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Comment by giancarlostoro | Hacker News Reader

I've never known Bluetooth to not produce a miserable experience at some time or another. It's inconsistently bad in some cases too. I hate setting up bluetooth on my car the most, I need to "Talk" to my car, and I can't just do it while stopped at a red light, I have to shut off my car and do it before I go. I still havent redone it since I upgraded phones last year... I just plug into the aux port while driving.

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AirPods completely changed my view of BT devices. Before, I avoided BT completely because I could never get them working well with an Android phone I was using at that time. Headphones I was using would always disconnect after some time and the quality would drop intermittently and there was no way to fix it. The "fix" was to wait for the battery to drain and then the headphones would restart. I tried few different headphones over the years and always went back to wired ones because of that.

After trying AirPods, I haven't had a single issue. Everything works fine. I'm even content with a BT keyboard and trackpad now.

Have I won the lottery? I've never had a single Bluetooth issue with any device I've ever had, except my current vehicle:

"All New" 2019 Ram 1500 (If anyone works for Uconnect, please email me.)

iPhone, iPhone 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 5X, Nexus 7, Razer Phone, Thinkpad Yoga, Thinkpad Book, self-assembled desktop, Toyota Corolla - all have worked perfectly with various, cheap, Bluetooth devices - keyboards, mice, speakers, earbuds, and each other for BT file transfers.

(It's really sad that a Corolla has a better Bluetooth experience than a Ram which is 3x in cost.)

> Ram 1500

Do you work in agriculture?

No, I'm an Air Traffic Controller who uses a truck to move and tow stuff to help out friends, family, and Scouts.

Why?

Some people seem to think that the only acceptable reason to own a pickup truck is if you're plowing fields with it on a regular basis.

"Why?"

I believe your parent is trying to level a "all hat, no cattle" claim upon you.

I am sympathetic to this line of reasoning - it's difficult to to look upon American truck culture in 2019 and not have that come to mind.

I have no comments on your specific situation. Thanks for helping kids with scouts.

I for one do think US truck culture is absurd. Pickups are best selling vehicles by far, yet their beds and towing capabilities are generally used about 1% of the time. The other 99% is commuting in the most wasteful of ways

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/09/04/its-never-too-late....

I am in complete agreement with you, but you know what? Let's not rag on the guy about his truck when he was trying to contribute to a conversation about the annoyances of Bluetooth. Someone daring to type the word "truck" is not our excuse to pile on no matter how far out of context.

I think it's absurd when the very small fraction of truck owners lift them, trick them out, "roll coal", etc.

I think the vast majority of truck owners are reasonable.

Who doesn't own or pay for something "just in case"? We have insurance just in case we need it. People pay a little more for a truck instead of a sedan just in case they need it.

I didn't mean for this chain of comments to be about trucks, it was just the name of one item where Bluetooth doesn't work that well for me.

It's socially acceptable here to low-key look down on certain luxuries or lifestyles over others.

It wasn't so low-key, if you ask me.

No it was incredibly rude and offtopic

> Have I won the lottery?

Yes.

My experience with Bluetooth and kids while driving:

1. Dad, my headphones aren't working.

2. Ok, did you try turning them off an on again?

3. Yes

4. Did you turn BT on your iPhone on/off?

5. Yes

6. Did you "forget" the BT connection and re-establish.

7. Yes child rages

8. Are they ... charged?

9. Child now fully enraged: YEEEESS DAD! I'm not an idiot!

9. Ok ummmm, did you try steps 2, 4 and 6 a couple of times each?

10. child continues to rage, stops asking for help and proceeds to frantically toggle everything on/off/on/off while "tapping" their phone aggressively.

11. 10 minutes later ... Dad they're working now!

11. Awesome, so glad we got you those BT headphones.

There’s a step you forgot — turn your phone on and off. It’s annoying but it can fix problems with headphones when it’s not actually the headphones’ fault.

Yeah, same here. I can't use any other Bluetooth headphones now, after trying AirPods. It's at the point where I've been thinking of buying very fancy wireless NC headphones, but haven't done so because I can't bear the absence of a W1 chip in either the Bose or the Sony (and obviously am not spending $350 for suboptimal Beats NC), so I'm just not buying anything.

That's because AirPods aren't plain Bluetooth and include some proprietary Apple magic. I have several Bluetooth audio devices and the only one that's reliable my Jawbone (remember them?) Jambox. Everything else has weird failure modes where it fails to connect or connects partially and allows me to control playback but the sound still comes out my phone.

Headphone jacks were fucking awesome. I want them back.

