#AUDIODEVICE EXAMPLES PROCESSING PORTABLE#

We reviewed all the best wireless headphones, including over-ear, earbuds, and true wireless, to find the best for you.Īnother characteristic that distinguishes codecs is latency. It would benefit you only with high-resolution files from a high-resolution streaming or download service, and only if your headphones or speaker can reproduce the claimed extra fidelity-and when the codec is discarding so much data anyway, the benefit of giving it even more data to throw out is questionable. However, we consider high-resolution support to be more a marketing claim than a useful feature here. This process can reduce sound quality, although the difference will probably be subtle.Ī few codecs claim “high resolution” because they can handle data at resolutions higher than the CD standard, which is 16 bits at a sample rate of 44.1 kilohertz. If at least one of the devices doesn’t support AAC, the AAC data is decompressed and then recompressed with another codec, such as SBC. If you use these two things along with a wireless speaker or headphones that also support AAC, Bluetooth will not impact the sound quality. The most common example is with Apple Music, which uses AAC, and iPhones, which support AAC.

If an audio signal is already compressed in a certain codec, and the source device (such as your phone, tablet, or computer) and the “sink” device (such as a wireless speaker or headphones) both support that codec, Bluetooth transmits the encoded audio unaltered, so the sound is the same as you’d get without Bluetooth. Many people believe that transmitting an audio signal via Bluetooth will always degrade sound quality, but that’s not necessarily true. Klipsch’s The One II Bluetooth speaker is a great way to get full, satisfying sound in the home with no need for complicated setup or special apps. Some codecs allow higher data rates, thus requiring less compression and offering the potential for better sound. The discarded data represents audio that the human ear is less likely to detect, such as a soft sound in the presence of a similar but louder sound. Typically, they reduce the 1,411-kilobits-per-second data rate of CD-quality audio to around 300 kbps. These codecs are called “lossy” because they discard most of the audio data. Using a codec is necessary because the less data Bluetooth needs to transmit, the more reliable the connection is-and the less likely your headphones are to lose the signal in the middle of Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy.” You’ve probably heard of some popular codecs used today, including SBC, AAC, aptX, and MP3. A codec (short for “compression/decompression”) is a complex algorithm that processes audio data to make it smaller so it’s easier to send over the Internet or wirelessly from your phone to your headphones. In audio devices, the key difference in Bluetooth implementation involves which audio codec they use. In other words, you should choose Bluetooth headphones or speakers based on their fundamental sound quality-as reported in reviews or as you’ve determined yourself-and not based primarily or even secondarily on the Bluetooth audio technologies they support. (You can test this yourself using my online Bluetooth blind test.) If you try different Bluetooth codecs, the difference will be small and possibly inaudible. If you try different wireless headphones or speakers, you’ll hear obvious differences. One important thing to note right from the start is that the Bluetooth audio technology you’re hearing has a much smaller effect on sound quality than the design of the device itself. Read on if you’re confused about how (or if) different Bluetooth codecs should factor into your headphone or speaker choice. But those differences are hard to quantify and harder to hear. Audio companies offer numerous variants-or codecs-of Bluetooth, and some people claim that a certain codec will improve Bluetooth sound quality.

Yet despite Bluetooth’s ubiquity, it’s still the most misunderstood audio technology.

#AUDIODEVICE EXAMPLES PROCESSING PORTABLE#

Bluetooth drives wireless headphones and portable speakers and lets you wirelessly connect your stereo system or soundbar to your smartphone and its myriad streaming services.

Audiodevice examples processing