CD-quality Bluetooth is NOW A REALITY -- but is it worth it?

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🎥 Camera: John Darko / Olaf von Voss
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🌈 Colour: Olaf von Voss
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0:00 Part 1: What?
5:30 Part 2: How?
13:17 Part 3: Why?
👉 As seen in this video...
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Sennheiser Momentum TW4
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Denon Perl Pro
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Sony Xperia 1 V
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Aphex Twin umbrella
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Podcast: Bluetooth STILL can’t do hi-res audio BUT…
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No, Bluetooth cannot deliver hi-res audio
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#bluetooth #cdquality #headphones
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[@PeterComber]

If a tree falls in the forest can an audiophile tell whether the sound is lossless?

[@IainMacUK]

Only if it's recorded. Then yes.

[@ChatGPT1111]

Yes but only if it is hardwood. Softwood is too soft.

[@user-ew5id4yz1j]

Depends on if the tree fell in the matrix

[@ronaldweed6103]

As a hair, I heard the tree fall

[@zensbikeshop]

To hell with the audio, where can I get the umbrella? 😆

[@_fakeklg]

For real … that umbrella is ace

[@_fakeklg]

Kinda want to do a tap dance and ride in a limo

[@bintururong]

I think it's available on the official merch store of Aphex Twin 😄 (idk if it's still in stock tho)

[@koffie123]

YES!! what he said! Want one

[@zensbikeshop]

@@_fakeklg a very, very long limo...

[@alfrednerstu]

Don’t think you need to excuse the nerdiness or complexity of this stuff. That’s what we’re all here for.

[@buddhamack1491]

Bring back the headphone jack

[@sethlennberg4516]

It's there. You need to look for it.

[@adox66]

So ironically it’s quite an Apple type move where the listener is locked out of controlling the codec selection. My read from this video is that lossless just can’t be consistently stable over Bluetooth so the best you will get is the occasional lossless playback in a adaptive variable playback that you have no control over and is marketed as lossless.

[@NostalgicMem0ries]

imo its ldac alternative, as ldac scales down and up, same with aptx now, just qualcomm named their perfect condition loseless, sony could have done that too, but they didnt.

[@rickbrookes9491]

Nerdy? Yes. But, I enjoyed it very much. And I’m an iPhone user. Which I heard the disclaimer in the beginning of the video, yet I watched it all the way until the end. A testament to how interesting and informative your videos are. Thank you.

[@Ryubiru]

Go wireless when you need convenience. Wire when you need quality. That's it for now. Bluetooth audio is messy things

[@Emi-rd1lk]

Nuff said

[@martinhinge1462]

So nothing new then: If you want the best sound quality at all times you’ll want to use wired headphones, as always.

[@conorfurlong]

The vast memory of wired headphones do not have active noise cancellation, so I wouldn’t agree they are the best audio experience unless you’re at home or some other quiet location.

[@hvskyline1368]

Wow lossless Bluetooth before lossless Spotify

[@abhijeetdey]

😂😂😂

[@i_dont_know_who_i_am69]

Spotify probably knows that most of their users don't even know about what lossless means, so they're not prioritizing it

[@Okamine]

You do know that Spotify isn’t the only music streaming service, right?

[@deiruch]

Some clarifications: 1. SBC is adaptive as well, not only LDAC. SBC codes adjust the "bitpool" parameter, depending on the connection. 2. By default, most SBC codecs are configured with comparatively low quality settings, but we can adjust parameters. I currently run SBC at 684 kbps. It's easy to run SBC at higher rates as well, e.g. 990 kbps, but at some point you run the risk of producing dropouts when you hit the bandwidth limits of the Bluetooth connection. 3. LDAC fares worse in listening tests, compared to SBC-With-High-Data-Rates and/or AptX. Don't use LDAC. 4. Some codecs, like AptX, compresse audio data not by removing content, but by increasing noise. LDAC and SBC remove audio data.

