Bluetooth 4.x AptX / LDAC Lightning dongle

[kyjaotkb]

Hi MR community!
I recently got myself a pair of Sony MDR-1000x noise cancelling Bluetooth headphones. They work wonders with my work-provided Xperia XA with Spotify, as the AptX codec manages to give me a quality similar to when using the cable.
It's however a whole different story when I use them on my iPhone 6... I stream/cache all my Spotify songs in "Extreme" quality, which is just Ogg Vorbis 320kbps. And the sadly very limited Bluetooth implementation of iOS recompresses everything into AAC 256kbps before sending it to my ears. I ended up plugging the jack cable and boy does it sound better... I'm not talking hi-res or even lossless here, just plain compressed Ogg Vorbis...

Knowing Apple's current relationship with Qualcomm, there is probably a 0% chance that they'll license AptX for iOS, which is a shame. And as much as I would love them to implement Sony's LDAC codec, which Sony gave away to Android Oreo with a free license, and which my Sony headphones support (actually, almost only Sony products support it so far, alongside one Teac receiver sold in Japan and one model by one local Japanese headphones maker), I have little hope about it.

It's a shame that Apple removed the headphone jack and yet still has the lamest Bluetooth A2DP implementation of all smartphone vendors. It's a shame that they perfected pairing and range with the W1 chip, but neglected sound quality to that point.

My question, then, is: is there a dongle out there, connecting to the Lightning port, that can output BT4.x A2DP digital audio in Apt-X format? Having to use an Android phone just for listening to Spotify wirelessly drives me crazy...

Thanks!

 

[Mhotep]

http://www.samsung.com/uk/mobile-accessories/level-link-rg920b/EO-RG920BBEGWW/

These worked for me once.

 

[kyjaotkb]

http://www.samsung.com/uk/mobile-accessories/level-link-rg920b/EO-RG920BBEGWW/

These worked for me once.

I have bluetooth headphones already. What I am after is a way to upgrade the iPhone's BT capability to using better audio codecs.

But thanks anyway!

 

[Calleknug]

Hi, also got myself a pair of MDR-1000x headphones and do enjoy them a lot but I find myself connecting them to my macbook pro instead of my iPhone for aptX when I get the chance which is annoying in the long run. I don't think what you looking for exists unfortunately. I think the highest chance would be a jailbreak tweak because the iPhone bluetooth chip should actually be able to handle it given the right code as far as I know. I would suggest turning to r/tweakbounty

 

[Mhotep]

I have bluetooth headphones already. What I am after is a way to upgrade the iPhone's BT capability to using better audio codecs.

But thanks anyway!

It is a Bluetooth transmitter(and receiver). One end of audio cable plugs into the phone. Other end connects to the transmitter. Will transmit signal to your Bluetooth headphones with aptx. It is not a pair of Bluetooth headphones.

 

[kyjaotkb]

It is a Bluetooth transmitter(and receiver). One end of audio cable plugs into the phone. Other end connects to the transmitter. Will transmit signal to your Bluetooth headphones with aptx. It is not a pair of Bluetooth headphones.

Sorry, I read the Samsung website too fast. Interesting device! Too bad it uses the audio port coming out of the iPhone's DAC rather than the native PCM digital audio signal. Thanks!

 

[rtyler]

Hi MR community!
I recently got myself a pair of Sony MDR-1000x noise cancelling Bluetooth headphones. They work wonders with my work-provided Xperia XA with Spotify, as the AptX codec manages to give me a quality similar to when using the cable.
It's however a whole different story when I use them on my iPhone 6... I stream/cache all my Spotify songs in "Extreme" quality, which is just Ogg Vorbis 320kbps. And the sadly very limited Bluetooth implementation of iOS recompresses everything into AAC 256kbps before sending it to my ears. I ended up plugging the jack cable and boy does it sound better... I'm not talking hi-res or even lossless here, just plain compressed Ogg Vorbis...

Knowing Apple's current relationship with Qualcomm, there is probably a 0% chance that they'll license AptX for iOS, which is a shame. And as much as I would love them to implement Sony's LDAC codec, which Sony gave away to Android Oreo with a free license, and which my Sony headphones support (actually, almost only Sony products support it so far, alongside one Teac receiver sold in Japan and one model by one local Japanese headphones maker), I have little hope about it.

It's a shame that Apple removed the headphone jack and yet still has the lamest Bluetooth A2DP implementation of all smartphone vendors. It's a shame that they perfected pairing and range with the W1 chip, but neglected sound quality to that point.

My question, then, is: is there a dongle out there, connecting to the Lightning port, that can output BT4.x A2DP digital audio in Apt-X format? Having to use an Android phone just for listening to Spotify wirelessly drives me crazy...

Thanks!

I found this device that might suit your needs: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07622CSBY?m=A26BW72QMZTE51&ref_=v_sp_widget_detail_page

 

[tooch]

I saw this on Head-Fi the other day, might be what you're after? https://www.head-fi.org/threads/aptx-on-iphone-6s-via-sennheiser-bdt-500.864528/

 

[Calleknug]

Oh great! Thanks both of you

 

[MICHAELSD]

256kbps AAC is higher quality than aptX (by about 25%), and significantly higher quality than 320kbps OGG in fact. It’s a very efficient codec.

 

[Strelok]

256kbps AAC is higher quality than aptX (by about 25%), and significantly higher quality than 320kbps OGG in fact. It’s a very efficient codec.

I believe the problem is it is recompressing/converting the OGG to AAC and most likely doing it in a lossy way. Personally I haven't had issues, but then again I also only use Jaybird X3's with mine.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Apple Music’s sound quality is objectively much better than Spotify. Better off subscribing to AM then there will be zero degradation over Bluetooth AAC.

aptX recompresses too and is inferior to begin with.

 

[thewusman]

I have been researching this for a few months since getting my Sony 1000XM2's.

Best solution on iOS was to actually subscribe to Tidal.

There is a distinct improvement in Tidal FLAC (hifi) -> AAC to SONY XM2's (also using AAC as transport).

FLAC seems to encode to AAC over Bluetooth well - and with DSEE HX the sound is actually excellent.

Spotify OGG transcoded to AAC instead is a crapshoot. Some of the highs are clearing re-encoded and overly-lossy.

I also have a new Sony NW-A45 Walkman with around 80gb's of FLAC and MQA audio: this uses LDAC to the Sony XM2's which is a close to hi-res as you can get. However, sometimes you just want to be lazy and stream.

Keep an eye out for the FIIO BTR3 around mid-year. Apparently a USB dongle that will have APTX-HD and LDAC Bluetooth streaming onboard. If it works in the iPhone with the USB CCK adapter ... problem solved.