[dweaver]

OK all my testing of Infected mushroom gave me some A/B/C time between the MTW, N200, WF700N.

The MTW and WF700N actually sound quite similar with the MTW having more clarity in the midrange and treble but not by much. The N200 surprised me because it has a tighter bass but it went as deep as the other 2 but has much more air and sizzle up top. If you can handle the added mids and treble presence it is definitely the most revealing and balanced of the 3 products.

So far the added signal strength, better battery life (MTW vs WF700N) and slight clarity boost give the MTW the edge over the WF700N. The only question is whether it makes them worth almost twice as much. Given the closer price comparison of the WF1000X and the MTW the MTW is a slam dunk winner though because it sounds at least as good and is wayyyyyy more stable BT wise.

 

[BigZ12]

OK all my testing of Infected mushroom gave me some A/B/C time between the MTW, N200, WF700N.

The MTW and WF700N actually sound quite similar with the MTW having more clarity in the midrange and treble but not by much. The N200 surprised me because it has a tighter bass but it went as deep as the other 2 but has much more air and sizzle up top. If you can handle the added mids and treble presence it is definitely the most revealing and balanced of the 3 products.

So far the added signal strength, better battery life (MTW vs WF700N) and slight clarity boost give the MTW the edge over the WF700N. The only question is whether it makes them worth almost twice as much. Given the closer price comparison of the WF1000X and the MTW the MTW is a slam dunk winner though because it sounds at least as good and is wayyyyyy more stable BT wise.

I don't understand. I hear it sooo good with SBC, and on the left with MTWs. It's clean and tight with my other 5!!!!! headsets with AAC/AptX! With so many sources tested as well.
So it can't be my hearing when it's flawless with AAC/Aptx and other headsets!?!

Edit: Embarrassing Didn't see your previous post.
So you hear the buzz I talk about with SBC.
Did you hear it with AAC/AptX and a wired headphone? I don't.
Please try the other tracks I PM'd you.
Thanks again.

 

[clerkpalmer]

I don't understand. I hear it sooo good with SBC, and on the left with MTWs. It's clean and tight with my other 5!!!!! headsets with AAC/AptX! With so many sources tested as well.
So it can't be my hearing when it's flawless with AAC/Aptx and other headsets!?!

I believe you are hearing differences but I’m struggling with the notion that the MTW are AAC Aptx in only one earbud. Can’t. Be. So.

 

[mikp]

The Mifo O5 and Air-X does not support multi device connection at once, you'll have to disconnect from the connected device before you connect to the next.

The mavin seem to have issues connecting with Intel® Wireless-AC 8265 + Bluetooth 4.2. connects as hands free and no audio on win 10. Tested on another laptop with win 10 and there they worked.

 

[james444]

I believe you are hearing differences but I’m struggling with the notion that the MTW are AAC Aptx in only one earbud. Can’t. Be. So.

Not only the MTW, but possibly all current TWs that use NFMI. Unless there's some new NFMI chip that supports other codecs in addition to SBC.

Here's a reddit post on the Bragi Dash, same story...
https://www.reddit.com/r/thedash/comments/7xjaom/hardware_refresh_on_the_horizon_watch_the/dudtyz3/

But again, SBC doesn't necessarily sound worse than AAC or aptX, provided the bitrate is high enough.

 

[clerkpalmer]

Not only the MTW, but possibly all current TWs that use NFMI. Unless there's some new NFMI chip that supports other codecs in addition to SBC.

Here's a reddit post on the Bragi Dash, same story...
https://www.reddit.com/r/thedash/comments/7xjaom/hardware_refresh_on_the_horizon_watch_the/dudtyz3/

But again, SBC doesn't necessarily sound worse than AAC or aptX, provided the bitrate is high enough.

Could there be a real benefit to at least getting the stream from the source in aac aptx? Would it also improve the quality of the near field connection? This is truly remarkable if true and seems to be a dirty little secret.

 

[james444]

Could there be a real benefit to at least getting the stream from the source in aac aptx? Would it also improve the quality of the near field connection? This is truly remarkable if true and seems to be a dirty little secret.