[@agent4704]

interesting cose for me ldac sounds the best, run from windows 11 by a2dp driver, while i can switch between sbc, aac, aptX aptX hd and ldac, and ldac is simply the best quality for me

[@kostasjezuz4846]

@@agent4704 for me as well

[@davidbailey6350]

Damn, I’m glad I listen to LP’s and CD’s….

[@Abhinav_Nayana_Sailen]

need that umbrella mate

[@Johan-qy6yb]

The ever long and troublesome quest for perfect sound. It’s a deep deep rabbit hole

[@1423big]

Just give me a dang headphone jack. Augh

[@tommymichalski9989]

This reminds me of the good old days, when 1080p was 1080i and when megapixels in phones ruled.

[@aglobalnomad]

This is exactly the type of video I was hoping it would be! Thanks for keeping it nerdy

[@tehkik]

Yeah it was nerdy but really liked it. Kinda confirmed all my suspicions. To get real lossless on wireless there are just too many factors in play (phone, IEM/headphones, software, bluetooth chips and the air in between). So wired for quality and wireless for ease of use it is 😊

[@rav78]

Have always think the same, however maybe in the next ten years wireless could be for quality as well.

[@D1N02]

Take into the equation the noise floor out on the street due to traffic and wind and it is all moot unless you turn up the sound level so much you'll likely cause long term hearing damage.

[@1337sim1]

Great video Darko! Thank you for your quality of research on this topic.

[@markkavanagh93]

Love this. Super nerdy but brilliant. Keep up the good work!

[@TheJimi74]

I am glad that I still got some wired headphones as well

[@rickmepham8819]

Has there ever been a hobby as confusing as HiFi? Great video John, you did a superb job in explaining all of this. Thanks.

[@mikewebsdale4777]

Thanks John! Fun to follow along wading through the information.

[@JM-if1mo]

"Staying put" Thank you for the awesome perspective.

[@scottwatson8656]

Great Video, John Darko. Thank you; I listened all the way to the end! Yes, it was technical. However, it is necessary to understand this subject for buying or upgrading purposes. Nobody else explains this material, for the most part, better than you. Thanks Again

[@msquareist]

Great video John. Good advice. Will definitely wait before switching to one other three IEMs

[@paulofoliveira]

Really good, I love these nerdier videos 👌👏

[@PatrickPecoraro]

Moral of the story use wired headphones.

[@NostalgicMem0ries]

while cycling, running or workouts its not comfy, wireless is very practical these days and im happy we are moving closer to cd quality, with bt 6 or future version we might get even better quality, beyond cd quality most people cant tell diference unless they are audiophiles or musicians. if they can make stable cd quality with bt, im absolutely fine with that over wires and mess

[@joebass5163]

I'm just going to use wired headphones if I want the highest audio quality lol

[@keesv8000]

Thanks for this vid. I liked not only the Nerd Factor, but your shirt as well.

[@mrtreevis]

In my experience, LDAC has been a game-changer. It's been the most reliable for sound quality and constant uninterrupted connection which was something that plagued my many other Bluetooth headphones/iems. I also agree that the hardware makes a bigger difference. For me the now old Sony WFXM3's are just unbeatable! I love them and they can be had for so little now relative to their new price.

[@Kodiak-1984]

Sony is great, I have the headphone Wh-1000XM4 its very nice, but it gets too hot in the summer. Now I give a chance for Technics EAH-AZ80. This premium brand is owned by Panasonic in 1965. I've watched a lot of comparison videos, most of the time this one came out on top. I can't wait to use it, I'm very curious about it.

[@Soundoverload]

Superb quality review as always.

[@MichaelLopresto]

Thanks John, loved this informative video.

[@Kruziform]

Great Video, i really like this kind of content

[@LDN_BOX]

I’ve been using LDAC for ages and happy with it!

[@mwgoldfix]

John - why do think Apple is not participating in this Bluetooth arms race ?

[@olivierstritt83]

Brilliant and well explained! Thanks🎉

[@andrewdhome]

Not many people might watch it .....but one of your most useful videos for those who do!!!

[@itube027]

I’ll wait for  to release cd quality high fidelity Bluetooth AirPod Pros.

[@taidee]

Thanks JD, yep, it's going to be a battle to get things just right for a little while longer.