AirPods completely changed my view of BT devices.

AirPods are the reason I bought Beats Studio headphones. Oh, no, my good sirs and madams, I am the last person on this planet who is going to buy something because some guy who likes big butts put his name on them. No, I am well aware of the denigration of the sound quality from those who supposedly know better. Yeah, they're probably over-priced for what they are.

But I wanted wireless over-ear headphones with noise-cancellation, and Beats has the W1 chip that give AirPods their magical lack of annoyance. Tried them in the store, they didn't suck (they are bass-heavy), take my money.

As a fellow AirPods user on Android, you might like the app AirBattery which allows you to see AirPods and from my friend's experience even some of the Beats's battery status.

I'm not affiliated with the app in any way, it's genuinely helped me become untethered from wife's iPhone. (The app is free and there's $1 in-app to remove ads and enable advanced features.)

I was disappointed to find that Airpods, while better, aren't great either. I find the audio cuts out a lot when I pass through busy streets in NYC, and I often get into some kind of pairing weirdness where my phone simply won't play through the Airpods.

Still better than most Bluetooth solutions, though.

My AirPods work fine in NYC, with the exception of one specific place: The Oculus. I would love to know why.

For me it's areas a few blocks around Times Square. The only thought I had (and maybe the Oculus is the same) is that the sheer number of people also using Airpods in the area means everything gets confused.

Same, in London, walking down Oxford Street at 6pm can mean almost constant ‘diruptions’ over my AirPods.

Just googled a bit, and this seems to explain it: http://www.iphonehacks.com/2018/04/heres-why-your-airpods-or...

In short, it's the combination of no walls + lots of signal congestion. Times Square + Oculus both fit this mold.

That's the latest ridiculous annoyance in a long, sad series of ridiculous annoyances that I've experienced with portable audio, to the point where I've just resigned to not listen to music anywhere other than at home and at work. The hassle and distraction of managing either an audio cable or a Bluetooth connection are just too much.

The vast majority of devices are indeed bad. I am convinced that most manufacturers do not know how to handle very basic issues of connectivity and pairing. The BT standards and all of the BT chips available are capable of making very seamless pairing and re-connection flows, it's just the device manufacturers who don't use them correctly to do it.

There is a company called TeckNet that makes a BT mouse that is full-sized, five-button-with-wheel, and works very reliably. Microsoft has a few full-sized, reliably working keyboards, though I don't care for the key switches too mcuh. AfterShockz is the first headphone manufacturer I've found that works reliably and doesn't sound like complete crap (I can't wear earbuds, so I won't be buying Airpods).

Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do about your car's Bluetooth. Through various rentals on trips and such, I've tried Ford, Nissan, Honda, and BMW, as well as my own Subaru; they all flake out at some point. My Smart has an aftermarket JVC unit (installed by whomever previously owned the car) that seems to have spent more effort on fancy LED sequences than any sort of usage UX. I've seriously considered ripping out my stereo head unit in my Subaru and replacing it with an Android 4G tablet.

It might also be the choice of how they choose to integrate it.

In some Nissan cars the Bluetooth is a canbus device that you have to pair through weird gyrations on the steering wheel unless you have a Satnav unit. I mean it works fine in my experience but it's weird as hell.

My guess is that they're buying canbus modules from some supplier like Bosch and just slapping them on the canbus so they can check a box on the spec sheet.

Ironically enough, I also have an aftermarket JVC. A very simple 1U tall discless, bluetooth-enabled player that supports Android phones and iPhones via MFi. It works perfectly. In fact, it also works with devices they claim not to support, like an iPad and an old iPod Classic via USB. The best thing about it is that when I go for a drive and need some navigation, I can just plug the iPad in directly via USB, keep it charged, use a map app and listen to music. It also supports keeping two phones connected via bluetooth for calls. So far I've had no issues with it and I've had it for a year now.

I knowingly went for something extremely simple, with MFi support and optional wired access and I haven't regretted it.

I have three Bluetooth headsets (and all cheap, in the ~$100 range), use them with Android phones and Linux computers without any issue. The sound quality is par for the price but pairing, connecting, and disconnecting works just like with wired headphones.

Care to share which ones? I'm trying to find some headsets within that range. I'm not an audiophile, just need to hear, and block out just enough external noise.

Sure. ERATO Muse 5[1] for the gym, and Pioneer SE-MJ561BT[2] for the streets. Can't find the receipt for the third set.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N496ZYK/

[2] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00R7B96SC/

I've had a pair of JLabs for awhile that have worked fine with my iPhone. I don't think they sell my model anymore, and last I looked, the current version apparently is not as good. But, reading Amazon comments they do seem to have good CS if you need to return or exchange what you get.

