What is the difference between 128k and 320k music? Part 3


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What is the difference between 128k and 320k music? Part 3

bit rate
bit rate

The sampling frequency is approximately the following depending on the type of use (k is the thousand bit symbol, 1khz=1000hz):

bit rate
bit rate

8khz – used for phones etc, is enough to record human voices.

22.05khz: transmission use frequency.

44.1kb: Audio CD.

48khz: used in DVD and digital TV.

96khz-192khz: used for DVD-Audio, Blu-ray HD, etc.

The common range of sample precision is 8 bits to 32 bits, with 16 bits generally used on CD.

Having said that, my friends are starting to get confused. It’s not the bitrate that determines the sound quality, so why is everyone saying that 320kb sound quality is better than 128kb?

【Audio Compression】

Well, in fact, the bit rate should be said to be another dimension, it is a compression of audio files.

Nowadays, most of the audio formats we use regularly are based on the original “WAV” file of the audio CD (44.1khz sample rate, 16bit sample precision, 2ch). The original recorded sound data is stored in a matrix, which is in PCM format, while WAV format is an encoding format developed by Microsoft. Its function is to reproduce the data in PCM format through encoding.

Since the data in WAV basically completely restores the PCM data, MP3, AAC and other lossless encoding formats are basically recompressed based on the WAV files. Therefore, we can simply think that WAV is the original audio format and other audio formats are compressed formats.

When it comes to compression, storage and transmission are inseparable. The purpose of compression is to improve storage and transmission. Therefore, before we talk about compression, we need to understand the basic units of computers.

We all know that the computer is a binary number system, and the files stored by the computer are made up of two numbers, 0 and 1. Therefore, the computer’s transmission is based on each number, and each number is called 1 ” bit”. For example, for an audio piece, its basic data is “0,1,1,1,0,1, 1 ,0”, and when transmitting, these numbers are transmitted one by one. The sampling precision mentioned above is this unit.

The storage unit of the computer is “byte (Byte)”. In the computer, 1 byte consists of 8 bits, that is, 8b(bit)=1B(Byte). In computer parlance, data storage is expressed in decimal and data transmission is expressed in binary, so 1KB=1024B=1024×8b. This is also part of the reason why the hard drive capacity we see does not match the actual capacity.

Go back and talk about audio compression, the bitrate of the audio is actually the compression ratio. So the bitrate really just defines the size of the file, but because under normal conditions the larger the file, the less data you lose, so the sound quality is relatively higher. However, the bit rate itself does not directly affect the quality of the file. For example, if we take a 128kb file as the source file, even if it is converted to a 320kb file, the sound quality will not be better than 128kb. .

 


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What is the difference between 128k and 320k music? Part 2

What is the difference between 128k and 320k music? Part 2

bit rate
bit rate

Bit rate, sample rate, lossless, MP3, FLAC, APE, 320kb, 192kb, 128kb, 44.1khz, CBR, VBR. Does this bunch of various names make you both familiar and unknown?

bit rate
bit rate

The higher the bitrate, the better the sound quality. Lossless music is the highest sound quality, right? So, let’s start with the sound collection.

【Audio composition】

Nowadays, when we talk about audio, everything is digital audio. Digital audio consists of three parts: sample rate, sample precision, and number of sound channels.

Sample Rate: Both the sample rate, which refers to the number of samples per second when recording the sound, expressed in Hertz (Hz).

Sampling Precision: Refers to the dynamic range of the recorded sound, measured in bits (Bit).

Sound channel: the number of channels (1-8).

 

In simple terms, we can think of a sound wave as a curve. We know that the curve is made up of points, and the sampling frequency is the number of points in the middle of the length per second (the horizontal axis of the figure above). Sampling precision is the number of points in the dynamic range (upper vertical axis). The finer the positioning of these two dimensions, the greater the true sound restoration and the better the sound quality. Of course, the larger the audio file will be. The customer mentioned by the previous colleague said that the latest Hi-Res Audio format released by SONY is a 6-channel 192kHz/24-bit recorded audio file. The size of the lossless format, of course, will be more than 200 megabytes.

