Bluetooth audio quality concerns

OK, I'm opening a new thread with this one, since I would really like to gather opinions of people who are also facing bluetooth audio quality issues.

Since I got my iPhone 3G, and paired it with my bluetooth headsets, people have been complaining that the couldn't hear me well. My voice would crack up, or even not make it at all to the other side. I got a couple of new bluetooth headsets, only to find out that it wasn't the headsets' fault. That said, I would like to add, that all the headsets that seem to misbehave when paired to the iPhone, work great when in use with my older SE mobile phone.

I did some testing and found out that, the issue of my side cracking up or not sounding at all would only arise when the OTHER party was in a noisy environment (usually trying to talk to somebody in a Mall would do the trick). That said, I would also like to add that when talking through the iPhone itself (even on speakerphone), would work fine!

I am suspecting that there is an echo cancelation feature build-into the iPhone that revs up when talking through a bluetooth headset and seems to cut-off my headset's input level when strong noise it detected from the other side, presumably to avoid echo. Seems like this feature is badly tuned, in a way that communication can no longer work in an syncronous way.

What seems strange to me is that, after updating to v2.2 of iPhone software, the issue seemed to have gone away; however, it looks like it's back!

This whole situation could also be connected to various bluetooth quality issues many people are facing when using bluetooth car kits. I would suggest you try and connect such issues with the NOISE on the OTHER END.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I will try and put together a Skype call that would hopefully demostrate what I am trying to say.

iPhone 3G v2.2

Posted on Nov 26, 2008 4:23 AM

Reply
359 replies

Mar 6, 2010 11:55 AM in response to masterstif

I have been suffering from the same issues with REALLY bad static between my 3GS and two different BT headsets (A sony DRBT22 and an original Jawbone). Today I read through a bunch of posts on this thread and tried the trick of turning off wifi and low and behold it's about 99% fixed. There's a slight static, but not bad enough to bug me.

I sure wish Apple would figure this out. It really makes either bt or wifi a useless feature since you can't do both at the same time.

For that matter, there's an advertisement idea for Verizon. AT&T says you can talk and text/play games/etc all at the same time. Well Verizon can say that on AT&T iPhone you can wifi and BT at the same time.

Mar 20, 2010 11:07 AM in response to Thanar

Hello,

just want to join the club of unhappy iphone users. I poses plantronics 925 and Iphone 3G and I don't have full duplex when calling through headset. First, I was thinking that something is wrong with headset but soon I've found out about this little secret from apple. Very, very disappointing. I've sent message to apple to try to contribute to solution. If this is really just a software issue than it is really ridiculous they are not fixing it. What is more funny is that some people are not aware of this problem. How is this possible, they cannot talk simultaneously to other party, how do they use headset then ??
Big Apple fan, have spent a lot of money on apple products in my life, but I'm seriously thinking of switching to Blackberry bold 9700. I know I'll miss a lot of things from Iphone, but I can't stand this anymore. I need headset because of my business and that's it.

I'll continue to follow this thread, just in case something happens very soon, otherwise, I'm out.

Mar 22, 2010 2:08 AM in response to Pfortino

The only think you can do is take your iPhone to an Apple Store and let them know of your issue, as well as of this here thread.

Alternatively, you could send feed back to Apple through iPhone's [feedback page|http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html]. If you have access to the ADC program, I guess you would have access in the [bug report|https://bugreport.apple.com> portal on Apple.

You can use +"Bluetooth quality issue: Headset mic muting bug"+ as a Subject and portions (or all) of the following text:


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Dear Apple,

A growing number of people have been facing issues with iPhone's bluetooth quality when making calls, for over a year and a half. Seems like iPhone fails to work in full-duplex mode when talking through a bluetooth headset.

You could easily replicate the bug by calling yourself on a land line and talking loudly and longly at the same time on both devices. You'll notice that -on most cases- you cannot hear yourself through the land line, meaning that the headset's mic is being muted while there is output through the headset's speaker. Talking through the iPhone itself cancels the effect. This issue does not occur when using any other phone/headset combination apart from the iPhone.

As of note, this effect is getting worse by the usage time of the bluetooth headset, meaning that when firstly paired it will most probably be unnoticed. Thus, try keeping a headset paired with an iPhone for a couple of days while using it regularly for calls and then try the above test.

As a matter of fact, there's a thread in Apple Discussions regarding the issue, dating back to 26-Nov-2008, here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1804116&tstart=0

Please take a look at this, since it has been puzzling a growing part of the iPhone users community for some time now. Thank you.
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Apr 14, 2010 7:31 AM in response to Thanar

Hi!

I've been facing the same problem. Have tried pairing it with Jabra, Motorola, Nokia and Plantronics headsets but no joy! The person on the other side can BARELY hear me so I always ending up switching over to the phone which is a pain when I am driving. My friend is using the 2G and so was I before upgrading to the 3G and we never faced this problem on the 2G. He is still using the 2G and it works quite well with his BT headset.

Let's hope Apple sorts this out.

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Bluetooth audio quality concerns

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