Cheappie - possably "rubbish" kit

[Dave2002]

Our local Lidl is advertising a few items to come up in the next week or so. One is a set of Bluetooth headphones. My guess is that they won't be as good as headphones I already own, but they are wireless. Would they be likely to work with a Mac running OS X?

Another is a Bluetooth loudspeaker - might be good to go with suitable kit - will it work with a Bluetooth enabled mobile phone?

The last may be about as good (!!) as some of those things that used to get advertised in the Radio Times - a record deck which appears to record to USB stick. It's not at all clear whether it only records to mp3, or whether it does wav format files. I wouldn't want to risk playing some of my LPs on it, but it could be good enough for discs bought in charity shops. It's priced just under £50.

I always thought that when I had more time I'd get all my good equipment out, and set it up, and be able to do a much better job than might be possible with such equipment, but I still don't find the time, and if some of these devices do the job only moderately well, then that might be good enough in some cases.

However, if the quality is as good ( :thumbs down: ) as the recently purchased and not yet sent back USB cassette drive, then it won't be worth spending either time or money on.

[MrGongGong]

If the headphones are made by Bayer, AKG, Grado or Sennheiser
buy 10 of them

Bluetooth will work with your mac as long as it has bluetooth (which it probably does)

You really DO get what you pay for (unless you buy the "lifestyle" B&O malarkey )

[Dave2002]

Bluetooth will work with your mac as long as it has bluetooth (which it probably does)

I've never had much luck with bluetooth, except for connecting keyboards and mice and a trackpad.

Sometimes devices seem to get paired or connected, but don't actually do anything. I can connect an iPad to an iMac or MBP but transfering any data seems impossible! Great design! I've never succeeded with audio, either.

[Don Petter]

When they talk in the blurb about 'daisy-chaining' these sorts of speakers (of which there are many similar on the web) for an 'enhanced listening experience' does this mean you get the stereo channels, one on each? (I assume that with only one unit the two channels are played in parallel mono.)

Our ancient little Aiwa plug-in speakers which we use in hotel rooms at least go 'source to RH unit' then 'RH unit socket to LH' so you can get a stereo spread of about five or six feet.

I'm not that fanatical about stereo under these temporary conditions, but wonder if it would even be worth buying a second unit? Anyone had practical experience of this point?

[MrGongGong]

I've never had much luck with bluetooth, except for connecting keyboards and mice and a trackpad.

According to my geek wizard mates there are problems with the fundamental structure of bluetooth (something to do with the "Stack" i'm told)
I was once at a gig at STEIM in Amsterdam where someone was using multiple Wii controllers to mangle sounds, before they could start everyone in the venue had to turn off all the bluetooth devices they had so that the Wii controllers could be reliably "paired"

There is, apparently, a NEW bluetooth spec that is supposed to be reliable but i'm not holding my breath
What's wrong with leads anyway?

[Stunsworth]

Looking at the prices - £19 for the headphones, £9 for the speakers - I don't think you're going to get very good sound quality. However at those price it may be worth a punt just in case.

The headphones should work with your Mac provided it had Bluetooth built into it (or you use a dongle).

[Don Petter]

These may not be quite such a bargain, though little enough, in that what seem to be similar Silvercrest speakers can be had for £5.99 or so, post free, from eBay sellers:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WIRELESS-PORTABLE-BLUETOOTH-MINI-SPEAKERS-SPEAKER-FOR-IPHONE-IPAD-MP3-MIC-/151258663201?pt=UK_MP3_Player_Accessories_AudioDocks_Speakers&hash=item2337b80921

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BLUETOOTH-WIRELESS-MINI-PORTABLE-SPEAKER-SPEAKERS-FOR-MOBILE-PHONE-IPHONE-IPAD/400748099941?_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131017132637%26meid%3Dfeab962d7b444dd9adb8f2fa09881eba%26pid%3D100033%26prg%3D20131017132637%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D4%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D151258663201

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BLUETOOTH-WIRELESS-MINI-PORTABLE-SPEAKER-SPEAKERS-FOR-IPHONE-IPAD-MP3-Rechargble/300939455562?_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131017132637%26meid%3Dfeab962d7b444dd9adb8f2fa09881eba%26pid%3D100033%26prg%3D20131017132637%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D4%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D151258663201

[Dave2002]

According to my geek wizard mates there are problems with the fundamental structure of bluetooth (something to do with the "Stack" i'm told)
I was once at a gig at STEIM in Amsterdam where someone was using multiple Wii controllers to mangle sounds, before they could start everyone in the venue had to turn off all the bluetooth devices they had so that the Wii controllers could be reliably "paired"

There is, apparently, a NEW bluetooth spec that is supposed to be reliable but i'm not holding my breath
What's wrong with leads anyway?

I found various reports of headphones which might be similar, though the specs do seem slightly different.

I also found this comment from the manual available at http://www.lidl-service.com/cps/rde/...phones&count=1

If your playback device supports the Bluetooth® profile A2DP, you can also transfer music wirelessly to your headphones. To be able to remotely control the playback device with the headphones, it must also support the AVRCP profile.

Personally I have no idea what A2DP or AVRCP are - so if I give these a go, I'll just have to "suck it and see"! I think many people will be in the same situation.

