Ventura
Been here for ages!
because Bluetooth suffers from lots of internet chatter,
much of it wishful imagining, many people mis-understand
what Bluetooth is actually good for or how it works..
pro music wireless devices are paired and exclusive..
Pete and his brother Re-pete..
the wake up, lock onto each other, and pay no attention to
anything else except their job.. they can be powerful, exceeding 300'
with reliability on dual antenna systems, which is why i can stroll around
a large auditorium, like under a big ol' Church, with no drop-out of
my Audio feed, and onstage wireless MIDI from CME is locked
and loaded and always flawless
Bluetooth by comparison is a NETWORK, very similar to Wi-Fi..
physically using/sharing the same hardware device inside
your computer, notebook, and smartphone. It was originally
designed to run alongside your WiFi and give you things like
handsfree Bluetooth phone-calls in your car or Bluetooth
phone distribution systems in homes and businesses
(i have used a docked cellphone bluetooth'd to a 5
remote handset Panasonic phone system here at the house
garage and barn (studio) for around 20 years now
and you NEED TO KNOW Networks use packets and a lot of compression
of DATA to shuffle stuff around.. it gets chopped up at the source
then put back together at the receiving end
Bluetooth is designed as a NEAR FIELD network,
and while distance has been improved in recent versions
(specifically) to better accommodate the "internet of things"
as distance is increased, the data rate DROPS SIGNIFICANTLY
plus a device designed for LE mode (low energy) has a limited
distance while "classic mode protocol" is used in devices
which want greater range and throughput
read: itty bitty devices with teensy weensy batteries only work
fast if they are close to each other.. they are LE
today the most common use for Bluetooth in modern products is audio.
Yet, the original standard was never designed for anything close to
full bandwidth music. 721 Kbps was fine for phone calls but not for
accordions. the first improvement was the mandated SBC audio codec,
but it sucked basically and Qualcomm’s aptX and Sony’s LDAC were
put out to improve things, but they were add-ons limited to branded
hardware and so not universally recognized. Finally in 2020 the LC3 codec
was included in the Bluetooth 5.0 protocol.. this paved the way for
2022 when The Bluetooth SIG released the complete suite of LE Audio specs
and since then you have high fidelity Bluetooth
BUT
it is still a NETWORK not a locked, analog or dedicated digital audio torrent,
and so it will ALWAYS be dependent on speed of data transmission
which is dependent on distance
Bluetooth was also designed to be EASY TO CONNECT
(unlike typical WiFi networks of 20 years ago with routers
access points numbers passwords etc. etc. etc.
and so today please realize on stage there is little to
stop someone in the audience hi-jacking your Bluetooth
audio system..
if you want to test your Bluetooth stuff, turn two TV sets on...
one in the kitchen with built in speakers, one in your living-room
bluetoothed to a soundbar or small powered speaker like a
Pyle or JBL.. do you hear an echo ? ta-DA that sound you hear
is Bluetooth audio lag
so if you are playing old 45's on a modern $20 Bluetooth turntable
that lag is not noticeable, because
YOU DON"T KNOW WHERE THE NEEDLE IS at any given moment,
but when you are playing or singing along to a track or with
a band, you cannot have your sound "lag" behind what is
happening in REAL TIME
this is basically why it is never gonna be a good idea to use
Bluetooth headphones on an accordion, when you can just
use a real actual OMG wire plug it in BOOM works perfectly
i have often used a spare $80 wireless audio pair to eliminate the
physical wire from my Expander to the PA system
(single antenna devices are fine for this, your PA and Ex
don't move once you set up for a gig) and have had no lag
in both analog audio or the digital audio (line 6) systems,
because as i mentioned earlier, they are DEDICATED to
each other and spend all their time and power running
as fast and flawlessly as they possibly can
(and yes use up a battery every gig.. so what..)
so i hope this helps those of you wondering when/if using
Bluetooth gear might be appropriate or advisable in
Music situations.. and no doubt Bluetooth will continue
to improve, but understand it will ALWAYS be backwards
compatible and as a result will NEVER replace dedicated
professional mission critical equipment and systems
much of it wishful imagining, many people mis-understand
what Bluetooth is actually good for or how it works..
pro music wireless devices are paired and exclusive..