What is the difference between 128k and 320k music?

What is the difference between 128k and 320k music?

Bit Rate
Bit Rate

I can’t fully understand music in words.show all

Bit Rate
Bit Rate

 

【Preface】

Some time ago, a colleague came across a very troubled client. The mess was said to have been caused by the client asking him to provide song files larger than 100MB-200MB in size. And my colleagues don’t know much about audio formats, so they started endlessly fumbling about FLAC, WAV and audio size. In the end, the colleague did not clearly explain to the customer what was going on.

After that, some other things happened that made me feel that in the music industry there are too many practitioners around me who have an extremely poor understanding of music and even lack some basic knowledge related to music. I don’t even have the idea to understand, which makes me very sad. It seems that music has only one merchandise attribute, and our practitioners only need to organize the shelves, encode various merchandise, and use the big data of users’ purchase records to recommend merchandise to users, no matter why to users. they like this. features that these products have, and use cold data to provide users with various services.

Therefore, I think it is necessary to write something. I don’t expect practitioners to become people who really love music. I just hope that even if you still think of “her” as a commodity, you can first figure out what you’re selling. and what is..

PS: The content of the first lesson is about media files. Since the relevant content involves a lot of technical issues, it seems a bit boring, but if you read it carefully, you will find that it is actually very easy to understand, but this basic knowledge can be very helpful.Improve your skill well. Also expect more interesting content about records, musical styles, etc. which I will post soon.

Related Audio Attribute Part 3

Related Audio Attribute Part 3

Sample Rate
Sample Rate

How samples are combined

Sample Rate
Sample Rate

This is mainly for two-channel or multi-channel audio. For a two-channel audio, it can be combined in the following two ways:

interleaved Taking stereo as an example, a stereo audio sample is obtained by interleaving the storage of two mono samples.
flat. The samples of each channel are stored separately.

The data after FFmpeg audio decoding is stored in the AVFrame structure.

In packed format, frame.data[0] or frame.extended_data[0] contains all the audio data.
In Planar format, frame.data[i] or frame.extended_data[i] represents the data of the i-th channel (assuming channel 0 is the first), the size of the AVFrame.data array is set to 8, if If the number of channels exceeds 8, you should get the channel data from frame.extended_data.

sample format
The sample formats in FFmpeg are mainly:

copy code
enum AVSampleFormat {
AV_SAMPLE_FMT_NONE = – 1 ,
AV_SAMPLE_FMT_U8, /// < 8 bits unsigned
AV_SAMPLE_FMT_S16, /// < 16 bits
signed AV_SAMPLE_FMT_S32, /// < 32 bits
signed AV_SAMPLE_FMT_FLT, /// < float
AV_SAMPLE_FMT_DBL, /// < double

AV_SAMPLE_FMT_U8P, /// < 8 bits unsigned, flat
AV_SAMPLE_FMT_S16P, /// < 16 bits signed, flat
AV_SAMPLE_FMT_S32P, /// < 32 bits signed, flat
AV_SAMPLE_FMT_FLTP, /// < float, flat
AV_SAMPLE_FMT_DBLP, /// < double, flat
AV_SAMPLE_FMT_S64, /// < 64 bits
signed AV_SAMPLE_FMT_S64P, /// < 64 bits signed, plain

AV_SAMPLE_FMT_NB /// < Number of sample formats DO NOT USE if dynamically linked
};
copy code
to illustrate:

1. U8 (8-bit unsigned integer), S16 (16-bit integer), S32 (32-bit integer), FLT (single-precision floating-point type), DBL (double-precision floating-point type), S64 (64-bit integer), those not ending with P are interleaved structures, and those ending with P are flat structures.
2. Flat mode is FFmpeg’s internal storage mode, and the audio files we use are in packed mode.
3. The FFmpeg audio sample format that decodes different output audio formats is not the same. The test found that the data output by AAC decoding is in floating point AV_SAMPLE_FMT_FLTP format, and the data output by MP3 decoding is in AV_SAMPLE_FMT_S16P format (the mp3 file used is 16-bit deep). For the specific sample format, you can see the format member in the decoded AVFrame or the sample_fmt member in the AVCodecContext of the decoder.

