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Pairing Headphone to Desktop PC Using Bluetooth



 
 
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  #1  
Old June 13th 19, 09:49 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware
tb
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 66
Default Pairing Headphone to Desktop PC Using Bluetooth

I have a desktop PC with Windows 7 installed and I just purchased a
pair of Bose Quietcomfort 35 II Noise Canceling headphones.

The headphones do not come with a USB adapter for Bluetooth pairing,
and my desktop PC motherboard does not have Bluetooth capability.

I think that I need to purchase some sort of USB Bluetooth adapter from
a place like Best Buy etc.

Which one do you recommend? Or maybe is there something else that I
need to purchase?

And what kind of software will I need to do the pairing?

I definitely do not want to use my Bose headphones with a 3.5 mm audio
cable plugged into the desktop PC!!

--
tb
  #2  
Old June 13th 19, 11:03 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware
John McGaw
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 732
Default Pairing Headphone to Desktop PC Using Bluetooth

On 6/13/2019 4:49 PM, tb wrote:
I have a desktop PC with Windows 7 installed and I just purchased a
pair of Bose Quietcomfort 35 II Noise Canceling headphones.

The headphones do not come with a USB adapter for Bluetooth pairing,
and my desktop PC motherboard does not have Bluetooth capability.

I think that I need to purchase some sort of USB Bluetooth adapter from
a place like Best Buy etc.

Which one do you recommend? Or maybe is there something else that I
need to purchase?

And what kind of software will I need to do the pairing?

I definitely do not want to use my Bose headphones with a 3.5 mm audio
cable plugged into the desktop PC!!


Since you need an adapter for the single purpose of feeding the headphones
I guess that one specialized for that purpose might be best. Certainly not
the cheapest but neither were your headphones.

https://www.amazon.com/Avantree-Blue.../dp/B01G3J1I5M

Note that this device won't work for all of the other tasks that Bluetooth
is capable of (keyboards, mice, printers, dildos, or whatever) just for
feeding headphones or speakers.
  #3  
Old June 13th 19, 11:42 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware
VanguardLH[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,453
Default Pairing Headphone to Desktop PC Using Bluetooth

tb wrote:

I have a desktop PC with Windows 7 installed and I just purchased a
pair of Bose Quietcomfort 35 II Noise Canceling headphones.

The headphones do not come with a USB adapter for Bluetooth pairing,
and my desktop PC motherboard does not have Bluetooth capability.

I think that I need to purchase some sort of USB Bluetooth adapter from
a place like Best Buy etc.

Which one do you recommend? Or maybe is there something else that I
need to purchase?

And what kind of software will I need to do the pairing?

I definitely do not want to use my Bose headphones with a 3.5 mm audio
cable plugged into the desktop PC!!


Despite improvements in Bluetooth response, they are still slow to
transfer the audio data. For listing to audio only, like music or phone
calls, they're okay. Oops, forget about phone calls as this is a
headphone pair, not a headset with headphones and microphone. For
listening to a action video game, the sound will be too late. The lag
is only about 100 milliseconds, but that can mean the difference between
you surviving or not in the game (in addition to your reaction time). I
had a pair of Bluetooth headphones. Didn't like the lag between audio
and video, so I temporarily used a pair that use the 3.5mm jack. No
lag. I didn't want to leave them plugged in all the time, so I got a
pair of USB wired headphones. No lag, plus more features than with the
3.5mm phono jack wired headphones. If you're not pairing the audio to
video then you don't care about any lag.

There are newer drivers ("aptX Low-Latency") that are supposed to reduce
the lag (I think a BT 4.x device is required), but they don't eliminate
it. Bluetooth is best with slow devices or where transfer speed is not
the highest priority, like mice, keyboards, file transfers (where you
can suffer the wait), etc. A wired connection gives you the least lag.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_bypcPW5O4

I tried to get some specs on the product by going to:

https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/...reless-ii.html

I didn't see which version of Bluetooth that those headphones support.
Their specs don't even list Bluetooth. Must because users mention
Bluetooth doesn't mean they actually know if Bluetooth or wifi is being
used for the device's connection. "Wireless" does NOT mandate
Bluetooth. Could be wi-fi. I did find "Bluetooth" in their FAQs, but
not which version of Bluetooth the headset supports.

My latest PC build has inbuilt Bluetooth. Before that with my Win7
build, I was using the Asus USB-BT400 Bluetooth USB dongle. Cost is
currently $15 at newegg.com. They have several.

