You’ve inspired me to try again too. Are the Powerbeats noise canceling?
No, I’m pretty sure they are not. They are in-ear so they do block out a lot of the outside noise but there is no active noise cancellation. https://www.beatsbydre.com/au/earphones/powerbeats-pro?sku=MY592
A year ago I bought a ANT+ Dongle with an antenna I put next to my KICKR v4 to get rid of BLE dropouts and reduce lag. Furthermore I had to remove and reconnect my HR Strap TICKR v2 or Wahoo Cadence Sensor I have put on my shoes with BLE when I left the room for too long when I had to interrupt my workout and soothe a kid.
Thanks to this thread I tested BLE today with The Shovel in ERG Mode and the connection was incredible. Each change was almost instantaneous and the workout was really awesome!
I’m definitely sticking with BLE on my Win10 Notebook! ANT+ sometimes had some 2-5 Second delays I’m not going to miss.
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OK, so I kept experimenting. Yes, my micro-dropouts when using BT seem to disappear when I don’t use my BT earbuds.
Here’s the real clincher though - for the first time today I did Recharger using BT connection rather than Ant+ - the ERG power changes for the final 3 MAP efforts were so quick the efforts almost felt like standing starts! If this is how it now operates I could do Violator in ERG … in theory that is. Usually by the end of the third set I’m just keen to hit above my FTP line!!!
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If possible, I’d always opt for ANT+. Using Bluetooth to me only means trouble. Just yesterday, when setting up the new KICKR Core of my neighbor, we could not pair it to any app other than the Wahoo App for the initial setup and spin down. But everything went excellent, as soon as we switched to ANT+ on his laptop after hours of trying. This observation is not primarily related to SYSTM but Bluetooth as a whole. I would never recommend it to anyone when it comes to indoor cycling uses. Whenever I tried it for any purpose, I remember it took hours and nerves until I finally quit without any solution.
To be honest I have both ANT and BT dongles on extensions near my front wheel and find problems pretty rare with both & wouldn’t say one was much better than the other. On the rare occasion I have a problem I switch between them. Not even sure what I’m on at the moment. Think it is BT. I think BT is supposed to be better at switching bands in response to noise. Don’t get the dropping issue mentioned above using BT headphones; the BT dongle is really near though. Same goes for BT heart rate/cadence. I just don’t think it matters much if you bring the dongles near.