I am working with someone who would like to use this microphone.  When we set up the mic on their computer, using a Bluetooth dongle, the headset initially worked work well but slowly declined and started giving "crackling" feedback in the ear piece.  Even after adjusting computer settings to have all audio output come from computer speakers.  Shortly after installing the mic, this computer would not recognize any audio input and host of problems followed.

 I brought the mic back to my office, it seemed to work fine for me.

Any experience with this? What could be the issue?

ABMenomonie,

Bluetooth microphones are notoriously unreliable. They seem to work well for some, but the majority of users end up having problems with microphone disconnection from Windows right in the middle of your dictation, occasional accuracy degradation, sometimes the Bluetooth connection simply doesn't work, and Bluetooth microphones are generally just plain unreliable. We no longer support or recommend Bluetooth to any of our clients primarily because they're notoriously unreliable, particularly in Windows 7. It can also sometimes be a particular system configuration (i.e., might work well on some but not others).

I would be willing to bet that you won't get it to work properly on your client's system no matter what you do. The Panasonic Callisto Bluetooth microphones on the most reliable, but they fall down in terms of overall accuracy on the other hand, VXI BlueParrot Expressway has always been the most accurate, but VXI has dropped its intention to create a Bluetooth dongle that allows it to pair properly with any system and Windows 7. Therefore, it's now one of the most unreliable Bluetooth headsets.

From my experience and perspective in having tested many of the Bluetooth headsets, my recommendation is my recommendation is Fagetaboutit!!!. But that's just my $.02 worth. If I have to spend an inordinate amount of time to support a client because of a fault the or unreliable piece of hardware when the initial goal and that for which I'm charging that client is Dragon or VoicePower training, it wastes my time and it wastes the client's time. It isn't worth it.

Chuck Runquist
Technical Project Manager
VoiceTeach LLC
Home of VoicePower®: We don't make Dragon NaturallySpeaking, We make it better!

"Aiming for the moon and missing it is better than aiming for the ditch and hitting it."   - Author Unknown

Just to reiterate the unreliable nature of Bluetooth for use with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I have a blue parrot Xpressway as my backup microphone and I have experienced no end of problems. The audio would stop working resulting in me having to uninstall Bluetooth software and reinstall, having to do this was a complete pain in the backside, sometimes on a daily basis. I have experienced crackling from the earpiece and a search through this forum will reveal many such circumstances from members. I have another computer with Windows 7 installed also, it experiences none of the above problems which demonstrates the random nature of Bluetooth connections. There was no logical reason for the problem I was having with audio so searching for such may not reveal anything.

Steve

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