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=4814%2...sb&Order=PRICE

That selects Bluetooth 4.0. The dongles are USB 2.0 (400 Mbps) because
they don't need the higher bandwidth of USB 3.x for Bluetooth
connections (25 Mbps). Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi Direct use Bluetooth to
establish the pairing and connection, but a wi-fi connection is used for
faster bandwidth of 250 Mbps. I couldn't find which versions of
Bluetooth that your headphones support. There is almost no difference
in price between a Bluetooth 3.0 and 4.0 USB dongle, and the 4.0 version
is backwards compatible, so get a Bluetooth 4.0 USB dongle to pair with
whatever Bluetooth version your headphones support.
  #4  
Old June 14th 19, 02:14 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware
Mike S
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 78
Default Pairing Headphone to Desktop PC Using Bluetooth

On 6/13/2019 3:42 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
tb wrote:

I have a desktop PC with Windows 7 installed and I just purchased a
pair of Bose Quietcomfort 35 II Noise Canceling headphones.

The headphones do not come with a USB adapter for Bluetooth pairing,
and my desktop PC motherboard does not have Bluetooth capability.

I think that I need to purchase some sort of USB Bluetooth adapter from
a place like Best Buy etc.

Which one do you recommend? Or maybe is there something else that I
need to purchase?

And what kind of software will I need to do the pairing?

I definitely do not want to use my Bose headphones with a 3.5 mm audio
cable plugged into the desktop PC!!


Despite improvements in Bluetooth response, they are still slow to
transfer the audio data. For listing to audio only, like music or phone
calls, they're okay. Oops, forget about phone calls as this is a
headphone pair, not a headset with headphones and microphone. For
listening to a action video game, the sound will be too late. The lag
is only about 100 milliseconds, but that can mean the difference between
you surviving or not in the game (in addition to your reaction time). I
had a pair of Bluetooth headphones. Didn't like the lag between audio
and video, so I temporarily used a pair that use the 3.5mm jack. No
lag. I didn't want to leave them plugged in all the time, so I got a
pair of USB wired headphones. No lag, plus more features than with the
3.5mm phono jack wired headphones. If you're not pairing the audio to
video then you don't care about any lag.

There are newer drivers ("aptX Low-Latency") that are supposed to reduce
the lag (I think a BT 4.x device is required), but they don't eliminate
it. Bluetooth is best with slow devices or where transfer speed is not
the highest priority, like mice, keyboards, file transfers (where you
can suffer the wait), etc. A wired connection gives you the least lag.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_bypcPW5O4

I tried to get some specs on the product by going to:

https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/...reless-ii.html

I didn't see which version of Bluetooth that those headphones support.
Their specs don't even list Bluetooth. Must because users mention
Bluetooth doesn't mean they actually know if Bluetooth or wifi is being
used for the device's connection. "Wireless" does NOT mandate
Bluetooth. Could be wi-fi. I did find "Bluetooth" in their FAQs, but
not which version of Bluetooth the headset supports.

My latest PC build has inbuilt Bluetooth. Before that with my Win7
build, I was using the Asus USB-BT400 Bluetooth USB dongle. Cost is
currently $15 at newegg.com. They have several.

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=4814%2...sb&Order=PRICE

That selects Bluetooth 4.0. The dongles are USB 2.0 (400 Mbps) because
they don't need the higher bandwidth of USB 3.x for Bluetooth
connections (25 Mbps). Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi Direct use Bluetooth to
establish the pairing and connection, but a wi-fi connection is used for
faster bandwidth of 250 Mbps. I couldn't find which versions of
Bluetooth that your headphones support. There is almost no difference
in price between a Bluetooth 3.0 and 4.0 USB dongle, and the 4.0 version
is backwards compatible, so get a Bluetooth 4.0 USB dongle to pair with
whatever Bluetooth version your headphones support.


QC35 II supports Bluetooth 4.1
https://community.bose.com/t5/Headph...e-C/td-p/72863
  #5  
Old June 14th 19, 02:15 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware
Mike S
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 78
Default Pairing Headphone to Desktop PC Using Bluetooth

On 6/13/2019 3:42 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
tb wrote:

I have a desktop PC with Windows 7 installed and I just purchased a
pair of Bose Quietcomfort 35 II Noise Canceling headphones.

The headphones do not come with a USB adapter for Bluetooth pairing,
and my desktop PC motherboard does not have Bluetooth capability.

I think that I need to purchase some sort of USB Bluetooth adapter from
a place like Best Buy etc.

Which one do you recommend? Or maybe is there something else that I
need to purchase?

And what kind of software will I need to do the pairing?

I definitely do not want to use my Bose headphones with a 3.5 mm audio
cable plugged into the desktop PC!!


