If this is off-topic please let me know. I don't even know enough to know what is off-topic, but I am very curious about all of this. I am afraid I am going to have to drag this down to my level because that is about where I am on the learning curve.
I have bluetooth 4.2 in my computer via an m.2 card. Is there anything special about that compared to prior versions of bluetooth? It seems to give me more reliable connections than I have had before and to remember my preferences better than earlier versions. I don't know if that's due to advances in the bluetooth or Windows itself or some combination.
I could buy a bluetooth 5.0 m.2 card for the slot to put in in place of the 4.2, for not very much money at all (they are both wifi plus bluetooth m.2 cards). Would this be of practical benefit?
My m.2 wifi +bluetooth card is an Intel card and I regularly get updates for it right off of the Intel sight, so I feel pretty good about that.
I truly don't understand how AAC versus Aptx versus aptx-hd comes into play with what I am doing, or if there is anything I can do at my computer to choose the best technology. I suppose i am as interested in reliability of connectivity as sound quality. I'm pretty happy with the sound quality. I'm really not too picky about sound quality. Things that are obviously wrong, I take care of, but if everything is running well I am pretty pleased.
FWIW, I turn off my graphics card for anything but photography because my CPU chip can handle anything else that comes its way with aplomb. I also use SSD drives to the extent it is practical. Those steps greatly reduce the background noise from my computer to almost nil so I can enjoy the music more, in a very practical way.
For audio from my computer I mainly use bluetooth to listen to two bluetooth speakers, one or the other. I've got a really rare top-flight Samsung speaker that I bought at Best Buy that was discounted at a fraction of the original price, and a Marshall bluetooth speaker that is less hifi but more convenient, which I got for a big discount at a holiday sale. (Yes, I am kind of a deal-hunter at times.) The Samsung will also do airplay and wifi and ethernet and line in and take a usb stick but I'm not using these options from day to day. Those are probably technically better hifi options than bluetooth, I would guess. Here is Samsung's link to product information about the Samsung speaker:
https://www.samsung.com/uk/audio-video/audio-dock-e750/ I think it was more of a concept piece for Samsung and I don't think it sold very well and I saw it sitting on a shelf at Best Buy a few years ago for about a third or fourth of the original price so I went home and researched it and came back and snapped it up. It's sitting right in front of me about five feet away. It's quite a nice visual showpiece as well as a pretty darn good speaker, but nothing close to a nice home stereo setup. I know, the tube on the Samsung is a bit much, but honestly, the look is cool, and it does give off a glow and a warmth (visually and temperature-wise, not audibly) and it's otherwise quite striking and the sound is quite fulfilling to me. Again, I think they were trying to penetrate the market with a concept piece and it never took off. I am thinking the version of bluetooth it connects with might be the limiting factor though as the speaker is some years old, but I don't have any kind of grasp as to what takes place in the audio chain where bluetooth is involved.
The Marshall is about five feet behind me:
https://www.amazon.com/Marshall-Sta...099&sr=1-3&keywords=marshall+stanmore+speaker I don't think it approaches anything as close to hifi as the Samsung but subjectively and for ease of use and due to the bass and treble knobs it really hits a soft spot for me subjectively, and having the bass and treble knobs readily accessible is really nice. It also has two line ins and an optical in if I want to max out audio quality. I've kind of experimented over time and gradually arrived at bass and treble settings that I really enjoy the most and don't fiddle with them much anymore, and I almost always use the bluetooth.
I don't think either speaker approaches my home stereo sound, but for my home stereo I generally use Apple music with Apple TV.
I am just looking for practical words of wisdom and some learning about what I am doing and what I could do better, and whether bluetooth 5.0 would give me some practical benefit over bluetooth 4.2. And also, if it's not too much over my head (and it may be), a good general picture (for a layman) of what goes on in the chain from computer to speaker over bluetooth, especially as it relates to audio CODECs. It's a very interesting subject for me. I find the whole technology kind of amazing.
Thanks, everyone.