[Giogio]

If you look at those Avantree transmitter, they only take analog input. That means your source (a DAP, PC, smartphone or even a TV) has to do the D-to-A conversion first, send the analog signal to Avantree, go through another A-to-D, send to the receiving end (a BT headphone or something like the Creative E5), go through another D-to-A. Now the problem is, the signal has to pass through 2 DAC and 1 ADC, so SQ will definitely be degraded for sure. Even worst is that we have no idea how good the DAC / ADC used in Avantree.

Anyway, if you have a BT headphone, you don't need the E5 / X7 unless the DAC and amp section inside the BT headphone is significantly less quality than E5 / X7.

Qualcomm bought CSR (more correctly, is "in the process of buying"). Since CSR owns aptX, Qualcomm owns aptX as well.

And what exactly does this e5 or x7?
What if i use a dongle? The digital signal stays digital all the time from the pc till the headphones right? Should this be better?
Because i didn't notice any difference between the sound i got with Sennheiser dongle or Avantree adapter...

 

[ClieOS]

And what exactly does this e5 or x7?
What if i use a dongle? The digital signal stays digital all the time from the pc till the headphones right? Should this be better?
Because i didn't notice any difference between the sound i got with Sennheiser dongle or Avantree adapter...

 
E5 is a portable DAC/amp. X7 is a desktop DAC/amp.
 
In theory, yes. Keeping the less D/A conversion helps to keep the signal as original as it can be. If you can't tell any difference, then all the better for you.

 

[Giogio]

E5 is a portable DAC/amp. X7 is a desktop DAC/amp.

In theory, yes. Keeping the less D/A conversion helps to keep the signal as original as it can be. If you can't tell any difference, then all the better for you.

what i meant about the e5 is, why do they have bt? What for?

 

[ClieOS]

what i meant about the e5 is, why do they have bt? What for?

 
http://us.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-e5

 

[Class D]

GioGio,
 
Let me clarify the Class 1 vs. Class 2 issue.  Having a Class 1 BT sink, such as the Plantronics BackBeat Pro headphones, will not give you a 100m range by itself.  The source would also need to be BT Class 1.   Good luck finding one that does acceptable A2DP. 
 
So, a Class 1 sink like the Plantronics headphones would give you great reception and audio SQ at 10m.  Anything beyond that is dicey.
 
A BT Class 1 source device draws 100 mW.    A BT Class 2 device draws 2.5 mW.  It doesn't seem reasonable to me that the Plantronics Headphones will deliver the advertised 25 hrs.of audio streaming without car battery built into the headphone.
 

Class	Maximum Power	Operating Range
Class 1	100mW (20dBm)	100 meters
Class 2	2.5mW (4dBm)	10 meters
Class 3	1mW (0dBm)	1 meter

 
For you to achieve what you are looking for, i. e., walking around your home with a wireless headphone listening to music, then you will have to move out of BT and into WiFi technology.  Apple's Airplay does a good job of streaming audio throughout a house with great fidelity and low latency.  You simply install wireless airplay speakers in all your rooms.  You can dump the headphones.  You can watch Netflix on your tablet as you walk from room to room with perfect lip synch.  Same is true for YouTube content.  While you're at it, you can dump your CD collection once you've imported this content to the cloud (iTunes??).

 

[jugate]

hello, i want to buy the xperia e3 and dont have the apt-x... is realy recomended for a lg tone+/sony sbh80 in terms of quality audio?

 

[Class D]

Jugate,
 
What makes you think that the Sony Xperia E3 has the Bluetooth Aptx codec?  If you buy either the LG or Sony headphones you will need to find a BT source with the Aptx codec to take advantage of the lossless audio.  In the case of the Sony Xperia E3, you should stick to wired headphones for audio.

 

[Giogio]

   
http://us.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-e5

 
I had visited that link immediately when you first posted the info about this product. I still do not understand how it works.
Why does it have Bluetooth if it only works with wired headphones?

