ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
To update BeoPlay A2 and Beolit 15 you will need a mini USB cable.And for BeoPlay H7 and H8 you will need a micro USB cable.
I´ll update both my BeoLit 15 and my H8´s later today, woho!
Beolab 50, Beolab 8000 x 2, Beolab 4000 x 2, BeoSound Core, BeoSound 9000, BeoSound Century, BeoLit 15, BeoPlay A1, BeoPlay P2, BeoPlay H9 3rd Gen, BeoPlay H6, EarSet 3i, BeoVision Eclipse Gen 2 55", BeoPlay V1-40, BeoCom 6000 and so much else :)
Official Beoplay H8
Thibault: Wake up kids! B&O just released a software update for the H8!!! Can't wait to try it. http://www.beoplay.com/support/product-support/support-beoplay-h8
Wake up kids! B&O just released a software update for the H8!!! Can't wait to try it.
http://www.beoplay.com/support/product-support/support-beoplay-h8
Thanks for bringing the update to our attention.
The update tool says that the new software provides:
Still, I was hoping it might also provide some improvement to the bluetooth drop out issues, but having updated my H8s and ventured out for some testing I unfortunately have to report there is no improvement
Martin.
riverstyx: Still, I was hoping it might also provide some improvement to the bluetooth drop out issues, but having updated my H8s and ventured out for some testing I unfortunately have to report there is no improvement Martin.
That is disappointing. I noticed that the bluetooth radio sounds are still persistent as well. This is an engineering fail. Can't understand how it passed by to production. The bluetooth radio should be isolated from the audio parts of the electronics. Now there is so much interference audible as light and annoying sounds in the headphones. (a bit like GSM-noise when you put a cell phone close to a speaker). The problem with drop out must be related to poor antenna design and/or weak buffer/cpu. This means there's two hardware design faults on H8 that I imagine is impossible to solve in software. A revised hardware is probably a must, I wonder how B&O will solve this, if they will solve this. I haven't tried the H7 yet but perhaps they are better, with a revised design. What worry me most is if B&O just decides to ignore the issue..I noticed that the firmware went from 2.58 to 8.02 on my H8´s (and that the serial number over USB is ABCDEF0123456789, same on my Beolit 15). I also updated the firmware on my BeoLit 15 that also had firmware 2.58, which my computer still tells me that it has, but according to the app it is updated to 8.11, strange :).
danielh: Downloaded and installed. Will do some testing later today and hope its better now :)
Downloaded and installed. Will do some testing later today and hope its better now :)
Finally, folks. Range isn't the best but ~20' from the laptop and no cut outs which is a SIGNIFICANT improvement over original firmware. Beware, though, plausible deniability at work: On the page where the "fixes" are enumerated, there's absolutely NO mention of the Bluetooth connectivity improvement. In fact, the two items listed there seem lame to me.
These phones now work as they probably should have. The imbeciles at the "boutique" in Boston wanted nothing to do with these or me and offered a refund. Imagine that? I can--that's what you get when the shops are independently owned and there's no accountability to the corporate entity. I guess the Danes don't get how their brand is tarnished by stupid franchisees. Worse, Beocare went dark very early on but not before citing a very obscure entry on the product's FAQ page where there was no guarantee of compatibility with any type of equipment. Shame on you B&O. But I guess it pales compared to the debacle with VW diesels ;-)
I just got my second pair, the first one had an extremely high frequent noise when turning on NC (sometimes, not all the time) And after a few hours playing from the new one the same noise occurred..Does anyone else have this problem at all? Find it weird that it happens to me twice, when no-one else is mentioning this!? Bluetooth range has never been a problem, booth from my MBP15 (2012) or my iP6S
I also get an occasional very high frequency noise when NC is on but not related to the act of turning it on. Not very often and short-lived but still annoying given the price of the headphones. It has occurred since the software update.
Following the update occasional dropouts have occurred but better than previously.
"You think we can slap some oak on this thing?"
leosgonewild:Been waiting for this update to fix the Bluetooth issues. But they are still there. Guess I will have to return them 😕
Hi Leo,
I'm in exactly the same position. I had authorisation from beocare to send them back for exchange ages ago, but decided to wait as there didn't seem much point in exchanging them until they'd found a fix as reports here seemed to indicate the replacements people were receiving had the same problem.
Given there has now been a firmware update, and the problem still isn't resolved for me, I think it is time to try sending them back and trying a new pair.
leosgonewild:Would be nice to know if they fixed it on the H7...
During my initial testing of the H7s in store, range seemed good, but I really need to take them outdoors to be sure as my H8s work okay indoors for the most part (I suspect because of the reflections from the walls of the room). Like Geoff said in his presentation regarding the BL90s, 90% of what you hear is the room, and I suspect it is very similar with regard to the bluetooth signal reaching the H8s antenna.
