Originally posted by: zixxer
I'm desperately trying to find a good solution for listening to music while riding. My requirements are:
Ability to play/pause while riding
Doesn't block ALL noise (i.e. the canal phones are out - they block too much noise. However, the in-ear type with a rubber cushion is fine because I can still easily hear sirens/horns)
I would like to be able to skip ahead/back but that's not absolutely required.
Currently I use sennheiser cx300's combined with a griffin smarttalk for a remote
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/smarttalk
I thread the wire down the inside of my jacket into my pocket and leave the click remote hanging out. This is a PITA and hard to find the remote with gloves on. It also becomes a tangled mess when I have to take my jacket off.
Do wireless earphones exist? It would be awesome if I could permanently wire my earphones into my jacket, and transmit audio either over bluetooth or even by plugging the iphone into a receiver or something.. I wouldn't mind a receiver at each end - the problem is connection my iphone in my pants pocket to my earphones..
Do wireless headphones exist? Of course! And, yes, Bluetooth is the way to go. I see from your link that you are using an iPhone, but you forgot to mention that (I may be wrong if it works with other iPods also, but the Griffin device is primarily for the iPhone). Beyond the iPhone's regular Bluetooth headset profile (HSP), there are three technologies here that are relevant. One is the proprietary dock connector on Apple devices. Another is the Bluetooth standard for HiFi stereo audio, A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile). Yet another is the Bluetooth Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP), the subset of A2DP.
First of all, the iPhone does not support A2DP or AVRCP because it would create a royalty-free way for other device makers to interface, circumventing the proprietary Apple dock connector. Apple makes a percentage on the wholesale cost of all "Made for iPod" devices that interface with it. Apple is totally OK with making that royalty from an A2DP/AVRCP adapter that uses the dock connector, though it still hurts to have to buy redundant hardware. The Bluetooth hardware in the phone is totally capable of doing all tasks by itself and yet we have to power two Bluetooth host devices from the phone that already has notoriously bad battery life! To compound this further, you may wish to use the iPhone as a motorcycle GPS. Combined with the additional power draw from an A2DP/AVRCP adapter, which typically prevents you from charging while in use (the occupied dock connector doubles as the charge port), GPS will further reduce the battery life to nearly useless territory. I looked long and hard for a way to charge my iPhone while using an A2DP/AVRCP adapter and I came up with two options.
First, I found 8banannas.com and their BD-906 with a miniUSB port. It wasn't cheap and it ships out of Australia with $20 shipping, so I continued looking for months and eventually found that it is rebranded in the UK as the iO Play iO-BTAPODC and can be found on eBay in the USA as the unbranded "BT-IPOD-236." They all appear to be the exact same thing, though some come with the car adapter and some don't. The eBay one is dirt-cheap (I paid $27.99). Like many other A2DP adapters, it is not centered on the iPhone and the bulk makes it seem easy to snap off if you try to use it in your pocket (I'm not gonna push it). I suggest that you use it with a handle-bar mount or arm-band only! I haven't had any sound issues on my motorcycle, but the drop-outs are near constant when you are holding it or walking with it in a pocket. It has an awkward way to pair which has caused me some trouble.
Second, on the day I received my BT-IPOD-236, I found the MacSense BlueICE transmitter with a miniUSB charge port at Fry's Electronics. It's $39.99, but the port is too for to the right for my motorcycle mount (I'm using the "Lobster Mount;" $20 on eBay) without modification. It seems to protrude just as much but looks thinner. This may make it MORE fragile but I didn't get to try it or anything. I had a serious issue with my BT-IPOD-236, so I may yet try it and modify my motorcycle mount to work with it.
If you do happen to be using an iPod and you don't care for charge-though (their battery life is excellent), there are many A2DP/AVRCP adapters, such as the Sony TMR-BT8iP (expensive but small, centered on the dock connector, seemingly no connection issues, etc), iCombi, Scosche, etc. I don't know of any adapters that are certified "Works with iPhone" though nearly all have "Made for iPod" certification. When you insert one, you will get a message telling you that it is not compatible with the iPhone and asking you if you would like to turn on airplane mode (?!). Just anwer "No" and it works just the same as it would with an iPod Touch. Many manufacturers say "100% iPhone Compatible" with NO mention of this prompt even though their products trigger it too!
