Using Wireless Headphones with PowerPC machines

[vddrnnr]

Hi all,

I tried to use bluetooth headphones but using bluetooth for
sound seems to tax the CPU a bit. Have you tried it?

I've recently started using a Jabra headset which has a special usb dongle
that acts like an usb sound card recognised by the system without any special drivers.
As far as I can see it does not seem to have a detectable CPU usage effect.
I'm leaving the reference here if someone wants to look into it.
It's a Jabra Evolve 75 headset ( Headphones and Mic ).
Sound quality is "quite" good and it charges through USB.
You'll need another machine with MacOS High Sierra or Windows
to be able to use Jabra's App for updating if required no other
actions are required.
The usb dongle can be switched between machines with no pairing
required it will just work.

Best regards,
voidRunner

 

[Project Alice]

I have used a generic set of BT headphones on my old iBook G4 in the past. I generally don't use BT for audio at all though as it degrades the quality. I'd imagine the set that you have has a much higher bitrate than the built in BT module though. I've always been curious if AirPods (I don't own a pair) would work on a PPC. To me, a BT audio device is a BT audio device, and they should work on even Windows. Unless Apple put some sort of block in the firmware...

Edit: spelling. (Thanks for nothing, iOS).

 

[Amethyst1]

I've always been curios if AirPods (I don't own a pair) would work on a PPC.

This instills some hope.

 

[Alex771]

I've always been curious if AirPods (I don't own a pair) would work on a PPC.

Me too. It looks like there are only two threads in the PowerPC Macs forum that address Bluetooth connections to AirPods. I'd like to pick up this thread to ask how AirPods Max (or other AirPods for that matter) could be connected to a PowerBook G4.

I like the idea of watching DVDs on my PowerBook A1138 with AirPods Max.

The A1138 with Bluetooth 2.0 connects to my JBL speakers with Bluetooth 3.0 just fine. It does not, however, connect to AirPods Max or AirPods 2.

To me, a BT audio device is a BT audio device, and they should work on even Windows. Unless Apple put some sort of block in the firmware...

There seems to be a limitation built into the AirPods. This is not a Bluetooth issue. Hrutkay Mods demonstrates the failed connection attempt very well in this video.

A solution I consider is a USB DAC that can transmit Bluetooth, like the FiiO BTA30 Pro.

Before I buy this, I have an audio-specific question:

Let's say one Bluetooth transmitter costs 200 USD, and the other 40 USDT. One might think that Bluetooth from the expensive device is better. But isn't Bluetooth just a technology to transport data? There are various codecs and all a device can do is process these codecs and transmit the data, correct?

I believe the acoustic quality depends on the speakers, and not on the transmitting device. I don't want to make the mistake of buying a more exensive DAC when it can't do a different job of sending data, compared to a tiny USB dongle. What do you think?