Some time ago I expressed my unhappiness about fragility of headphone cables. Since then I have managed to break another pair of (cheap) in-ear headphones, once again from twisting the connector experienced when phone was in my pockets while biking around (I'll post some pictures about these bike trips soon, they'll have absolutely nothing to do with electronics but I'll allow myself some liberties on topics here).
I was already thinking about tearing down my old but still functional Jabra headphone set (which however is not very usable in even somewhat loud surroundings and it has stupid flashing leds that make it look completely idiotic when in public) and adapting it to my existing headphones, as well as tearing down and adapting even older headset meant only for voice calls (I think that it doesn't even support even newer audio codec, only the older voice codec - which would be no problem as I only listen to audiobooks these days).
However, after some digging around I found a bluetooth receiver built for the job. I think the brand is this (Finnish) web shop's own brand so this very same device is very likely available under other names elsewhere.
The device itself is about same size as my little finger so it isn't too large, although it might seem huge in picture. Although there are still wires involved, receiver can remain clipped safely near the headphones relatively unmoving so stress on wires and plugs is massively reduced (I've had it clipped on shirt collar or my cap's visor, depending on situation - latter is naturally better suited for forest work or such activities where fashion can be completely ignored.) Even with small in-ear headphones I use while biking this was vast improvement - if I didn't often use my map browser while out I could even toss the phone in my backbag!
The audio stutters occasionally a bit so it isn't great device, especially for music, but for audiobooks it's fine. I've never had similar stuttering with either my cars' Bluetooth radios (one factory default, one aftermarket) so problem must be in this device.
The only major drawback I've so far encountered is battery life - I think product spec promised around 7 hours, which is slightly less than I'd like. Based on my experience so far I estimate that promise to be fairly close to actual. However, it it only warns you about low battery during final 15 minutes or so, so it's very easy to forget to charge it when it doesn't have much juice left. This is even more annoying since my phone gets fairly consistent 5 days of use between charges so option of charging both at same time isn't very useful (it isn't just my usage - I had to send phone to be repaired so I used Android phone I had for development/testing for a week and it got barely two days - at best - between charges with exactly same usage pattern! - but I digressing here)
Even better, this is also way cheaper than hearing protectors with bluetooth built-in, especially since it can be used with both my hearing protectors and in-ear headphones. I consider this thing absolutely worth its price - which was around 30 euros - low enough that I wouldn't even bother with straight-from-china -offerings as they tend to be gamble at best. If I'd spend 8 hours a day, every (work) day with hearing protects on, I'd still spend extra 100-200 towards Bluetooth-enabled protectors however.
(and no, shop isn't paying me a cent for this advertisement-ish review, I am just fairly happy to have found a nice solution to minor annoyance)
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