[@lalaha4241]

Thx for digging so deep! I give it another year or two to upgrade untill more developements....

[@MrChoppington]

"Hello ladies" - that got a belly laugh from me. Touché, John

[@GaryMatthews1]

Fantastic video John. Whilst I am a cable guy, you explained the subject matter very well and I followed it all. Thx

[@AngeredNumber1988]

Love the content mate, Always a quality watch! Do you have any plans on reviewing the new Cambridge Audio Melomania M100 earbuds??

[@conorfurlong]

My head hurts. As an iPhone user, I’m looking forward to the day when Apple releases its updated AAC, with lossless - which is something they’re apparently working on. I won’t need a degree in audio codecs to know what the hell is playing on my earbuds!

[@eugenenelson9124]

Great. That’s an improvement. With time they will perfect the technology and make it available across platforms. Keep up the good work Qualcomm. Thanks for the video John. Much appreciated!

[@Tura67]

Kudos John with all those tongue twisters!

[@suryaaje5245]

lol happy that a video discuss that much details about things we care about

[@mattybryan2011]

Silversun Pickups just chillin' in the corner...nice!

[@leegodwin2071]

Loving the nerdy 🤓 Also has john made the tweeters cry on the speakers in the back ground?

[@roumiaou]

Very instructive for sure. PLUS the Windowlicker umbrella is a killler 🙂.

[@aaronwade2382]

Getting In depth reviews of earbuds I have my eye on , very soon . Looking forward to it

[@isaacapeltz]

Dude absolutely fantastic analysis

[@darkblueturbo]

Just as you said “…this is so nerdy” I was thinking “this is fantastic!” Thanks John. Love it. I’m in iPhone user and I have a DAC and a cable, but it’s still wonderfully interesting stuff to know.

[@AdamCarrCom]

I stayed until the end. I’m here for it. I’ll sign the petition too. Show us the lossless. 😀

[@gildasguillaume251]

At one point, you lost me 😅

[@sultantoure4220]

What a great job thank you !!!!

[@aphex2k]

25 seconds in and I'm pausing just after I saw the Aphex logo on the handle. This video gets a thumbs up before I've even watched it. Fantastisch!

[@jesusarevalo5790]

John, I have to admit, recognize and congratulate you for how well structured your explanation is about aptX Lossless and aptX Adaptive, it was like having seen the best science fiction movie, complex, disconcerting at times but wow, what an amount of information so well developed. Yes, I love technology, innovation and nerdy things, as always excellent content, greetings from Mexico! You should seriously consider writing a science fiction novel, you have a great ability to explain complex topics.

[@Krell666]

Thinking about sound quality while discussing bluetooth is like discussing the quality of coffee in freeze-dried instant coffee.

[@IainMacUK]

Great video John. Not in any way confusing. I assume requirements are BT 5.3, Qualcomm Snapdragon, and the phone manufacturer to pay the appropriate licences. Samsung only pay for APT-X. Never APT-X HD or above. Because they have their own high quality codec... Would be good to tell your audience about this... They are a major player. Can't install a better codec either..

[@rufoneq]

Excellent explanation ofJohn thank you, as a Sennheiser user I can say there is a notable difference between the two codecs Aptx and Aptx Adaptive. I recently started using the BTD600 dongle so I can extract every ounce of sound from my Momentum 4 since it enables the full AptX suite and you can even FEEL the difference. Tried that dongle with the MTW3s and the diference was not that perceptible. So I can agree in you conclusion: hardware totally matters at the end.

[@gavaniacono]

Excellent, thanks.

[@lunatrics]

That umbrella neeeds brown slip on shoes white summer pantalon and white summer blouse. Aaaand a creepy smile

[@Spleen250]

Just one Word: BRAVO!

[@medonk12rs]

Does Android mangle 44.1 input to 48 kHz and then passes it via Bluetooth? Or, is 44.1 music data put into the BT codec without being resampled to 48 in the first place?

