[itchyears]

Is the BT-W5 still the "best" Aptx Adaptive dongle out there?

Its certainly one the more popular ones, for both good reliable hardware and driver/software updates. I found aptx adaptive stable with my apt adaptive headphones (B&W Px7/Px8) but only when running off the PC and mobile for music and YT listening, trying it on my Nvidia shield which is always hit and miss BT dongle wise anyway it was not always the best I had latency lipsync issues, audio crackle/pops and audio drops.

So it really depends what you are using it with both in device and headphone wise and as with anything else its trial and error. Creative got a 30 day return policy.

 

[HanzoSlash43]

Yeah I had that one, but unfortunately it had pops and crackle with 2 headphones, I also tried in USB 2.

I just wasn't sure if I had a defective one or if was "normal" behaviour of the adapter.

 

[itchyears]

It could be normal, I also had pops/crackles with my Nvidia shield, its a messy situation and trial and error, sometimes the BT dongles work perfect with a certain pair of headphones other times you need to change the dongle or hps even, to me its just the way the BT technology is.

Did you try and go though the check list I made with BT issues? here

And which hps are you using?

KB8/9 are also popular alternative BT dongles, eppfun I believe rebrand them on Amazon if you want it quicker but comes at more cost but again no guarantees it improves the situation.

 

[helmutcheese]

Possibly but it it far from perfect (why do above posts not show till I reply).

It should have been called the BT-W4X and they could have waited till now and made the BT-W5 BT5.4 and add LE Audio and Lossless etc.

 

[batagy]

I re-uploaded all new files from Baidu cloud to the folder https://www.mediafire.com/folder/wm0nsvo31p4jq/KB8_KB8P_KB9_KB9P

Hi,

I purchased recently the KB9P adapter from Aliexpress.
Thanks a lot for sharing the firmwares and the Bluetooth Assistant!

The firmware version of my KB9P is 2.14.0.
For the KB8P I see newer versions. Are those firmwares for KB8P (like 2.29) also compatible for KB9P?
Or KB9P requires firmware dedicated for this model?

Thanks in advance!

 

[helmutcheese]

No you do not mix them you use the same one as your devices name but sometimes they do not update, I could not get a KB8 to update but the KB9P did.

 

[batagy]

No you do not mix them you use the same one as your devices name but sometimes they do not update, I could not get a KB8 to update but the KB9P did.

Thanks a lot.
I requested the latest firmware from Ali seller. I'll share it if it's newer than 2.14.0.

 

[StIwY]

I got the Sony Inzone Buds. I will write a mini-review in some days. Actually they are working better than i thought.

 

[Dimitry188]

I have directly compared the dongle on KB8 and Creative BT-4/BT-5.
Headphones Mark Levinson 5909 and Fiio FW5 via AptX Adaptive.
The Creative device sounds noticeably better.

 

[itchyears]

Got the Steel Series Artic pro Wireless headphones for £50 quid off ebay, been testing them for 3 weeks.

No more Audio drops, pops, crackles or any BT issues just clear Audio with stability when using with my TV, PC and Nvidia Shield.

Also the best latency performance yet, no issues with lip sync during movie and tv series playback.

This is with Wireless 2.4ghz Wifi Mode not Bluetooth.

Ill write up a mini review later on

 

[HanzoSlash43]

I have directly compared the dongle on KB8 and Creative BT-4/BT-5.
Headphones Mark Levinson 5909 and Fiio FW5 via AptX Adaptive.
The Creative device sounds noticeably better.

Yeah, I got that impression even with the crackling of the BT-W5, with my Momentum 4.

I thought I was going crazy.

I actually just ordered another one.

 

[streetbeat]

I can't understand why these dongles are so problematic. These things should be simple and rock solid.
Today I decided to give a second chance to my old Creative BT-W3 one. And what it does for double press besides switching to HFP mode? It sends a stop command. No matter if my music on pause, or playing, it just stops so I lose state. Windows 10, Foobar2000.

 

[anonnexus]

The Creative BT-W5 (AptX Adaptive) works fine on my iPhone 15 Pro. There isn't an app though so you have to choose LL or HQ using the PC or Mac app. Fortunately, it saves the setting internally...

I have a BT-W5 and it works great with my Bose QC Ultra Earbuds in AptX Adaptive on PC (Win10) and on my Android phones (old with Android 9 and new with Android 13).
And I also found that it is possible to quickly change between AptX Adaptive HQ and AptX Adaptive LL by just pressing the button on the BT-W5 three times rapidly. So no need to use the windows app for that, just works this way on my phones by pressing the button three times.

 

[helmutcheese]

^^ Nice find, just tested and it works fine even LED colour in App changes but the box for HQ remains checked so assume it will go back to that if disconnected then reconnected just a pity you cannot force or cycle all the codecs same as BT-W3 and older ones.

 

[anonnexus]

^^ Nice find, just tested and it works fine even LED colour in App changes but the box for HQ remains checked so assume it will go back to that if disconnected then reconnected just a pity you cannot force or cycle all the codecs same as BT-W3 and older ones.

I checked the HQ/LL state when replugging the BT-W5 between my smartphones and PC's. Always the latest active HQ/LL state will become active when coupled to a new device, so the state is stored on the BT-W5 itself.
The state is only changed by the PC when selecting the device in the Creative app (or selecting an another config menu in the app when BT-W5 is the selected device) and when the HQ/LL state in the app is different than the one stored in the BT-W5. So the HQ/LL state is not changed when plugging the BT-W5 to another device.
Of course it would be better if we were just able to scroll all the available codecs.

Not that would change much for me when using the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds. The only decent codecs available here are the AptX Adaptive HQ and AptX Adaptive LL.
Standard SBC and AAC are just meh and not enjoyable at all, at least not for me as I am used to listen to high quality sources (e.g.Tidal Hifi Plus) with decent wired headphones.
Although forcing the SBC with the Alternative A2DP Bluetooth driver to use a bitpool of 102 (what the Bose QC Ultra can handle), yielding in around 650 kbit/s bandwidth, was also giving a quite acceptable result. I was rather surprised by that and I am also just wondering why these tweaks did not just became mainstream, and everyone still continues to use standard settings for SBC dating from 20 years ago ... .
So tweaking can also help, but as stated earlier in this thread the whole bluetooth audio situation is just a mess, and also a little disgrace for vendors and OS makers that just not really seem to care about decent mainstram wireless music quality.
But luckily I am at least quite satisfied with my BT-W5/Bose QC Ultra Earbuds combination when I need to go wireless.