Bose Soundsport wireless headset cuts in & out with Garmin 645 Music.

[EJWash]

Bought a Bose Soundsport wireless Bluetooth headset. Synced it with my Garmin 534 Music watch. Worked great when tested. Then, went for a run. The music was choppy, skipping in and out. Re-synced. Same problem. Then, I noticed that when I raised my arms, the skipping stopped. It hit me; I was wearing my watch on my eft wrist (I'm left-handed) and I'm guessing that the receiver on the headset is on the right. I removed the watch and put it in the right pocket of my running shorts. No skipping go the music. So, the Soundsport is for right-handed folks? Is there a remedy? And no, don't respond to simply place my watch on my right wrist. Switch your right shoe with your left, and get back to me with how that makes you feel.

[Keith_L]

Hello EJWash,

Thank you for posting and welcome to the community. I'm sorry to hear you are having trouble with the Bluetooth connection to your Garmin watch and would be happy to help with this.

You are correct that the Bluetooth receiver on the headset is in the right ear. The flow of audio is source device > right earbud > left earbud. So the point of contact fro the watch to the earbuds will be on the right ear.

As you have found yourself by troubleshooting, The human body can act as a source of interference for Bluetooth and radio signals. By having the source closer to the product, in your case your front pocket, we can reduce the potential for “body-block” interference.

There are however still some steps we can try to improve the connection with your Garmin watch. The first thing I would recommend we do is to check for and install any updates for the headset. You can do this by going to our Device Updater on a computer and following the on-screen instructions.

After the update, if we are still having any issues, I would also recommend that we reset the headset. To do this we need to:

• Place your earbuds in the charging case
• Connect the charging case to a wall outlet using a USB charger, then wait five seconds
• Disconnect the USB cable from the charging case, then wait one minute
• Remove your earbuds from the case and test.

I hope this helps clarify things for you. Let us know how you get on with those steps as well.

Kind Regards,

Keith L - Community Support

[EJWash]

Thanks, Keith.

So, "body-block" is a known problem? Nice. Wish I had performed more research BEFORE buying these, instead of trusting Bose Marketing. Surely in testing a headset that is marketed for exercise/physical activity, motion and proximity of the headset/device (wrist watch) came up. Guess installing an antenna on BOTH earbuds would have been the solution, rather than ignoring the left-handed consumer?

My headset did not come with a charging case. After unpacking it, I charged it using the (included) USB charging cord plugged into the port on the right ear bud.

If the remedies that you recommend do NOT work, can I return this headset for a refund?

[Keith_L]

Hi Ejwash,

Body-block isn't an issue particular to any brand or design of headphones. It can be present with any Bluetooth connection. The interference from a body can occur with any wireless signal that is being broadcasted through or near a body.

I do apologize for any confusion, but I do think I misread and thought we were dealing with a pair of SoundSport Free headphones rather than the SoundSport wireless. These do work slightly differently and as such would not have a charging case.  The antenna would still on the right-hand side, but the connection between the bud would be wired rather than wireless.

To reset these headphones, what we would need to do is:

• Power off your headset, then wait 30 seconds
• Connect your product to a wall outlet using a USB charger, then wait five seconds
• Disconnect the USB cable from the headset, then wait one minute
• Power on your headset.

Let me know if this reset or the update improve your connection.

Kind Regards,

Keith L

[EJWash]

Overall, a hit-and-miss on the solution. I'm pretty disappointed. The cutouts are more intermittent than when I first posted, but continue.

I even updated my watch's software, so that step has been covered.

[Keith_L]

Hello EJWash,

Thank you for the update. I'm glad we've got some improvement to the connection but there are a couple more steps we can try to improve it further.

Updating the watches software is a great step, so thank you for doing that. What we can also do is update the firmware on the headphones themselves.

You can do this with our Device Updater on a computer, by following the on-screen instructions.

It would also be worth us clearing the pairing between the headphones and the watch and reconnecting if we are still having issues after the update. To do this we need to turn off the headphones, then press and hold the power/Bluetooth button for 10 seconds.

Let me know how you get on with this.

Kind Regards,

Keith L

[EJWash]

Thanks Keith.

I updated the headphone's software to version 3.0.4 upon our initial chat, and still experienced the cutout. My watch is up to date, software-wise as well.

Even though 2-years old, here's an article that helps understand what's happening:

https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/audio/a14105176/bluetooth-headphones-problems/

One solution would be if Bose would make the earbuds with an antenna in each bud, instead of just the right side, or, if the headset were ambidextrous (Master Bud could be used in the left ear, as well as the right).

The sound quality is Bose - no complaint there.

[Keith_L]

Hi EJWash,

Thank you for trying that as well.

That article you have linked does explain what is happening really well. As you can see from there it is something that is related to how the Bluetooth technology works, so it may be we are not able to completely remove the cutout at this time through troubleshooting, even though we have managed to improve the connection already.

I will definitely pass along your feedback to our design team about making the earbuds ambidextrous, so the signal could be received from either side. I'm sure it's something that would be helpful for a fair few users so I'll see if that could be something we are working on already, or might be able to add going forward.

I would like to open this up to the community as well though, to see if anyone else has any workarounds other than switching the wrist the watch is on.

Kind Regards,

Keith L