Bit rate
The transfer rate per second (bit rate, also called bitrate). Like 705.6kbps or 705600bps, where b is a bit, ps is per second (per second), which means a capacity of 705600bit per second. Compressed audio files are often represented at double speed, for example CD quality MP3 is 128kbps/44100HZ. Note that the unit here is bit instead of byte. One byte is equal to 8 bits (bits). The bit is the smallest unit. It is generally used to describe network speed and various communication speeds. The byte is used to calculate the size. hard drive and memory.

Mbps is: Millionbit per second (millions of bits per second);
Kbps is: Kilobit per second (kilobit per second);
bps is: bit per second (bit per second), the corresponding conversion ratio is:

1Millionbit=1000Kilobit=1000000bit; 1Mbps = 1000,000bps; Again, this is the unit of speed, which refers to the number of bits transmitted per second. The unit of measure for data transmission speed K is the decimal meaning, but the K for data storage is the binary meaning. E.g:

The 1M bandwidth generally described is 1 Mbps = 1,000,000 bps = 1,000,000 / 8 / 1,000 = 125; therefore, the download speed of 1M bandwidth generally does not exceed 125KB/s
. 1000 = 12.5, so the maximum download rate of 100M bandwidth can reach 12.5MB/s
. Of course, the above is only the theoretical rate. In fact, the maximum download rate may not reach that much, and it is mainly affected by various losses, generally 100MB A broadband download rate of 10MB is not bad.

Related Audio Attribute Part 2

Related Audio Attribute Part 2

Sampling
Sampling

 

The higher the sampling, the more realistic and natural the sound will be.

Sampling
Sampling

 

The frequency recognition range for people is 20 HZ – 20,000 HZ. If 20,000 samples per second can be sampled, it will be enough to satisfy the needs of the human ear during playback. So 22050 The sample rate is commonly used, 44100 is already CD quality, and sampling more than 48000 is no longer meaningful to the human ear. This is similar to a 24 frames per second image from a movie.

 

Sampling bits
After sampling the audio for a sample, two steps must be performed for the sample:

1. Quantify. The quantization bits commonly used for audio quantization are:

8 bits (that is, 1 byte) can only register 256 numbers, that is, only the amplitude can be divided into 256 levels;

16 bits (ie 2 bytes) can be as small as 65536 numbers, which is already the CD standard;

32 bits (ie 4 bytes) can subdivide the amplitude into 4294967296 levels, which is really unnecessary.

The number of quantization bits is also called the number of sampling bits, bit depth, and resolution, and refers to how many levels the continuous intensity of the sound can be divided after being digitally represented. N-bit means that the intensity of the sound is divided equally into 2^N levels. 16 bits, it is level 65535. This is a very large number and people may not be able to tell the difference in sound intensity from 1/65,535. You can also say that it is the resolution of the sound card. The higher the value, the higher the resolution and the greater the ability to produce sound. The sampling multiple here is primarily addressing the strength characteristics of the signal, and the sampling rate is addressing the time (frequency) characteristics of the signal, which are two different concepts.

2. Binary encoding. That is, the result of the quantization, ie the single channel sample, is stored in a binary keyword. There are two storage methods:

Store the result of the quantization directly in the cast, that is, the two’s complement code;

The result of quantization is stored in floating point type, ie floating point encoding code.

