Title says it all. I bought a “Avantree DG60P - Long Range Bluetooth Audio Adapter for PS5, PS4, PC, Laptop, Mac, aptX-Adaptive and Low Latency, 24-bit HD Wireless Dongle” from Amazon reading that it was compatible with Mac.
Well, it’s not. Please, this is the only negative user experience I am having with my Mac Mini M2. I mounted it in a metal enclosure to my desk (prolly acting like a faraday cage) and now signal is even worse. I can’t move my Mac Mini for now.
Is there an adapter that is proven to work with Sonoma / Apple Silicon ? (Mac Mini M2 Pro)
Thank you!
What Bluetooth device are you trying to use that it is out of range of your Mac Mini?
According to the description and some of the reviews, the Avantree is NOT a regular Bluetooth dongle. It is a soundcard integrated with Bluetooth LR and may only support very specific limited use cases.
This is cryptically listed in the description as “audio only”.
I looked for other Bluetooth LR dongles, and the ones I found said “PC only”.
Ugreen seems to make a nice one. The reason I mention - Ugreen is an up-and-coming brand (IMHO), that has moved out of the “generic brand” category into a reputable 2nd tier brand.
I’ve used several other devices from Ugreen and they just launched a NAS box that is considered strong competition for Synology.
The reason for this “mini commercial” is that the Ugreen Bluetooth LR dongle is PC only and they call out they do not support Mac.
I would trust them first to have a driver for Mac over Avantree. The fact they don’t, seems anecdotally to indicate that LR Bluetooth may simply not be compatible with Mac - no matter who makes it.
I suggest trying to solve your Bluetooth problem a different way?
I have a long range UGREEN for my pc. If didn’t work.
I am using long range for my Sony xm5 headphones. I like to listen to music through my apartment or listen to movie as I go to the kitchen. Music cracks and disappears when I leave my office now
UGreen specifically says they do not support BL-LR on Macs.
Candidly, probably a Mac software and hardware issue.
I would try to figure out a way to improve the Mac Mini’s BLE performance.
If I understand correctly, you put the Mac mini in a metal box or enclosure. I would try to undo that first.
I would also explore getting longer USB and video cables and see if the Mac Mini can be physically moved to a location that is closer to where you like to be with your headphones.
There are some headphones that use RF and not Bluetooth for the wireless link. That might solve the wireless range problem but I’m guessing that is not a straightforward option either and involves a lot more expense.
I use Sony xm5s which is a requirement for me because it has the only perfect multipoint (connects to PC and Mac at same time). No other headphone does that at all or as well as Sony.
I can’t move the Mac mini because it’s in screwed into the side of desk in my office so if I move it, I won’t be able to use it to listen to music when at my desk.
The only solution I can see is using a usb extension cord and getting a long range Bluetooth adapter. Seems to be an impossible task.
Regarding moving the Mac mini, you might not have to move it across the house or even across the office. Moving it a few feet, or putting it on a different side of the desk, may help. I would unbolt it from the enclosure and give that a shot. In general, mounting it higher or with a clearer line of site to where you are having Bluetooth problems is what I would look at.
Second, Wi-Fi signals can interfere with Bluetooth. Is the Mac wired for networking? Or are you using wireless? If wireless, try completely shutting off the Wi-Fi and playing some music or some audio. If the problem gets better, you can look into wired networking instead of wireless.
Third, do you have any external drives plugged into the back of the Mac? This might sound really stupid, but in my experience I had a ton of Bluetooth issues when I had a portable hard drive plugged into the back of my Mac mini. Did some reading on some forums, tried unplugging it, Bluetooth issues went away. Try unplugging all peripherals from the back of your Mac, and see if the issue goes away.
Those are just three things off the top of my head. It could be a combination of them, or none of them. Wishing you the best of luck getting this solved.
Thank you! I just ordered this [SE version] and going to try it out. I’ll use a 3.5mm extension cord to mount somewhere high up to see if I can extend the range.
The biggest worry I have is the negative reviews about huge lag when watching movies (0.5 - 1 second!). If that’s the case I’ll end up returning the item.
I’m not desperate enough to want to move it yet since I already screwed the mount into the inside of my desk, but I am definitely going to keep this in mind.
Mac Mini is ethernet of course but I do have wifi mesh (x3) setup.
Yes I have an SanDisk external drive that I rely on for my storage since Mac Mini M2 Pro internal storage is high robery. I’ll take a look at disconnecting it and re-testing the range.
In this case, it only matters if the Mac is actually connected to the Wi-Fi. As long as it Is not, you should be good on that front. But make sure that the Wi-Fi radio is off, not just active and theoretically unused.
I’ve gone through this mess with my Mac, so lots of sympathy and wishing you lots of luck!
Even if the primary data connection for a Mac is Ethernet, Wi-Fi is used in peer-to-peer mode for AirDrop and a few other edge condition Apple protocol things.
So be careful - if you turn off Wi-Fi radio completely, you may be surprised that certain things stop working and not realize the cause-effect relationship.
I just received my AirFly SE and it works! I ran a 3.5 <> 3.5 mm extension cord just 4 feet to the top of my monitor, forgot the bluetooth <> bluetooth pairing, then paired the Airfly directly with my XM5s.
I haven’t done a complete round of testing yet, but the signal definitely reaches to my kitchen and back which is exactly what I wanted). One bonus is that I can still use my Apple Magic TrackPad 2 since I am using Mac Mini’s native bluetooth. Thank you for the suggestion! I had almost given up hope on this.
One final note, I think the MPU members are onto something about the hard drives. Either the AirFly SE has a much bigger bluetooth antenna (vs Mac Mini) my 2 hard drives mounted next to the mac mini are really screwing up the BT connection. The Airfly BT adapter is only 3-4 feet away from the Mac Mini yet the connection is so much farther. I’m at a loss to explain it.
After extensive testing I’m going to end up returning the Airfly. Though the range is significantly better than Apple’s bluetooth, there are other tradeoffs.
There is a constant hissing sound when the unit is plugged into any USB-C power. I tried 4 different power sources and they all product the hiss. Reviews indicate similar issues. I use Sony XM5 noise cancelling headphones for a reason - because I want to immerse myself. The hissing sound is really noticeable because ANC blocks external noises and thus accentuates the hissing.
I wouldn’t have known this until testing, but apparently the unit has an auto-shut-off after 5-15 minutes after no signal. What this means is that every time I take off the headphones for 15 min, I have to re-pair (cycle off and on) on the airfly. I guess it wasn’t designed for my use case, but it doesn’t make sense to turn the device off if it’s plugged in and charging. Why not just do that if it’s on battery?
#2 being the big one, having to get up, repair over and over again was a real dealbreaker and worse than the lack of range.
I’m going to play around with disconnecting the hard drives to see if that improves range.
The AirFly seems to me like fancy branding around a very cheap product. I’ve tried a bunch of similar adapters (some with built in batteries, some without) and all of them have the same hissing sound. In theory it’s not a requirement that they have the hissing, but it seems few companies are actively trying to avoid it.
