music quality through stereo bluetooth?

[scishock]

I'm thinking about getting a stereo bluetooth headphones for when a2dp gets incorporated into G1; but after reading some reviews on bluetooth headphones, I'm not so sure it's a good idea anymore.

My main concern from what I've read is that the device needs to be on your arm to get a good reception. If I leave it in my pocket, I'd experience disruption. This seems kind of ridiculous, what good is wireless if the acceptable distance is that short?

My other concern is the battery life. I don't need it to last a whole day of continuous use, I don't mind charging it when I get home; but I'm hoping for at least 6 hours of continuous use for when I'm on campus.

What are your experiences with stereo bluetooth? How much would you say it takes away from the battery as opposed to use without it and how far do you have to be away from your phone to get disruptions?

For those who're wondering, I'm thinking of getting the motorola S9-HD that recently came out. It says HD sound quality but it seems everything is labeled HD these days.

[DesignDawg]

I have a Parrot stereo Bluetooth speaker, and the range on it is INCREDIBLE. I use it with an LG Venus to play music wirelessly, and I can go all over the house with it. I've gotten as far as 100 feet away without breakup before. Maybe the receiver on headphones is a LLLLOT weaker? I haven't used any, but I know the technology is capable of a lot greater distances than "in your pocket".

[orange]

mine worked better than what you read. I had my phone in my room and I would walk pass the living room, kitchen, then that's when I started getting weird reception. it was definitely further than your arm to ear.

and mine didn't last all day either, I used it when commuting, and some other times and didn't die on me, It was like about 4 hours total and still it was alive.

I really hope I can use it on G1 soon.

oh and I'm talking about bluetooth headphones not speakers

[atoy74]

You're right on track with the S9-HD. I've been using BT headphones for over two years while working out. The S9's have great feel and good sound quality. My main fight while using Windows Mobile devices was finding a music app that had a quality equalizer. Once I found that, sound quality was great.

All that being said, the S9-HD comes with my favorite sound processer built in. SRS-WOW on Wimo gave excellent sound quality.

I've never had an issue with battery life. That being I've also never listened to music for 5 hours straight so your mileage might vary.

[scishock]

Ya, that's what I figured. The people doing the reviews must be wearing lead plated pants or something. Thanks for the response.

I went with s9-hd because they're the only decent bluetooth headphone that came out this year. It seems like the market for bluetooth headphones are really small for some reason even though everything is going wireless. I guess the market will stay small until someone puts a lot of hype into it.

[nickmgray]

I've had the older Motorola S9 for more than a year and use it with a HTC Touch. The S9 has good range, but putting it in your pocket does cause some "cutting-out" issues. I think this is because the BT frequencies are passing through your body which causes the interference. But if your phone is out in the open you can be 2- to 30 feet away before the signal starts fading out.

Battely life on my S9 is still about 56 hours on a full charge. I don't think you'll have to worry about the S9 battery dying, but your G1 will most likely die in under 5 hours of continual music play (unless you plan on never turning on the screen and playing Parallel Kingdom at the same time).

[rynosaur]

It's worth investigating what "class" the headphones you're looking into are. As far as I know, bluetooth has three classes: 1, 2 and 3 -- 3 being the weakest. Class 1 supposedly has a 100-meter range and theoretically the greatest battery drain, then. That being said, I don't know what class the G1's BT receiver is either. I'm sure someone knows that off the top of their heads, right?

[DesignDawg]

I'm sure someone knows that off the top of their heads, right?

Class 2, IIRC.