Pete and his brother Re-pete..
the wake up, lock onto each other, and pay no attention to
anything else except their job.. they can be powerful, exceeding 300'
with reliability on dual antenna systems, which is why i can stroll around
a large auditorium, like under a big ol' Church, with no drop-out of
my Audio feed, and onstage wireless MIDI from CME is locked
and loaded and always flawless
Bluetooth by comparison is a NETWORK, very similar to Wi-Fi..
physically using/sharing the same hardware device inside
your computer, notebook, and smartphone. It was originally
designed to run alongside your WiFi and give you things like
handsfree Bluetooth phone-calls in your car or Bluetooth
phone distribution systems in homes and businesses
(i have used a docked cellphone bluetooth'd to a 5
remote handset Panasonic phone system here at the house
garage and barn (studio) for around 20 years now
and you NEED TO KNOW Networks use packets and a lot of compression
of DATA to shuffle stuff around.. it gets chopped up at the source
then put back together at the receiving end
Bluetooth is designed as a NEAR FIELD network,
and while distance has been improved in recent versions
(specifically) to better accommodate the "internet of things"
as distance is increased, the data rate DROPS SIGNIFICANTLY
plus a device designed for LE mode (low energy) has a limited
distance while "classic mode protocol" is used in devices
which want greater range and throughput
read: itty bitty devices with teensy weensy batteries only work
fast if they are close to each other.. they are LE
today the most common use for Bluetooth in modern products is audio.
Yet, the original standard was never designed for anything close to
full bandwidth music. 721 Kbps was fine for phone calls but not for
accordions. the first improvement was the mandated SBC audio codec,
but it sucked basically and Qualcomm’s aptX and Sony’s LDAC were
put out to improve things, but they were add-ons limited to branded
hardware and so not universally recognized. Finally in 2020 the LC3 codec
was included in the Bluetooth 5.0 protocol.. this paved the way for
2022 when The Bluetooth SIG released the complete suite of LE Audio specs
and since then you have high fidelity Bluetooth
BUT
it is still a NETWORK not a locked, analog or dedicated digital audio torrent,
and so it will ALWAYS be dependent on speed of data transmission
which is dependent on distance
Bluetooth was also designed to be EASY TO CONNECT
(unlike typical WiFi networks of 20 years ago with routers
access points numbers passwords etc. etc. etc.
and so today please realize on stage there is little to
stop someone in the audience hi-jacking your Bluetooth
audio system..
if you want to test your Bluetooth stuff, turn two TV sets on...
one in the kitchen with built in speakers, one in your living-room
bluetoothed to a soundbar or small powered speaker like a
Pyle or JBL.. do you hear an echo ? ta-DA that sound you hear
is Bluetooth audio lag
so if you are playing old 45's on a modern $20 Bluetooth turntable
that lag is not noticeable, because
YOU DON"T KNOW WHERE THE NEEDLE IS at any given moment,
but when you are playing or singing along to a track or with
a band, you cannot have your sound "lag" behind what is
happening in REAL TIME
this is basically why it is never gonna be a good idea to use
Bluetooth headphones on an accordion, when you can just
use a real actual OMG wire plug it in BOOM works perfectly
i have often used a spare $80 wireless audio pair to eliminate the
physical wire from my Expander to the PA system
(single antenna devices are fine for this, your PA and Ex
don't move once you set up for a gig) and have had no lag
in both analog audio or the digital audio (line 6) systems,
because as i mentioned earlier, they are DEDICATED to
each other and spend all their time and power running
as fast and flawlessly as they possibly can
(and yes use up a battery every gig.. so what..)
so i hope this helps those of you wondering when/if using
Bluetooth gear might be appropriate or advisable in
Music situations.. and no doubt Bluetooth will continue
to improve, but understand it will ALWAYS be backwards
compatible and as a result will NEVER replace dedicated
professional mission critical equipment and systems