Yes, of course, since AAC and aptX are more robust and have less artifacts at lower bitrate. Keep in mind that the source connection via BT has to bridge a wider distance and is more prone to interference than the NFMI connection between left and right earpiece. SBC at high bitrates sounds very good, but interference or weak signal strength can make the BT stream drop down to lower bitrate, where AAC and aptX have a clear advantage over SBC.

The NFMI connection, on the other hand, just has to bridge a rather small and invariant distance from ear to ear, so it's much more likely to retain a stable high bitrate with SBC than the BT connection.

 

[clerkpalmer]

Still BS if only one earpierce is aac aptx. This might explain why no one is going to bother with LDAC or Aptxhd in this space at least until the nfmi tech is improved.

 

[clerkpalmer]

After your discovery all of my tw headsets immediately sounded worse to me...

 

[eclein]

Not sure if you guys know how to fix this problem I’m having but when I connect via Bluetooth to my ipad or android phone so I can stream Spotify, I get stuttering constantly for awhile then it’ll slow down or stop only to come back over and over.
I’ve shut down as many background services as I can, location services, anything that might check in via the internet and then restart on and on.....it helps but it always restarts.....its unlistenable.....is there a workaround that you folks know of??

I only bought the DAP (HIDIZ AP60 PRO) so I could stream Spotify via bluetooth and use a goodDAC chip to convert.....any ideas?

 

[albau]

Still BS if only one earpierce is aac aptx. This might explain why no one is going to bother with LDAC or Aptxhd in this space at least until the nfmi tech is improved.

There're new Qualcomm BT5 chips I believe that allow for two identical and synced streams going to both earbuds from the source. Basically independent connections. So no NFMI needed.

 

[ebrandon]

If it's true that one earbud is always SBC that's a total deal breaker for me.

For anyone who thinks SBC is good enough or that SBC / AAC / APTX / LDAC all sound the same, here is a very interesting set of measurements made by Radstone, the sophisticated electronics manufacturer who makes the well-known ES100 bluetooth receiver.

This is from this post https://www.head-fi.org/threads/radsone-earstudio.867366/page-125#post-14389089

 

[james444]

Still BS if only one earpierce is aac aptx. This might explain why no one is going to bother with LDAC or Aptxhd in this space at least until the nfmi tech is improved.

After your discovery all of my tw headsets immediately sounded worse to me...

Let's not overeact and keep to the facts instead. I've linked this before and link it again now, this blind test proves that SBC is pretty much transparent at 372 kbit/s: http://soundexpert.org/encoders-320-kbps
It scores a solid 7.80 rating, significantly above 5.00, the threshold of human sound artifact perception in this test.

Which means, that if NFMI streams SBC at 596 kbit/s, it should be perfectly transparent and not constitute a bottleneck in SQ, regardless of whether AAC, aptX or LDAC is being used for the BT connection.

 

[clerkpalmer]

Let's not overeact and keep to the facts instead. I've linked this before and link it again now, this blind test proves that SBC is pretty much transparent at 372 kbit/s: http://soundexpert.org/encoders-320-kbps
It scores a solid 7.80 rating, significantly above 5.00, the threshold of human sound artifact perception in this test.

Which means, that if NFMI streams SBC at 596 kbit/s, it should be perfectly transparent and not constitute a bottleneck in SQ, regardless of whether AAC, aptX or LDAC is being used for the BT connection.

Except that BigZ identified the issue based purely on what he was hearing. Which is pretty damn impressive.

 

[clerkpalmer]

If it's true that one earbud is always SBC that's a total deal breaker for me.

For anyone who thinks SBC is good enough or that SBC / AAC / APTX / LDAC all sound the same, here is a very interesting set of measurements made by Radstone, the sophisticated electronics manufacturer who makes the well-known ES100 bluetooth receiver.

This is from this post https://www.head-fi.org/threads/radsone-earstudio.867366/page-125#post-14389089

Any ideas why AAC performs better on the Note versus iOS?