Is the sound quality of the Bluetooth headphones not good?
Bluetooth headphones don’t need to be connected to wired smartphones, so there is less concern about cable disconnection, but many people wonder, “Isn’t the sound quality better than wired headphones?” .
But what about reality?
Here, I would like to present the latest situation regarding Bluetooth headphones.
What is Bluetooth?
Bluetooth is one of the standards for short-range wireless communication and it communicates wirelessly like infrared and Wi-Fi communication.
Bluetooth devices are connected by a method called pairing and can communicate with each other.
Bluetooth has several factors that affect sound quality, such as radio wave strength, audio compression format, and transfer rate, and high sound quality can be maintained by keeping them at a high level.
Let’s explain each of the factors that affect sound quality.
Codec
A codec is an audio compression format for transferring sound over Bluetooth.
If you transfer the voice data to the headset as is, the amount of data will be too large and it will be difficult to communicate.
Therefore, a mechanism is adopted in which the sound is compressed on the sending side, the data is cleared and transmitted, and then the headphone side decompresses it to produce sound.
This audio compression format is called a codec and is divided into several methods.
The standard codec was called “SBC”, but high-quality codecs such as “AAC” and “apt-X” are now being adopted.
In addition, higher sound quality codecs such as “apt-X HD” and “LDAC” that can communicate at high resolution have also appeared in recent years.
However, the codec has the characteristic that it cannot be used unless the sender and receiver correspond to each other.
codec
Class
The class represents the strength of radio waves and is a measure of the communication range.
As of 2018, there are three kinds of Class 1.2.3, and general smartphones and Bluetooth headsets have adopted the standard called Class 2.
Class1 has a maximum communication distance of approximately 100m, Class2 has a maximum communication distance of approximately 10m, and Class3 has a maximum communication distance of approximately 1m. The greater the communication distance, the higher the power consumption.
If the devices are too far apart, communication errors are likely, which can lead to poor sound quality and skipping.
Bluetooth version
The Bluetooth version is fixed for each model and cannot be updated later.
The newer the version, the lower the power consumption, the greater the communication power and communication range, and the addition of extended functions.
As of 2018, the latest popular version is 5.0.
When buying Bluetooth headphones from now on, it is recommended to choose one with 4.2 or higher, which is widely used now.
Profile
A profile is a standard that defines what can be done with Bluetooth communication, and there are several types, such as those that can be operated simply by listening to the sound, those that can be operated as play and stop, and those that can be communicated. each other with a microphone. There is something.
There are four profiles used in Bluetooth headsets: “A2DP” which allows you to listen to music with stereo sound, “AVRCP” which allows you to control play and stop, and “HFP” and “HSP” which allow you to transfer and make and receive voice during a call.
Why is Bluetooth sound quality said to be poor?
Since Bluetooth headphones are connected wirelessly, the sound quality is said to be not as good as wired headphones.