Outdoors I have to hold my phone in my right hand or I get dropouts with my H8s, and if I put my phone in my left rear trouser pocket, the dropouts are so severe that for every second of playback time, I get more silence than audio.
I'll ask if I can take the demo pair of H7s out for a walk next time I'm in my local store - they know me well enough to know I'm not going to do a disappearing act so I'm sure this will be fine
In the meantime I'm going to contact beocare again and sort out getting my H8s replaced.
Same here leo and riverstyx: I have experienced the same bluetooth issues. Replacing my headset did not change anything for me. I went back to ask for an additional replacement a few days after the first replacement but the sales people at B&O Madison Ave. in NYC would not exchange my H8, saying the problem came from my device. I told them I had experienced bluetooth issues with my laptop, my girlfriend's laptop, my iPad, at least 5 different iPhones I tried with my H8 and they offered to send my H8 for repair. The whole process would have taken a month – yeah right, I paid $500 for headphones I won't be able to use for a month. I just left the store swearing this was my last B&O product.
I never experienced the high frequency noise described by some people on this page. Just bluetooth radio high pitched noise when the headphones are trying to pair with devices.
Good luck to you all :(
Same issue here Michael
Same issue here. Looks like they have removed multipoint.
I have used it a little bit after the update, but only at home. No special problems. Less noise from NC when active and no music playing. So it`s getting better, but not as good as it should have been considering the price.
So no discernible improvement in the drop-outs, but they've removed a feature? Nice work, B&O!
Hi Folks!
My first post... I've owned B&O A8 earphones in the past - they were superb, but got pushed-aside when I got my first pair of BT headphones, Sennheiser MM450's...
Since that time, around four years ago, I've been through pretty much every high-end BT headphone, looking for a decent product: sounds great, looks great, decent battery life, good sound isolation, ANC, Apt-X and AAC - cost isn't a massive factor, but I expect to get what I pay for.
So, you can imagine that I was pretty excited to hear about the H8's - listened to them briefly at a dealer (compared to H7's), then finally got hold of a pair yesterday...
Yes, they sound amazing! Yes, they're pretty comfortable! Yes, the have a good sounds-stage, noise floor, amazing seperation, deep (but not too much) bass, tight mids and shimmering (if a little sibilant) trebble! Yes, you can hear your feet a bit when walking, but not that much worse than the competition (this alone made Parrot Zik's unusable).
But what's this? I put my iPhone in my pocket and the signal breaks-up, especially when walking. I mean really breaks-up, so much so that the headphones crash after a while. Even holding in my hand causes problems if it's not the right angle. Even having my phone on a table a couple of metres away can screw-it-up...
Imagine my surprise and shock to come to this forum and see others with exactly the same symptoms. Imagine further, if you would, my disappointment that this issue isn't being rapidly addressed.
I was ready to have a love affair with B&0 - I had my eyes on a couple of A9's - hell, my wife's even Danish and thoroughly approved. But I've severe reservation at this moment.
So now I'm faced with returning the H8's for a refund, which I'm loth to do as in all other respects they're nearly perfect. I have written to B&O.
I assume you get used to the touch-panel - I try an change the volume and keep pausing. Oh, the ANC kills the sound too, but did a great job in the Metro today, you just need to whack the volume up a bit.
Cheers...!
Welcome to the forum! :)
Yes, I do understand your disappointment. I was eagerly waiting for H8 release as I really need BT wireless headphones. And yes, all great sonic attributes are in vain if it fails to deliver on fundamental feature: wireless connection.
So I still wait for the fix or MkII or whatever comes - if anything - to shell out 499 EUR finally.
On the positive side, I own A9Mk2 and I love it. Don't give up on A9 because of experience with H8. :)
Hi Folks - me again, second post
I think I bring good news... I just installed the firmware update - 8.0.2, I think it was - and it *appears* to have dramatically diminished the cutting-out.
I say "appears" because I'm wearing different trousers than yesterday, they have a tighter front pocket and this might have a bearing on the problem.
Right now - I can initiate the signal break-up if I put my iPhone behind me and press against my lower back, but most BT headphones struggle with this as the signal doesn't pass through body-tissue very well.
At lunchtime I'll go for a walk and report-back later.
Cautiously optimistic!
OK, an update... The cutting-out issue is not resolved, but I would say that it's dramatically improved. However, I still want to try it out at home with the same pair of jeans.
It's my perception, also, that the connection is generally far more stable. The headphones bond to the iPhone better and don't crash the way they did.
So heading in the right direction, if not yet perfect.
