Apt-C -Bluetooth

[Abu Mahendra]

Anyone have experience Streaming digital, bit-perfect lossless audio via Apt-x/Bluetooth-from an Android device?

 

[ChronoReverse]

I have a dongle that supports Apt-X and my phone (GS4) supports Apt-X. It's transparent and you don't hear the blatant artifacts from regular BT compression.

My ears aren't good enough to tell you if it's "audiophile" though =P

 

[poofyhairguy]

Oh, that is why my cheap bluetooth dongle kinda sounds like an old record.

 

[Abu Mahendra]

I have a dongle that supports Apt-X and my phone (GS4) supports Apt-X. It's transparent and you don't hear the blatant artifacts from regular BT compression.

My ears aren't good enough to tell you if it's "audiophile" though =P

Thanks. Yes, that's the thing. My idea is to buy a dongle for my DAC, and then feel the output to studio monitors. If it ain't pretty, it's gonna be pretty Obvious. Ideally the device-to-dongle stream world be lossless.

 

[hans007]

i have a creative labs D200 which supports apt-x. compared to other non apt-x speakers , even speakers that are larger etc it does sound significantly better. hard to describe, but the high end sounds more crisp, basically sounds like a cabled connection. like the difference between "studio" headphones for most consumers like whatever they sell at target by beats and say my beyerdynamics.

 

[lopri]

Pardon my ignorance but what is Apt-x (Apt-c)?

 

[ChronoReverse]

It's aptX (probably typo that it's 'c' in the title) which is a lossless codec for Bluetooth.


Standard Bluetooth only mandates SBC for encoding music. Unfortunately, SBC isn't that good in the first place and implemented encoders wouldn't have the tuning stuff like LAME might have.

As a result, the audio quality is actually noticeably lower and I'm not talking about the minor differences "audiophiles" might complain about. With aptX, you can at least get reasonable quality (it's supposed to be lossless and all that but my ears aren't that good).

 

[Abu Mahendra]

Ive decided to forego the aptx route simply cuz it aint lossless. I am now exploring KLEER technology which is indeed superior and lossless.

The idea is now for an ipod classic with a kleer dongle streaming lossless digital audio to a tabletop dac. From then to the monitors via xlr. Airphonic and Focal make such dongles.

 

[lopri]

Thank you. That is interesting. So aptX is the only lossless codec for BT? I should look it up myself.

 

[Abu Mahendra]

AptX can be near lossless, but it is not fully lossless. AptX Lossless is lossless. It is only the former, regrettably, which is supported currently by some Android devices.

There is no Apt-c. That was a typo.