  GioGio,
 
Let me clarify the Class 1 vs. Class 2 issue.  Having a Class 1 BT sink, such as the Plantronics BackBeat Pro headphones, will not give you a 100m range by itself.  The source would also need to be BT Class 1.   Good luck finding one that does acceptable A2DP. 
 
So, a Class 1 sink like the Plantronics headphones would give you great reception and audio SQ at 10m.  Anything beyond that is dicey.
 
A BT Class 1 source device draws 100 mW.    A BT Class 2 device draws 2.5 mW.  It doesn't seem reasonable to me that the Plantronics Headphones will deliver the advertised 25 hrs.of audio streaming without car battery built into the headphone.
 

Class	Maximum Power	Operating Range
Class 1	100mW (20dBm)	100 meters
Class 2	2.5mW (4dBm)	10 meters
Class 3	1mW (0dBm)	1 meter

 
For you to achieve what you are looking for, i. e., walking around your home with a wireless headphone listening to music, then you will have to move out of BT and into WiFi technology.  Apple's Airplay does a good job of streaming audio throughout a house with great fidelity and low latency.  You simply install wireless airplay speakers in all your rooms.  You can dump the headphones.  You can watch Netflix on your tablet as you walk from room to room with perfect lip synch.  Same is true for YouTube content.  While you're at it, you can dump your CD collection once you've imported this content to the cloud (iTunes??).

Yes, I knew this. And I am in fact sad that no Aptx transmitter is Class 1.
The Backbeat Pro have indeed a very good range even when connected to a class 2 source. But not 100m.
So, what about implementing a way to choose the level of power usage (and therefore the range)? If battery usage is the problem (which the battery life of the Backbeat does not seem to confirm), it would be effective if people could choose between low power (similar range as class 2) and high power (class 1 range) depending on the situation. So, when they are out and have the phone in their pocket, they set low power because they need less range. At home (where they can charge the battery all the time) they set high power and have more range.
About the wifi idea, which headphones can do that? I suppose I cannot use BT Headphones with a wifi technology.
About Class 1, I have been told that Class 1 and 2 are mostly a thing of the past, related to bluetooth 2. I have been told that Bluetooth 4 does not work with classes anymore and natively support a range of 50 meters.
Do you have infos about that?
Btw, for the native english speakers, why is there no plural for Information? Is there no informations or infos?

 

[Giogio]

I have found some interesting info about the Aptx and CSR thing. Which brings again to the fact that Aptx was supposed to work only with some chips (= it was not enough to install a software).
It seems that this may have failed and maybe is one of the reasons why this awful company named CSR had to leave the Aptx to Qualcomm.
http://support.plugable.com/plugable/topics/apt_x_audio_codec_support_in_bluetooth_4_0_adapter_stack
http://askubuntu.com/questions/425333/how-to-make-aptx-capable-bluetooth-equipment-work-with-ubuntu
 
This is also directed @Bill-P

 

[james444]

Got two more aptX enabled headsets, the Elecom LBT-PAR400 and LBT-PAR500. Both have very good sound quality which I'd rate on par with the QCY QY3 and LG BTS1.
 
Sadly, the PAR400 has by far the weakest reception of all units in this comparison and is prone to skipping, so it isn't really suited for mobile use. I'll still recommend it for the sake of sound quality alone, but advise against buying if you intend to use it outside the house.
 
The PAR500 on the other hand is rated class 1 and has indeed the best reception in this comparison, even from my Samsung Galaxy S3 which is only class 2. It has more driving power than all other aptX headsets I've tried, however it's also the largest of the bunch. Still, all things considered, it would deserve the top spot on my list.
 