Most PCM sample data formats use integers to store, and for some applications that require high precision, use floating point to represent PCM sample data.

frame
After the audio is quantized to a binary codeword, it must be transformed and the transformation (MDCT) is done in block units, and a block is made up of multiple (120 or 128) samples. A frame will contain one or more blocks. Common frame sizes are 960, 1024, 2048, 4096, etc. A frame records a sound unit whose duration is the product of the sample duration and the number of channels. The nb_samples in the AVFrame structure in FFmpeg represent the number of single channel audio samples in a frame.

Related Audio Attribute

Related Audio Attribute

Sample Rate
Sample Rate

channel, sample rate, sample bits, sample format, bit rate

Sample Rate
Sample Rate

 

The PCM obtained from audio sampling contains three elements: channel, sample rate, and sample rate.

channel
When people hear the sound, they can locate the sound source. By setting the sound source to different positions, a better listening experience can be created. If the position of the audio is adjusted with the image, a better audio-visual experience will be obtained. Effect. Common channels are:

monkey monkey
Two channels, stereo, the most common type, including left and right channels
2.1 channels, adding a bass channel on the basis of two channels
5.1 channels, including one front channel, one front left channel, one front right channel, one surround left channel, one surround right channel, and one bass channel, first used in early theaters
7.1 channel, on the basis of 5.1 channel, the surround left and right channels are divided into surround left and right channels and rear left and right channels, mainly used in BD and modern theaters
Next is a two-channel audio system.

 

 

Sampling rate
Audio sampling is the conversion of sound from an analog signal to a digital signal. The sample rate is the number of times the sound is collected per second and is also the number of samples per second of the resulting digital signal. When sampling sound, common sample rates are:

8,000 Hz – telephone sampling rate, sufficient for human speech
11,025 Hz – sample rate for AM radio
22,050 Hz and 24,000 Hz – sample rate for FM radio
32,000 Hz – sampling for miniDV digital camcorder, DAT (LP mode)
44,100 Hz – Audio CD, also commonly used in MPEG-1 audio (VCD, SVCD, MP3) Sample rate 47 250
Hz – Sampling frequency
48,000 Hz for commercial PCM recorders – for miniDV, digital TV, DVD, DAT, movies, and pro audio Sampling rate 50,000 Hz for 2,000 – 96,000 or 192,000 Hz digital sound
for commercial digital sound recorders
– DVD-Audio, some LPCM DVD soundtracks, BD-ROM (Blu-ray Disc) and HD-DVD (High Definition DVD) soundtracks The sample rate used by the audio track
2.8224 MHz: The sample rate used by Direct Stream Digital’s 1-bit sigma-delta modulation process.

Best Bluetooth Audio Codec

In recent years, the disappearance of 3.5 mm ports from smartphones is causing wireless audio to gain a lot of strength. And among all wireless technologies, Bluetooth stands out strongly.

aptX, aptX HD, SBC o ACC

With the latest versions of Bluetooth, the connectivity between the devices is very stable. The technology already works. So manufacturers are starting to put more emphasis on streaming audio quality by focusing on improving codecs that compress audio files and stream them wirelessly from source to audio device.

 Bluetooth Audio Codec

Basic concepts

Bitrate or bit rate (kbps): usually measured in kbps or Mbps. It is the amount of data that is transmitted per second through the Bluetooth connection.
Sampling frequency (kHz): is the number of data per second in an audio file. We have to bear in mind that we need two data to accurately capture a frequency, which is why refresh rates around 40 kHz (44.1 kHz or 48 kHz) are very common, which is twice the frequency range of the human ear.
Bit Depth (-bit): Represents the number of bits saved for each audio sample. Higher bit depth records a signal more accurately. The quality of CDs is 16-bit, but high-resolution files are typically 24-bit.
If we didn’t compress the files, the bitrate could be calculated by multiplying the sample rate by the bit depth.
Best audio codecs for Bluetooth
Codecs are encoding and decoding algorithms that compress audio into manageable data packets for more efficient transmission.

