I'm not really a lossy-codec snob - I am confident they can perform entirely "Transparent" for my purposes and perception. My source audio is almost all lossy.
When the mandatory, standard SBC codec isn't dropping to lower bitrate for whatever reason, I feel SBC is totally "fine". I generally don't hear artefacts/potential artefacts, and i am freely enjoying the audio, even though it's getting transcoded from lossy source, to SBC.
I actually had occasionally more audible issues with aptX - but again, might have been when something happens to have the system reduce the bitrate - seems no obvious way to know what bitrate the Bluetooth codec is transmitting.
I have an Earstudio ES100 mkII bluetooth headphone amp, which does LDAC, and a Samsung Galaxy smartphone from maybe 4 years ago.
If I enable "HD", i can make the ES100 + galaxy will use LDAC. but by default something audibly different happens - and it's not a change should be from "better" lossy encoding - it sounds a touch bassier, and a bit less treble perhaps - i.e. a tonal change to all music, all the time. If I go to developer options on the samsung smartphone, it's showing 96khz. if i force it to 48khz, that tonal change goes away and then switching from LDAC to SBC sounds the same, tonally.
With LDAC, you can access developer options to force LDAC bitrate. but i sometimes experience a buffering issue or bug that cuts sound regularly when forcing highest LDAC bitrate. can't hear the difference in the "adaptive" bitrate mode, or whatever it's called, so that's fine. I use that with the ES100 bluetooth amp and Galaxy - but it's a pain, cause I gotta go to developer options and change from 96khz to 48khz every time, and sometimes it messes up.
I feel it's a bit of a scam to make "HD" sound like it must be "better", cause you can hear a difference.
Recently I got some JBL Tune 770NC. On the Galaxy, it default to using AAC, which is a little surprising. At some point I did hear some artefact. again, maybe it scaled the bitrate too low at that time. Though there is some talk that AAC on android has a cap on bitrate that maybe is a bit low at best of times.
I make it use SBC. I have not really heard any "problems".
Anyway, the part of my story I'm interested to hear any comments on - these JBL are supposed to support Bluetooth "LE" audio (which should use LC3 codec). I have not been able to get the option on this samsung phone, nor 2 windows PC i have tried... I may get a different, newer smartphone in coming months, which may support "LE", but it's not entirely clear.
Anyone tried/got Bluetooth LE to work??
It does seem like Bluetooth LE would probably be a very good balance and compromise.
But LDAC is nice to have. Personally, I wouldn't base my purchase choice on that being supported though. If one is very concerned about the utmost of quality, one probably wants to avoid all lossy compression. ... but one should probably also probably do some blind ABX tests of codecs to conclude whether it is something one needs to be concerned about.
When the mandatory, standard SBC codec isn't dropping to lower bitrate for whatever reason, I feel SBC is totally "fine". I generally don't hear artefacts/potential artefacts, and i am freely enjoying the audio, even though it's getting transcoded from lossy source, to SBC.
I actually had occasionally more audible issues with aptX - but again, might have been when something happens to have the system reduce the bitrate - seems no obvious way to know what bitrate the Bluetooth codec is transmitting.
I have an Earstudio ES100 mkII bluetooth headphone amp, which does LDAC, and a Samsung Galaxy smartphone from maybe 4 years ago.
If I enable "HD", i can make the ES100 + galaxy will use LDAC. but by default something audibly different happens - and it's not a change should be from "better" lossy encoding - it sounds a touch bassier, and a bit less treble perhaps - i.e. a tonal change to all music, all the time. If I go to developer options on the samsung smartphone, it's showing 96khz. if i force it to 48khz, that tonal change goes away and then switching from LDAC to SBC sounds the same, tonally.
With LDAC, you can access developer options to force LDAC bitrate. but i sometimes experience a buffering issue or bug that cuts sound regularly when forcing highest LDAC bitrate. can't hear the difference in the "adaptive" bitrate mode, or whatever it's called, so that's fine. I use that with the ES100 bluetooth amp and Galaxy - but it's a pain, cause I gotta go to developer options and change from 96khz to 48khz every time, and sometimes it messes up.
I feel it's a bit of a scam to make "HD" sound like it must be "better", cause you can hear a difference.
Recently I got some JBL Tune 770NC. On the Galaxy, it default to using AAC, which is a little surprising. At some point I did hear some artefact. again, maybe it scaled the bitrate too low at that time. Though there is some talk that AAC on android has a cap on bitrate that maybe is a bit low at best of times.
I make it use SBC. I have not really heard any "problems".
Anyway, the part of my story I'm interested to hear any comments on - these JBL are supposed to support Bluetooth "LE" audio (which should use LC3 codec). I have not been able to get the option on this samsung phone, nor 2 windows PC i have tried... I may get a different, newer smartphone in coming months, which may support "LE", but it's not entirely clear.
Anyone tried/got Bluetooth LE to work??
It does seem like Bluetooth LE would probably be a very good balance and compromise.
But LDAC is nice to have. Personally, I wouldn't base my purchase choice on that being supported though. If one is very concerned about the utmost of quality, one probably wants to avoid all lossy compression. ... but one should probably also probably do some blind ABX tests of codecs to conclude whether it is something one needs to be concerned about.
