Questions about bluetooth audio

[gian84]

I was wondering if you play audio via bluetooth, does the audio gets processed by the phone's dac first before being sent to the bluetooth receiver? Or does the phone's dac gets ignored and the audio data get sent straight to the bluetooth receiver? I asked since I mainly use my nokia bh-214 when outside during commute and I want to know if me getting a newer phone, i.e. Galaxy s3 with its wolfson dac will bring improvement even if only slight to my bluetooth audio. My current phone is SE Live with Walkman. Thanks.

 

[proton007]

Bluetooth is digital, so i expect there's some kinda DAC used to convert it into sound.

 

[ClieOS]

I forget its name but there is a kind of lossless compression format in BT, but you'll need both the transmitter and receiver chip supporting the format to have a lossless transmission. For most BT hardware out there however, the audio is digitally compressed on the transmitting chip (in your cellphone, etc)., send to the receiving chip, then convert to analog, and yes, there is a DAC chip on the receiving end, usually not a particularly good sounding one. That being said, the DAC on the cellphone usually doesn't involve in the whole process and won't really make a dent on the SQ. The DAC in the receiver end is more important.

If you are only interest in getting better SQ via BT headset, you can get the new Sony Smart Wireless Headset Pro. it should work great with your SE Live with Walkman and the SQ is almost as good as using a wired headset.

 

[gian84]

Thanks for the reply guys.
@ClieOS - I researched about the lossless compression format for BT, I believe what you're talking about is the apt-X codec. The Galaxy S3 supports this. I'm not sure about the Sony Smart Wireless Headset Pro since it does not say in its spec sheet, but hopefully it does when it is released. The Samsung HS300 I've read somewhere does support apt-X however I'm not so sure about its dac's sq.

 

[ClieOS]

Yes, I am talking about apt-X. However, you should realize having a good SQ and supporting apt-X are two different things all together. Having apt-X is no guarantee of a good sound.

AFAIK, Sony Smart Wireless Headset Pro doesn't support apt-X. What it does have are a Woftson DAC and SQ that rivals Clip+. The IEM itself are really good sounding as well.

 

[proton007]

Quote:

Yes, I am talking about apt-X. However, you should realize having a good SQ and supporting apt-X are two different things all together. Having apt-X is no guarantee of a good sound.
AFAIK, Sony Smart Wireless Headset Pro doesn't support apt-X. What it does have are a Woftson DAC and SQ that rivals Clip+. The IEM itself are really good sounding as well.

 
Any latency issues with bluetooth? I think for audio it should be sufficient.

 

[ClieOS]

It is BT v3.0 so speed isn't a problem, at least I haven't notice any.