Is bluetooth actually worse for audio than coax/toslink?

[stringer]

I have apt-x built in to my Rotel amp. The Bluetooth works great for streaming from phone, laptop, tablet, etc. No audio issues that I noticed compared to streaming from the TV, listening to flacs from my hardwired media server, playing CDs, pristine vinyl, etc. But I still bought a Wiim Pro because when streaming from my phone or laptop over Bluetooth the music cuts out if I move rooms. And my notifications come through over the stereo.

 

[pablolie]

If I am transferring music as FLAC over wifi, the wifi devices will constantly negotiate the link up and down in the background, but if the connection gets bad enough, it's not going to suddenly start lossy compressing the FLAC file. My transfer will either work or not work, and in the worst case the music will stutter or pause. The other transit protocols here (Toslink and coax) are the same way.

WiFi will never compress a file - it transfers it to the recipient where it is buffered. WiFi doesn't know nor care if it is a music file or something else. nor will it be a constant bit rate transfer - below the network utilization when playing 320k bit rate from Spotify. you'd need a pretty horrible WiFi connection these days for music file to not play. i don't think i have had music stuttering due to the network in many, many years.

 

[Vincent Kars]

Nothing wrong with Bluetooth, it is very convenient and has wide support. Bluetooth audio is handicapped by a limited bandwidth. The mandatory codec SBC runs at 320 kbs, APT-X slightly higher but is is lossy compression all of the time. As a reference linear PCM is 1411 kbs.

WiFi does have the bandwidth to transmit lossless audio. A protocol like UPnP goes up to 24/192. You are better of using the WiiM

 

[bigfanres]

WiFi/Airplay 24/192, isn’t that enough said relative to BT regardless of CODEC implemented?