[@harrisfogel6992]

For me the problem lies with Apple. The way to get a Mac to work with AptX codecs, is normally by using Bluetooth Explorer from Apple. But... it doesn't seem to work with Silicon Macs, and Apple hasn't updated the app. Love to see you do a post on getting the best Bluetooth audio from a Mac. I hate it that my Android phone, using LDAC, sounds so much better with a Bluetooth receiver than my new Mac!

[@ozboyblu]

Try the sennheiser BTD 600. You can get AptX quality audio on your Mac or iPad Pro. I hear it works with the iPhone 15 Pro Max also. But I haven’t tested this. Absolute game changer using focal Bathys or momentum 4 or TWM4 with Apple devices.

[@maubetproductions]

Your videos are great Darko. Casual 25 year old iPhone user here and hoping to start upgrading my audio gear as soon as I’m able to afford nicer gear haha. Super informative and thanks for sharing

[@pickyaudio]

I love your videos and the effort to decipher the madness that is hi-res/lossless streaming over Bluetooth! I own all three earbuds as well as the Zenphone 10. I found to consistently stream 44.1khz on the PerL Pro I had to disable Aptx Adaptive Hi-Res 24bit 96khz streaming in the Qualcomm settings in Bluetooth settings. But even then, when I enter developer settings it still shows the connection is 24bit not 16bit. So yea even more confusing but basically I agree, going from regular Aptx to Aptx lossless is the slightest improvement. The same difference using the Denon PerL pro on my iPhone 15 pro with AAC vs Aptx Lossless.

[@pimvanvliet2812]

Love the shirt John

[@robertyoung1777]

I am a firm believer using devices that physically plug in to one another when sound quality matters.

[@g0odnite]

Well me too but the smartphones these days don't come with 3.5mm jack support. And after using TWS about a year now I'm so used to it that I feel wires annoying.

[@flyingaviator8158]

@@g0odnite Sony phones still do!

[@g0odnite]

@@flyingaviator8158 those phones aren't even available around here in the market or online plus very expensive. I've had issue with Sony in the past; I used to own a Xperia Z1 which had a faulty display out of the box and couldn't get any support to get it fixed or replaced.

[@karlh]

I find it funny that these manufacturers mention codecs so much in marketing to promote their earbuds, when the difference is as you said in the video is practically inaudible, because of the limits of sound quality you can get in ~300$ wireless earbuds. I use Sony's WH-1000 XM5 headphones (that should have a much better sound quality than all current wireless earbuds), with LDAC on my phone, and I can ever so slightly hear a difference between a CD-quality file and a 320kbps mp3 one if I'm in a quiet environment and raise the volume a lot.

[@DraconicA5]

This is true. The difference between lossy and lossless is only noticeable in an ideal environment and when you fully focus on the audio. This is why audiophiles haven't always offer the most reliable advice. They also ignore the advantages of EQ, focusing solely on the unaltered initial audio performance of their headphone. 🙄

[@hypie69]

We are all here. We are all watching this video. We love what you do. It is important to us.

[@russmartinez7988]

Bluetooth had a max data rate of 24 Mbits since 2010.

[@hanamichi-sakuragi]

Finally someone with my problem not seen anywhere aptx loseless

[@czondag]

Thanks… I will definitely go for wired now…

[@petererk8064]

Ditto below. Thanks for another helpful and very watchable review.

[@AuggieG]

Thank you for the detailed breakdown! I’m still rocking the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ (2020). I’ll probably wait until I upgrade.

[@KorakMartin40]

Hi John Darko. Tanks for a very informative video about apt lossless bluetooth, I think it was a bit nerdi but not to much., you do make great videos, keep going. on please. Thanks for yours big work and often with a bit of humør, that make it funny to watch and learn something from. Have a nice week Mr. John Darko. Vh Martin.

[@humeyboy]

Lossless is build on top of Adaptive so if the signal etc is not good enough it drops to Adaptive, it really is like a chasing a Unicorn and the newer using XPAN (BT+WIFI) will probably be more stable.

[@ad_fletch]

They named a new codec after a Hasselblad?

[@dirk-jansmit9772]

Thx,informative. Whats with theAphex twin umbrella and all other hints?

