If there is anything I hate with a vengeance, then it’s being tethered to something. Be that by wrist, ankle or head. Ok, I haven’t been restrained too much by my ankles or wrists, I admit. But by my head, more than enough.
I’m not talking about some kind of security restraints like the cops put on you. I’m only talking of cables that are connected to some device and then to headphones on my head.
All too often, I forget that I am wearing anything and yank the device from its position or pull the headphones off my head, dropping them in the mud or worse.
So when I got my Zoom H6, I was using it without any headphones. Not for fear of dropping it, just because I don’t like headphones. Then I tried it with those earbud phones, to see if that worked any better.
They do work, they are handier to put in your pocket, but they still have two major problems. One is that they still tether me to my recorder and the second, well, the above picture says it all. I spend more time untangling the phones than I enjoy using them. Whatever brand I used, they all tangled faster than Christmas lights.
Then I found this little gem. It’s a Bluetooth receiver/transmitter. The receivers are plentiful, you can plug them in your ancient car radio and they enable your phone to play music in your car. That was not what I wanted. I wanted the source to transmit to my headphones instead. This little thing does just that.
Combine that with some Bluetooth noise cancelling earbuds and you have a system that gives you the freedom to move around your device, without touching it, or produce “handling noise” whenever you move an eyebrow. Granted, there is a small delay between the real sound and the moment you hear it in the earbuds, but that is barely a 1/5 of a second. For nature recording in the field, that is completely acceptable. These earbuds are also noise cancelling, so you should be hearing only what the Zoom H6 transmits, not even the original sound. Perfect for nature.
I can just plug the transmitter in where I like, be that headphones out or Line Out. Line out has no volume control, but that is a minor issue since the earbuds have their own amplifiers anyway. I tend to prefer the Line Out as it doesn’t stick out of the side of the H6.
Freedom at last.
Well, I can’t make you listen to those earbuds of freedom, but I can present your with some nice atmosphere from Liverpool, Nova Scotia.