- Mark as New
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Permalink
- Email to a Friend
- Report Inappropriate Content
SoundSport Free Lag
I have seen a lot of posts about audio/video synch and audio lag issues with the new BOSE SoundSport Free earbuds.
Up front, the problem is still present in our set after verifying current firmware, and going through a complete replacment with BOSE Customer Service.
To discribe the issue, when you are watching certain videos, the audio lags/leads the video about 1-2 seconds. Note that I say "certain videos" because this issue doesn't occur under all situations. It's seems like the process which determines how much to delay the video isn't occuring in some cases or is updating incorrectly. From what I have been told, the audio leaves the device, goes to one earbud, and then is relayed to the second earbud. The system is timed such that you see/hear a consistent presentation if it's working correctly. Below I will detail what we've seen, what we've tried, and where we are today in a hope to drive BOSE to a solution for this problem.
The first set of SoundSport Free headphones arrived with an older version of firmware, which were were told by the BOSE Store in Arlington, VA, was known to have the audio/video synch issue. Using the earbuds with an iPhone X, we updated the firmware using the BOSE Connect App. The problem appeared to go away, but then resurfaced in less than an hour. In hindsight, it seems to be related to switching between audio / video sources on the phone, and the earbuds not adjusting to the change. After extensive troubleshooting over the phone, BOSE replaced the set with a new set manufactured in late Dec 2017. This set came with the new firmware, but exhibited different but related behavior than the previous set.
First, the audio and video from apps and web content were in synch for VIMEO, Twitter, TV App, Amazon Prime, and NETFLIX. The only offending source was YouTube (Both from the YouTube App and from the YouTube.com website using the web browser - Safari).
Second, I was directed to verify the firmware was up to date by the BOSE Connect App and also via btu.bose.com (web/app) services on my computer. After confirming a I had the correct firmware, I was directed to unpair and repair the SoundSport Free with no improvement. BOSE is now offering to replace the earbuds again.
Last, to check if there might be an issue with the device, or that the issue may be restrieced to the YouTube App or YouTube service regardless of bluetooth device, we tried a full set of pairing using two iPhone X's and an iPad Mini 4 (3 iOS devices running 11.2.4) and the BOSE SoundSport Free, BOSE AE2 Wireless, BOSE SoundLink, Beats Solo, Apple AirPods, and Toyota Entune bluetooth services (6 bluetooth devices) with only the SoundSport Free experiencing the problem, and only with YouTube videos from the YouTube App or YouTube website. Note: YouTube videos uploaded to Twitter and then viewed through the Twitter app did not experience audio / video synch issues, but similar videos uploaded to Facebook did exhibit the problem.
I will likely return the second set to BOSE SoundSport Free earbuds later this week in hope that they will find a solution.
I hope this helps someone else experiencing this or similar issues with this AWESOME sound quality earbuds.