Bluetooth Headphones: Digital Audio Without Wires

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.sonorix.com/eng/index.html' target='_blank'>http://www.sonorix.com/eng/index.html</a><br /><br /></div><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/sonorix-btheadset.jpg" /> <br /><br />"The 'SONORIX' Bluetooth Audio Player OBH-0100, the first of its kind in the world, is a multi-functional wireless audio player that functions as a Wireless Headphone for PC enabling voice chatting and high quality music streaming, Wireless Headset for handsfree operation with mobile phones and Standalone Audio Player for listening to music anytime, anywhere.<br /><br />• World's first Bluetooth stereo audio player <br />• Bluetooth technology for complete wirelessness <br />• CD quality sound <br />• Wireless PC stereo headphone feature<br />• Standalone music player (MP3/WMA) function <br />• Compressed music (MP3/WMA) <br />• Streaming function, voice chatting function <br />• High capacity flash memory embedded <br />• Uses high density Li-Ion Polymer battery for long lasting play <br />• UFO shaped battery charger <br />• Bluetooth USB Dongle(OBU-0100) included"<br /> <br />There's a <a href="http://www.ultimatepocket.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1961&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0">review published in French</a>, and <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?sourceid=navclient-menuext&hl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eultimatepocket%2Ecom%2Fmodules%2Ephp%3Fop%3Dmodload%26name%3DNews%26file%3Darticle%26sid%3D1961%26mode%3Dthread%26order%3D0%26thold%3D0">here's a link to the Google translation into English</a>, but isn't it amazing how far automated translations services still have to come? Look at this gibberish:<br /><br />"As of l?ouverture of its beautiful limps worthy of the largest marks of the world of audio-visual, one of course discovers the helmet, a base of refill (for the removable battery included in the helmet), a dongle bluetooth, a extension bluetooth, a food for the base of refill and finally a cover." :lol: <br /><br />Anyway, getting back to the subject at hand, this looks like a solid, useful product for getting rid of the wires. I tend to prefer listening to music <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=jasondunn-20&path=tg/detail/-/B00007AKDP/qid%3D1079479665/sr%3D8-1">on my speakers</a>, but I can see scenarios where this would be useful as accessory for an audio player.

[kagayaki1]

I also found this review on the site that you linked to. It's in English first.

http://www.worldofppc.com/HWTests/openbt2.htm

[freitasm]

I say: Want sound? Wait until the CeBIT starts...

I have a CD with some product information that I can not disclose yet, but boy are you in for a surprise. Think about streaming, think about no wires for speakers, think about the whole thing.

I'm waiting for a couple of review units to arrive so I can at last remove some clutter from the home theatre area at home.

[JonnoB]

This is exactly why Bluetooth does not live up to the hype. It is meant to replace wires and speaker wires is one of the most important ones to get rid of (IMHO). BT just isn't fast enough to pass through quality stereo. Think of all the personal devices that you carry that have wires. I bet the most common is a stereo headphone with wires.

[Stillwater]

I noticed that they mention there is an optional adaptor for non-bluetooth phones.
They have a pic of it (fuzzy) with the "Bluetooth Headset". I wonder if you could use that device to transmitt audio data via bluetooth from any source (looks like a stereo jack) to any bluetooth compatible headset or speakers (I know that nobody has them yet). ie my mp3/cd player to my new bluetooth stereo headphones? I think this device is just as cool as the headphones, cause it would make any source instantly BT compatible.

[Duncan]

This is exactly why Bluetooth does not live up to the hype. It is meant to replace wires and speaker wires is one of the most important ones to get rid of (IMHO). BT just isn't fast enough to pass through quality stereo. Think of all the personal devices that you carry that have wires. I bet the most common is a stereo headphone with wires.

BT 1.1 has more than enough bandwidth to deal with mp3/wma which covers most modern portable devices. BT 2.0 will happily match the needs of ANY stereo system.

[fletch]

These have been promised on the net for a while now.

Not sure that these will see the light of day. There is also some confusion as to whether these will allow true streaming over the bluetooth profile or whether it can only store/access its internal memory.

[JonnoB]

My desk is covered in DVI, Firewire, USB2 and optical speaker wires (fiber for DD5.1) ... I don't have much hope that BT gets rid of that wire mess.

