Anyone use TWS on PC? Looking for balance between 'Sound & Latency'
Jan 7, 2024 at 3:39 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 4

AnotherLevel

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Ideally a pair for both:
  1. iPhone in public/commuting (20% of the time)
  2. PC for single-player gaming, movies (80% of the time)
Sound quality is most important for me, and right now XM5's seem to be the best.
However it has a 226/252ms latency depending on the codec. (XM5's lower latency LC3 codec only works with Sony phones.)
That's a little too high even though I don't play competitive FPS.

The alternative would be Airpods Pro 2, with all the benefits of the Apple Ecosystem and a comparable sound quality to the XM5's.
Seems to be 160ms with SBC (no data for AAC) which isn't ideal but barely passable considering the sound quality.

Low latency options requiring 2.4GHz dongles or AptX adapters don't really appeal to me (Razer Hammerhead, Sony INZONE, Sony Pulse Explore).
Rant: I would have to pay extra for the dongle (if not included) and have something stick out my laptop, to reduce latency while experiencing worse sound quality.
 
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Jan 7, 2024 at 11:16 AM Post #2 of 4
The Razer Hammerhead non-Pro Hyperspeed claims 60 ms latency. Might be worth a shot. The dongle is a must for gaming in my experience though.

Personally, I prefer headsets because parts can be replaced when broken (e.g. mics) or used up (e.g. batteries).
 
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Jan 13, 2024 at 9:24 PM Post #3 of 4
As yage says you need a dongle for gaming for sure due to latency, no way around it except wired.

The Pulse Explore is my rec for sure, the dongle is included and you shouldn't notice latency playing games using it.

Sound quality is great, only things I would say is that you should use your own eartips and battery life could be an issue. Being planars they are power hungry and you'll get around 4 hours on a charge.
 
Jan 14, 2024 at 9:37 AM Post #4 of 4
Every once in a while, I'll notice an article somewhere about PCs getting better support for low latency Bluetooth, but unless that's actually come to past and your system has support, you're probably going to need a dongle for gaming. If you're really a casual gamer maybe the latency won't bother you, maybe you'll be fine with SBC, but if you want low latency you'll probably need to get over your dislike of dongles.
 

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