[arnyk]

  Hmm don't know about the pairing with iPhone as I use mine with Android phones but I don't experience the cracking noise. Maybe ask it over in the SBH80 thread and see if others have similar experience?
http://www.head-fi.org/t/752491/sony-sbh80-wireless-to-the-next-level-review

 
I get this feeling that since they are really just computers, they suffer from the same problems as desktops did.
 
Clicks and Pops  in computers were usually caused by the moral equivalent of trying to run too many of the wrong apps.

 

[UnityIsPower]

Posted some thoughts on that thread, thanks for the link!

Bemy, I'm sitting next to my Asus router for the most part and it's using both 2.4 and 5. This could be causing my cracking issue tho switching to the Amazon player also has its negatives.

 

[UnityIsPower]

Wifi on/off not much if any difference. I re-downloaded the Amazon player and it's now on the same level as the iOS player so whatever was happening seems to be with the app. The microwave on the other hand murders the connection in my kitchen.

I also now connected it to my iPhone 4 for good measure.

I should also mention I'll be taking my iPhone 6 to the Apple Store Friday as it's been randomly resetting itself.

 

[Class D]

BeMyMonkey asked:
 

 would upgrading to an APT-X headset help?

 
 
Based on what you have said, the periodic streaming skip you are experiencing is caused by your MiFi, portable WiFi router, which is buffering your content stream.  You'll likely experience this buffering with video streaming as well.  You can test this with a YouTube video stream.
 
As a result, Aptx won't help you as it has nothing to do with WiFi streaming.  You should look to your portable WiFi router manufacturer for resolution of your streaming issues (skipping beats).  Aptx won't resolve upstream audio issues.  Sorry.  

 

[UnityIsPower]

My phone has software issues and I was told to restore it. I don't have a computer to save my non-Apple music collection and use multiple accounts so it'll be quite the hassle. I might just wait for iOS 9 and hope it gets fixed then.

 

[dsf3g]

I'd like to add a note or two to this discussion.
 
I'm an Adroid phone owner, and pretty for a while now have only bought Adroid phones with APTX built in. These include HTC and Samsung models, the most recent being a Galaxy Note 3.
 
I was first intrigued by the APTX codec when I traded in my trusty HTC Touch Windows Mobile phone for Android. With the old Windows Mobile devices you were able to significantly improve bluetooth streaming quality by delving into the registry and teaking values for bluetooth bitpool. In fact, after doing so, I found that the sound quality from my Sennheiser MM100 bluetooth headphones was as good as any wired set I owned. Before performing the tweak, high notes (such as crashing cymbals) sounded awful, with breaking and crackling redering certain songs almost unlistenable. But my first Android phone, an HTC Evo 4G offered no option for tweaking bitpool setting (other than rooting and installing a custom ROM) and so I largely gave up on bluetooth headphones because the sound was just awful.
 
A few years later I bought a Samsung Galaxy S3 and a pair of APTX enabled headphones (the Harman Karndon BT) and was thrilled with the streaming music quality. This was the way music was *meant* to sound!
 
Now, let me add here: I don't have golden ears. I don't hear every tiny little artifact in digitized music. You won't hear me bragging about my collection of 320kb encoded MP3's (let along lossless) because most of what I listen to is encoded in either 192kb AAC or 128kb MP3 and I'm quite satisfied with the sound. But music over bluetooth on early Android phones was so awful that even I couldn't stand to listen to it.
 
Then, about a year ago I decided to go shopping for a bluetooth speaker. As you might imagine, APTX was top on my list of requirements. But I soon found myslef in a bit of a quandary. The speaker I really wanted was the Bose Soundlink Mini. This little marvel put out just an absurd amount of warm bass relative to its diminutive size. It was truly a speaker that could fill a reasonable sized room at a reasonable volume. But the Soundlink Mini didn't feature APTX. Nonetheless, in all my in-store testing, the Mini Soundlink sounded great. There was none of that awful crackle that I'd noticed years before on non APTX enabled headphones. So I bought one. And my experience at home mirrored what I's seen in the stores. Apparently in subsequent Android releases, Google has greatly improved its OS's music over bluetooth.
 
All was well for me until one day, while working from home, I decided to pair my phone with both my Mini Soundlink and a bluetooth earpiece so I could take calls when they came in (the newest Soundlink Mini has speakerphone capability, but the 1st gen does not). Well, when I did that, suddenly the degradation of music quality was quite notable. That awful cymbal crackle was back.
 
So, it appears that when you pair an Adoird phone with a bluetooth music device, as well as another device for the phone profile, bluetooth streaming bandwidth is split between the two and music quality is degraded. 
 
The short term solution was simple: just stick to the speaker and take calls directly on my phone. 
 
Problem solved? Not quite.
 
That's because I recently decided to try out an Androidwear watch (the ASUS Zenwatch). This device is always paired to your phone via bluetooth, and guess what: the bandwidth demands of Androidwear also ave a deleterious effect on bluetooth music streaming quality. That was a real dissappointment to be because, even though I'm still experimenting with this watch (not 100% convinced I want to keep it) I really do enjoy not having to pull out my phone every time I get a text message.
 
And this is the part of the story where APTX comes back in. Because what I've discovered in my testing is that if I'm listening to an APTX capable pair of headphones, music quality is still quite good, even if I've got my Androidwear device paired. In fact, quality is so good that I bought an APTX receiver dongle that I now plug into the AUX-IN port on my Bose Soundlink Mini. I no longer pair my phone with the speaker, instead allowing the APTX receiver to feed the speaker directly. Now sound quality is restored, and I don't have to yank a cable every time I get a phone call as I would if I simply plugged my phone into the speaker with a 1/4" patch cable.
 
