I just bought a bluetooth audio receiver and you should too. It was about $40 (I won't add a link, there are many many different kinds out there).
It is absolute heaven to not be tied to our main house stereo with that damn headphone plug! I can zap audio from my iPod, mobile, any of the lappies and our main sit-down computer. For all that is holy in the world, go buy yourself one, you will not be sorry.
Please do send me a link
Please do send me a link though, because there are so many defenitions of “bluetooth audio receiver” - for cars and what have you. Let me know what you got, so I at least understand the category of bluetooth audio receiver.
This is what I got
The description on ebay is actually really bad but what I got turned out to be better… The link above arrived as a iPod bluetooth system. It had a BT dongle to plug into an ipod (unfortunatly the full-size ipod, not my nano) and a main receiver. Both the dongle and base station will sync with 3rd party items --i.e. the dongle can talk to other receivers and the base station can be talked to by other stuff. As usual, the mac paired up without missing a beat, but I had to fiddle with the PC a little to get a pairing. As I sit now, I simply go into my audio settings and select bluetooth for audio playback and it works friggin’ great! I have already opened up the ipod dongle and it seems I simply have to hack in some power and I now have bluetooth audio from anything with a headphone jack! Hell, maybe I’ll put it on Walter so he can play music through our main stereo!
+1 on that. I got mine from
+1 on that. I got mine from dealextreme:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.8422
Save yourself a few pennies if you don’t mind the wait (takes a couple of weeks for things to get to me in the UK). It supports wireless headset too so you can answer calls using the mic in the headphones it comes with, if it’s paired to your phone. I think it might be possible to sync it separately for headset and stereo audio - it seems to be paired with my phone for headset and my laptop for stereo audio simultaneously.
dito
I also tried to find this and failed. The e-bay auction has ended, so it does not show anymore. All the items I found locally are twice the price you mentioned. That make sme wonder if we are talking about the same thing. The DealExtreme link was only mildly helpful. Thanks though, chench!
Chris, does your TX connect via analogue audio jacks? And the RX? Does it come with a headphone or earbuds? Can the RX be “paired” with other TX, like my bluetooth enabled laptop?
Set-up
The one I got was a “Griffin” brand which in the States seems to be the default ipod accessory people. The one I got is obviously 2 items, RX/TX. The Rx was a little iPod “dongle” which, again, was for the full-size iPods with top-mount connections. This unit can pair with the supplied RX unit as well as any other bluetooth audio reciever -the stereo in my truck found it for example. The conections on this dongle are simply a 4-ring 1/8" headphone jack and a 4-conductor connector that goes into the jack directly next to the headphone jack on the ipod. This 4-conduction connection turns out to be VSS in to the dongle.
The RX unit is about the size of a paperback book. On the back is a simple I/O switch and (2) audio outs in the form of a 1/8 jack and R/L RCA jacks. There is nothing on the front except a single blue LED.
I have paired with this unit using all the lappies in the house as well as my mobile. When connected, it turns into a simple data-pipe --Bluetooth audio in, audio via hard-wire out.
I have found a solid link to what I bought for around 40 quid:
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/bluetrip
