HomeSpot Bluetooth Adapter Pro, 2-in-1 USB-C Audio Mixer for Nintendo Switch/Lite, Mixing Audio + Voice Chat from Switch and Smartphone, for Bluetooth Headsets AirPods Pro, Bose, Sony, Jabra and More

Too Much Finesse

Posted by Sean Murinda on Feb 4th 2021

I first heard about HomeSpot on YouTube when I was doing research on a good Bluetooth adapter for the Switch. Both this model and the base model are both highly regarded by the community. Personally, I opted for this model for the added mixer features. Who wouldn’t want to be able to listen to Spotify in the background while playing games? The mixer is a feature that I haven’t seen on offer by any of the competition and with such high praise from my favourite YouTubers, the choice was obvious.

I first tried to order directly from HomeSpot, as the price is actually best straight through them. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, the delivery has actually been stuck in transit for near enough 2 months now. HomeSpot isn’t at fault for this. There are just massive delays in international mail. I’d been in contact with the team a couple times, and thankfully they were quick to respond on both occasions. I’m talking same day, couple hours at most. They track deliveries so they were able to chase things up for me from their end, and were able to keep me up to date on the status of the shipment. As stated though, it was nearing 2 months with nothing through still, and upon discovering that the adapter was available to me here in the UK through Amazon, I asked if it would be okay for a refund so that I could purchase from there instead. The customer service team issued this straight away, no questions asked. They even said that I could keep the original adapter whenever it does come through, free of charge. They didn’t have to do this but the gesture is massively appreciated. I’m sharing this to let people know that they are a friendly and professional company you can trust. There are no games here. Well... not unless we’re playing Mario Kart.

Now that I’ve received and tested my adapter, here is what I have to say about the product. I’ve split my points into pros and cons so that they’re easily digestible.

Pros

- It has an attractive design, in my opinion, that compliments the Switch
- It’s simple and user friendly
- The LEDs let you know exactly which features are engaged. They also time out after a 30-40 second delay to conserve the console’s battery and not distract the player when in the dark
- It supports Bluetooth 5.0
- There is virtually no latency irrespective of whether or not headphones support aptX in my tests with several different sets of cans, but it’s a bonus that the device takes advantage of the technology
- It comes supplied with a neat little travel pouch
- It can be used handheld or docked
- The connection to Bluetooth devices is quick and pain free
- Once connected, the connection is stable as can be. I experienced no dropouts or weird artefacts
- The sound quality is clear and crisp
- It can be connected to Bluetooth headphones or speakers and a phone or tablet simultaneously
- It can mix audio between Switch audio and phone audio. There’s also an EQ included to help balance the audio between the two. It high passes the Switch audio to allow your phone audio e.g. music to cut through and be heard clearly
- As mentioned, you can listen to music while playing games
- The device comes with an internal mic for game chat. It can also be used to take phone calls so you can answer a call mid-game without pausing
- The included dongle uses USB 3.0. Although it’s not something the Switch is capable of taking advantage of at present, remember the dock has a USB 3.0 port at the back, so it may be a feature that Nintendo rolls out in a future update. This makes the adapter future proof. Sure, you’ll need a USB 3.0 adapter to reach out for the dongle to fit with the mixer connected but at least the option is there

Cons

- As the YouTubers have mentioned, it does wiggle a bit in the USB-C port
- The build quality could be sturdier. As a note to HomeSpot, I would suggest using more premium materials instead of hard plastic
- The mic is best suited to game chat and video calls. I can’t fault it there, however the quality isn’t the best for phone calls. An option to use either the internal mic or headphone mic would be the best workaround
- It would be nice to have functions to edit the EQ settings to taste
- There is no protector cap for the device’s USB-C connector when it is not attached to the Switch. This makes me worry that I may accidentally snap it, even when it’s in the travel pouch
- There is no support for other codecs such as LDAC, aptX HD or aptX Adaptive. Only SBC, aptX and aptX Low Latency. I understand that the device is built for gaming and that most gamers care most about low latency. In that respect, those needs have been met. I raise the argument however that just as Playstations and Xboxes now offer the choice between improved graphics or improved frame rates, some consumers may like the option of lower latency or high fidelity audio. I personally didn’t notice any latency in the first place anyway, even when using standard headphones, so the high fidelity option would just be another bonus feature really

Another side note that I thought was worth mentioning is that it might be an idea to create an app on the Switch or on mobile devices to tweak certain settings of the adapter such as the EQ, per my suggestion, to save the physical controls from becoming overly cumbersome. This would also make it easier to adjust the adapter’s settings remotely when the Switch is docked, instead of having to get up and walk over to it every time you want to make a change, such as to the mix levels.

Overall, I’m very happy with this product. It looks good and it does what I need it to do. All I wanted initially was something to allow me to use Bluetooth headphones with the Switch, but this mixer goes above and beyond, allowing me to listen to whatever audio I want straight from my phone at the same time. Like I said before, no other Bluetooth adapter for the Switch provides that. That alone was worth my money. There are ultimately more pros than cons, and I hope that HomeSpot can take my criticisms not as complaining or nit picking, but as constructive feedback to help them either refine this model or create a higher tier premium model with even more features. I would definitely like to see that and if it brings anywhere near as much value for money as this model brings, then I’m definitely buying.