[helmutcheese]

Yes, I knew you meant phones, but they really cannot go down that rout as it would limit sales IMO as many do no have LDAC buds then again most people do not have a clue one way or another and would be using SBC.

I assume the Cans are so large there was space for more than 1 Chipset, QUALCOMM's and their own for the tuning/ANC side and I have even seen at least one other brand using Sony's ANC chip (under licence no doubt).

 

[O11111]

Sony did drop all Codecs on their newer Ear/Headphone to leave you with LDAC.

I had the older overhead XM3 and they had aptX+aptX HD and LDAC.

They just went from Qualcomm SoCs to Mediatek/Airoha (I guess they got a better deal). aptX/HD weren't in new SoCs in the first place. Not that they couldn't add it, but why would they? To pay Qualcomm license fees? Anyway, LDAC is just better than even aptX HD. It is also free as a part of AOSP (aptX/HD got into AOSP just few months ago, while LDAC is available since Android 8) and therefore widely supported. Even Samsung haven't removed LDAC from their Android devices.

 

[Blacklands]

Anyway, LDAC is just better than even aptX HD. It is also free as a part of AOSP (aptX/HD got into AOSP just few months ago, while LDAC is available since Android 8) and therefore widely supported. Even Samsung haven't removed LDAC from their Android devices.

Too bad though that there are somehow still no simple LDAC transmitters out there. You know, like the aptX Adaptive/Lossless ones we have been discussing here. Just a USB dongle. I'm on Windows 10 (refuse to update to 11), I have Sony headphones, and I have to connect to them over SBC. And no, that third party driver someone made doesn't seem to work for me sadly, it just breaks audio completely. Where are the LDAC transmitters...?!

 

[helmutcheese]

LDAC is overrated, high latency and poor range and eats battery life, many feel aptX is as good or better at 16/44.1 and aptX HD is as good or better at 24/48 and now we have aptX Adaptive at 24/96.

99% of my music is CD rips so no point in using LDAC at 16/44.1.

I hardly user my FiiO Neckband+FH5's and FiiO BTA30 Pro since I got aptX Adaptive USB Dongles.

 

[O11111]

I have even seen at least one other brand using Sony's ANC chip

Which one?

 

[helmutcheese]

I cannot remember but it was back when the XM3 had been out a while or new XM4 just came out and I also cannot remember if it was headphones or earphones.

 

[O11111]

Too bad though that there are somehow still no simple LDAC transmitters out there.

Soon™

Where are the LDAC transmitters...?!

I have one. Well, it is actually a huge QCC5144 dev board with custom firmware (could be downloaded from 52bluetooth). Not that I need it as Linux supports LDAC just fine, but still.
Unfortunately, there are no LHDC transmitters. While it's possible to find some LDAC ones (i.e. BTA 30 Pro), LHDC ones just do not exist.

LDAC is overrated, high latency

Have you measured it? Well, actually, it's not that bad if you're using some 'hardware' encoder (DSP to be precise. Latest Qualcomm Snapdragons have Hexagon).

and poor range

And what did you expect at 990 kbps? Anything would have bad range at such bitrate.

and eats battery life

It depends. If implemented properly it's not worse than others.

 

[helmutcheese]

I stand by what I said, 99% of people now jumping on the LDAC bandwagon use it as it is the l33t "in thing" they do not have Hi-Res files.

I am not against LDAC and have used it for years on my phone and previous phone so 2016 at least and now on PC with or without without the FiiO due to recent A2P driver from Bluetooth Goodies.

 

[O11111]

aptX Adaptive at 24/96

It eats battery as well. I've seen someone complaining about aptX Adaptive vs LDAC (different headphones and same phone).

99% of my music is CD rips so no point in using LDAC at 16/44.1.

Let's be honest, probably good old AAC is more than enough in this case. But at 16/44.1 even plain FLAC over A2DP would work (requires some vendor to implement it, but that would be the ideal setup for your needs)

 

[helmutcheese]

I do not go by what others say, I try it myself and again I am not streaming 24/96 files 99% of the time so aptX is fine and ACC is not (outside Apples eco) as it is 256k mostly (I have 300k+AAC earbuds like the FiiO's).