The efficiency of the codec will determine the speed at which the audio data is sent and also the resulting audio quality.

One very important thing to keep in mind is that, to use a certain codec, both the audio source and receiver must be compatible with it.

This means that, even if my headphones are aptX, if my mobile doesn’t support the aptX codec, the connection between the two can never be aptX. The Bluetooth protocol will negotiate the connection and choose the next best codec. If there are none in between (AAC, for example), the final connection will end up using the SBC codec (which is universal).
Next, we are going to see the most used audio codecs in Bluetooth connections:

To read later …

► The 7 Best Turntables of 2020: Buying, Setting Up and More
► The 8 best Bluetooth and TWS headphones of 2020: cheap, sports, gaming …
► The 7 Best Bluetooth Speakers of 2020 – We Tried Them All!
SBC (low-complexity SubBand Codec)
sbc
The SBC codec was developed by the SIG (Special Interest Group), the organization responsible for developing Bluetooth technology, for the A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) audio profile. This codec is one of the minimum requirements that any Bluetooth audio device must be able to use in order to connect to a wireless source. This means that all Bluetooth audio devices have to be capable of working with this codec as a minimum. ref

The SBC was created in 1993 and requires very little computing power. The downside is that the compression efficiency is not very good, so even at its maximum bitrate of 328 kbps, it does not achieve remarkable sound quality either. Also, the sound is quite delayed.

AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)
aac
The AAC codec was developed by several companies (AT&T, Fraunhofer Institute, Dolby Laboratories, Sony Corporation and Nokia) and was announced internationally by the MPEG group (Moving Pictures Experts Group) in April 1997. Besides being a codec used by the protocol Bluetooth, AAC is also one of the most popular codecs on the internet thanks to being used extensively by Apple and YouTube.

The AAC is characterized by having a much higher audio quality for the same bit rate as the SBC codec, however the latency is usually even worse. Ref

aptX, aptX LL, aptX HD, and aptX Adaptive
aptx
AptX (audio data reduction technology) is a codec designed in the 80s of the last century and used in the cinema and on the radio. The codec was later acquired by the company CSR (Cambridge Silicon Radio) which in turn was bought in August 2015 by Qualcomm.ref

The codec is characterized by offering better sound quality, but it requires more processing power. Its typical compression ratio is 4: 1.

Currently, the codec has three variations (aptX Low Latency, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive) that reduce latency or improve your audio quality.

aptX LL (Low Latency): has latencies close to 30 ms. For comparison, the SBC codec has typical latencies of 170 ms. So it is almost 6 times faster.

What is the CODEC?

CODEC is a program that reduces the number of bytes contained in large files (similar to WinZIP) so that they can be stored on storage media and then played back. Typically used to compress and decompress multimedia files such as songs or videos (CODEC is actually short for CO compression / DEC compression, ie compression / decompression). There are audio and video codecs. MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, Vorbis, DivX, … are examples of CODEC.

codec

The main difference between a CODEC and a compression algorithm like WinZIP is that in CODECs the compression / decompression is done in real time. This means that while CODEC is watching a video behind the scenes, it processes the data stream by unpacking it. A CODEC can consist of two parts: an encoder for compressing the multimedia file (encoding) and a decoder for decompressing the file (decoding). Some CODECs can contain both parts, others only one.

codec

CODECs can be installed and updated on older computers or multimedia devices or integrated in dedicated hardware components (e.g. CD or DVD players). CODECs should not be confused with containers. A container contains one or more streams that have already been coded by CODEC. Very often you will find an audio and a video stream in the container at the same time. AVI, Ogg, MOV, ASF, … are examples of containers. while others just one of them.

