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Does iOS 4.3 now support APT-X?

A

amarcus

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 26, 2008
361
108
London, UK
I've spent hours trying to find the answer to this question but all that seems to come up is outdated information. Could anyone with a discerning ear and an apt-x bluetooth dongle check to see if the current version of iOS now supports apt-x?

Thanking you guys in anticipation,

Adam
 
I’m also interested in that. I do have an apt-x compatible client (Jaybird sb2) but I’m on iOS 4.2.1. Before I upgrade to 4.3 I would like to know if it’s worth it. Isn’t apt-x a hardware dependent thing? Will I make a fool of myself if I just buy a apt-x dongle thing for my iPhone (if iOS 5 incorporates apt-x support I would indeed be making a fool of myself)?


Thanks
 
marc.garcia said:
Isn’t apt-x a hardware dependent thing?
Click to expand...

Well, apt-X is really just another bluetooth audio codec (the default being SBC). Like any codec it always has the potential to be purely implemented in software. Having said that, low powered devices like the iPhone often rely on hardware implementations to do the heavy lifting. Whether the iPhone has the appropriate hardware is anyones guess. But the fact that a recent update to snow leopard contained apt-X support has certainly given me hope!
 
amarcus said:
Well, apt-X is really just another bluetooth audio codec (the default being SBC). Like any codec it always has the potential to be purely implemented in software. Having said that, low powered devices like the iPhone often rely on hardware implementations to do the heavy lifting. Whether the iPhone has the appropriate hardware is anyones guess. But the fact that a recent update to snow leopard contained apt-X support has certainly given me hope!
Click to expand...

I'm not too sure how easily code travels between OS X and iOS these days. It's definitely a good sign that Apple has an implementation available, but I've been waiting for a year for them to include metadata support over AVRCP.

As far as I know, the iPhone does SBC in software, so it'd have to do apt-X in software as well. The question is how much overhead does encoding to apt-X take? That overhead on a laptop is fine, but it may not be fine in the iPhone.

That said, I haven't seen anything about apt-X in 4.3, and anyone claiming to know anything about iOS 5 right now is speculating. Apple is very likely going to show off iOS 5 in early April, so it might be worth waiting until then to see if any details show up then or with the first iOS 5 beta build. The upside is that the iPhone uses the highest quality setting in SBC, so it should be able to limp along until then.
 
4.3.3 was a rapid bugfix release. You don't shove features in those, as you don't have the time to test them, and the point is to get a high priority bugfix out as quickly as possible.
 
marc.garcia said:
Any relevent thing regarding apt-x support on latest iOS version 4.3.3 anyone?
Click to expand...

As I'm writing a review on my blog about the Sennheiser PXC 310 BT (supports apt-x)...

When I first tried the Sennheiser PXC 310 BT paired with my 13' 2010 macbook pro, the sound was crystal clear, bass rich and tight. The mids and highs were clean and well defined as well.

Then I tried the headphones on my iPhone 4 with the latest iOS 4.3.3 (8J2).

And it sounded amazing as well---

Now the follow story is before I knew apt-x was natively supported by my macbook and/or maybe the iOS...

(I tried the bluetooth adapter (BTD300 Audio) to get optimal performance out of my headphones. <<<I tried to interchange between using the adapter and pairing the headphones natively to my iPhone 4, I also tried using my headphones wired without the bluetooth function>>> And I really couldn't hear the difference when 1) using the apt-x bluetooth adapter 2) natively on iPhone 4 iOS 4.3.3 and 3) wired without bluetooth)

As it stands I think my macbook pro definitely supports apt-x natively and the iPhone 4 as well.
(just my observations though, and I'm using 320kps encoded mp3 or lossless)
 
Last edited:
Sorry to dig up an old thread, but all the information I have found is says that no version of iOS supports apt-x, and none of the iOS devices thus far have native hardware support for it either.

The MacOS X support is tricky -- a lot of people say that when they're using their APT-X supported devices, the codec being used is SBC (sideband codec, the one all bluetooth devices use) -- so I'm not clear on that at all.

EDIT:

Looks like it does:

https://discussions.apple.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadImage/2-17602099-82439/450-379/Cloud-1.jpg

However some people are still saying their apt-x devices are using SBC...might be compatibility problem or maybe older Mac's can't support it? Who knows.
 
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