When I got in to the audio hobby I started with bluetooth speakers. I eventually found out about tws earbuds and started buying them as well. A couple of years ago I became interested in iems and have been generally focused on them since then for sound quality. I think they all have a place (depending on use case). Iems can't offer the special features of tws (ANC, transparency, app experience). Neither can offer a shared listening experience that bluetooth speakers can for a party setting or other group events. Established iem companies like Moondrop, TinHifi, and KZ also recognize a difference in need. I believe that's why they've begun to produce wireless offerings as well. They understand that iems can't completely replace tws (and vice versa) and want to expand their market share (although their special features need some work at this point). Thank you for another great one, Picky! 👍
1. Compression can be lossy or lossless. If compression is lossless, codec is lossless despite lower bitrate than original file. Lower bitrate has no meaning here. Only type of compression. Flac is compressed and it is lossless. Aptx lossless the same. 2. Main difference between aptx adaptive and other codecs is that there are no drops in connection thanks to adaptation. Drops are possible in not adaptive codecs like ldac. Aptx lossless is also adaptive. Exceptions are models with errors in project and implementation - like Bose. 3. Hi res is a scam. There is no value in hi res in listening, and bt codecs are not hi res in fact, so all hi res codes are double scam. Hi res in such codecs is fake, and even if would be true, there would be no value in sound. Additional bit depth is needed in mastering, not in listening. Dacs currently in use (delta sigma) are always upscaling sound to perfect audio wave. 16bit dynamic is a lot more than is possible to hear. Bit depth and kHz should be ignored. Nothing more than scam. In fact, best quality dacs on market (r2r) can not work in hi res. 4. Bit to bit function in Tidal on android is not working. But can be triggered from external aplication, so there is tidal bit to bit without resampling possible on android. Actual used bit rate and parameters are very easy to check. 4. Level of compression do matter for audio quality. So sound should be 44khz, 16bit but as close to Lossless as possible. Difference in compression is clear to be heard. In case of bt codes, adaptive features ale second very important thing. Good codec should be 44khz 16 bit, lossless and adaptive.
You can easily switch between codec on fiio products and turn your LDAC on and off with LDAC headphones (a stable codec btw). People who tell you it is not different are the same people that think diet coke taste the same and normal coke. Just test it yourself.
@@mortezamoryhajiha4452 ldac is not stable from definition. It is not adaptive. Even worse, on many phones it is always working in lowest mode (from only three) worse in some aspect than sbc. This codec should be avoided.
@@trekkis ldac is actually adaptive (though I lock mine at highest rate). Also, as someone who has only experienced it on Samsung+snapdragon for 5 years (with over 15 ldac headphones)... Yes. it is unstable. only when I am more than 10 meters away from the phone.ver i You are just repeating buzz lines. I remember wen people said don't get 4k tv because you do not seat close enough to the TV. Yah, a wired connection is 100 % the gold standard, but why settle for bronze when silver has been available and proven for so many years.
@@mortezamoryhajiha4452 It is not, there are only three fixed levels, nothing more. Adaptive codec is adjusting real time by 10kbit steps. In ldac, in many cases only first two levels are in real use, and there is no working option to lock (as is in case of lhdc). It is unstable in normal use with phone in pocket - i have many ldac headphones and far better ones with aptx for comparison from years (you can not use and compare modern codecs on Samsung, there are no modern - adaptive and Lossless - codecs on samsung). Those are facts. As well as fact is that 4k tv is optimal - what was always obvious. Any other statement was ridiculous. Regarding test, test from 10 meters does not have any real sense, it's pointless and not related with problem. If codec is stable or not should be tested on street In the midst of a densely populated city. Where ldac is lacking. In some models it is working more or less ok with connection, but with very low audio quality. But with Samsung, you do not have possibility to perform any comparison. Samsung is bad choice for audio (and even more for photo). Snapdragon or exynos - no difference, Samsung in case of snapdragon is cutting all what is in snapdragon in fact important. There is no such thing as samsung with real snapdragon. There is no snapdragon sound platform, no adaptive codecs and no lossless codecs. Why use bronze, when technology offers pure gold from years.
CD quality is 16bit at 44.1Khz x2 but that's uncompressed data stream. AptX Lossless will be using something like FLAC which is lossless compression -- so you can get the full rate lossless result from a slightly compressed source.
as long as the earbud is comfortable and most detail can be heard after tuning (even if it doesnt sound high res), a normal cheap earbud will suffice for me. i do like soundcore and audio technica products
No need to sell a kidney. Bought Realme buds 5 pro on offer to try with my rog phone 6: blown away! Usually use cable earbuds and local mp3. I rescnoded at 320...big difference from 128. I hear things never heard before, soundstage is wider... I'm not an audiophile but I can really tell the difference. I prefer LDAC to aptx Adaptive. In android you have to activate developer option to gain full control on the codec. Never had a problem.