The latest Soundpeats LDAC earbuds are crippled to 192k AAC. for some reason (no doubt battery claims).

As I said I am not against LDAC but I am not a Fanboy of it either.

If I want to save battery (sleeping overnight) I use AAC as it is good enough to play brown noise for 8+ hours.

 

[C_Lindbergh]

So let me get this straight, newer BT devices can use LE-audio as the protocol instead of A2DP, but without using the new codecs LC3/LC3+?

What benefits will there be in that case? Let's say LE-audio + APTX Adaptive?

 

[O11111]

I am not a Fanboy of it either.

Neither am I. LC3plus HR seems to be much better at even lower bitrates. Fully open-source as well.

as it is 256k mostly (I have 300k+AAC earbuds like the FiiO's).

As far as I know, by default QCC5141 (used in recent FiiO earbuds) is limited to 264 kbps. Unless FiiO changed that (which I highly doubt), it will be limited to that bitrate. More than enough, I would say. My Android phone used much lower bitrate when I last checked (164 kbps or something).

I am not streaming 24/96 files 99%

Not that you can hear the difference anyway. Unless you're a bat, of course. Humans usually hear frequencies of up to 20 kHz (and as one gets older, it gets worse), so 48 kHz sampling rate is enough for basically everything. One could use 96 kHz just to be on the safe side, but there's no point in using anything higher than that.

 

[O11111]

So let me get this straight, newer BT devices can use LE-audio as the protocol instead of A2DP, but without using the new codecs LC3/LC3+?

That was discussed earlier. According to Bluetooth SIG website: "While support for LC3 will be mandatory, LE Audio will allow for the addition of optional codecs as well as the use of custom codecs."
So LC3 will be present in any LE Audio-enabled device. LC3plus is another story. There is even no spec for that yet.

That benefits will there be in that case? Let's say LE-audio + APTX Adaptive?

That might work. But be aware that Android devices seem not to support that. So unless you're using latest QCC5181/QCC3086 source and QCCxx7x/8x sink device, it's not going to work. Maybe it will be added in the future, but given that Qualcomm will almost certainly want more money for that, very small amount of phone manufacturers will add it. I've also seen references to aptX Lite, but don't ask me what it is.

 

[C_Lindbergh]

That was discussed earlier. According to Bluetooth SIG website: "While support for LC3 will be mandatory, LE Audio will allow for the addition of optional codecs as well as the use of custom codecs."
So LC3 will be present in any LE Audio-enabled device. LC3plus is another story. There is even no spec for that yet.

That might work. But be aware that Android devices seem not to support that. So unless you're using latest QCC5181/QCC3086 source and QCCxx7x/8x sink device, it's not going to work. Maybe it will be added in the future, but given that Qualcomm will almost certainly want more money for that, very small amount of phone manufacturers will add it. I've also seen references to aptX Lite, but don't ask me what it is.

Bluetooth audio continues to be a jungle...

Hopefully the future will be brighter and more simple.

 

[master grunthos]

For the purpose of contributing some findings to this thread here's what I have found with this device:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/354446372819

which is a YET-T9 according to the sound devices on my PC - it's been discussed earlier in the thread.

1. It works, seems to sound fine.
2. Supports device mics ok
3. Using the Qudelix 5K it hot switches codecs fine (SBC sometimes has some glitches hotswitching).
4. Aptx Adaptive gets quite low bitrates compared to from my sony phone. This appears to be range sensitive. only getting >400kbps within a few cm range.
5. With Sennheiser M4W while the T9 says it's in Aptx HD the sennheiser app says "no music stream", in otehr codecs the app reports correctly.
6. Seems to work OK with the Hifiman Deva Pro B2R Mini
7. Not tested other inputs yet.
8. Changing windows bitrate in properties hos no impact on what the Qudelix 5k reports back