Battle of the Bluetooth codecs

[TheOldPresbyope]

Those of us who use Bluetooth audio tend to get all hot and bothered about the codecs. It's fun to argue that the SBC is necessarily crap and AAC is pretty good while aptX and LDAC are battling it out for best but, wait, aptX HD is coming up on the outside, and ....

The trouble is, the answer of which is best is "it depends", and not just on the codec but on the interconnected devices.

One set of posts I found refreshing (and reassuring) begins with Audio over Bluetooth: most detailed information about profiles, and devices It's four years old but still relevant IMO.

Meanwhile, I've found the addition of CamillaDSP to moOde to be more important to me in dealing with my headphones than the choice of BT codec used to connect to them.

Just my two-cents worth.

Regards,
Kent

[Always_In_The_Moode]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and the link which has been very interesting to read!

Like with everything else in this area, it's all about the entire audio chain as you say.

The various Bluetooth codecs will 'degrade' the quality of the audio to varying degrees, I will only use it for convenience sake in the car and whilst sitting on the train, but in both scenarios, I should be able to come up with a more superior solution in the form of a fully wired connection.

It's a trade off between wire free convenience at the cost of the quality of the sound.

To me, with Bluetooth, it's a case of choosing the 'best' codec supported between devices which appears to degrade the sound the least. Quite often it's AAC for me.