MARQ series bluetooth performance (music)

Hey! Yes, thank you. Heath got tagged correctly but not Mel. Glad you are feeling better.

I believe there is a fundamental problem with my account/setup that affects things. Wearing the Expedition on my right wrist isn't fixing anything, sadly. 

I am thinking of setting up a new Garmin Connect account and setting the watch up as new after a master reset as a measure of last resort..Things were running fine after last night's reset until they get to their miserable self this morning. 

NYanakiev7, You do seem to be particularly unlucky. I’ve got the Aftershokz Trekz Air which I usually use for running (exactly because of the situational awareness), which work flawlessly with my MARQ Athlete (even if I try to cover the watch behind my back). But I know you already noted they work for you. So yesterday I tested outdoor running with some other cheap headphone that I have, these Groov-e sports things https://www.groov-e.co.uk/headphones/action (got them cheap in Tesco a while back). I usually only use the Groov-e ones in the gym, but not tested them outside until now and they work as flawlessly as the Trekz Air ones. Those same Groov-e ones would cut out once in a while with the Fenix 5+, so the MARQ is working better in my experience. I’ve also done a quick test with some MPOW branded ones my Daughter got for under £20 from Amazon; again, no issues I could tell going outside with them when connected to my MARQ.

I know you generally run in Central London. I noted a few months ago, using my Fenix 5+ with the Groov-e headphones running in Central Glasgow, that I got a lot more cut outs than usual when running through busy places. I can only assume that the extra RF signal ‘clutter’ in cities makes things a challenge for BT headphone connection when both headphones and music player are optimised to maximise battery life. I just wonder if this is always going to be an issue for you given where you typically run.

Thanks for sharing your personal experience with Bluetooth earphones- I have had much better luck in the past using older Garmin watches (including the Fenix 5 Plus); 

I have also gone running in big parks with, presumably, a lot less interference and not seen any better results. What's more, two other devices I tried out had no issues with two randomly selected sets of earphones.

I have now set up a new Garmin Connect account to pair the MARQ to. I stayed away from installing anything on it other than uploading a Spotify playlist. I will let you know how that goes.

Oddly, this does seem to make the watch and the headphones connect more quickly. 

Thanks for acknowledging that you have now received the device- I asked for updates on a few occasions but was told by the UK team that this is outside of their control. 

I have noticed that this works with some earbuds but not consistently- I would say about 30% of the time on some of the 10 different models I tried;

Garmin-Heath what about music cutting out? Many of the earphones I have connect instantly but even the ones with the seemingly strongest connection have constant cut-outs. The one exception is the Plantronics Backbeat Fit 3100, where I see slightly better performance with lots of issues during the first few minutes and relatively stable performance after that.

I would really appreciate some feedback on this as I have now pretty much given up running with music. 

NYanakiev7 If you have not done so already, please make sure you pass this information onto the Product Support agent you been working with daily, I think they would like to know this.

That way, if we can find those headphones around the office, we will test them too.

I have already done this many a time. The answer that I keep getting is: "this is out of my hands now";

I have sent about 10 emails over the past three weeks mentioning my experience with each of the earphone models listed above. As you know the watch was exchanged and that's it. No further help/advice/troubleshooting has been suggested...

As mentioned, I have completely given up testing earphones as I know I can only expect mediocre performance with massive music playback cut outs. This doesn't appear to be a widespread problem but I was still expecting some help after waiting for more than 3 weeks now..

I cannot stress it enough- for me, the issue is not linked to a particular pair(s) of bluetooth earphones. Out of the 10+ pairs I have tried so far (including ones Garmin explicitly recommends), I am only having partial luck with a single! pair. 

There is a bigger issue here that may be account related. Even though I set the watch up on a brand new Garmin Connect account and experienced the same issues. I have had this problem on my original MARQ device AND on the replacement.