Bluetooth receivers come in various forms and shapes… They “claim” that they support A2DP and AVRCP. So do mobile phones. But not all models of receivers “play nice” with all phones.
In fact, if you read the “fine prints” in the user manual, you might even encounter something like this…

This product *may* work. We don't guarantee anything...!

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So,that doesn’t mean this product didn’t work as expected, but before buying any bluetooth device, try it out first. If none of your friends have the device to test it for, buy it from IT Show or Electronics Fair where they usually have a couple of products to test compatibility. Usually the shop from where you bought will NOT give you a refund if your mobile doesn’t work with the receiver…

Now that doesn’t mean that this device doesn’t work with iPhone. It works fine though I have some complaints. Before buying this device I got a Philips SHB7100 as it had previous and next track buttons separate from volume control button.I should have done a basic search on the Internet. The third link was someone complaining that this thing doesn’t work with iPhone 3.0 software update. Pretty unfortunate. I sold it out at hardwarezone.sg and got this iTech Clip Music 801.

iTech Clip Music near a 20 cent (SGD) coin

Though it looked a bit bulky, the build quality was good unlike the Philips SHB7100 and it was very lightweight. (15 gms) After opening I paired it with my iPhone 3G. Pairing was a breeze, and quick. iPhone recognized the device as a headset and seamlessly switched the music through the device. The iPod screen will look like this if your pairing is successful.

The volume control will be replaced by “Clip Music 801″ and the blue tooth icon.

Oh No!!! the volume control is gone!! was my first reaction.

I tried increasing the volume through the hardware button. No luck. Seems like the device volume controls are the only way to increase/decrease the volume. With the iPhone 3.0 software, the previous/next controls  also didn’t work though it worked with the Mac.Apple might soon release a bug fix.

Coming to the audio quality, it was good though there was some compression artifacts. The sound had clear mids, deep bass but the trebles and highs was slightly missing, which is noticable even if you are NOT an audiophile. However, it can be easily adjusted by choosing a different eq setting. I usually use “Bass booster” on my iPhone. Changing it to “Classical” did the job. No wonder, Apple chose Wifi for their AirTunes rather than bluetooth. The volume was pretty loud, as if the earphones are directly plugged into the iPhone.

Phone voice quality was awesome. The microphone picked up even the lightest sound (though not the background sound). However, while listening to music, when you get an incoming call, the music doesn’t “fade out”. All of a sudden you will hear the ringing tone. The tone is not your ring tone but a different tone played by the headset. When the call ends, the music doesn’t start automatically. You have to manually press the “Play” button.

Quite cumbersome, but still manageable.

Similarly, when you remove your headphones from the headset, it doesn’t pause the music like how it happens on the iPhone. However, when you insert the headphones into the iPhone, music is automatically routed through the plugged in headphones. When you remove it, music is streamed through the device. Nice little feature.

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As with many other devices, the music DID skip or “miss a beat” because of bluetooth streaming but it was not very obvious. I had a very nasty problem with my old Philips SHB7100 paired with my mac. Now is it very obvious? It depends. If your iPhone is not “busy” doing other things, the audio is smooth. When you are downloading an email attachment, you might get some stutters. Browsing the Internet on WIFI causes the audio to stutter a LOT. LOT means a LOT! Like, as in twice every 5 seconds. Once the page is rendered fully, it resumes normally. Note that browsing on 3G doesn’t cause issues. I think it’s because the bluetooth and WIFI are actually present within the same chip.

All these artifacts are only when you pair it with the iPhone. When I paired it with my mac, there wasn’t any stutter. I could be in the same room, or nearby rooms so long as the distance is less than 5m. But the compression artifacts, were still obvious. Voice calling were working even at far distances though and was clear without skips. This headset even has a “cool” feature called distance alert that will ring a tone when you move away from your mobile phone. So you won’t miss your phone at the restaurant table

However voice calling through Skype or Fring didn’t work via bluetooth. The “call connnect” and “call disconnect” tones are routed through bluetooth but calls aren’t. Pretty bad Apple. Pretty bad. On the Mac also, I could see the same behaviour. Skype calls weren’t routed through bluetooth though the ring tones were. Not sure who is the culprit. Games were however not affected.  Sound is routed through bluetooth in this case. I think it’s because the “headset” profile is not accessible to other applications but the “headphones” profile is.

To wind it up, I should say that this headset is good. A 3.5 star rating. However, The technology still has to mature. Compression artifacts are still noticable and A2DP is definitely not for the audiophiles. But for casual music listeners, and specially gamers, cutting the cord is more important that those slight sound artifacts. Playing a game with your iPhone accelerometer without the earphone cords hanging around is really a boon.