Hacker News Reader

Comment by squid_ca | Hacker News Reader

My experience with BlueTooth devices has been sub-optimal. They never seem to connect "cleanly" and always involve some degree of turning the device off and on again, turning BT on the computer off and on again, trying both in a different order, trying to figure out the magical combination of buttons to press on the device to get it to try to "re-pair", etc. I have had this problem with multiple devices and multiple computers.

And then, yes, if it does connect, the quality is poor.

All I want to do is use the solution that simply and easily works for me and CONTINUES to work and isn't being replaced for what seems to be a money-making opportunity.

View on HN

I have the same experience with many Bluetooth devices, but I have to say that my Bose QC35 headphones are almost flawless. Definitely one of the greatest things I ever bought.

They even handle gracefully playing music from my laptop and when I shut it down, they automatically reconnect to my phone without any interaction. This sounds simple but I've had many pains with similar stuff with previous devices.

Strange, cause the QC30/35 is known to have pairing problems when pairing using bluetooth LE enabled.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/833322/pair-bose-quietcomfor...

Are you sure it's not only a problem with Linux? No issue with my QC35 and macOS, Windows 10 and Android, always connects to my devices, albeit a little slow to connect sometimes.

It's probably a Linux issue. I have a pair and they work flawlessly with my Macs and iPhone, but are very unreliable with my Fedora laptop.

What you are describing is exactly what Apple’s W1 chip does. Pair once with any of your iDevices, and you can then switch sources with a one or two taps/clicks. Of course this requires you to be firmly in the Apple ecosystem, and the AirPods are deficient in both audio quality and noise isolation, but the ‘ease-of-use’ problem has been solved.

> And then, yes, if it does connect, the quality is poor.

I'm doubtful that the problem is the protocol/connection method, but rather components and pricing. Bluetooth headphones are inhertentily more expensive, so there's less 'budget' for higher quality audio components, or the priorities are different.

Bluetooth was originally for phone-level quality and it has taken a while for devices to support higher quality codecs.

Audio quality on my headphones (Senheiser M2) is better via Bluetooth than wired. Not sure why.

Faulty wire

Didn't think of that, haven't tested it but strongly doubt it. I'd expect a faulty wire to crackle predictably when moved which isn't what I experience.

There can be many kinds of faulty. Some faulty wires crackle when there is something broken that comes into (and goes out of) contact when moved.

For example, having uneven thickness will noticeably reduce audio quality like you mention.

The built in DAC/amp on 'heiser is likely better than the piece of crap serving the 3.5mm jack in your phone.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com