CODECs should not be confused with containers. A container contains one or more streams that have already been coded by CODEC. Very often you will find an audio and a video stream in the container at the same time. AVI, Ogg, MOV, ASF, … are examples of containers. Very often you will find an audio and a video stream in the container at the same time. AVI, Ogg, MOV, ASF, … are examples of containers. Very often you will find an audio and a video stream in the container at the same time. AVI, Ogg, MOV, ASF, … are examples of containers.

Where can I find the CODEC?

If Tizio creates a document with the Word program and sends it to Caio, the latter must use the Word program to open it. If a film is compressed with the XYZ-CODEC, the same CODEC must be used for the display.
At this point the question arises: Where can the CODECs be found? CODECs are available on the Internet. There are dozens of audio and video formats and related CODECs. However, there is no point in downloading them individually and then installing them on the computer. It is much better to download a collection of CODECs like K-Lite Codec Pack. K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of CODEC for Microsoft Windows, with which the operating system can play various audio and video formats that are not supported by default.

In addition to CODECs, the K-Lite Codec Package can also contain other tools, including: Media Player Classic for playing multimedia files, information tools such as Media Info and tools for editing CODECs. There are four versions of the K-Lite codec package:

Basic – Plays many of the popular video file formats, e.g. B. AVI, MKV, MP4, OGM and FLV
Standard: Contains everything that is required to reproduce the most commonly used formats.
Full: Supports multiple audio and video formats. It also has coding support
Mega: combines the content of “K-Lite Codec Pack (Full)” and Real Alternative. In the past, it also included QuickTime Alternative. QuickTime Alternative (with Media Player Classic) and QT Lite (without Media Player Classic) are now available as separate programs
The standard version is for the average user, while the full version is for advanced users who edit and decode videos. The K-Lite Codec Pack is updated regularly and contains everything you need to play all movies and music. Any uninstallation will also remove everything that has been installed from the package.

What is the best bluetooth codec?

Bluetooth audio is gaining a lot of followers today. The disappearance of the mini-jack ports for headphones on some smartphones, such as the iPhone, has led to audio companies producing high quality wireless devices. Among bluetooth audio technology, the Qualcomm aptX code is in a privileged place.

codec bluetooth

Bluetooth codecs What is a Bluetooth codec?

The word codec, when we talk about wireless audio, means the software’s method for encoding a stream of audio information that is sent wirelessly between two devices. In other words, it is the process by which zeros and ones, of binary digital data, acquire format. It serves to transmit stereo audio through a source device, such as a telephone, a computer, television etc …, to a receiver, such as wireless speakers or headphones.
Different codecs send the audio information using different formats, they can also introduce their own compression technologies to maintain a balance between the sound quality and the information package of the audio files. Compression may sound like something negative for lovers of high quality audio, but it is necessary if we are going to send heavy files wirelessly.

bluetooth codec

This means that the variants between the bluetooth codecs are compatible with different audio devices, in addition to providing different connection and sound qualities. All bluetooth devices support the standardized SBC (Low Complexity Subband Coding) codec, but SBC implementations have varied in quality throughout the history of this technology. To offer greater consistency to users of bluetooth products, several companies have developed their own bluetooth codecs, and then offer the license to other producing houses. AAC is one of these formats, the successor of MP3, used by Apple and others. Sony has its LDAC codec and Qualcomm offers aptX.
bluetooth codecs

AptX, SBC and AAC codecs, which one is the best?

The codecs are coding algorithms that compress audio to handle sound packets and thus achieve fast wireless transmission. The effectiveness of the codec determines the quality of the audio information that will be sent. The SBC code is the standard algorithm for most bluetooth devices. However, this codec has a relatively high latency and can be somewhat noisy. The three main codecs, which most users will encounter, are SBC, AAC and aptX:

SBC

It is the code found in most wireless devices and with which all bluetooth headphones have the A2DP (Advance Distribution Profile) profile. It is capable of transmitting up to 328kbps with sample rates of 44.1 Khz. It provides very decent quality audio and does not require much processing. However, audio may be inconsistent in some situations. This is notable especially when using cheap bluetooth transmitters.

