The BTA-830 gateway connects to your host PC or MP3 player via a 3.5mm jack which is nicely built into the main disc shaped unit. Power is provided by an internal rechargeable battery which is good for around 100 hours of replay, it is charged by USB and a small rubber cap covers the mini USB socket into which the supplied lead plugs and then connects to a suitably equipped PC or via the supplied power adaptor.

The other end of the system is the BTH-820 which is a small receiver unit which is no bigger than a cigarette lighter, it has a socket for headphones (there is a set supplied as part of the package) plus basic controls for volume and also playback. Getting the 2 parts of this Bluetooth audio system to work together requires them to be paired. This is a simple process which just requires to power button to be held down until the blue lights on each device flash red and blue, they then seek out each other and pair.

Once paired it was time for us to start testing, first up we hooked the BTA-830 to an iPod and used the supplied headphones in the BTH-820. The audio is certainly loud enough and was relatively free form hiss and other artefacts you may expect with an RF (Radio Frequency) system, audio quality did however seem a little lacking, the normal bass weight of the iPod seemed to have vanished and the sound was now more tinny and hollow a bit like an FM radio rather than an MP3 player.

This loss of audio reproduction quality was a surprise as the Bluetooth standard should allow for 1mbit of data to be sent which is more than adequate for the full range. We went on to test if the distance from the iPod made any difference, we found that even at the full 10 meters range the replay was the same quality and in good digital tradition the signal was either on or off.

While we were not overly excited by the audio quality the BTA-830 / BTH-820 combination proved very reliable and when used with a set of Shure E2c's the result was acceptable. Another trick that the Globalsat system has going for it, is that the headset adaptor can be paired with any Bluetooth device like a mobile phone. We were therefore able to connect the headset to a Motorola V600 and use the set-up as a hands free kit, this also made a bit of sense of why the supplied headset lead is so short, its designed to keep the inbuilt microphone closer to your mouth. So although we managed to make a call it was a bit of a conflict between using a proper set of headphones and having the unit on a belt or using it hands free and needing the unit clamped to your chest.

Overall Globalsat have produced an interesting system which clearly shows that Bluetooth could be a worthy way of extending your MP3 player and going wire free, our only words of caution are not to expect a HiFi quality audio reproduction from the BTH-820. Availability of the Globalsat kit in the UK is scarce which is a shame, the price in dollars for both the BTA-820 and BTH-820 is around $100.

Published - 29/12/2005

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