Thank you Picky for confirming what I've been saying since this whole Hi Res con started. I've listened to most of them and can honestly say I couldn't tell the difference from the lowest to the highest. I've been saying for years that Hi Res is a con to screw more money out of the gullible. Where the differences do come is in the equipment itself, you get what you pay for and because everyone's hearing is different we're all going to hear different. Age matters too, the older we get our hearing deteriorates and we can't hear the high frequencies like we used to but we don't notice it because it's such a gradual process our perception of what we hear adapts. So called Hi Res streaming services only work because we are told they work, it's the placebo effect. I'm 100% confident at my age I could not tell the difference between lossy, CD quality and Hi Res, even if I was using equipment costing many thousands of bucks. What you can hear is how good the recording quality is, how it's been mixed and mastered and you don't need high end equipment to hear that. I stick my earbuds in, or put my headphones on and mainly listen to good quality internet radio and it sounds extremely enjoyable and, no matter what the codec, that's all that matters.
@@mikesmith5389 you can listen to the best recording in the world but if it's being passed through to garbage earbuds over a codec that compressed the details, you will lose a lot of it. Just because you can't hear the difference doesn't mean it's a con. There have legit been times where I've noticed that I hadn't turned on LDAC on a new device yet because guitar or instrumentals sounded muddier than I remembered them being, and times I've listened to a song originally with AAC and then turned on LDAC, and because it was an FLAC file, there were parts of the mix that were just getting lost before that I had never heard previously. I recommend ensuring you have thibgs set up right and/or using local FLAC files instead of streaming. If you have it set up right, you should hear the difference.
@@mikesmith5389 what streaming service charges extra for hires? Apple Music and Tidal both charge 11 dollars and you get the highest quality available. Unless youre talking about the premium bluetooth headphones that advertise codecs?
Very menial difference. You have to stay focused to hear the subtle difference. That’s it. Tried all of those. Minimum ok is 320kbps mp3. When you have this, you will be fine
For me regular aptx is usable codec but ldac lhdc with using high bitrate is unstable and lhdc making some like jumps or cuts at speed in playing and also aptx adaptive at 24 bit 96khz making unstable connection so best I've tried is aptx adaptive 24 bit 48khz to enjoy stable high-quality and reliable connection for your music and videos 😉
Hi! I love your content; you really are one of the best audio tech channels! And because of that, I want you to help me choose the best earbud between these two options: Soundcore Liberty 4 NC vs Earfun Air 4 Pro. Overall, what would be the best pick? Thanks in advance.
What you said about the bandwidth (rate) of aptx lossless... You can losslessly compress and uncompress at both ends, that's what's happening (think of it like a zip file but at the bluetooth level). As to what's better between aptx lossless and lhdc, it depends on your source file and whether you are ok with transcoding or not. Higher values allow you to stream the file without recoding it, thus, better quality IF the source is high res. It only matters if your source is, say, 24 bit 192khz to start with (ie, sone files in qobuz, tidal, etc)
The standard for us in the recording biz for the 30 years I've been in it has been 24 bit 44.1khz. Only in the last few years has it been recommended to bump it to 48khz. No one I've ever worked with has used 96khz after the first year of its realase, realizing we don't have dog hearing. Totally unnecessary to go above 44.1 since the entire idea behind its engineering was to double the frequency response of the highest frequency we as humans hear.
It's called (aptX) Lossless because it operates compressed data under the hood. The closest analogy would be FLAC, which I think you have no problem calling lossless, right? :) In FLAC case, even harsh power rhythmic noise tracks can hardly touch that 1200 kbps bitrate.
Thanks for the confirmation. I've felt this way for a while, and I've found that using my iPhone is good enough for me to tell earbuds that sound good and one's that don't. There's too many out there to have the absolute best all the time.
Please test using a hires bluetooth receiver and hires bluetooth transmitter so that you can verify the factual difference of the codecs. Would love to know if all these terms and codecs are just gimmicks and a diminishing type of return stuff.
I'll say this: Most of the time, for most songs, I'd struggle to tell the difference. But there have been a few times I've listened to songs that I'm very familiar with (i.e., songs I've been listening to for decades) and some of those I can tell the difference. On "Mr. Jones" (yeah, like I said, decades....:)) there are background vocals that become much more distinct with hi-res (LDAC) audio.