I can't confirm that. no improvement on listening on an iPhone. listening to music via Bluetooth over Mac even got worse. also they removed a feature. now I can't stay connected to my phone and notebook at the same time. I'm very upset with this firmware upgrade or should I say downgrade?
My impressions:• Still cuts out, hard to say if it is less than before. Depends to much on the environment and what is in the environment at _that_ time.• Takes longer to power on and establish bluetooth connection.• It doesn't make the same sound feed back, just one beep now?• Used them a few days ago and the battery just ran out, no audio feedback before as it was earlier. (Used with my Mac, so no battery indicator over bluetooth there).• They seem to hang less often on power on, but they can "crash" during use (happened once after the update).• I have to disconnect and try to manually connect to get them over from iPhone to Mac and vice versa. VERY annoying. Wasn't like that before. • Sound quality is the same I think, but ANC works better, especially walking outside. Less clicks when I walk, so now I can for the first time use ANC while walking, even in light wind. So this is a good thing at least!
Yes, agreed that the ANC behaves better for the walking noise - it's still there, but much less.
I also noticed that the headphones pick up very little wind-noise compared to the ones I've tried in the past (most brands except Bose, they suck)
Note that I'm listening now with my iPhone on my desk with a thick fleece, Kindle, rucksack full of junk and MacBook Pro and no cut outs...
However, if I sit on my iPhone then the signal is lost totally
OK, after a weekend of testing and then today with the same jeans, it's actually no better, no change at all in fact.
So having the iPhone in my jeans pocket - not a particularly tight fit - and it cuts-out all the time. If I wear some baggy flight or combat trousers then it's fine.
I can only guess that the antenna in the headphones is incredibly weak and as soon as the signal strength drops below 100% it cannot cope.
I tried with a Sennheiser BT transmitter, using Apt-X, and it was the same experience.
However, I do like the headhones very much otherwise and I was lucky to get them for a good price, so I'm going to keep them in the hope that B&0 come up with something...
I have had my H8's since April this year and I have had drop out issues with my old Moto G phone all the time it was unusable. I got myself an iPod Nano and it was fine, worked flawlessly. The ionly issue I had was they would disconect once after around half an hour of use, I simply switched them off and back on again and they worked perfectly. No signal loss, unless i put my hand in my pocket where the iPod was located. I can have them in any pocket, tight or loose and no dropouts at all.
I then got myslef an iPhone 6s Plus and all worked perfectly. Same disconect issue as with iPod, but no dropouts and can have the iPhone anywhere I want on me.
After software upgrade they now switch to bluetooth much faster and litererally straight away. Still the same disconection issue, but I can#t simply turn them off and on for re-connection as I used to, I now have to go into the phone settings and manually re-connect and also I find if i turn on my H*'s first into BT mode before enabling BT on my iPhone they don't auto connect, I have to make sure Ii turn on BT on the iPhone brefore switching on BT on the H8's, otherwise they don't connect unless i manually connect on the iPhone.
I am happy with them and they are extremely comfortable now as I have broken them in, they were a little snug when i first got them, but like a good pair of shoes they needed breaking in to make them wearable all day.
I get the impression that behaviour varies from headphone to headphone, but for sure they are supremely comfortable!
I wrote to B&O customer services and although it took a while, I got the following response:
"We are aware of a Bluetooth issue on a small amount of our BeoPlay H8 headphones. Until now we have not been able to locate the entire amount of headphones with this issue. We have our technical team working on a solution to this issue at the moment, but I can not promise you when a solution will be available. So far we have had great experiences from replacing the BeoPlay H8 models with Bluetooth issues, and therefore I would like to offer you the same. However I can not promise you that the replacement pair of BeoPlay H8 will not have the same problem."
I have now created a ticket to return the items - they will collect next week and, I assume, send me a replacement pair. I guess the down-side is that I'll be without the headphones for some days or weeks...
Will keep you all informed, but seems to me that here B&O have been open and correct in how they've responded; which is what I'd expect from a premium brand.
Would it be possible to use H7 ear pads on the H8?
k3wt: Would it be possible to use H7 ear pads on the H8?
Hi k3wt,
No, they are not interchangeable, I tried this on a pair in store a while ago.
Kind Regards,
Thanks Martin
I have a few other questions, could some more experienced users please confirm whether the below is normal and if there are any developments or fixes.
1- Why the headphones don't automatically connect when both my Bluetooth is turned on, on my phone and my headphones.
2- The sound output is distinctly different and muted when ANC is on and there is more white noise.
3- Why audio and video playback has a significant lip sync delay.
4- Would B&O be kind enough to give me an in line volume and playback cable - because the lip sync is so disastrous. Has anybody been able to get one?
