[itchyears]

I've not had a single issue with the PX8's on APTX Adaptive as long as my phone is on my person or at the side of me. The seem more stable than my Sony's on LDAC.

Nice, yes with my mobile phone playback BT playback was perfect with PX7s2/PX8, its when its connected to the desktop PC and LG TV things went belly up.

Sony XM5s in comparison, flawless on any device be it desktop PC, LG TV or mobile. Can only guess Sony's bluetooth chipset implementation is better then B&Ws Px7/8, but its Sony's field in this area with electronics I guess.

 

[evhvis]

Do you have problems with the Creative BTW-W5 and the PX8? I mean the connection and the sound quality?
Since I updated the Sennheiser BTD600 to 24bit/96kHz it has problems with the PX8.
The Creative dongle supports more aptx codes and can save 4 Bluetooth devices.
The question is the creative dongle updatable?

The creative dongle is more expensive but it’s maybe the better deal!?

So what is your decision?

The BT-W5 has much better connection stability than the BT-W4 and BTD600, at least that is the case for me. Sound seems to at least as good as the best I get out of the other two dongles, maybe better and it also has aptX-HD support. My guess is that the improved connection stability means it stays at max bit-rate most of the time while the other two will lower it when they get interference. Both the BT-W4 and BDT600 work well in environments with low or moderate amount of other devices on similar wavelength, but can be unstable if there is a lot of other units.

 

[evhvis]

I did a fair bit of testing across aptX HD and Adaptive across desktop PC and phone with flac music collection and Alternative A2DP Driver aptx HD windows settings and Creative BT-W5 BT dongle on phone, and frankly could not tell any difference, mind you my ears are getting on!




Yup I noticed a nice improvement with adaptive over HD with lipsync performance during movie watching. But I still ran into a fair deal of BT issues, random signal drops, random latency issues, pops/crackles with my PX8 and even PX7s2. Its a mine field area when having BT related issues so both my PX7s2 and PX8 went back.



Which issues did you run into and was it the W5 dongle? Bluetooth imo is a bit hit and miss, its great when it works and probably more suited for mobile music listeners on the go but for desktop PCs and TVs users not quite sure Bluetooth technology is there yet.

Having more than one unit connected while using higher bit rate codecs has caused issues for me on pretty much all headphones, but the PX8 have been generally well behaved unless there are lots of units in the area and only one unit connected to the headphone. BT on high bit rate codecs doesn't work well over longer distances in general, unless in a low interference environment.

 

[BigZ12]

Do you have problems with the Creative BTW-W5 and the PX8? I mean the connection and the sound quality?
Since I updated the Sennheiser BTD600 to 24bit/96kHz it has problems with the PX8.
The Creative dongle supports more aptx codes and can save 4 Bluetooth devices.
The question is the creative dongle updatable?

The creative dongle is more expensive but it’s maybe the better deal!?

So what is your decision?

No problem at all. BT-range and -stability are rock solid!

The BT-W5 has a Windows 11 and MacOS app, that has both a firmware updater and audio driver updater.

I can highly recommend it!

 

[vincenz]

I did a fair bit of testing across aptX HD and Adaptive across desktop PC and phone with flac music collection and Alternative A2DP Driver aptx HD windows settings and Creative BT-W5 BT dongle on phone, and frankly could not tell any difference, mind you my ears are getting on!




Yup I noticed a nice improvement with adaptive over HD with lipsync performance during movie watching. But I still ran into a fair deal of BT issues, random signal drops, random latency issues, pops/crackles with my PX8 and even PX7s2. Its a mine field area when having BT related issues so both my PX7s2 and PX8 went back.



Which issues did you run into and was it the W5 dongle? Bluetooth imo is a bit hit and miss, its great when it works and probably more suited for mobile music listeners on the go but for desktop PCs and TVs users not quite sure Bluetooth technology is there yet.

It was the BT-W4. Lots of stuttering, lag, fast forwarding, static, artifacts, etc. I do agree that there can be lots of factors that can cause issues with bluetooth. BT-W3X seems to be solid with no issues. Slight bit of lag as noted with videos, but I will not be using it for that at all so it's fine by me.

The BT-W5 has much better connection stability than the BT-W4 and BTD600, at least that is the case for me. Sound seems to at least as good as the best I get out of the other two dongles, maybe better and it also has aptX-HD support. My guess is that the improved connection stability means it stays at max bit-rate most of the time while the other two will lower it when they get interference. Both the BT-W4 and BDT600 work well in environments with low or moderate amount of other devices on similar wavelength, but can be unstable if there is a lot of other units.

Sounds like the BT-W5 is the better buy. Though the adapter switches to the appropriate codec automatically, I can't imagine that you ever see it go to AptX HD? Does it stay on AptX Adaptive HQ and AptX Adapter LL? It would be nice if you could manually switch it with a button press. Like it'd be great to be on HD for music, but switch to auto for everything else, just cause why not have the absolute max rate for music?