In case I've not answered the query about leads already, have you never dragged anything off a shelf, or "ripped" your phones off your ears because something happened requiring you to move in a hurry, and you forgot that you were wearing them?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

What's wrong with leads anyway?

Quite so. They're much more reliable.

[Dave2002]

Re the USB turntable, I found the manual for that too - http://www.lidl-service.com/cps/rde/...ecord%20Player

From the instructions, and also the specifications, it looks as though the recording is to 192 kbps mp3 at best. It may be that this is good enough for many LPs, particularly if bought from charity shops, though I suspect that this is not good enough for a really good LP played on a high quality turntable - which this one probably isn't.

Worth a punt anyway? I don't know, though a while back I was asked by someone else if one of her cherished LPs could be converted to digital format. While I might not put some of my LPs on this USB deck, some people have already played their vinyls on rather inferior equipment, and I don't expect this unit would make things much worse assuming the stylus is OK. It could be worth buying for that, and similar jobs.

Also - a very quick aside re vinyl playback - I recently visited someone who has a Juke Box in her house, and a lot of oldish 45s. I have to say that the sound was really quite good - which surprised me, as I doubt that the discs are given much attention.


From the instructions for the USB deck:

♦ Press the button REC  . On the display 128 KBPS is indicated. Select with the buttons I◂◂  or ▸▸I  the desired setting.
Selection options: 64, 128 or 192.

Specification
Motor and turntable
Motor Direct current-Servomotor
Drive system Belt drive
Speeds 33 1⁄3, 45, 78 Rev/min
Flutter less than 0,35 % (WRMS)
Signal to noise ratio more than 50 dB
Needle
AT-3600L
Loudspeakers Impedance 8Ω
Load-bearing capacity
max. 3W
Amplifier
Output power
2.0 W + 2.0 W
Frequency response
60 Hz ... 20 kHz
Radio
Frequency range
87,5 - 108
MHz
USB data carrier / Memory card
Max. power output USB port 200 mA
max. storage capacity
8 GB
Playable File Formats WMA, MP3
Recording format MP3
Compression rate when recording
64, 128 or 192 kBit/s

Why manufacturers keep on putting trashy FM into units like this beats me - though this one might be OK - I shouldn't pre judge it. Presumably the circuits are dead cheap, and they think that users would like more features. Cheap FM sets are usually totally rubbish. The same applies to some cheapish DAB sets, which have FM included perhaps for compatibility, but while the DAB is sometimes OK, the FM is often really poor.

[Dave2002]

Quite so. They're much more reliable.

They reliably don't work if the leads are strained, and the connections come off inside the plugs.

Otherwise I agree with you - perhaps from a quality point of view as much as anything else. However the newer wireless headphones, which I've never yet tried, may be OK.

I had a pair of infra red/FM headphones once - and my main gripe with them was that the quality via FM was really not good enough. Also, with infra red, line of sight issues were a problem. The newer Bluetooth kits may be a lot better than that, and hopefully they use some form of proper digital communication, not a poor analogue method - not all analogue approaches are poor, but FM for wireless local communications often is.

[Radio64]

I've got a nice bluetooth stereo speakers block thing which I got for Christmas about three years ago. Can't remember the make but works fine and gives a good chunky sound, when coupled with theotherwise tinny mobile phone speaker (when listening to Clemmy on R3..).

[Dave2002]

I've got a nice bluetooth stereo speakers block thing which I got for Christmas about three years ago. Can't remember the make but works fine and gives a good chunky sound, when coupled with theotherwise tinny mobile phone speaker (when listening to Clemmy on R3..).

I hadn't realised it - this technology stuff is going ahead of me - but the Lidl Bluetooth speaker currently on offer for under a tenner also works as a hand-free unit when coupled to a mobile phone - http://www.lidl-service.com/cps/rde/...Mini%20Speaker

Not stereo though I think - and I don't know if a pair could be made to work in stereo mode - which may be an issue with many Bluetooth speakers.

[Radio64]

I hadn't realised it - this technology stuff is going ahead of me - but the Lidl Bluetooth speaker currently on offer for under a tenner also works as a hand-free unit when coupled to a mobile phone - http://www.lidl-service.com/cps/rde/...Mini%20Speaker

Not stereo though I think - and I don't know if a pair could be made to work in stereo mode - which may be an issue with many Bluetooth speakers.

Oh yes those are quite popular now as they give a fairly good sound, albeit mono (daughter has one for coupling to i-ph*ne)

This is the top of the range kinda thing .. the ones I have are somewhere in between

http://hopscotchtheglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Sony-Wireless-Bluetooth-Speaker.jpg

[Don Petter]

Oh yes those are quite popular now as they give a fairly good sound, albeit mono (daughter has one for coupling to i-ph*ne)

This is the top of the range kinda thing .. the ones I have are somewhere in between
http://hopscotchtheglobe.com/wp-cont...th-Speaker.jpg

In response to this thread I put 'Lidl Thursday' in my diary, but then, as so often, got on a trail of internet research. The first fruits (see #7) were that you could get a similar Bluetooth speaker for less that Lidl's price on-line. Then I browsed around and found what seemed a maybe better made item, with good Amazon reviews, for £13.99, delivery free:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00JK6MQEI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

I've ordered one and await its arrival.

Will report in due course.