Stereo Wireless Bluetooth Headphone

More and more mobile phones are becoming musical. But most musical mobile phones don\'t include a 3.5mm headphone jack. They are equipped either with a proprietary jack that serves triple duty as the power and data connector, or a 2.5mm jack.

Neither of these choices are optimal for sophisticated music listeners, now left with a musical phone jack convertor cable: a device-specific adapter that lets you use your own advanced earphones, which leaves you with a tangled mess of cables – or stereo Bluetooth. But is stereo Bluetooth ready for platinum-eared prime time?

Judging by the dearth of higher-end headphone makers in the Bluetooth business, the answer in no. “The human voice is around 1 to 4 Hz,” explains our audio expert. “This is the frequency response that most low-end headphones try to capture since it is where the vocals fall. This is also the segment that Bluetooth captures best since it was initially developed for telephone voice applications.

There just isn\'t enough bandwidth in Bluetooth to get great sound.”

Why not? “All Bluetooth stereo transmissions use some compression from the 1.4 Mbps required for full CD quality,” explains Bluetooth Development Researcher. “Early Bluetooth circuits could only transmit a maximum of 64 kbps... and many Bluetooth circuits still transmit 230 kbps. We introduced the ety8 Bluetooth earphones only after circuit supporting Advanced Data Rate technology and a 320 kbps data rate became available, both of which the ety8 use.”

If bandwidth is an issue and Bluetooth\'s pairing procedure leaves you scrambling in exasperation for the crappy free headphones that came with the mobile phone, you could figure out a way to connect your lovely high-end headphones into a mobile phone that lacks a 3.5mm input.

And there is a way. A growing number of musical mobile phones include a 3.5mm adapter cable that incorporates an in-line microphone.

Bluetooth isn\'t a lost cause for high-end music listening, however. Many headphone makers report efforts to maximize Bluetooth\'s limited musical capabilities, and are waiting for new Bluetooth Simple Pairing that will make it easier to wirelessly connect earphone to cell phone.

Until then, just keep winding those earbud wires around your cell phone to keep them untangled and wait until stereo Bluetooth isn\'t such a bother.