 

[itchyears]

The BT-W5 has much better connection stability than the BT-W4 and BTD600, at least that is the case for me. Sound seems to at least as good as the best I get out of the other two dongles, maybe better and it also has aptX-HD support. My guess is that the improved connection stability means it stays at max bit-rate most of the time while the other two will lower it when they get interference. Both the BT-W4 and BDT600 work well in environments with low or moderate amount of other devices on similar wavelength, but can be unstable if there is a lot of other units.

Yup others noticed the BT-W5 being bit more better then previous Creative dongles, glad you noticed it also mind you a few others noticed their W5s had pops/clicks or low volume issues so went with the KB8P/9P or similar Chinese dongles but not tried any of them, I think I should have tried them 1st in all my testing.

Having more than one unit connected while using higher bit rate codecs has caused issues for me on pretty much all headphones, but the PX8 have been generally well behaved unless there are lots of units in the area and only one unit connected to the headphone. BT on high bit rate codecs doesn't work well over longer distances in general, unless in a low interference environment.

Yup found that out the hard way, lots of trial and error. I pretty much am hard wired Ethernet on all my devices, very few devices on wifi and just one BT device connected (hps) with rest BT devices switched off as much as possible to avoid interference.

I just couldn't quite get on with the PX8s or PX72s, might have been the TV or Nvidia shield causing interference not sure but the Sony xm5s and even Creative Zen hps work much more reliable with no pops/crackling or audio drop outs, although still in testing.

This was with just my user case and setup, the PX8s were by far the best wireless headphones I ever put on my head in terms of sound quality and comfort.

 

[evhvis]

It was the BT-W4. Lots of stuttering, lag, fast forwarding, static, artifacts, etc. I do agree that there can be lots of factors that can cause issues with bluetooth. BT-W3X seems to be solid with no issues. Slight bit of lag as noted with videos, but I will not be using it for that at all so it's fine by me.


Sounds like the BT-W5 is the better buy. Though the adapter switches to the appropriate codec automatically, I can't imagine that you ever see it go to AptX HD? Does it stay on AptX Adaptive HQ and AptX Adapter LL? It would be nice if you could manually switch it with a button press. Like it'd be great to be on HD for music, but switch to auto for everything else, just cause why not have the absolute max rate for music?

You have to set low latency preferred using the app on a desktop if you want aptX adaptive with low latency. It stays in adaptive HQ with PX8, PI7 S2 and Bathys with no option of going to HD unless the headphones do not support adaptive.

Haven't paired them with my Aonic 50 yet, but they will probably light up with HD on those. Also looking at some BT cans that do not support adaptive so the Aonic 50 and the possible future purchase are the main reasons for why I bought the W5.

 

[evhvis]

Yup others noticed the BT-W5 being bit more better then previous Creative dongles, glad you noticed it also mind you a few others noticed their W5s had pops/clicks or low volume issues so went with the KB8P/9P or similar Chinese dongles but not tried any of them, I think I should have tried them 1st in all my testing.



Yup found that out the hard way, lots of trial and error. I pretty much am hard wired Ethernet on all my devices, very few devices on wifi and just one BT device connected (hps) with rest BT devices switched off as much as possible to avoid interference.

I just couldn't quite get on with the PX8s or PX72s, might have been the TV or Nvidia shield causing interference not sure but the Sony xm5s and even Creative Zen hps work much more reliable with no pops/crackling or audio drop outs, although still in testing.

This was with just my user case and setup, the PX8s were by far the best wireless headphones I ever put on my head in terms of sound quality and comfort.

Older USB3 ports had enough interference to almost kill wi-fi connections, not sure if they have fixed it on newer ones. It was so bad that Intel wrote a whitepaper on it. I have to use 10cm extenders on my keyboard and mouse on my Livingroom streaming PC to get good range as the range is poor if they are plugged directly into the port and those devices are high end mice/kb while cheap ones do not work at all if plugged directly into the port. It could be that it would help to use an extender cable to get some distance between the dongle and the streaming device.

XM5 use SBC which is very low bit-rate, not sure what the creative zen use as I am not familiar with the product.

 

[itchyears]

Sounds like the BT-W5 is the better buy. Though the adapter switches to the appropriate codec automatically, I can't imagine that you ever see it go to AptX HD? Does it stay on AptX Adaptive HQ and AptX Adapter LL? It would be nice if you could manually switch it with a button press. Like it'd be great to be on HD for music, but switch to auto for everything else, just cause why not have the absolute max rate for music?

This drove me nuts, its one of those things manufacturers just can't get right its their way or the highway approach. I wish manufacturers adding bluetooth technology into their products just made it easy, its not difficult Avantree DG60p has an music and gamer/Low lantency hard switch/button on the dongle so you can use it on multiple devices and without software/app or driver to do any Codec switching. There is one creative dongle that has a hard button to change codecs, think it was the W3 off top of my head.

if codec switching wasn't bad enough its the confirming what codec is actually being used both ends also, a simple led different color both ends would work.

By the way if you use the W5 on the Windows PC you can set in the creative app aptx HQ or LL and it saves it when you disconnect the dongle from the PC and plug it else where, so the settings still carry over to the next device that is one nice feature at least.

 

[itchyears]

Older USB3 ports had enough interference to almost kill wi-fi connections, not sure if they have fixed it on newer ones. It was so bad that Intel wrote a whitepaper on it. I have to use 10cm extenders on my keyboard and mouse on my Livingroom streaming PC to get good range as the range is poor if they are plugged directly into the port and those devices are high end mice/kb while cheap ones do not work at all if plugged directly into the port. It could be that it would help to use an extender cable to get some distance between the dongle and the streaming device.

XM5 use SBC which is very low bit-rate, not sure what the creative zen use as I am not familiar with the product.

Yup good idea, have usb extenders 2.0 and 3.0 running like an octopus in my set up already, it does help and work.

Yes found out usb 3.0 ports can be hell with BT and sound quality interference. I noticed much better and reliable performance coming from an usb 2.0 port from an 20 year old PC I dug out of the attic.

I found short thick cables to be better, sometimes usb 2.0 works better also. Even power cables and supplies on their own power points work better. Probably dozens more
things to try, there almost needs to be a Bluetooth troubleshooting list.

For mobile phone users and PX7/8 owners probably nothing to worry about, its when trying to use TV, Nvidia Shield and PC things can get tricky.

 

[Steve_72]

Contrary to popular opinion on here, the new Royal Burgundy color are the best looking headphones I own, and may be the best I've ever owned. Top 3 for sure. Definitely my favorite of all the other PX8 colors. No problem what so ever wearing these out in public.

Those are stunning! Thanks for sharing the new colour way. Much nicer than the product images.

 

[FlyingFungus]

Those actually look really nice!

 

[TK33]

Nice, yes with my mobile phone playback BT playback was perfect with PX7s2/PX8, its when its connected to the desktop PC and LG TV things went belly up.

Sony XM5s in comparison, flawless on any device be it desktop PC, LG TV or mobile. Can only guess Sony's bluetooth chipset implementation is better then B&Ws Px7/8, but its Sony's field in this area with electronics I guess.

I have no issues with Px8 connected directly to my Nuc 11 via aptX HD (Alternative A2DP Driver so no dongle needed anymore). Also have not had issues with the Px8 or Px7 S2 + Creative BT-W4 (usually use Px7 S2 + BT-W4 on a PC in the office). Also have a Creative BT-W3 that I used with my Aonic 50 with no issues. For mobile, I use Android phones and have no issues with aptX adaptive with LG V60 or aptX HD on Pixel 7 Pro when using either the Px8 or Px7 S2 (no dongle needed and use for commuting all the time).

Edit: also agree with previous comments; I can't really tell the difference between aptX HD and aptX adaptive either. I try not to focus too much on codecs anymore. I obviously prefer to use the best available codec but, for me, bluetooth is about convenience and I would rather not have to carry extra dongles around, if possible.

 

[itchyears]

I have no issues with Px8 connected directly to my Nuc 11 via aptX HD (Alternative A2DP Driver so no dongle needed anymore). Also have not had issues with the Px8 or Px7 S2 + Creative BT-W4 (usually use Px7 S2 + BT-W4 on a PC in the office). Also have a Creative BT-W3 that I used with my Aonic 50 with no issues. For mobile, I use Android phones and have no issues with aptX adaptive with LG V60 or aptX HD on Pixel 7 Pro when using either the Px8 or Px7 S2 (no dongle needed and use for commuting all the time).

Edit: also agree with previous comments; I can't really tell the difference between aptX HD and aptX adaptive either. I try not to focus too much on codecs anymore. I obviously prefer to use the best available codec but, for me, bluetooth is about convenience and I would rather not have to carry extra dongles around, if possible.

Nice, yeah mobiles and desktop performance seemed fine, but a few issues on the desktop side but more problematic on my TV side then anything. Maybe some BT devices don't get along with certain devices not sure.

Yes wish it was that way without dongles.

But I am having success with my Creative Zen hybrid headphones and Creatives newest L3 BT dongle, pales in comparison to the PX7s2 or PX8 sound quality but it also works much more reliable and stable.

I may try one of the newer Bluetooth 5.3 models due out soon, see if I have any luck with those.

 

[vincenz]

Agree, when something is so dependent on environmental factors and devices, it's bound to be a headache for setup and use. Bluetooth and codecs are a complete minefield and it doesn't help with the fast pace of development either. Who wants to buy a new set of high end headphones every year or two to chase the latest codec? Just the nature of this though, and am glad it exists because when it works, it's worth it