[@ernestwong3872]

AptX Lossless is an extension of AptX Adaptive But the problem is unlike LDAC, you have no control to enforce it running at lossless mode. They rely on the Qualcomm software solution for picking up the right mode which is unreliable in my own experience. Using Pixels as test source is a complete failure as well as it can't offer Android SRC bypass like Sony Xperia with her own music app. It is locked to 48KHz. So you are lossless in the codec but subject to SRC loss which completely lose the point.

[@jeraldquist8579]

Thanks again. An emerging technology that needs a good year or two.

[@Jstall7543]

Did You Adjust the EQ on the QC Ultra? Great Video!

[@ebidaukoru]

Thanks great detailed update nothing to apologize about ....looking forward to more info on anything tech related ...looking forward to when codecs like snapdragon aptx lossless will be more main stream and verifiable with videos like these the manufacturers may be influenced to change their marketing strategy and be more transparent..

[@lltechview]

So APTX Losless is really loseless? What about L2HC 3.0? It promises higher bitrates. Huawei FreeBuds Pro 3 support it and it has according to my Huawei phone 1500 Mbit/s where AptX Losless on my Xperia 1 V reaches 1200 Mbit/s

[@spda242]

Using an iPhone, I can use any codec I want as long it is AAC 😂 begun looking at the new Sennheiser offering but there seem to be some issues according to other reviewers with transparency mode and microphone placement. When investing this I found raving reviews for Technics AZ80 so I am thinking of giving those a try, didn’t even knew Technics was in this space

[@sudipchatterjee]

I am using the Final Audio ZE3000 which has the aptX adaptive codec. It sounds phenomenal! For the first time, I felt that it could do justice to all those lossless albums that I’ve purchased and saved on my phone. At first, I attributed all of this excellence to aptX adaptive; but gradually, when I played those same songs from devices that did not support aptX adaptive, I realized that the hardware of the ZE3000 was as much in play as the codec. So I agree with your conclusion here. And John, thanks for reminding me of that Yorke and Donwood book! 🙌

[@upbeatbeacon]

Interesting! What phone are you using , may I ask?

[@Hush99]

Discovering that my Pixel 5 has...none of these HD codecs at all? So many pieces of hardware that need to meet a certified spec, I wonder if bluetooth will ever be lossless for most people using earbuds. If Apple made a shift to a lossless bluetooth codec, I think we might actually the industry make a large shift towards lossless bluetooth as the standard.

[@user-ew5id4yz1j]

No other bluetooth headphones on the area when i look on the street they are everywhere

[@naskrajuciszy]

Aphex Twin umbrella is a nice touch.

[@leonvanderlinden6929]

He got THE umbrella😂

[@EthanHMoore]

Thank you for being as nerdy as me! Could you do a video on the variable quality levels of AAC and just the whole psychoacoustic codec stuff in general? TheSoundGuys did a big deep dive some years ago, and it'd be great to hear your thoughts.

[@skampster]

I own the Denon Pro’s, I wish you gave an opinion between those and the Momentum 4’s.

[@modellbobby]

There is another amazing invention coming up!!!! Cable

[@tientuan1606]

Nice umbrella :D

[@kevinmcgrath3591]

yes, ANY transducer in the audio chain distorts / changes the sound, you are so right the 'lossless' thing comes second to the actual earbuds. Similarly LP cartridges and the whole vinyl thing distorts the signal, hey lots of people like it - and why not - Marmite comes to mind for some reason 😅

[@kostasjezuz4846]

I have the Sony Xperia 1 V, it is, and sounds, amazing! Even the onboard speakers sound amazing, for listening to some music while talking a shower!

[@Sacto1654]

I think Apple may have a trick up their sleeve that could trounce Bluetooth: ultra wideband (UWB). Unlike Bluetooth, UWB allows for much higher bandwidth, and that could make it possible for essentially Apple Lossless quality audio transmission. It's been available on the iPhone since the iPhone 11 generation.

[@sesuncedu]

Minor correction- LDAC in ABR mode will drop from 660 to 492 kbps before going to 330 if necessary (this rate can't be manually selected).