Despite improvements in Bluetooth response, they are still slow to
transfer the audio data. For listing to audio only, like music or phone
calls, they're okay. Oops, forget about phone calls as this is a
headphone pair, not a headset with headphones and microphone. For
listening to a action video game, the sound will be too late. The lag
is only about 100 milliseconds, but that can mean the difference between
you surviving or not in the game (in addition to your reaction time). I
had a pair of Bluetooth headphones. Didn't like the lag between audio
and video, so I temporarily used a pair that use the 3.5mm jack. No
lag. I didn't want to leave them plugged in all the time, so I got a
pair of USB wired headphones. No lag, plus more features than with the
3.5mm phono jack wired headphones. If you're not pairing the audio to
video then you don't care about any lag.

There are newer drivers ("aptX Low-Latency") that are supposed to reduce
the lag (I think a BT 4.x device is required), but they don't eliminate
it. Bluetooth is best with slow devices or where transfer speed is not
the highest priority, like mice, keyboards, file transfers (where you
can suffer the wait), etc. A wired connection gives you the least lag.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_bypcPW5O4

I tried to get some specs on the product by going to:

https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/...reless-ii.html

I didn't see which version of Bluetooth that those headphones support.
Their specs don't even list Bluetooth. Must because users mention
Bluetooth doesn't mean they actually know if Bluetooth or wifi is being
used for the device's connection. "Wireless" does NOT mandate
Bluetooth. Could be wi-fi. I did find "Bluetooth" in their FAQs, but
not which version of Bluetooth the headset supports.

My latest PC build has inbuilt Bluetooth. Before that with my Win7
build, I was using the Asus USB-BT400 Bluetooth USB dongle. Cost is
currently $15 at newegg.com. They have several.

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=4814%2...sb&Order=PRICE

That selects Bluetooth 4.0. The dongles are USB 2.0 (400 Mbps) because
they don't need the higher bandwidth of USB 3.x for Bluetooth
connections (25 Mbps). Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi Direct use Bluetooth to
establish the pairing and connection, but a wi-fi connection is used for
faster bandwidth of 250 Mbps. I couldn't find which versions of
Bluetooth that your headphones support. There is almost no difference
in price between a Bluetooth 3.0 and 4.0 USB dongle, and the 4.0 version
is backwards compatible, so get a Bluetooth 4.0 USB dongle to pair with
whatever Bluetooth version your headphones support.


QC35 II supports Bluetooth 4.1
https://community.bose.com/t5/Headph...e-C/td-p/72863
  #6  
Old June 14th 19, 05:44 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware
Paul[_28_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,467
Default Pairing Headphone to Desktop PC Using Bluetooth

Mike S wrote:
On 6/13/2019 3:42 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
tb wrote:

I have a desktop PC with Windows 7 installed and I just purchased a
pair of Bose Quietcomfort 35 II Noise Canceling headphones.

The headphones do not come with a USB adapter for Bluetooth pairing,
and my desktop PC motherboard does not have Bluetooth capability.

I think that I need to purchase some sort of USB Bluetooth adapter from
a place like Best Buy etc.

Which one do you recommend? Or maybe is there something else that I
need to purchase?

And what kind of software will I need to do the pairing?

I definitely do not want to use my Bose headphones with a 3.5 mm audio
cable plugged into the desktop PC!!


Despite improvements in Bluetooth response, they are still slow to
transfer the audio data. For listing to audio only, like music or phone
calls, they're okay. Oops, forget about phone calls as this is a
headphone pair, not a headset with headphones and microphone. For
listening to a action video game, the sound will be too late. The lag
is only about 100 milliseconds, but that can mean the difference between
you surviving or not in the game (in addition to your reaction time). I
had a pair of Bluetooth headphones. Didn't like the lag between audio
and video, so I temporarily used a pair that use the 3.5mm jack. No
lag. I didn't want to leave them plugged in all the time, so I got a
pair of USB wired headphones. No lag, plus more features than with the
3.5mm phono jack wired headphones. If you're not pairing the audio to
video then you don't care about any lag.

There are newer drivers ("aptX Low-Latency") that are supposed to reduce
the lag (I think a BT 4.x device is required), but they don't eliminate
it. Bluetooth is best with slow devices or where transfer speed is not
the highest priority, like mice, keyboards, file transfers (where you
can suffer the wait), etc. A wired connection gives you the least lag.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_bypcPW5O4

I tried to get some specs on the product by going to:

https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/...reless-ii.html


I didn't see which version of Bluetooth that those headphones support.
Their specs don't even list Bluetooth. Must because users mention
Bluetooth doesn't mean they actually know if Bluetooth or wifi is being
used for the device's connection. "Wireless" does NOT mandate
Bluetooth. Could be wi-fi. I did find "Bluetooth" in their FAQs, but
not which version of Bluetooth the headset supports.

My latest PC build has inbuilt Bluetooth. Before that with my Win7
build, I was using the Asus USB-BT400 Bluetooth USB dongle. Cost is
currently $15 at newegg.com. They have several.

