By any standards, that should be more than enough to capture and transmit very high-quality audio. Generally speaking, the higher these numbers, the more information will be preserved, and the better your audio has the potential to sound.ĪptX HD operates at 24 bits and up to 48kHz. When a codec is used to transmit audio wirelessly, it encodes that audio at a specific resolution (bit depth) and a specific sample frequency (kHz). Instead, let’s take a look at each codec’s potential based on its technology and specifications. Because of this, we’ll avoid making any judgment calls on which codec sounds best. For instance, if you’re using a set of budget headphones to listen to compressed music, your choice of Bluetooth codec probably won’t make any difference to what you’re hearing. Sound quality is a highly subjective topic and can be influenced by a variety of factors. Winner: aptX Adaptive Sound quality part 1: resolution and frequency Sony However, that isn’t how it has played out - at least so far. In theory, with LDAC’s ability to run on headphones and earbuds, and its software-based implementation, it should be the most widely used of the 24-bit codecs. ![]() Meanwhile, aptX HD has been used by more than 30 headphone manufacturers, and aptX Adaptive has been used by even more companies when you count both headphones and earbuds. Other than Sony itself, the list includes 1More, Anker Soundcore, Soundpeats, Shure, Audio-Technica, Technics, Edifier, Ausounds, Ankbit, and Philips. Not many manufacturers have chosen to adopt LDAC. ![]() This makes LDAC the easy winner for compatibility.Īvailability is a slightly different story. It works on headphones and earbuds, and even though the codec is owned and licensed by Sony, a manufacturer doesn’t need to use Sony’s chips to add LDAC support to their products - it can be implemented using software on a variety of processing platforms. LDAC has no real constraints on either side of the Bluetooth equation. If you’re shopping for wireless earbuds, they will most likely offer aptX or aptX Adaptive, but not aptX HD. There are some exceptions - like the Bowers & Wilkins PI7 - but they’re very rare. For reasons we’ll get into shortly, aptX HD is primarily used for wireless headphones, not wireless earbuds. From a compatibility and availability point of view, this puts aptX Adaptive at a bit of a disadvantage.ĪptX HD has limitations too, but in this case, it’s strictly on the headphones side of the equation. Still, if we’re talking about Android phones that have been released since about 2020, aptX Adaptive support is very good across all of the major brands and many smaller ones - with one very notable exception: No Google Pixel phones currently support aptX Adaptive.Īny wireless headphones or earbuds that support aptX Adaptive must also use Qualcomm’s chips. Only Android phones that use Qualcomm’s audio chipsets can support aptX Adaptive. If your phone is on Android 8.0 or higher (and as long as your phone’s manufacturer hasn’t intentionally disabled one or both), you should be able to use them with a compatible set of earbuds or headphones.ĪptX Adaptive is the newest of the three codecs, and while it also runs on Android devices, it’s not built into the Android operating system. On some older Macs running macOS versions earlier than Catalina, it’s possible - with some work - to get aptX support, but even then, you’re still limited to 16-bit audio.ĪptX HD and LDAC were both added by Google to Android 8.0, letting any Android smartphone manufacturer take advantage of them. If you own an iPhone or iPad, or even a Mac, you are most likely limited to the 16-bit AAC codec. The first thing you should know about these three codecs is that none are currently supported by Apple on its devices. ![]() Compatibility and availability Simon Cohen / Digital Trends Qualcomm builds on aptX Adaptive with aptX Losslessīut which of these codecs is the best? That depends on a lot of factors, so let’s start at the beginning. Yamaha TW-E5B earbuds sport aptX Adaptive and last 8 hours per charge What is aptX? Cutting through the clutter of Qualcomm’s codecs
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