I think that wireless USB will be real winner in wire replacement. Hopefully I am wrong and the BT SIG will get its act together and come up with a higher bandwidth solution sooner rather than later and more importantly it seems, do some quality certification for interoperability between devices.

[freitasm]

These have been promised on the net for a while now.

Not sure that these will see the light of day. There is also some confusion as to whether these will allow true streaming over the bluetooth profile or whether it can only store/access its internal memory.

Most products are in the vapourware club now. I've seen a couple sites from korean firms, and they always come back "Will be available later" - a year ago.

I've documentation of a range of new products that *will* replace speaker wires.

This one in the article is no more than a Bluetooth headset with a different shape, plus some flash memory to store music.

The Bluetooth functionality is, like the Sony Ericsson Bluetooth MP3 player in the market before this product only for headset. If a call comes in it stops playing the MP3. You can use Bluetooth to connect to the headset to transfer music. Of course you can connect to your desktop using the headset profile, but then it's not stereo.

Wait for the real thing. And yes, BT 2.0 has more power for the stereo streaming and speaker wire replacement.

[foldedspace]

http://www.sonorix.com/eng/sono_product_obh0100.html

Apparently, you can 'buy' a sample.

[Bandito]

Let me provide some detail on these headphones. I've been beta testing them for about 8 months now. Openbrain asked me not to post a review until a final product version had been established. I guess someone beat me to the punch :mecry:

I'm still planning on writing up a review, and hope to cover some details that this one didn't. But here's some info for those of you wondering...

The headset CAN stream music over Bluetooth. Currently this is only possible using the included Bluetooth adapter and stack (provided by Impulsesoft), as it supports A2DP, or Advanced Audio Distribution Profile. Widcomm has not yet implemented this profile. This means that you can not stream music from a Pocket PC either.

The headset can store/playback MP3 and WMA. Tranferring music to the headset is done using the included Sonorix Browser. Early versions of the software would only work in conjunction with the Impulsesoft stack. But the release version now works with the Widcomm stack as well. It only uses the SPP or Serial Port Profile, so theoretically it should be possible (and easy) to write a version that would work on the Pocket PC as well.

In addition to the aforementioned profiles, the Impulsesoft stack provides OBEX, FTP (File Transfer Profile) and LAP (Lan Access Profile). The stack and UI seem immature compared to the Widcomm stack and does not implement as many profiles, but it works reliably and functions as expected.

Feel free to ask specific questions if you like. I guess now that the cat's out of the bag I can talk about it all I want.

[DaleReeck]

The headset CAN stream music over Bluetooth. Currently this is only possible using the included Bluetooth adapter and stack (provided by Impulsesoft), as it supports A2DP, or Advanced Audio Distribution Profile. Widcomm has not yet implemented this profile. This means that you can not stream music from a Pocket PC either.


What about the iPaq 5555? It's Widcomm stack has implemented the headset audio gateway (works great with my Jabra 200 for listening to books). I would think the 5555 would work.

[Bandito]

What about the iPaq 5555? It's Widcomm stack has implemented the headset audio gateway (works great with my Jabra 200 for listening to books). I would think the 5555 would work.

The Headset Profile is different from A2DP. Headset is GSM quality sound, or about 19 kbps. A2DP uses a compressed stream that can theoretically use the full 720 kbps that Bluetooth provides. This translates to a MUCH better quality listening experience. The Sonorix headset does support the Headset Profile as well for use with cell phones, but it is not meant for streaming music.

[johncruise]

Acts as 'Wireless Headset for handsfree operation with mobile phones'? When you at your desk working... that's fine. But while driving???? 'just looking for trouble with highway patrol there. :-)

[johncruise]

In regards with WUSB... I'm just curious. USB are typically implemented as a client-to-host communication and not peer-to-peer. And most host devices are usually a PC based system. If WUSB will stick to it's implementation with it's peers -- USB1&2 -- to have backward compatibilities as they indicated, I don't think it will be a total replacement for BT devices nor a direct technology competitor.

Are this assumptions correct or not?

[Kowalski]

great ive alwasy wanted a device like this.
what is the bluetooth for?
to cut out the wires. then this device is near perfect

[jonathanchoo]

Old news really, but Vemar, an Italian helmet producer has started to sell Bluetooth helmets. Now you can talk via your mobile phone while racing.

