23
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- 10
I wonder if someone could help me make a decision, I am not sure what to do.
I bought the Onkyo H500BT bluetooth headset and I couldn't be happier with the sound quality with music. I bought a Cinolink USB Bluetooth adaptor too since my laptop doesn't support Apt-x.
The problem is, despite loving how these sound I am in two minds to return them before the return period is over.
Despite sounding great for music the quality when using the hands free protocol for calls is terrible. I realised the hands free profile was always being used during calls which is limited to two way mono @ 8000hz vs one way stereo @ 41000/48000 hz for music but when I have been using them to speak to my GF even with no background noise the quality has been awful, both for her and for me receiving the sound. Not only that but the range is incredibly poor, losing connection to the microphone only at approx 4 feet LOS whilst I can still hear her at this distance??.
The other thing that confuses me is the Apt-x protocol. I can't for the life of me tell the difference between Apt-x mode with my Cinolink USB adaptor and the built in Bluetooth on my laptop which doesn't use Apt-x.
I know my laptop is Bluetooth 4.0 as I have checked this on my Intel AC7260 adaptor. As I understand it supports SBC protocol which theoretically supports a max bit rate of 345 kbit/s as a variable bitrate whilst Apt-x is 352kbps/16bit. Am I right understanding the Onkyo H500BT is Apt-x only and not Apt-x enhanced (previously known as lossless) that supports up to 576kbps/24bit? Has anyone else had similar results or are they immediately able to tell the difference between Apt-x and not. Given it is hard to make a comparison as it takes some time to switch between each Bluetooth radio.
At first I was making comparison with streaming music, but have since moved to my flac music collection and I cannot tell the difference, have I wasted money buying an Apt-x adaptor?
Then comes the other problem, I have been using my new Apt-x adaptor which uses a CSR chipset, after installing the adaptor and the CSR driver it comes with a custom plugin for Skype. At first I thought this can only be a good thing, but last night when I was in a video call with my girlfriend there was a really bad delay and later on, her audio was delayed by 2-3 seconds after the video at my end.
We also use ICQ to place voice calls and there was a tremendous delay using that also, the quality was bad too.
And I tested with Skype and ICQ on my phone too, the audio quality is so bad.
On one hand I love these Onkyo's on the other hand I hate them. Am I expecting too much for Bluetooth call quality? Are there any ways to use a higher quality codec for calls than the hands free codec? Is this much the same with any Bluetooth hands free device (for example the one ear Bluetooth headsets) and I won't be able to better it buying something else? I have only before used a cheap Bluetooth headset and I returned it because the call quality was so low.
Thanks for any help.
-Dodge
I bought the Onkyo H500BT bluetooth headset and I couldn't be happier with the sound quality with music. I bought a Cinolink USB Bluetooth adaptor too since my laptop doesn't support Apt-x.
The problem is, despite loving how these sound I am in two minds to return them before the return period is over.
Despite sounding great for music the quality when using the hands free protocol for calls is terrible. I realised the hands free profile was always being used during calls which is limited to two way mono @ 8000hz vs one way stereo @ 41000/48000 hz for music but when I have been using them to speak to my GF even with no background noise the quality has been awful, both for her and for me receiving the sound. Not only that but the range is incredibly poor, losing connection to the microphone only at approx 4 feet LOS whilst I can still hear her at this distance??.
The other thing that confuses me is the Apt-x protocol. I can't for the life of me tell the difference between Apt-x mode with my Cinolink USB adaptor and the built in Bluetooth on my laptop which doesn't use Apt-x.
I know my laptop is Bluetooth 4.0 as I have checked this on my Intel AC7260 adaptor. As I understand it supports SBC protocol which theoretically supports a max bit rate of 345 kbit/s as a variable bitrate whilst Apt-x is 352kbps/16bit. Am I right understanding the Onkyo H500BT is Apt-x only and not Apt-x enhanced (previously known as lossless) that supports up to 576kbps/24bit? Has anyone else had similar results or are they immediately able to tell the difference between Apt-x and not. Given it is hard to make a comparison as it takes some time to switch between each Bluetooth radio.
At first I was making comparison with streaming music, but have since moved to my flac music collection and I cannot tell the difference, have I wasted money buying an Apt-x adaptor?
Then comes the other problem, I have been using my new Apt-x adaptor which uses a CSR chipset, after installing the adaptor and the CSR driver it comes with a custom plugin for Skype. At first I thought this can only be a good thing, but last night when I was in a video call with my girlfriend there was a really bad delay and later on, her audio was delayed by 2-3 seconds after the video at my end.
We also use ICQ to place voice calls and there was a tremendous delay using that also, the quality was bad too.
And I tested with Skype and ICQ on my phone too, the audio quality is so bad.
On one hand I love these Onkyo's on the other hand I hate them. Am I expecting too much for Bluetooth call quality? Are there any ways to use a higher quality codec for calls than the hands free codec? Is this much the same with any Bluetooth hands free device (for example the one ear Bluetooth headsets) and I won't be able to better it buying something else? I have only before used a cheap Bluetooth headset and I returned it because the call quality was so low.
Thanks for any help.
-Dodge