Many thanks and Merry Christmas!
k3wt:1- Why the headphones don't automatically connect when both my Bluetooth is turned on, on my phone and my headphones.
Leo is right, hold the switch in it's sprung position for a second or two then release. My phone connects automatically once I've done this so I presume this makes the headphones 'discoverable'.
k3wt:2- The sound output is distinctly different and muted when ANC is on and there is more white noise.
I don't experience much difference in overall level between ANC off and ANC on, but there is a definite change in tone with the bass output being reduced when ANC is turned on. I can hear a low level of white noise with ANC turned on but it is very quiet so I've never considered it an issue (it's much less obvious that any low frequency background noise, and if there was no background noise I would listen with ANC turned off anyway).
k3wt:3- Why audio and video playback has a significant lip sync delay.
I can watch video on my phone whilst using the H8's in bluetooth mode without any noticeable delay / lip sync issues.
I have experienced some lip sync issues whist using my laptop but that has an older (integrated) bluetooth module which only supports bluetooth v2.0. so that is really to be expected (and I just adjust the audio video sync in the video player software to correct it accordingly).
What device are you using with your H8s for video playback?
k3wt:4- Would B&O be kind enough to give me an in line volume and playback cable - because the lip sync is so disastrous. Has anybody been able to get one?
I guess the H6 cable would work and is available to purchase on the beoplay website. Only the iOS version has volume control buttons though so if you're connecting to something other than an apple device then you'll probably need to look for a third party cable.
Kind regards,
Thanks for that.
Regarding the lip sync I have been using my iPhone 6 plus and ipad air. I have been trying to stream iplayer or news, tried to watch videos on apple videos app, YouTube, and VLC player. Sometimes it's very slight but nonetheless it is still noticeable. On other occasions it's unwatchable!
Can somebody please post a screen capture of the headphones battery indicator?
Thanks in advance
k3wt:Can somebody please post a screen capture of the headphones battery indicator?
There's a photo in this thread: http://archivedforum2.beoworld.org/forums/p/17754/154854.aspx
Got H8 christmas. Work very good with my iPhone 6. Today, I was frustrated to have only problems with a brand-new IMAC 5k (every 10s an interruption). Then I started to update the earphones .... a slight improvement .... still frustrated.
Then I entered the following lines into a shell to modify the bluetooth stream:
https://gist.github.com/strathmeyer/4990173
a further reboot of the IMAC and
=> it works perfect with my IMAC 5K now .... up to a distance of 3m.
So in my eyes it is a combination of a weak bluetooth receiver and some unlucky streaming parameters of the IMAC.
Give it a try and Happy New Year!!!
Thank you for that. I have updated my headphones now. Ive played then for over 6 hours and it's still shows a full battery?!
I've also just read this and found it quite interesting :-
http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/bluetooth-4-1-what-is-it-and-why-should-you-care
B&O's website spec shows the H7 to have 4.1 and the H8 to have 4.0 bluetooth. The article said that this could be updated with patches. So does that mean the update I performed may have brought it up to 4.1?
Hi Folks,
Well, seasons greetings to you all, regardless of your beliefs or location.
So, an update... You may remember that I had bought a pair of H8's from Amazon and they exhibited the persistent cutting-out issues that myself and many others have reported. Well good news, I contacted BeoCare online and they suggested that I create a repair ticket. The H8's were collected from hime by UPS and, after inspection by B&O, have been replaced with a new pair; which don't have the issue.
OK, I need to test in-depth, but after listening all afternoon, they seem very stable.
Needless to say, I'm delighted with B&O's customer service here! All I can suggest is that you follow the same route... For the record, I'm in Belgium and the headphones were returned to Denmark.
Best wishes and great listening in 2016, Dave
Lycanthrope: Hi Folks, Well, seasons greetings to you all, regardless of your beliefs or location. So, an update... You may remember that I had bought a pair of H8's from Amazon and they exhibited the persistent cutting-out issues that myself and many others have reported. Well good news, I contacted BeoCare online and they suggested that I create a repair ticket. The H8's were collected from hime by UPS and, after inspection by B&O, have been replaced with a new pair; which don't have the issue. OK, I need to test in-depth, but after listening all afternoon, they seem very stable. Needless to say, I'm delighted with B&O's customer service here! All I can suggest is that you follow the same route... For the record, I'm in Belgium and the headphones were returned to Denmark. Best wishes and great listening in 2016, Dave
Hi there
Well that's good news. Mine have been great, touch wood...
I do get a split second dropout here and there when I'm walking with the phone in my jeans pocket. If this doesn't happen anymore to you I will go through the returns process.
May I ask what your serial number is on your old and new pair? I bought mine just before Christmas and they are numbered 25000250.
Thanks