Unfortunately there seems to be a catch with the PAR500: my unit was pretty much dead on arrival, and upon closer examination I found that the battery was tucked rather carelessly on top of the PCB and short-circuiting the power supply. I also found a review on Amazon Japan reporting the exact same issue after a month of use, so it doesn't seem to be an isolated case. Even though it's pretty easy to solve the problem if you open up the unit, I only feel confident to recommend the PAR500 with reservation.
 
(On a related note, I'd like to give a heads-up to fellow head-fiers to avoid Rakuten's BIGSTAR / Starnet shop, since you'll get no customer support from the seller, even if the item he sent you is defective)
 
 
Sound quality ranking of all aptX BT headsets with 3.5mm HPO I've heard so far (not considering stock earpieces):
 

LG BTS1 - highly recommended   ​	Elecom PAR500 - highly recommended (with reservation)     ​	QCY QY3 - recommended (with reservation)   ​
Elecom PAR400 - recommended (with reservation)    ​	Samsung HS3000 - recommended   ​	HTC BH S600 - not recommended​  ​ ​
​	​	​

 

[Class D]

Giogio,
 
What current an electronic device draws is very important when it comes to battery or portable power.  In regards to the Plantronics BackBeat Pro headphones, all I can think of, without opening the circuit to see for myself, is that there must be 2x power circuits to the antenna.  One uses a 2.5 mW power amp, and the other uses a much larger 100 mW pa.  A microprocessor switches from one circuit to the other depending on the software controlling the antenna.  So, Plantronics can say they have a battery life of 25 hrs.  What they haven't said is that this is true under the condition that this "smart" antenna is switched in the low power (2.5 mW) mode.  At any rate, a 100 mW transmission can't be sustained with a tiny battery for 25 hrs.
 
Regarding your idea of a switching power source for BT antennas to allow you to be in low power mode while your portable device is in your pocket, and in high power mode while your portable device is in its cradle at home is possible in theory.  It would introduce extra weight and cost to the portable device.  This is contrary to design efforts of most portable electronics design engineers.  Their Marketing Department wants them to drive cost and weight down.
 
Regarding 50m BT, this is always technically possible.  However, it is local communication regulators that specify what frequency bands can transmit at what power.  In the US the Federal Communications commission, FCC, regulates this.  If they should allow the BT 2450 MHz band falling under WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network) to increase power output, then you could achieve greater range easily.  The FCC does things in collaboration with International Communications Standards.
 
Regarding your linguistics question, "information" is what's known as a mass noun, and it gets a singular verb.  There are several mass nouns in English.  Sorry, you must memorize them.                           
 

 

[ClieOS]

   
I had visited that link immediately when you first posted the info about this product. I still do not understand how it works.
Why does it have Bluetooth if it only works with wired headphones?

 
Say if you already have a decent wired headphone and an aptX supported source (smartphone, PC, etc.) - now you want to listen to your headphone wirelessly (*maybe you just don't want to sit in front of your PC all the time, or you want to charge your smartphone on the power socket while listening to its music across the room), but without compromising SQ, what do you want then? An aptX supported, good sounding portable DAC/amp - E5 is one such device. Of course you can also get a BT / aptX supporting headphone, but you may or may not like it as much as the headphone you already owned, or maybe you just don't like to have too many pair of headphone.
 
I am sure that's not that difficult to understand?

 

[cattlethief]

Got the Sony SBH80 to match up with the Sony A16 dap, both have APTX ,the headset is excellent and on a par if not better than there mh1,although the sony dap has aptx, my AK100 ii is a better match being more powerful with a better sq.Can APTX be implemented in the firmware of the AK to make it sound even better?Was very surprised at how good the sound was.

 

[malk]

  Got a new aptX headset via Amazon, the QCY QY3 (odd name). Its sound quality is very good, a bit on the warm side compared to the more analytical LG BTS1, but with good extension and driving power. Actually, it's the loudest aptX headset with 3.5mm HPO I've heard so far.
 
