Bluetooth 2.0 A2DP AVRCP Stereo Music Receiver and Handsfree

- You can pick it up from dealextreme for around $13 shipped
- So the idea behind this device is you can use your own headphones or really any audio device that accepts a standard 1/8" headphone jack.
- It charges with a little usb cable through the same headphone jack.
- Battery life is rather poor at around 3 - 4 hrs max so there is no way you can make it through an entire work day. I had bought two so I could just swap between them.
- You'll still have a short wire from your wired headphones to the bluetooth receiver. I would just slip the BT receiver into my pocket. It's really tiny.
- With the proper audio adapters (say 1/8" mini stereo -> L/R composite rca) you could hook one of these BT receivers up to say your home theater receiver and beam music across the room. It's a rather handy and flexible device.
- Paired just fine with my maxfun transmitter which I used with my iphone 3g (this is before os 3.0 release).
- Sound quality is pretty good with just a bit of hiss but isn't really noticeable when music is playing.
- It has your usual controls and a built in mic which I didn't bother testing.
- It worked quite well for about 2 weeks and then all of a sudden BOTH of my units would no longer charge (I tried usb hubs, plugging into a pc, etc, nothing!). Also, the sound quality all of a sudden went horribly bad. It almost sounded like mono, all the voices were quiet and distorted. It basically sounded like you were underwater.
- So I began the rma process with dealextreme. To my suprise they have a facitilty in the US that handles returns and exchanges. If it is within 30 days they pay shipping both ways. Unfortunately as with everything about dealextreme response times are slow. It took them over a week to get back to me and by the time my rma for exchange was all setup 30 days had passed. So basically I'm out $8 shipping to them and then another $4 to ship the replacements to me. Basically I just paid for another unit.
- I'll give these one last chance but if they break in to the trash they go!

The price is right, the sound quality was pretty good, the battery life kind of sucked, and quality control is horrible. I really can't recommend wasting money on something that breaks so easily unless I just got really really unlucky (having both units die at the same time in the same way). I'll report back when I get my replacement units.

UPDATE: 7/9/09
- Just received my two replacement units and they seem to be working well so far. So I can say the deal extreme support experience works and goes pretty smoothly but just takes quite a bit of patience.