This new breed of high-end wireless headphones will join Bowers & Wilkins flagship PX wireless noise cancelling headphones that were released late last year. New products featuring the latest version of aptX are now hitting the market for 2018. We can only trust that the folks at Qualcomm built a better mousetrap than SBC. But there are no on-paper gains in fidelity. So, any difference in sound quality you may detect between SBC and aptX in that scenario, is simply the difference in how each of the respective codecs perform the job of lossy compression. Spotify’s source stream is presenting a bottleneck in the audio-chain and gains from aptX are lost because the codec can’t add resolution. If, in this scenario, you’re using Spotify’s “High Quality” setting, you’re streaming the equivalent of 160-kbps music files, using the Ogg Vorbis, a codec that uses a lossy compression algorithm. Let’s take a for-instance, say your phone and headphones are both aptX-ready, but you’re streaming music from one of the many music services available, in this example I’ll use Spotify. FLAC)Įditorial Note about Online Music Streaming Services But compounded compression is avoided when using lossless sources like Tidal’s Hi-Fi music stream or locally stored music in any lossless compression format (ie. Because aptX is a lossy compression algorithm, compounded compression will occur when your music must be decoded from any other lossy compression algorithm such as MP3 or Ogg Vorbis (used by Spotify). Optimal aptX performance is engaged when your source files are encoded in a lossless format at 16-bit/44 or 48kHz, as this exceeds the capability of SBC. The best you can do is check your phone’s codec compatibility list and trust that it’s using aptX where available.ĪptX Best Use : Qualcomm’s aptX codec can only be employed when both Bluetooth transmitter (phone) and receiver (headphones) are aptX-ready. Sure, it’s an automated convenience, but the drawback is that it’s often not possible to find any settings to prove that your phone is using aptX, leaving the listener with no method of switching between aptX and SBC. When adopting aptX to your wireless listening experience it’s important to keep in mind, if either side of the wireless connection doesn’t feature aptX compatibility (or another alternative codec) your Bluetooth communication will default back to SBC.Ī common complaint about most Android phones is that the phone initiates the aptX handshake without notice to the user. Even then, aptX does introduce lossy compression, so the sound quality will be slightly compromised in-so-far as FLAC does not introduce any loss whatsoever. So, if you’re listening to high quality source files like FLAC at 16-bit/48kHz (a popular lossless compression algorithm) where both your phone and headphones are aptX compatible, you are listening in the best-case scenario for aptX and have reached the codec’s upper limitations. Qualcomm says aptX was designed to bring “CD-like” quality over Bluetooth by delivering 16-bit/48kHz sampling of your source material and streaming streaming it over a Bluetooth connection with 352-kbps throughput. Headphone manufacturers willing to pay Qualcomm to license its aptX technology are making a clear statement that their product cares about wireless audio fidelity. But considering the difference in raw data-rate between SBC and aptX, it was never going to be a significant leap in sound quality.Įven if aptX alone doesn’t present a significant leap in audio quality, its arrival was a significant breakthrough for wireless headphone audio quality if only because it opened a door in demand for improved Bluetooth codecs. Your mileage may vary and headphones specifically tuned with the aptX codec in mind may make a more substantial difference. Count me as calling a “maybe” there’s a difference, but I wouldn’t call it a clear step up in audio quality. In scenarios where I’ve tested a pair of headphones with aptX (like the V-MODA Crossfade Wireless 2, for instance) and toggled between playback devices with/without aptX while using the same source files (FLAC 16/44) - the slight improvement aptX offered over SBC was not significant. For the majority of consumers looking for the convenience of wireless sound, gains in fidelity granted by aptX will be minimal or lost entirely to other chokepoints in the audio chain. SBC naturally takes a lot of abuse in marketing-copy from companies like Qualcomm, makers of premium-grade alternatives to SBC, like aptX and its new, more powerful aptX HD.
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