Is it normal to have a poor music quality with the watch?

Former Member over 5 years ago

Hello, new fenix 5 plus owner here.

Is it normal to have a pretty poor music quality when listening to MP3 files from the watch?

The audio quality was really poor with my Optoma NuForce be sport3 headphones, which are usually great when paired with a phone. I didn't have any audio dropouts, but listening to 320kbps mp3 files from the watch sounded like listening to 128kpbs files or worse. All the low and high frequency sounds were distoted. My phone uses aptX codec, but I don't think it would make this much difference in sound quality. My current headphones should be compatible with SBC, aptX and AAC codecs

I'm about to buy new headphones soon to replace these rather old ones. Do the newer headphones use some better bluetooth audio codec with the watch if the Aptx is not supported? Do you know of some that will definitely work great or will the music quality be so poor always?

0 Narziss over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

I tend to believe that if you paid more for a watch "with music" you would like to listen to music. It sounds like a codec / bitrate problem. Have you tried to see if it happens with all your music? Have you tried with different bitrates? 128kbps, 320, variable,...?

0 imcluelesstoday over 4 years ago in reply to Former Member

I'm convinced issue is with the Galaxy buds. I had them paired with Samsung gear sport watch and the audio would be spotty. Cutting in and out. I thought issue was with watch. I got Garmin fenix 6 pro and same issue. I'm thinking of picking up different ear buds from different vendor so am browsing the forums to see what people recommend.

0 4889703 over 4 years ago in reply to Former Member

Don't worry me too, I use the jabra active elite 75t and have issues with crackling and jumping when I'm running

0 Luxybob over 4 years ago

Do not buy the jabra elite 75, this is my review:

Wanted to write a positive article but these have been one massive fail since I opened the box.

One first run the bluetooth was terrible, due to the master slave relationship the right bud receives the signal when my watch is on my left hand (like most people)....managed to overcome this with changing watch to right hand (great with a 190 bucks product). Then found they feel out of my ears, both, when sitting, left plonk on floor and then right. But final straw was the connection problems with watch (garmin, phone (Note 9) and a tablet (S5e), on watch I have to unpair and repair almost all the time due to there only being 2 connections. I moved to these from airpods V1, why did I bother????