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iPhone 12 Pro Max aptx HD and LDAC
- Thread starter UBS28
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I have experience with Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact and Sony XM3 headphones. LDAC support is supreme on those devices. No issues when it comes to this. Would you feel a WOW difference? Nope, it is subtle. It is in the finer details of the audio source. I personally enjoy it. I had no issues with connection or audio quality.
However do have in mind that Sony invented LDAC. I would not be surprised if Sony devices have better support for LDAC compared to other Android phones. Especially paired with one of their top NC headphones. They do have the interest to make it happen.
That is my suspicion as well. The current situation is not tenable. There will be a change. Who knows what it will be.
FWIW I'm pairing a wh-1000xm4 to a Mate 20 X with LDAC locked at 990 kpbs, and I never have a single problem, whether it is drop outs or unstable connection etc. It rules big time.
If they had not just dropped £600 headphones with an AAC bottleneck I might agree. Having said that if airplay could be enabled on the APM you could be onto something and Airplay could be that proprietry codec/method.
Airplay on headphones would be a gamechanger that would make even LDAC (snake oil IMO APTX-HD is better) obsolete overnight and no doubt a lot of 3rd parties such as Bose would no doubt be all over it pretty quickly.
LDAC is adaptive, you get best effort out of the box which is at best 660 but even if you try and force the 990 setting you'll likely be get getting less than that as it adapts and you will never know. APTX-HD is better IMO as it is fixed.
Aptx is Qualcomm, LDAC is Sony. So answer is Apple would never use those as it would mean that Apple would have to pay license fees to Qualcomm and/or Sony, and for the volume of iPhones/airpods, that’s a lot of money. Apple would probably just develop their own proprietary solution since they already have their own chip (H1/W1).
From what I read, right now the most versatile one are Samsung TWS buds as it’s very adaptive in the way it communicate over Bluetooth. Don’t have personal experience though as I don’t have one. But any TWS that support Bluetooth 5.0 (paired with a Bluetooth 5.0 phone) should be good.
I read that the reason AirPlay (Wi-Fi) connections aren’t used for headphones is the much higher power draw of Wi-Fi versus Bluetooth LE. Even if you downloaded the whole song and then turned off the Wi-Fi radio while it played, it still uses more power than streaming it over Bluetooth.
hopefully Apple can solve this with some kind of proprietary Low power Wi-Fi, which gives decent battery life for even small headphones
Maybe even the AirPods max could have bigger batteries to support Wi-Fi?
hopefully Apple can solve this with some kind of proprietary Low power Wi-Fi, which gives decent battery life for even small headphones
Maybe even the AirPods max could have bigger batteries to support Wi-Fi?
Well, it's not a good comparation, but anyway — after first Samsung Buds + Samsung Galaxy S9+ (native Samsung Scalable codec) transition to IP12PM + AirPods Pro: it's night and day in all departments. Sound for me better, there no connection loose on open spaces (or when a hand over pocket with phone), incrediby low latency (now I don't set delay in rythm games, on Samsung I set MAXIMUM delay for those games, subjectively 2/3 of a second). But again, that was first Buds.
Obviously airpods + iPhones would provide the best experience thanks to the H1/W1 chip supplementing whatever Bluetooth is lacking. That’s why imo Apple would just develop their own solution rather than paying Qualcomm or Sony for aptx/LDAC.
I never had an issue with either LDAC or apt x on any of the Samsung phones I’ve owned. But LDAC supposedly has some issues
AAC isn’t that bad. Better than SBC and works well with Apple devices. The problem with AAC is on Android
I think the bigger issue is call quality, be it FaceTime audio or cellular call, both are severely limited by SBC. I really want to see LC3 support so we can finally enjoy HD audio call quality - I use my AirPods a lot for calls. Cellular calls sound great with EVS, but only on my iPhone, as soon as I put my AirPods in the quality suffers.
As someone with a sound system that costs more than most cars I actually think lossless audio isn't that useful for AirPods, maybe for the AirPods Max would you begin to notice a difference but 256kb AAC is actually pretty good, I'd prefer OPUS but I have no complaints.
For me ALAC Apple Music support is going to really shine on my B&W speakers fed by an Anthem AV receiver and amplifier.
As someone with a sound system that costs more than most cars I actually think lossless audio isn't that useful for AirPods, maybe for the AirPods Max would you begin to notice a difference but 256kb AAC is actually pretty good, I'd prefer OPUS but I have no complaints.
For me ALAC Apple Music support is going to really shine on my B&W speakers fed by an Anthem AV receiver and amplifier.
Yes AAC is terrible on Android, it always bugged me and then when I read that article on Sounguys it made total sense.
I think APTX-HD is the best implementation of Bluetooth audio currently.
There are a few manufacturerds who have never embraced APTX or LDAC (e.g. Bose) so I'd guess that they would jump on any new standard from Apple pretty quickly. Bringing Airplay or something similar to headphones would be a game changer IMO.
I wouldn't be so sure. I did a few tests regarding distance etc. on purpose, and dropouts were definitely more present with the setting locked at 990 than locked at 660. So it might not be so clear cut as it going below the forced setting no matter what. YMMV.