Mark my words, the future of portable audio is wireless.
I've been into portable audio since the days of the first Sony Walkman, I've used portable CD players, DCC and MiniDisc, embraced the first iPod and owned 20+ mp3 players over the years. I've been into bluetooth audio (A2DP) since its rather dreadful early days and been following its tediously slow crawl towards better sound quality over the last years. Today I can safely say that aptX bluetooth is significantly better and more reliable than everything else I've heard before and that wireless audio is finally ready for prime time.
Why am I so sure about this? Because I've been using an aptX enabled bluetooth receiver (Samsung HS3000) almost daily during the last few months, first from a Creative Zen X-Fi3 and lately from a Samsung Galaxy SIII. As interesting as discussing lossless vs. lossy may be, I'm not a theorist, I need to get my hands on things and try them in practice. I've been on head-fi since 2004 and have witnessed some of the most die-hard beliefs disappearing into thin air, simply because technology had moved on (remember when it was more or less common belief that a cellphone could never rival the sound quality of a dedicated mp3 player?). After countless hours of using my portable aptX rig with high-end IEMs like the SE530, IE8, W4, FI-BA-SS, K3003 and UERM, I'm convinced that aptX is a fully adequate replacement for a wired connection in a mobile scenario.
So let me clarify: I'm still using a wired connection at home, in very quiet surroundings. And to those who hear a difference between FLAC an 320 kbit/s mp3 or think that 24/96 is a necessity, I won't even try to argue with you. But for ordinary mortals like me, the sound quality of aptX bluetooth is easily good enough for portable use and virtually indistinguishable from a wired connection in any environment with ambient noise.
Here's a picture of my current portable rig (SGS3 > HS3000 > IE8 with short cable):
Ok, I'm cheating, there are still wires between receiver and earpieces.
Well, that's first of all due to versatility ( I can connect anything with a 3.5mm plug) and secondly, there aren't any decent IEMs with integrated receiver available yet. But things are improving quickly and I'm pretty sure that we'll see a myriad of wireless devices entering the market during the next few years. So far I've seen aptX enabled headphones by Creative, Motorola, Sennheiser, Jaybird, Denon, Phiaton and yes, there's even an aptX version of the infamous Beats out there. To anyone interested,
here's a list of apt-X enabled devices that seems pretty up-to-date.
Bottom line, this is my view on aptX, I don't care whether it's lossless or lossy, but it sure sounds damn good.