[msprague]

On a side note, in the latest Popular Science magazine there are a couple of home theatre audio setups coming out with bluetooth rear channel speakers. They must be able to get pretty good sound out of it for that.

[rzanology]

no where in that review did i read anything about ppc. If i bought that i would be buying it to work with my ipaq. And being that the pc needs a program to make it work with streaming music....will or does the ppc get this program as well? hmmmm

[webagogue]

When I first heard about BT I was wondering when I would be able to buy wireless earbuds/phones. Other than a BT mouse, I can't see how BT would be useful to me. Of course, logitech makes fastrf wireless mice... just as good as BT?

[Jonathan1]

This is exactly why Bluetooth does not live up to the hype. It is meant to replace wires and speaker wires is one of the most important ones to get rid of (IMHO). BT just isn't fast enough to pass through quality stereo. Think of all the personal devices that you carry that have wires. I bet the most common is a stereo headphone with wires.

BT 1.1 has more than enough bandwidth to deal with mp3/wma which covers most modern portable devices. BT 2.0 will happily match the needs of ANY stereo system.

Are you sure?

BlueTooth 1.1 specs state:
723.2 kb/s asymmetric (and still up to 57.6 kb/s in the return direction), or
433.9 kb/s symmetric.

I've always had concerns that while the bandwidth would be enough for a compressed data stream consisting of a MP3, WMA, or AAC with the headset doing the decompression on the fly it might not be able to handle an uncompressed data stream where the processing is handled on the other end of the connection.

Beyond that I would be a bit nervous with any device that does decompressing on the headset itself. It would have to be able to do some marginally high computing and having that next to your head?? :?: There could be some possible health concerns there.

PS- As for BT 2.0. Please. Until the format actually shows up in shipping products its not worth even talking about.

[Jonathon Watkins]

Of course, logitech makes fastrf wireless mice... just as good as BT?

You'll be wanting the Logitech MX900 then: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=3,CONTENTID=7110 :D Wonderfull Bluetooth mouse - with BT dongle for your PC.

Welcome by the way - good to have you on board! :mrgreen:

[brianchris]

What about the iPaq 5555? It's Widcomm stack has implemented the headset audio gateway (works great with my Jabra 200 for listening to books). I would think the 5555 would work.

All right.....I may be out of touch, but when and how did the 5555 get a headset profile? Is the same update available for the 5455 wunning WM2003?

-Brian

[rob_ocelot]

This is exactly why Bluetooth does not live up to the hype. It is meant to replace wires and speaker wires is one of the most important ones to get rid of (IMHO). BT just isn't fast enough to pass through quality stereo. Think of all the personal devices that you carry that have wires. I bet the most common is a stereo headphone with wires.

With speaker wires you end up trading one wire for another -- signal wires for power.

Who wants to recharge their speakers every week and replace their speaker Li-ion batteries in 2 years when they crap out?

Who would like to have their speaker batteries die in the middle of a movie?

I'd hate to have to arrange my speakers so they could be near a wall socket (either to power or rechare), instead of where the should be to take advantage of the acoustics of the room.

I can see BT and Wifi working between POWERED components, like recievers/DVD players/Monitors though. I can even see them being used in remote controls. Passivley powered components like speakers though should remain passive.

I went wireless with my modified Xbox so I can stream video and audio to it from my PC. In the end I traded a long CAT-5 cable for an extra power brick and cord to power the Wifi bridge. Not much of a wire savings, if you ask me.

[Bandito]

All right.....I may be out of touch, but when and how did the 5555 get a headset profile? Is the same update available for the 5455 wunning WM2003?

It's a registry hack. Edit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Widcomm\BtConfig\Applications\0008\Auto and change the value from 0 to 1. That will enable the Voice Gateway Profile... though the quality is rather lacking.

[brianchris]

It's a registry hack. Edit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Widcomm\BtConfig\Applications\0008\Auto and change the value from 0 to 1. That will enable the Voice Gateway Profile... though the quality is rather lacking.

O.K......I knew about that hack, so I guess I'm not as out of touch as I thought. The post I was replying to *sounded* like it was an official (HP) upgrade to the Wildcomm BT stack that offered the Headset profile.

-Brian