You can't just use any A2DP headset. For example, the Logitech Freepulse headphones do not support AVRCP or HSP. They likely don't support pairing and connecting to two devices simultaneously. Pretty much any A2DP headset with HSP should allow connecting to two devices (Motorola S9, Jabra BT8010, Sony DR-BT22, etc) so that they can stream music from one device and pause it to take calls from the other, though they are often one and the same device (a music phone). In the case of an iPhone + A2DP adapter, they are actually two devices. For your application, you need a headset with a microphone designed for minimizing wind noise and increasing the volume automatically as the wind noise increases. You aren't likely to find this in your typical A2DP headset, but in-helmet systems typically provide this and more. They understand that there are special needs on a motorcycle and provide additional functions to support that usage application. For example, the Parrot SK4000 will support Hands Free Profile (HFP) to initiate or answer calls with voice-recognition and text-to-speech to blindly navigate your phonebook or hear incoming Caller ID information (Bluetooth includes a CID profile). It goes further by recognizing that the typical motorcycle has no stereo so they include built-in FM radio, stereo line input for your digital audio player, and A2DP+AVRCP with a handlebar remote.
I've been preordered on the Parrot SK4000 motorcycle A2DP/AVRCP/Hands-Free motorcycle bluetooth helmet kit for a long time and it does have stereo line input. Engadget announced that it shipped over a year ago, but it didn't. It seems like the release is finally imminent... ship dates of Oct 24, 31, & Nov 3 have come and gone but the latest one (Nov 15) seems promising because it is getting backed up from other sources (same for anything4wireless.com and Parrot's own online store). It's finally showing up on eBay in the UK too but I think their FM radio differs so I don't want to import.
I also saw a kit in Target that plugs into the Apple dock connector and adds a full-function wireless remote while still having a connector on the bottom for charging or, according to the manual, connecting an "FM transmitter." I have seen non-A2DP/AVRCP motorcycle headsets with FM radio. Heck, Circuit City even gave away some Gameboy Advance wireless Headphones years back that were really FM radios/transmitters.Anyway, it didn't seem to be motorcycle or bike-specific, but it was kinda in the bike section near some other Bluetooth equipment like regular headsets and such. There may have been an in-car speakerphone to justify otherwise unrelated equipment being in that section, but perhaps the remote was meant for a steering wheel and could be easily mounted to a motorcycle, though I doubt it would be water-resistant. I will definitely take another look and report back.
Now, my main problem with the BT-IPOD-236 is that it will not charge my phone while it will charge my brother's (provided that it's nearly fully charged already). It just shows a "plugged in" indicator while the battery continues to deplete. I think that it's related to a Griffin charger nearly ruining my phone's battery by draining it beyond the fully-depleted "shut-down" level when I seemingly left it "charging" overnight (solidly lit screen displaying a battery with a "plugged in" indicator instead of electrical "bolt" charge indicator), but it doesn't work with my brother's phone fully either... when his charge level is too low it does the same thing and could screw up his battery too. I dunno if mine is a lemon, but I will find out. If they are all like this, perhaps the charge function is only good for iPods and not iPhones. I may just try the MacSense one, even if I have to modify my motorcycle mount.
The "awkward" pairing requires it to have music on the phone (you may use Pandora and have none) and requires you to press "Play" in the iPod interface. There is no pairing button. After pressing "Play, if it can't find a paired headset, it then goes into pairing mode automatically and only pairs with some standard PINs (0123, 1234, 8888, 0000, etc). This can cause a problem when you receive a call, at least, with one of my headsets... the BT8010. The adapter seems to turn itself off as soon as the headset disconnects and will not turn back on even when pressing "Play" until you have removed the connector and reinserted it... not something you can do while riding on the motorcycle. I am going to try the BT8010's alternate pairing method when I can find the manual to see if that changes the behavior. My DR-BT22 does something different. Firstly, either takes you back to the iPod interface any time you Play/Pause the music, but the Sony DR-BT22 does if when you get an incoming call, which prevents you from immediately managing it on the screen. It does it when you even so much as *LIST* voicemail and resumes the music immediately, which makes it impossible to get to the voicmail while using it (keeps dumping you out). I do not remember having either of these problems with the Sony TMR-BT8iP adapter, but my phone was using 2.0.0 back then and 2.1.0 now. I no longer have it to test (didn't suit my need to charge-through).
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