When these break, I'm getting AirPods though. I see them in use in the office and it's like magic the ease of pairing, etc...

I can recommend Anker SoundBuds. They're pretty hopeless for listening to music but OK for YouTube videos and other general purpose computer audio listening and I've never had any issues with the Bluetooth functionality at all.

Considering my overwhelmingly negative experiences with Bluetooth in the past I'm only just now realising how lucky I've been with them, especially considering how cheap they were.

i currently own a pair of jaybird x3s and i absolutely love them. they pair quite fast with my phone (standard galaxy s8), are sweat proof and have enough audio quality to block the majority of sounds while i'm walking around the city (and i live in really noisy city).

here's mkbhd's review of them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77aeW3bsCzc

For my money, Plantronics makes the best affordable Bluetooth audio stuff. I have a pair of these hanging around my neck right now:

https://www.amazon.com/Plantronics-Headphones-Sweat-Resistan...

The batteries last for something like eighteen hours, the audio quality is very good, and I find that they strike a really good balance: I can hear just fine when they're not on, but when I'm playing music I can't hear much of anything. It can also pair to multiple devices (though it calls them all "phones"); if I stop something on my Android phone and start something on my laptop, it does the right thing, and it also has an app for iOS/Android that lets me throw to the correct device (though to get back from a laptop you have to turn its Bluetooth off, which sucks). They're really nice overall.

Similarly I'm a huge fan of their sport headphones. These are the only Bluetooth in-ears I can stand:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JKJN71A

Six to eight hours of play time, completely acceptable audio when they're on, can hear just fine when they're not. They're the most comfortable headphones I've ever had; I often wear them for an entire day without noticing that they're in and I've accidentally gone to meetings with them in more than once. My only complaints are that the QC is not always great (or I got a fake, which is the guess I lean towards) and that there are a couple of firmware revisions, basically all the same but it's jarring to hear the robot lady say something different than the last time--because I have a really bad habit of losing them, I'm on my third set.

I have Sony WI-C400.

The battery life is incredible: Several hours of use each day for almost a week between charges. They hang around the neck, then the buds come up to the ear - there is no weight pulling on the buds to fall out. Decent sound.

I recently decided to upgrade to a pair of Bluetooth headphones for use at home and on flights. So noise cancelling and battery life were my two biggest features that I needed.

I ended up settling on the CB3 hush: https://www.cb3audio.com/products/cb3-hush-wireless-noise-ca...

For the price you really can't beat them. The bluetooth connection is great and I've never had issues since setting them up. They connect automatically to my phone (iPhone 8) as soon as I turn them on and can also connect to my laptop at the same time.

The noise cancelling is quite good, but if there's no noise playing from the headphones there can be a slight high pitched whirring sound heard.

Sound quality is quite good - comparable to the Bose headphones that I have at work. Additionally, unlike the Bose, the sound is also quite good without noise cancelling on which is really nice for battery life.

Overall I'm quite happy with my choice.

I used to feel this way too. When BT came out I got so excited - saved up my pocket-hole-burning money from a retail job to buy the crappiest piece of crap I could find. Pairing failed. Audio quality sucked. Range was... barely wireless. Batteries drained in moments.

That was then. Recently my wife wanted a durable portable speaker, and got a JBL somethingorother. It works surprisingly well. So I got some JBL earbuds. They work pretty well. I got curious and went back over some old headphones. Turns out some of the problems seem to be in the stack and some in the devices - I ended up not using those old headphones, but some of the old problems did get fixed.

In summary: Things used to suck but my recent BT purchases have set me hopeful. I use the auxiliary port on my car still also - and I think I'll keep it that way for sharing. Pairing devices still makes me feel invaded.

All cars I've used that were bluetooth enabled (Volkswagen, Peugeot and Toyota I think) just required one pairing procedure once, and after that they would automatically connect to the phone as soon as you put the key in.

It's not so complicated and works fine. It's also much more practical to use the steering wheel controls for your phone's music rather than fiddling with its screen to skip a song.

Yeah I've just gotten fed up with the pairing process. Sometimes it disconnects randomly though and to make matters worse, then I have to turn off my car to ever get it synced up again.

That’s exactly why I made sure my car had CarPlay. Not a single issue.

I have a little BT dongle thing that plugs into the aux port. It works fine for listening to music, but taking calls is still bad. My trucks BT is comical to take calls on. Seconds delay...

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