Should we bother with Bluetooth streaming to DACs? aptX, LDAC, or bust?

[MediumRare]

The latest SOTA DACs like the DX7 Pro feature Bluetooth receivers with LDAC capability. But how good is the audio quality?

This articles goes into some depth and seems to be critical of the Sony's claims for LDAC, but it doesn't really conclude whether it's possible to stream bit-perfect 16/44.1 Redbook quality: https://www.soundguys.com/ldac-ultimate-bluetooth-guide-20026/

So, some questions for the experts:

- Is it possible to use Bluetooth from a laptop or smartphone to stream bit-perfect to a DAC?
- What CODEC is best to use for audio quality?
- How can a Windows laptop that's a few years old achieve that? (Is a BT 4.0 or 5 dongle necessary?)

 

[duo8]

If anyone want to experiment ffmpeg has aptX and aptX HD encoders & decoders. For LDAC there's the Android encoder, but no decoder AFAIK.
Also I'm pretty sure these bluetooth codecs can't do bit-perfect, maybe except under constant ideal conditions.

Windows 10 supports SBC, AAC and aptX. You need EDR which requires at least Bluetooth 2.0.

 

[Vincent Kars]

A good read: https://habr.com/en/post/456182/

 

[ex audiophile]

I've been down this road and concluded that both devices have to share the same codec to benefit from its properties. I was never able to find out the details of the iPhone 7 bluetooth codec so I gave up and went with a wireless network solution (Sonos). I think it sounds better than my previous Bluetooth stream but we all know how reliable our subjective impressions can be!

 

[ex audiophile]

@Vincent thanks very much for the link; it's highly technical but worth digging into.

 

[Berwhale]

This chap has some measurements and subjective opinions of the various codecs here: