Please take a look below at the answer rtings gives to a user asking why they tested the APM with SBC and not with the higher quality AAC:
“Posted 15 hours ago by
Shea Angus (RTINGS.com)
Hi StormyGuy!
Thanks for being patient as we worked on this.
We didn’t expect there to be a difference between between SBC or AAC and all of our testing is done using the SBC Codec so we use that for consistency across all of our reviews. That being said, because of the concerns raised here, we retested the AirPods Max with the AAC Codec and the results were the same. We have updated our review to clarify this and show the results of the AAC Codec testing. You can view the graph
here NOTE: Ignore anything below the 200-300hz range on this graph, as this was entirely measured on our testing equipment.
We do recognize that different codecs might have an impact on the overall listening experience for some people, but our current test bench doesn’t support that right now &
we recognize that this is a downside of our current methodology. That being said, we expect that our results are accurate and should be applicable for people who will be using these headphones.”
and now i just wonder; if they admit by themselves that there is a downside in their methodology, then how accurate all their measurements can be, when most of them are done with SBC? And generally how reliable their whole system can be when there is a downside built into it?
link:
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/discussions/QKwnocO6_yTjH8SR/sbc-vs-aac-codec