Bluetooth playback on desktop computer.
Recently, more and more wireless headsets and smartphones have been released without a 3.5mm jack, and the latter are getting more and more sophisticated Bluetooth codecs.
However, desktop systems are much more conservative in this regard: here almost all devices are still equipped with a headphone jack, and the cable rarely interferes, therefore, with the transmission of sound via Bluethtooth, here everything is sadder.
However, the customization of a PC is much greater than that of smartphones, so if you bought great wireless headphones, don’t worry, you can also enjoy high-quality sound on the desktop operating system.
What are Bluetooth codecs?
First, a brief introduction to the theory. With wireless sound transmission, everything is more complicated than with a wired one: here you cannot just connect the cable and immediately get high-quality sound; this requires that both the headphones and the device support the desired codec.
Their complete list is quite impressive:
SBC is the basic codec included in the A2DP standard, which is compatible with 99% of all BT devices released in the last 10 years, and absolutely all wireless headphones. Consequently, if you don’t want to understand, you can just buy any BT headset and connect it to your device; the music will be broadcast. It would seem, what is the problem then? And is that SBC is comparable in sound quality to mp3 with a bit rate of 128 kbps: that is, you can listen to podcasts or YouTube videos without any problem, but you can hardly enjoy the music. Therefore, in the last 10 years, more “cooler” codecs have been developed, which transmit sound better.
AptX is perhaps the most qualitative leap after SBC. And while its bit rates are comparable (~ 300 kbps), AptX squeezes sound less harshly, so music in plugs or inexpensive headphones will often sound even better than when the same headphones are connected with a cable to a smartphone. Unfortunately, on a PC, even with a built-in audio card, the sound through the cable can still be better, although you do need some pretty expensive headphones to tell the difference. Therefore, this codec can be considered a basic level – a sufficient number of users listening to music on streaming services in mp3 with bit rates of 250-320 kbps, such BT sound will suit.
AptX LL – Same AptX, but with low latency (low latency). If conventional wireless codecs have a delay of 100-200 ms, here it is below 40 ms, which is important in games. However, in reality, it all largely depends on both your device and the headphones: for example, personally, I do not feel the audio lag in AptX HD in games.
AptX HD is an improved version of AptX with a bit rate almost double (576 kbps). But this is still a lossy transmission of sound, although much less than in the case of previous codecs. As a result, if you listen to music on Spotify, Apple Music, and other services, the sound quality will be indistinguishable from cable or even better if you have high-quality headphones with a good DAC inside. But if you prefer lossless and, most likely, have special equipment to listen to it, unfortunately the cable here will still be noticeably better.
LDAC is Sony’s highest quality codec (available for free on Android 8.0 and above). It has three levels of bitrate: 330, 660 and 990 kbps. The former is similar in quality to AptX, so there is no point in considering it. The second works roughly at the level of Aptx HD. But the third, perhaps the most interesting: it is obvious that for music from streaming services this is excessive, but this is almost the only codec that allows you to transfer without loss with almost no loss of quality. However, problems are already emerging with the stability of transferring music with such a high bit rate; in other words, already behind a wall of the fountain, you will be haunted by the constant stuttering of sound.
LHDC is an analog of Huawei’s LDAC, it has a bit rate of 900 kbps, while only this company’s smartphones and some headphones support it. As a result, in terms of quality, it should work at the LDAC level, but in practice you most likely won’t find it anywhere.
AAC is the only high-quality codec supported by iPhone. Not having the highest bit rate of 256 kbit / s allows you to get quality sound somewhere between AptX and AptX HD due to this being the only psychoacoustic codec between them.
