Top positive review
Relatively easy install for a Bluetooth device, good sound, and decent range. Highly recommended.
By M. K. Mcgregor on Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2016
Adapter installed flawlessly. OK, it was a multistage install, but no real issues. My system is Windows 7 64-bit and did have a CSR v2.0 installed in it prior to this adapter. I expected some required uninstall, but as I usually try first and ask questions later, I just dropped it into a USB slot to see if MS could sort it out. Windows updated Installation happened and completed normally and I was able to pair a Bluetooth 4.0 headset (Bohm) without issue. There were some uninstalled parts of the driver when I examined the device in the Bluetooth list. Well, despite no installation errors per se, it did not appear as a sound playback device; due to the missing drivers not provided through Windows Update. So, I went to the Broadcom site, they make the chipset is this unit (you could also get them from the Pluggable support site) to get the latest drivers ([...]). They appear to support XP to Windows 10 and some Linux distros. Downloaded the small installer (boradcom, pluggable is the full 200MB at once) which proceeded to install a bunch of additional software (~200MB). It completed and All the device features now had drivers installing for them. Completed and no errors. Still no sound. This is resolved by simply entering the sound mixer on Windows (click the speaker in the lower right corner and select Mixer and finally use the dropdown under the Device column above the slider) and select your paired Bluetooth headset as the playback device. You can also this as the default playback device; check the control panel. After that it worked without issue. Other programs like games or Skype may also require you to set a new device as the playback or microphone device. That part is kind of a pain, but does allow a headset for Skype and speakers for normal windows playback. Range was not what I expected. I thought this was a type 1 with 100 meter (typical 20-30 meter) range. It appears to be a typical type 2 with 33 meter (typical 10 meter) range; and that with assumed clear line of sight. Site states 10 meter (33') range. I actually just read that ([...]and [...]). Granted I was testing in a house with one wall between me and the unit. Sound is very good. I noticed some clipping or click when I change volume in Windows, but that is not uncommon. Playback however is excellent within 20-30 feet. Beyond that it comes and goes in a house setting; your mileage will vary. I was able to go upstairs in my house (and not directly above) out to around 30' from the computer when I would get cutouts; more or less. Not all that I hoped (was hoping to walk the house, but this unit would not do that), but the installation ease, sound quality, and decent multi-room range make this a great buy if you need Bluetooth connectivity for a machine without it or one that does not support the newer 4.0 standard. Not sure if the microphone on my BT headset or the connectivity or sound generation of this adapter is not very good. Sound recorded on a Skype echo test was not good; muffled and not crisp at all. I'm not sure that I will be using it for more than listening at this point. I will do some real people tests and use different headsets and update later. Right now I'm "blaming" the headset. I will also try to do some more line of sight testing to see if the range improves at all Good unit so far, but I've only had it for about 1 hour and I'm listening to music and completed my installation and testing. You may have installation issues if you have previous or current Bluetooth driver installed. Checkout the Pluggable link above. There they also have a nice comprehensive FAQ that tries answer many installation issues. I did not use them, but I did look through them while downloading the drivers. Very good adapter. Highly recommended. I've tried many imported knockoffs, mostly BT 2.0, and this is by far the easiest and most complete install. Most have incomplete or failing drivers and provide limited functionality or poor and somewhat distorted sound quality. I have found another good vendor that does appear to care about the user. Getting tough to find these days. Installed in a second machine at work, again no problems following the same steps as above despite it being a radically different machine but still Windows 7 64-bit. I've ordered a second one!
Top critical review
274 people found this helpful
It works, but it's not always pretty
By WorknMan on Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2013
I once got a MediaLink bluetooth adapter to work for a friend (the same one that currently has 850+ reviews on Amazon), but I really wasn't a fan of the Broadcom driver software, as it produced a BSOD on installation, and then took hours to get working. So when I decided to get a bluetooth adapter for myself, I went with this one instead. To my dismay, it appears to use the same Broadcom chipset and software as the MediaLink adapter. However, this one was a LITTLE easier to get working than the MediaLink one, but only because I'd done it once before :)Rather than give you a play-by-play of all the troubleshooting I had to do in order to get this thing to work (Windows 7), I'll just give you a few pro-tips: 1. Skip the driver CD and go straight to the manufacturer's website and download the latest Broadcom driver. The current installation file is about 13MB, but when you run it, it downloads more stuff, and installs over 200MB of files to your hard drive. Why a f***ing bluetooth driver needs 200MB+ of files is beyond me. 2. Before doing the installation, go to device manager and see if you have any drivers for any other bluetooth adapters installed, especially if you have a laptop. If there is another bluetooth adapter already present, you could be in a world of hurt trying to install this one. You might have to completely disable the older one before this device will work. 3. If you install the drivers and reboot, and there's not a bluetooth icon in the system tray, check the device manager and see if this adapter is listed undder Bluetooth devices, and if it started. If it couldn't start correctly ('code 10'), and it says the drivers are up to date, see #2 above. 4. Once the drivers are installed and you have paired a device, if you're not sure how to connect to the device, right click on your connected device (under 'devices and printers') and go to Properties, then click the Services tab. A list of bluetooth services that the device supports should be shown. Select the ones you need and click OK. After that, when you right click on the device, you should see more options than were there before. 5. If you're trying to get audio streaming to work and you have a connection with a device but not audio, try to reboot both the PC and the device. This one took the longest for me to figure out :P lol Anyway, hope this helps somebody. If the above instructions sound too complicated and your eyes glazed over while reading, I would stay far, far away from this device. It is definitely not for the faint of heart. On the other hand, you may get lucky and have it work on the first try. So the question you have to ask yourself is, 'Do I feel lucky?' Well .... do ya? :) UPDATE: I got a very nice response from the company who makes this adapter. They pointed out a couple of things that I should probably mention here. First, they say that although the drivers on the CD are older than the ones on the website, they should be more than sufficient to run on Windows 7. If you have Windows 8, it'll probably work out of the box without needing the drivers, for most bluetooth tasks. (I haven't had a chance to test this yet.) Their website product page has a detailed comparison of the built-in drivers for Windows 8 and the Broadcom drivers. I can't post the link here though, because Amazon won't allow links in product reviews :P Also, in regard to the part about possible conflicts with other bluetooth drivers, they say that'll probably happen with any other bluetooth adapter and not just theirs, and they're probably right. I just wasn't very happy about the fact that there wasn't any on-screen indication after I rebooted that something had gone wrong, after the adapter couldn't start. No error dialog or anything, and no BT app in the tray either. In truth, it was a work laptop, so didn't know that another adapter was even present. Thus, I had no idea what was wrong. So far, I'm impressed with their support, but not so much with the drivers that the chipset requires. I suggested that they add some of this info I have provided to their product page in the FAQ section, and they said that was noted. I guess time will tell if they actually do it.
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