Dialed In Lounge: Plantronics Bluetooth Stereo Headset on Sony Ericsson z750a

Plantronics Bluetooth Stereo Headset on Sony Ericsson z750a

I listen to a lot of podcasts and music (all mp3s) with my Sony Ericsson z750a phone. I recently bought a Plantronics Voyager 855 stereo headset (earbuds) to use with this phone. It works great with music. It also gives a fairly decent sound, both in and out. Yesterday I was driving in a construction zone and the road noise was very loud in the car. My wife called me at that moment and she did not notice the noise at all. This would not have been the case with my older Plantronics headset.

The problem I have is that with most podcasts the sound does not come through the headset. The phones player is playing the file but no sound. If I break the Bluetooth connection the file plays using the phone's speaker. Stereo podcasts played fine.

To test what was happening, I modified a mono podcast by adding a second track. It played fine. I determined that unless the podcast has both a left and right stereo tracks, no sound comes through the headset. Different bit rates did not make a difference. I paired the headset with my wife's Nokia 9555 and the headset played everything. To me this indicates the phone is the problem.

I have spoken to AT&T, Sony Ericsson and Plantronics. They all give me the run around. SE even told me to buy one of their headsets instead. I have checked for updates for my phone with Sony Ericsson but there are none. At this point I know the headset is working (with the Nokia) so the issue must be with AT&T or SE.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get this to work?

Thanks
Walter