Ashdown Tone Pocket Bluetooth: Annoying ticking sound

[chyc]

I really really don't like posting negative reviews. However, I was for a brief period an owner of an Ashdown Tone Pocket Bluetooth (TP) before I returned it, and I wish someone had posted the following before I wasted PMT's time thinking it was a faulty unit.

 

Firstly the positives of the TP: the bass itself when listening via studio headphones sounds great. The EQ is versatile and you can dial in pretty much any clean tone you want. I own an Amplug2, which I do not like, at all. It feels cheap, the sound is naff and there is a really annoying hiss to it. The Tone Pocket by contrast is well built, amplifies the bass beautifully, and doesn't have the hiss.

 

However....... there was a really annoying tick when playing, and I'm fairly sure it's the bluetooth causing it. It's constant, around 5 per second. When you pair a device the ticking gets much better (one every two seconds or so) but it doesn't go away. There's also terrible interference sporadically, but is easily demonstrated when pairing commences. I took the device back to PMT thinking it was a faulty unit. They ordered in a second unit which exhibited the same behaviour. So I returned it.

 

Now, this may not affect you. When I was in PMT I was lucky enough to be given some ultra high impedance headphones to try with the TP. The ticking was almost inaudible and I probably wouldn't have noticed, let alone cared. Unfortunately I don't have studio headphones, I have in-ear buds and the ticking was relentless and irritating once I got the unit home.

 

It's such a shame. I tried the non-bluetooth unit and it was perfect: no ticking, great sound. However I really really wanted bluetooth. Heck I even started a thread asking for this functionality. I may think about ped's suggestion of a BT receiver and use it with the non-bluetooth TP.

 

Aside from this issue, there are some things that irritated me, but I'd definitely would have lived with if the TP had delivered:

 

1. The packaging, box and instructions were for the old v1 model. I had to download the instructions for v2 bluetooth separately.
2. The v2 bluetooth instructions are poor. There's no guide as to what the lights signify (is it charged? charging? faulty?), has no mention of how to pair your device via Bluetooth, although I figured that out in the end, and absolutely no mention of important specs like expected battery life.
3. Recording via USB had an audible hiss but passable. Recording via lineout and battery was superb. Recording via lineout when plugged in to charge via USB was unusable due to the digital background noise. I have sample recordings if people are interested.

 

The unit has since been returned so I cannot diagnose any further. However I tried everything from charging the battery fully to moving to different rooms. I've heard the ticking before: on my ~£20 bluetooth alarm clock. That had the two main advantages over the TP,  1. it being reasonably cheap and 2. it not doing it when BT it turned off, such as when it's on DAB. The TP is neither cheap nor can its BT module be disabled.

 

I contacted Ashdown. They suggested swapping the unit which I did. I guess it's something which most people live with and probably don't notice with over-ear cans. Moral of the story is to try before you buy. In particularly try it with the headphones you would use at home. That was my mistake.