It's a bit of a mugs game. Not to mention everyone's hearing is different. I've done a few online pick the high res sample tests, and even though I did exceptionally well, I'd have to say there is like only 5% difference in the samples, and most were so close it was more like 1%. So now, I just go for good sounding and comfortable buds for when I go to bed for sleeping. I also just bought myself FiiO JT1 Over Ear Headphones last week and they are just next level, especially for the price. But if I want max res sound, then I just play direct Flac/Wav files on my computer through my Pioneer VSX-LX805 Elite in my theatre room 11.1 setup.
Tidal do not use mqa any more. But as one of only two streaming services it has option to work in bit to bit mode on Android, and tidal connect service is in fact Lossless. Tidal is only one true lossless service on the market. Apple music can not work in bit to bit mode in Android, and air play service is highly compressed (it's simply aac, not alac). So no lossless here. Apple music can be lossless basically only on ios and only in case of wired connection with external dac. It is not lossles on Android, and on hifi systems.
ALAC codec is only available with wired headphones, no bluetooth headphones can reproduce ALAC (at least on Apple devices). Also Tidal offer FLAC since last year.
Damn I'm early for this, great video as always. These things get marketed to us but it's better to get a real understanding of what it all is, i feel like they make it confusing on purpose or something. Can i get your opinions on the Tozo nc7? You recently featured them in the best basshead earbuds, and they came last on your other rankings video, did your opinions change at all?
For my experiment 24bit/96khz only makes a huge difference when using it with a wired iem or any hi res wired earphones, with wireless it just sound lil bit good or maybe a some kind of placebo is goin on
It's kinda mixed feelings for me. No matter how many videos I see, I just get confident how good and underrated my Huawei Freebuds Pro 3 are. (you should test them, Picky) They were ahead their age a year ago when they were released but still beat a lot of competitors. They do LDAC even with multipoint (AFAIK), they have awesome sound, mics, ANC and transparency. Absolutely customizable gestures (any bud any gesture can be assigned). On the other hand and watching this video I'm not sure LDAC actually matters. I'm also not an audiophile. I'm looking forward to Auracast and LE3 and whatever that brings.
Thank you very much for the video. I'm curious about the subject. Can you please make a CMF Buds Pro 2 review video or I would appreciate it if you review it and add it to the headphone list.
Minirig speakers only use a basic codec and I haven't heard better portable speakers. I have a few pairs of BT headphones and earbuds some with LDAC and some with aptx adaptive however the ones I reach for most are the Donner buds with SBC and the Earfun 2S with aptx. Honestly I cant hear any difference with my Edifiers no matter what CODEC. However I am in my 50's and worked in some noisy environments so that may have something to do with it. Nice explanation of the BT quagmire, it's a proper smoke and mirror mess. 👍
I'm sticking to AAC on my buds. Right now I 'm using the OP Buds Pro 2 (LHDC) and the Soundcore Space A40 (LDAC). In noisy environments and even inside the house there is not really a difference that I could pickup besides battery drain and much worse signal drops, especially in busy areas. Is practically unusable where I live here in Sao Paulo/ BR and I imagine is like this in most of big cities.
@@xWilcoXx not each person is able to hear difference. If someone is not able, should enjoy what he is using. Good for him. But from technical point of view and for other persons - such low quality is simply very low quality. For me, difference is Huge.
Theres an almost flatearther sentiment thats taken over the lossless discussion. There IS a sizable difference between standard BT quality and wired lossless, we just havent been able to bridge the gap with the quality of the hardware acting as a bigger constraint than the data transmission rate and these codecs promising more than they can deliver. Remember the speakers matter just as much as the amount of data you put thru them. It will get better over time as both the hardware and the software advance.
Call me old school but I still prefer wired headphones. I have cheap $20 Type-C earphones and they sound way better than my Pixel buds. The only advantage the TWS offer is better controls and well, lack of wires, duh.
If you using an Android device then hi res makes a difference as AAC sucks on Android, however if you use an Apple device AAC is a good enough codec and hi res codecs are not supported anyway.
some earbuds like huawei freebuds pro 2 i feel that sbc is less dynamic than ldac but another one like liberty 4 nc i really did`nt find difference between ldac and sbc
I need the extra audio available cause my ears are not the best...however I couldnt tell any major difference with the SONY's. Plus the spatial audio is severely limited and doesn't work for the average user unless you can get on the platform LAME
I can easily tell the difference when I use LDAC on my S23 Ultra - sounded great on my WF-1000XM4 and sounds even better on my Technics AZ80s. Keep in mind, this is using FLAC files over LDAC vs MP3 320kbps files over LDAC or FLAC over AAC. (Not streaming, because of course there will be losses there.)
@@BRSxIgnition On my Fold 3 I couldn't activate LDAC. Apparently Samsung is trying to 'force' people to use their earbuds by offering HiRes through their codec SSC.