AAC

Similar to SBC but provides better sound quality. This codec is very popular thanks to the Apple iTunes platform. As against, we must mention that it is not very comfortable to find it in headphones.
aptX

Ideal for demanding audio applications as it encodes audio more efficiently and accepts more information than the SBC. It has additional variations, such as aptX (LL) and aptX (HD), which dramatically reduce latency in the wireless connection and improve sound quality. However, it is somewhat limiting because both the transmitter and the receiver must have the aptX capability for this codec to work.
Since from Culturasonora we do not have a reliable means to measure the AAC and LDAC formats wirelessly, we have compared the SBC and aptX codes using them with Plantronics Backbeat Pro 2 headphones:

 

AptX and SBC sound quality

We perceive that the standard SBC codec works well for most audio applications. It is not particularly loud, although in the signal-to-noise ratio, the aptX has a greater range of optimal loudness. The audio differences are subtle with respect to aptX, but they can be notable for expert and critical ears. The resulting measurements, however, both for the frequency response and for the harmonic distortion, are very similar between the aptX and SBS codecs.

Bluetooth codec latency

Latency, or delay in wireless sound reproduction, is the aspect where the aptX codec separates. The SBS connection has about 100 ms of delay, which is notable when watching videos and can ruin certain gaming experiences. On the other hand. CSR developed the low-latency aptX code to fix these connection problems. The aptX improves the performance of the SBC, but it is the aptX-LL that has a greater impact on the results. The aptX-LL codec was excellent when we tested it by watching some movies and using some games. This makes the BackbeatPro2 and other headphones that have this technology, ideal options for these activities.
Based on our tests, we have noticed that codecs have a greater impact on latency than on sound quality. The aptX codec has subtle improvements in sound quality, but the differences are less noticeable than the improved speed at the time of audio playback via bluetooth.

AptX codec, why should we use it?

The SBC codec is configured to work with small bitrates, such as 200kbps, which does not offer the best sound quality. In theory, the SBC codec can operate with bitrates of up to 345 kbps, and the introduction of A2DP audio profiles allows wireless transfers of audio formats such as MPEG and ATRAC. However, support for these formats is optional and varies between headphones or wireless speakers.

The aptX codec, on the other hand, offers a better signal-to-noise radio in important frequency ranges, as well as better performance when it comes to delays in the Bluetooth connection. This codec exists, in part, to provide guaranteed quality audio in all products compatible with this format. AptX audio transfers are made with a 352 kbps / 16-bit 44.1 kHz bitrate. This means a 4: 1 compression compared to lossless files, and includes enough information to wirelessly carry files equivalent to the best MP3 formats. In terms of smartphones, the aptX standard codec is found in a large number of devices as well as the improved aptX HD, which has appeared on new wireless devices.

Another interesting aspect of the aptX codec is that it uses a technique called ADPCM (Adaptive Differential Pulse-Code Modulation). Essentially, it divides the audio frequency spectrum into four bands, each with its own bit depth and signal to noise ratio. In addition, this technology is superior to SBC when sending audio that has already been compressed via Bluetooth, such as MP3 audio files. The aptX codec has, as we said, a better signal to noise ratio than the SBC, about 5kHz more capacity, so we can better perceive the fine details of voices and instruments when we listen via an aptX codec, if our material Source has a good quality.

The Qualcomm codec also has a faster conversion speed than the algorithms used by the SBC and can transfer audio packets more efficiently. This means that it handles lower latency, an important factor for wireless audio when watching movies or playing with our favorite consoles. Qualcomm’s low latency technology handles a delay in the 40 ms region, although this may increase to about 150 ms in older codecs. The SBC is measured with a delay of 100 ms and can increase to 150 ms. The AD2P varies between 40 and 150 ms, depending on the conversion requirements.