topic Re: Walkman NW-55L comaptible wireless ear buds in Portable Audio

Walkman NW-55L comaptible wireless ear buds

NormanBitMyLeg70 — Fri, 22 May 2020 07:58:54 GMT

I purchased a Walkman NW-A55L music player and bough some JBL Reflect Flow wireless ear buds to pair with the device.

I was able to pair the ear buds to the Walkman no problem but I have no control over the loud volume that is heard through the ear buds.

When I switch to Bluetooth it shuts down access to the Walkman's volume cotrols and the ear buds have no volume control themselves.

I have come across a setting in the Walkman called Use Enhanced Mode which is supposed to be used when volume control is not available for headphones but this makes no difference.

I then paired the JBL's to my Huawei smart phone and an Iphone and both of these deices work properly providing volume control over the ear buds.

I have spoken to Sony support and confirmed that the Walkman works fine with wired headphones so they suggested speaking to Harman who make the JBL's so I did.

Harman couldn't understand why they didn't work but suggested it was a technical issue between the Bluetooth versions possibly something to do with the fact that the ear buds were designed to take and make calls whereas the Walkman is just a digital audio player. They are still looking into this.

I have no recourse to a refund as the JBLs have been unboxed even though I have been unable to actually use in the proper sense i.e. not worn for purpose due to loud volume so am £103 out of pocket.

Could anybody explain why this is happening preferably in simple terms so I can avoid making the same mistake.

Obviously I am now having to look at finding another pair of wireless ear buds so is the safest bet to buy a Sony pair such as Sony Extra Bass WF-XB700 as surely they would work with their own products??

Does anybody have some suggestions as to others that would be compatible up to a budget of £140?

I do find it hard to believe that in this technolical age there is a compatibility issue between these two products.

Re: Walkman NW-55L comaptible wireless ear buds

Pascale_F — Sat, 23 May 2020 09:54:51 GMT

Hi NormanBitMyLeg70,

Welcome to the community.

I'll see if I can track down an answer. Maybe someone else in the community has an idea in the meantime.

Thanks,

Pascale

Re: Walkman NW-55L comaptible wireless ear buds

NormanBitMyLeg70 — Sat, 23 May 2020 10:31:17 GMT

Pascale

Much appreciated as knowing the problem between JBLs and Walkman will at least allow me to flog them on Ebay as I know they work with a phone or if it can be pointed to a fault with JBLs then I should be able to get a refund from ARGOS.

In the meantime I went the safest route and purchased the Sony WF-XB700 as Sony website confirms they are compatible with the AW55.

Re: Walkman NW-55L comaptible wireless ear buds

NormanBitMyLeg70 — Sun, 24 May 2020 08:54:34 GMT

I have now had the following response from Harman who make the JBL ear buds and they refer to BT AVCTP protocol. The question now is does the NW-A55L support this protocol and is that the problem?

Please find below our tech team's response to your issue:

All of the True Wirelesses (TWS) headphones that have a volume control, utilize the BT AVCTP protocol to coordinate basic media player controls with the source device.

This is a standard protocol that has been in place pretty much since the beginning, and we would expect all devices to just work with it.

We cannot, therefore guarantee that any of our products will work as intended with this particular MP3 Player.

Based on the above, I would kindly advise you to contact the manufacturer of your MP3 player in order to check if there is any firmware update available that may solve the issue.

Re: Walkman NW-55L comaptible wireless ear buds

Joe_Dohn — Wed, 27 May 2020 15:51:32 GMT

The Walkman doesn't support AVCTP (Short for Audio/video control transport protocol), and to be honest, this was the first time I saw it, I'm more accustomed to AVRCP (Short for Audio/Video Remote Control Profile), which is in fact supported by the Walkman [along with A2DP for audio playback], these 2 profiles are also what my phone and most of the headsets I've owned support.

- Source for Walkman BT profiles (Sony official spec): https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/digital-music-players-nw-nwz-a-series/nw-a55l/specifications

- Source for Definitions (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bluetooth_profiles

Cheers,

Joe

Re: Walkman NW-55L comaptible wireless ear buds

NormanBitMyLeg70 — Sat, 30 May 2020 09:38:36 GMT

Thnaks for the input.

The Sony WF XB700 work properly with the Walkman so have learnt something new. Still stuck with a pair of brand new JBL ear buds though.