However, on the downside, it needs a proprietary charging cable (USB to 3.5mm, included), and at least on my unit L/R stereo channels are reversed. The latter's no big deal for me, since Neutron Player offers a "reverse stereo" setting, but due to this flaw I can only recommend the QCY QY3 with reservation.
 
Sound quality ranking of all aptX headsets with 3.5mm HPO I've heard so far (not considering stock earpieces):
 

LG BTS1 - highly recommended   ​	QCY QY3 - recommended (with reservation)   ​	Samsung HS3000 - recommended   ​
HTC BH S600 - not recommended   ​	​	​
​	​	​
​	​	​
​	​	​

 
James,
 
I am in the market for an apt-x receiver.  I have Audiotechnica M50's which I cable modded about 12 months ago so it has a 3.5mm female socket on it, and for the last 12 months I've had a BTR-006 standard BT receiver superglued on the side of it to go wireless and have been quite impressed.  As I use this mostly on high speed trains that frequently go through tunnels (in other words, a LOT of background noise), this receiver has served it's purpose well.  However, the cable for the receiver would get bumped when packing away and now I have lost the left channel completely due to the wires going in the cable/connection. So I'm looking to upgrade.
 
I have been trying to find some information on the Mocreo "Latest 4.1 Bluetooth Receiver"  (who names these devices??). 
http://mocreo.com/portable-bluetooth-wifi-audio-music/latest-4-1-bluetooth-wireless-stereo-audio-streaming-receiver-adapter-for-3-5mm-devices-w-aptx-coding-nfc-hands-free-calling.html
 
It uses a CSR 8645 chipset but I don't know anything about the company so I have no idea on whether they use a quality dac inside or not.  I came across your post on the QCY QY3 and found it has the same 8645 chipset, same shape, almost same dimensions (difference of only a couple of mm in all dimensions) and very similar button layout. There is a chance they are the same hardware with a slightly different shell.
 
Is the QY3 miles behind the LG in terms of sound quality?  The LG appears to be around double the price and I'm not really willing to fork out that much for Bluetooth.
Have you heard of Mocreo before?

 

[kayza]

James,

I am in the market for an apt-x receiver.  I have Audiotechnica M50's which I cable modded about 12 months ago so it has a 3.5mm female socket on it, and for the last 12 months I've had a BTR-006 standard BT receiver superglued on the side of it to go wireless and have been quite impressed.  As I use this mostly on high speed trains that frequently go through tunnels (in other words, a LOT of background noise), this receiver has served it's purpose well.  However, the cable for the receiver would get bumped when packing away and now I have lost the left channel completely due to the wires going in the cable/connection. So I'm looking to upgrade.

I have been trying to find some information on the Mocreo "Latest 4.1 Bluetooth Receiver"  (who names these devices??). 
http://mocreo.com/portable-bluetooth-wifi-audio-music/latest-4-1-bluetooth-wireless-stereo-audio-streaming-receiver-adapter-for-3-5mm-devices-w-aptx-coding-nfc-hands-free-calling.html

It uses a CSR 8645 chipset but I don't know anything about the company so I have no idea on whether they use a quality dac inside or not.  I came across your post on the QCY QY3 and found it has the same 8645 chipset, same shape, almost same dimensions (difference of only a couple of mm in all dimensions) and very similar button layout. There is a chance they are the same hardware with a slightly different shell.

Is the QY3 miles behind the LG in terms of sound quality?  The LG appears to be around double the price and I'm not really willing to fork out that much for Bluetooth.
Have you heard of Mocreo before?

I will give my experience with mocreo. I purchased a bluetooth speaker from them, basically a beats pill knockoff, on amazon for about $30. The sound was very tinny and thin. The connection only worked to about 10 feet in a straoght line with no obstruction. Needless to say, I returned it and wont buy another product of theirs.

With that being said, many people probably have similar opinions of Koss and other brands if they have only purchased their $10 earphones in the checkout line. Perhaps mocreo has high end stuff like Koss does..