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=4814%2...sb&Order=PRICE


That selects Bluetooth 4.0. The dongles are USB 2.0 (400 Mbps) because
they don't need the higher bandwidth of USB 3.x for Bluetooth
connections (25 Mbps). Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi Direct use Bluetooth to
establish the pairing and connection, but a wi-fi connection is used for
faster bandwidth of 250 Mbps. I couldn't find which versions of
Bluetooth that your headphones support. There is almost no difference
in price between a Bluetooth 3.0 and 4.0 USB dongle, and the 4.0 version
is backwards compatible, so get a Bluetooth 4.0 USB dongle to pair with
whatever Bluetooth version your headphones support.


QC35 II supports Bluetooth 4.1
https://community.bose.com/t5/Headph...e-C/td-p/72863


A poster in that thread states:

"What a pitty that your new version does not support
bluetooth 5 or aptx hd ... I'm waiting next version..."

I can't find any Bluetooth stack list, as to what it
does support (for $350).

It appears to run off a Lithium battery, and you would
hope it's a single cell 4V setup so that if it goes flat
while in storage, the cell won't get damaged. That's the
one thing I have against lithium toys, is you have to keep
using them (charging them), to keep them healthy. My digital
camera ran flat, and the single-cell power source can
still be charged afterwards (unlike multi-cell laptop
batteries when that happens).

I was looking to see if it supported a2dp or AptX, as
a2dp isn't exactly an audio connoisseur spec of audio stack.
AptX uses compression, and would have better specs than
a2dp. I've not heard of AptX HD, which presumably operates
along the same theme (compression scheme) but offers
a wider frequency range or something.

But a2dp itself, you'd want that for "compatibility reasons",
so you could, say, pair the headphones while in your car. But
for $350, you would think the device would need a quality
source, and that would mean something better than a2dp.
If a sending device only had a2dp stack support, then
I'd probably use an analog 3.5" path instead.

And while the notion of "arbitrarily high" Bluetooth version
is quaint, I doubt it will make a whole lot of difference.
BT4 probably saves as much power, as you need to save.

*******

One point that should be made, is that on Mobile devices
(Android or Apple), the audio path will likely "just work"
with a minimum of fuss.

Whereas with desktops, expect "maximum grief". For example
on Windows 10, Microsoft provided a brand new BT stack, to take
the place of the jungle of proprietary stacks used on previous
OSes. But when I tried to set up a piconet between two BT
USB dongles on the desktops, the code obviously wasn't
finished, and I got two packets through before it
stopped working completely. A more recent version of
Windows 10, claims to have this working now, but...
"I'm exhausted". I can only handle so many of
these bug-busting exercises before I'm wishing I
had an Android or an Apple smartphone in my hand
instead.

I have the Asus BT400 too, but that's mainly because that
is what I could get at the computer store. When you
read the reviews on these things and try and compare them,
it's pretty hard to make a good choice.

And the Asus BT400 is Broadcom Widcomm stack. I kinda
remembered that bit, and this was a hit in Google to confirm.

https://secretrockstar.com/finally-f...sues-broadcom/

For a Windows 7 user, this is your experience. You will need
to find comparison articles on stacks, and so on. So if
the stack on the CD doesn't particularly work out, then
you follow the path of some of these posters perhaps.

https://superuser.com/questions/4081...indows-7-64bit

Imagine you want to buy an item for $0.10 and the
government tax is $1.00. That's the Bluetooth experience.
Not a lot of value, "lots of tax on top"., the tax being
trying to get the profile required for your BT peripheral,
supported by the stack you've installed.

My BT400 pair of devices worked best, if between 5 feet
and 10 feet of one another and *line of sight*. Also, it
does not help BT, if in your computer room, you have USB3
cables with active data connections running at the
same time, as the radiation spectrum from a USB3 cable
is a broad peak at 2.5GHz or so, and with weak BT signals,
competes with the BT transmitter. Try to route USB3
cables "on the other side of the machine" and see if
that helps in low-signal conditions.

BT dongles come in three classes, but with the
integrated radios, a "powerful transmitter" might
degrade after several months of usage. The small size
of the nano dongles, means there's only one chip, and
CMOS isn't always the best choice for making 2.4GHz
radio signals. On Wifi modules, external bipolar radios
are used on the better quality designs, and those tend
to age well.

Occasionally, a BT USB2 becomes super-hot to the touch,
and that's probably a capacitor gone ohmic and shorting
the supply. It's less likely to be the chip going into
latchup. The "bad ceramic cap" issue happens on DIMMs
sometimes, leading to infant mortality. It's hard to
say whether proper inspection during manufacture would
catch this. For dime store items, you would not expect
a "lot of microscope time".

Paul
 




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