So there's my rather long APTX appreciation story. In short, I'm an APTX believer, and until Google fixes the issue with native bluetooth streaming quality, I'll stick with APTX devices.

 

[interpolate]

I personally don't think APT-X is the problem, rather it's the Bluetooth Protocol of low-power, high output -in other words compression/expansion whatever way you want to look at it. APT-X over Wi-Fi might not improve the sound quality over a stronger radio signal either although it will have a better chance of transmitting more data over the air. You would also need WPA2 enabled for peace of mind as well, I dare say in case someone steals your music...

 

[peter123]

In case anyone is interested I just posted my review of the Elecom LBT-PAR500, great little device:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/products/bluetooth-receiver-dual-amplifier-class1-nfc-black-japan-import/reviews/13692

 

[davidhall]

apt-X is actually a very ancient codec - it was initially developed as the company founder's PhD back in the late 80s. As far as I know it is a variation on ADPCM compression and offers a 4:1 compression ratio. As such 48kHz 16 bit stereo audio will result in a bit rate of 384kbps. It's noted for it's low delay and low computational power requirements. It is not lossless but the quality is exceptionally good. apt-X lossless is an entirely different more recent beast altogether.
 
They originally targeted the codec towards broadcasters and some of the very early digital audio playout systems adopted apt-X before MPEG was even a thing. As a broadcaster myself, one of the companies I have worked for was a very early adopter and remained married to apt-X well into the mid to late 2000's. For FM broadcasting it was common to use a 32kHz sample rate for a bit rate of 128k mono or 256k stereo and an upper frequency response of 15kHz. There was no point recording frequencies that were going to get brick wall filtered before transmission.
 
I presume the move into bluetooth is an attempt to broaden their customer base.
 
In my experience I have always been impressed with its sound quality and haven't witnessed it falling apart on any source material in particular however some of my colleagues have assured me that very rarely it sometimes can. I have always found it quite safe to cascade with any MPEG style compression and perhaps even with itself if absolutely unavoidable.
 
By far the biggest disadvantage with apt-X is the licensing fees; it is a very expensive codec to license.

 

[Class D]

Davidhall,  You are right about the vintage status of Aptx.  The codec has been around for a while.  Over time Bluetooth sink manufacturers have used the codec in their products because of its impressive wireless audio performance.  Unfortunately, there aren't as many Bluetooth source manufacturers who have used Aptx.in their products.  Only a few mobile phone manufacturers have used the codec in their handsets.  HTC, Sony, and Nokia being most notable.  Since the acquisition of Cambridge Silicon Radio by Qualcomm last week, it's not clear what the future of the codec will be.  Qualcomm has even changed the name of the company from CSR to Qualcomm Technologies International.
 
https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2015/08/13/qualcomm-completes-24-billion-acquisition-csr
 
It seems CSR will become an R&D center for communications technologies at Qualcomm in Europe.  Unless Qualcomm wants to promote and support the codec in their customer base, Aptx will likely die a quiet death.  If so, this thread will likely die along with it. 

  

 

[CrystalSound]

 
Quote:

  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.
 

 
I have a rather simple question for you. What is the playable range distance you have found for the QCY QY3?

I am specifically looking for a clip-on type of receiver with bluetooth 4.0 + APTx. Ideally has track skip/volume control and a slim profile because my use scenario is in the gym resistance training (not jogging/sprinting). The QCY QY3 seem to fit the criteria best as it is the smallest. Only question I have is the range as it uses the same chipset as the MOCREO that has amazon reviews stating a 6 foot range. 
 
Other options I have looked at are: Avantree Clipper or the 

Elecom PAR500. ​

 

Open to suggestions and I am planning to pair it with a Klipsch X10 + LG G4 + Google Play music at high quality. ​

 

[james444]

   
I have a rather simple question for you. What is the playable range distance you have found for the QCY QY3?

I am specifically looking for a clip-on type of receiver with bluetooth 4.0 + APTx. Ideally has track skip/volume control and a slim profile because my use scenario is in the gym resistance training (not jogging/sprinting). The QCY QY3 seem to fit the criteria best as it is the smallest. Only question I have is the range as it uses the same chipset as the MOCREO that has amazon reviews stating a 6 foot range. 
 
Other options I have looked at are: Avantree Clipper or the 

Elecom PAR500. ​

 

Open to suggestions and I am planning to pair it with a Klipsch X10 + LG G4 + Google Play music at high quality. ​

 
I can leave my Galaxy S3 in the living room, go to the bathroom and still listen to music from about 20 feet away, with 2 walls between the phone and receiver.
 
The PAR500 has even better range and more output power, but it's also a lot bulkier.

 

[CrystalSound]

   
I can leave my Galaxy S3 in the living room, go to the bathroom and still listen to music from about 20 feet away, with 2 walls between the phone and receiver.
 
The PAR500 has even better range and more output power, but it's also a lot bulkier.

Awesome, thanks for the input. Looks like the QCY will work for my scenario. Hopefully gearbest.com isn't selling fakes, I couldn't find a seller on amazon. 

 

[Dieucocto]

(Edited) I found my answer.

 

[ph0n6]

Before I wasn't very interested in bluetooth audio, but since the Windowsphone is doomed to not receiving USB OTG feature, I think I don't have much of a choice. Luckily it seems that they do support aptx though, so I guess bluetooth is the way to go here. Just have a few question:
- How does it stream music through bluetooth from my phone using a bluetooth DAC? Does it compress the digital signal using aptx codec and sent it directly to the DAC of the bluetooth receiver?
- I was looking at the Mass Fidelity Relay, Arcam miniblink and Arcam rLink. Currently most interested in the Relay as it looks damn good and their reviews praise them alot. Just wondering had anyone tried them with a powerbank (portable battery charger)? They seems to provide 5V/1A or even 5V/2A these days, are they enough for portable uses?