Going fully Wireless IEMs. Too soon? Or are we there yet?
Sep 22, 2017 at 5:33 PM Post #16 of 61,349
Does 5.0 offer any actual audio improvements? I have read mixed reports. AptxHD maybe requires 5.0?

If my understanding of Bluetooth is correct, there are two modes of Bluetooth, a low power mode and a high power mode. The low power mode got a considerable boost to the bitrate compared to Bluetooth 4.2. From what I understand, and correct me if I'm wrong, wireless earphones use the high-power Bluetooth mode which didn't see significant improvements in terms of bitrate so, if my understanding is correct, there should not be a significant and considerable difference from Bluetooth 4.2 and 5.0 earphones in terms of sound quality.

Again, this is my current understanding, so correct me if I'm wrong.

Edit: I checked a few sources to confirm my understanding and my conclusion is, apparently, correct, but my wording was not.

According to a video I just watched there will be an audio streaming mode coming to low power Bluetooth but that Bluetooth mode has a lower maximum bitrate than the high power one so, while there might be a considerable increase in battery life for some Bluetooth earphones, if they are using this new low power audio streaming mode, the audio quality should be even worse.
 
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Sep 22, 2017 at 5:51 PM Post #18 of 61,349
http://www.mouser.com/pdfdocs/bluetooth-5-faq.pdf

Low power has 2x bt4.2 bandwidth with 4x range.

That's not entirely true. You don't get 2x the speed and 4x the range you get up to 2x the speed OR up to 4x the range (at a much slower and diminishing bitrate). There is a lot of misinformation going around about how good Bluetooth 5 is. Don't get me wrong, it is a nice improvement but whenever a new version of Bluetooth comes out there is a tendency to exaggerate how good it actually is. This video does a good job of clearing some of the exaggerations and misconceptions:



The high-range/distance Bluetooth mode immediately drops down speed to 100 kilobit per second which is quite a drop from the low power mode (which is around 2mbit per second which isn't actually 2mbit per second because data is send in packages instead of streaming but that's yet another disingenuous can of worms)

Bluetooth 5 is better faster and can reach longer distances but those things are not true at the same time and not all the Bluetooth modes share the same benefits. There are a lot of caveats.

The point of the matter is, you should take whatever the Bluetooth SIG group says with a grain of salt (or a spoon of it in my opinion) and Bluetooth 5 is certainly not a ticket to wireless audiophilia. It will improve some aspects of wireless products but it isn't likely to improve sound quality. Any sort of improvements in that regard will have to come from codecs as that mode of Bluetooth data transfer remains more or less the same.
 
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Sep 22, 2017 at 6:10 PM Post #20 of 61,349
I apologize for editing my post a bunch of times but I wanted to make sure to include as much information to clear misconceptions about the protocol.
 
Sep 22, 2017 at 6:15 PM Post #22 of 61,349
It's not about audio improvement. It's about power reduction and increased connection reliability.

Just as an extra note, more reliability, better connectivity, solving connectivity issues, improving pairing with multiple devices, etc are all sorts of promises that the Bluetooth SIG has made with past iterations of Bluetooth and they turned out to be false. I'm not saying that will be the case with Bluetooth 5, but I stand by what I said that we should take their promises and claims with a grain of salt. I already exemplified in the video above that some of their claims are not true and I wouldn't be surprised if those claims you just mentioned had some degree of falseness to them as well.
 
Sep 22, 2017 at 8:17 PM Post #24 of 61,349
I recently changed phones from a Nexus 6p to a Pixel with Android 8, and my car BT receiver supports aptx. To my ears the sound was noticably better. Anyone else think aptx makes much of a difference?
 
Sep 23, 2017 at 3:34 AM Post #26 of 61,349
AptxHD maybe requires 5.0?

No. LG has been using Aptx HD in their flagship smartphones a while now. BT 5.0 debuted with the Galaxy S8 this year. The only benefit I heard is being able to pair to stream to two devices at the same time. Maybe extended range too? Beside the point :p
 
Sep 23, 2017 at 4:57 AM Post #28 of 61,349
BT5.0. does not improve the A2DP protocol (i.e. Audio streaming) in any way.

The range and throughput improvements are for BLE. Nothing to do with audio.

There have been recent improvements to the true wireless algorithm which these latest devices will benefit from (better connection reliability). But again, nothing to do with 5.0.
 
Sep 23, 2017 at 7:42 AM Post #29 of 61,349
Hello all I haven't been here in awhile. I have to say although bt is not perfect, sound quality and connectivity has improved immensely from the first bt heaphones I had many years a go. Right now the best true wireless headphones I use are the Samsung iconx, good sound, great connectivity, cool tap/swipe features that work, I use them everyday in the gym. The only negative thing is battery life is short 1 hour 30 mins if you stream, if you use the 4 gig on board memory you get 3 hours.i use jaybird x3 for back up. I tried them all, bragi dash was the worst, expensive, poor sound and connectivity was atrocious out doors. Samsung is bringing out a newer iconx 2018 version in November 5 hours battery, lighter, type c charging and some other small improvements. I strictly only use wireless headsets, truly wireless is awesome I can't wait to see what we get in 2018.
 
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Oct 8, 2017 at 12:20 PM Post #30 of 61,349
But if a thread revival but it seems the Jabra sport elite are lightyears ahead of the competition at the moment. I’m thinking of jumping on a pair but the new B&O are making me have second thoughts. See I need them for the gym purely so SQ although has to be good it isn’t my main priority and it seems the Jabra nail everything else, amazing connectivity, water proof to 1m, 3 year warranty against water ingress and heart rate monitor and VO2 calculator.

The new Bose we’re a strong contender but a Q2 UK release date is ridiculous imo.
 

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