Best USB Bluetooth host? (range especially)

Ashton

2[H]4U
Joined
Nov 13, 2004
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I know I'm late to the game, but I'm just now starting to get into the voice-chat thing... and my headset's cable is only like 3-feet long, so if I need to so much as turn on/off the lights I need to take it off. However, I have some nice Bluetooth headphones (with mic) that work well... but my desktop doesn't have a Bluetooth host.

So, looking for a good Bluetooth host, preferably USB (I don't even want to think how bad the reception would be from inside the case...), with the best range available. I already checked google and it was mostly showing me 30-feet ranges with little adapters barely larger than the port itself... I'd like to keep it around $50 - $100 (or less...) but I'm flexible if the value is there.
 
Asus BT400 seems to be the best choice that are showing in most Google searches. Better driver support than most of the generic brands and works well with older Win OSes. $22.99 with free shipping on Amazon Prime.
 
I'd recommend getting a headset that uses a proprietary protocol from one of the big 'gaming headset' makers. These come with their own small dongles and are free from the limitations of Bluetooth.
 
Psychonic:
I'll take a look at it, thanks

IdiotInCharge:
I was going to say "but generic Bluetooth can be used for so many other things!" but then I started actually thinking about it... Bluetooth tethering is slower than my internet and shorter than WiFi, Bluetooth file transfer is slower than WiFi/Cable... literally, the more I thought about it the more I realized the ONLY thing that Bluetooth really had going for it was "greater security" (which I question) and its low-energy mode, which is barely applicable in a desktop setting except with mouse/keyboard (and then there's the lag issue with wireless peripherals...). Thanks for making me realize this.

So what it comes down to then is whether a good BT host costs more or less than a good wireless headset... I'm still leaning towards the BT host since I already have half the hardware, but... will see.
 
I'll use it as a last resort and that's really it. It's one assed-up standard.

Which is why gaming peripheral makers have avoided it, quite successfully.
 
Yeah, thinking about it seriously, I mostly only use it on my phone for headphones/headset (and smartwatch) and to connect mouse/keyboard/gamepad because usually, that's easier on the go than trying to use normal USB peripherals... and on rare occasion, I use it on my laptop to connect my bone-conducting headphones or dual-mode USB/bt mouse if I have a very small workspace and/or need the USB ports for something else... (yes both available USB ports are on the right side)

They really dropped the ball on BT - it had such a promising feature set in the beginning but it just did not keep up...

Really wishing now that I'd just used a cheap Chinese BT dongle available for like $1 instead of buying a more expensive one......
 
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