Yep, it's a rabbit hole, a lot of smoke and mirrors, I think a simple set up will have you covered,, Denon Pearl Pro + Tidal + Galaxy S22 and above, but don't look for any answer with the numbers, Tidal sez on some tracks 24 bit 192 kh but Aptx on the phone sez 16 bit 44.1 kh. The real difference comes in the hardware, for example Galaxy buds 3, can do amazing things, but they skipped on sound stage, no tight punchy base, no analytical treble, but you can stream 24 bit music through galaxy s22 and beyond, but what's the point if the hardware is not as good as the software. Good review, one of my favorite subjects, hoping someday this riddle will be solved.
I use ldac on my realme buds air 5 pro and the sound gets more detailed and soundstage is wider. But aac is still better because ldac has so much connectivity issues and the touch controls on my earbuds gets laggy. Also ldac is not really a night and day difference with aac. Aac makes my earbuds perfect with accurate touch controls and no connectivity issues. Also i use aptx (the basic one) on my sennheiser momentum 4 headphones and it sounds amazing. No lag issues. I think high res is overrated. Better be wired than use high res codecs.
When it comes to streaming services, YES apple and tidal are 100% better and you should switch. That is not placebo. When it comes to BT iems, the codec should not be your priority. The drivers are not good enough to fully leverage the higher bitrate fully.
Please make a video showing how to connect 2 earbuds simultaneously to the same device. I know that Samsung devices have this possibility, but what about other devices? I've tried with my Xiaomi devices, my Lenovo tablet and my Windows laptop, but I couldn't do it with any of them.
I have the Jabra 75t and I wanted to upgrade so I bought the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro but in terms of audio quality I feel they are less good. There is a recommendation for a significant upgrade in audio quality from the 75t up to $300 ?
Great review. I was always wondering about the difference. I am surprised you said Spotify sounds great. I used it for 6 years and when I tried ITunes I definitely heard a difference in the highs. Just a bit cleaner. I definitely understand about changing though and losing all your songs and playlists. It was mostly Metal music that sounded worse on Spotify. Love their app though.
Greetings! In my country I can get my hands on the one plus buds 3, the soundcore liberty 3 pro, liberty 4 nc, and sony 700 for about 100 euro. Which has the best sound quality for listening to prog/metal?
Android 14 supports 96 khz with bit perfect over a usb c connection. I use usb audio player pro and I select hi res direct driver to bypass android internal audio driver. With usb audio player pro, I also select bit perfect in the internal hi res audio settings and turn it on and for usb audio, I select bit perfect and I also turn it on. I use my sennheiser hd 600 the original marble version with my lg v30 quad dac with usb audio player pro when I commute by bus, walking around and running errands. I don't use mqa since it's lossy and not real lossless audio but I also have dsd hi res audio that I use with usb audio player pro. I wish that the fiio music player had the option to bypass the 48khz android limitation since I like using fiio music player app. It requires to check the license whenever there is a new update with usb audio player pro. I wish that usb audio player pro would work without checking a license since I tried it without an internet connection and it says that it can't find the license with usb audio player pro new update. I have to let usb audio player pro check the license and than turn off the internet connection every time whenever I want to use the app offline when the app checks for the license.
Thank you for the effort, the research, and the tests you do for us. Very informative, and I really believe the sound you prefer is totally subjective. Keep up the videos! Love them!
Thanks for this video Picky Master. I definitely do hear the difference and I prefer hires. LDAC/LHDC abd Apt-x Adaptive are more than enough. But it also seems to me phone brands make a difference. Obviously LG is renowned for their sound chops and I found OnePlus phones sounded great as well. My first OnePlus phone was the OnePlus 7 Pro. I've almost always had a Samsung phone since the Note 1 and they don't sound great. I ventured briefly into iPhone and found them mediocre.
This is a joke man. You know there’s frequency response graphs to measure the audio performance of a pair of earbuds, for example? There aren’t differences between phone models. You can see differences using AAC between Android devices where there’s inconsistencies. Some phones roll off the high frequencies before others, while AAC on iPhones is consistent. That’s why it’s recommended to instead use one of the high quality codecs on Android. But to say different phones sound different is plain wrong. The truth is, AAC on Apple devices and any high quality codec on Android devices achieves transparency for the vast majority of adults. This is the threshold where you can no longer discern between a high enough quality lossy transmission vs. its lossless counterpart.
@@Triple-6 I disagree with you. The OnePlus 7 Pro sounded better than the Samsung phone I had at that time. I think it was a Note 10 or something. People that had LG phones said they definitely sounded better than many other phones.
@@sicebim1 People who talk about LG phones and audio quality are typically talking about their DAC/ Amp for traditional wired connections. I don’t wanna waste either of our time with a back and forth. The fact is, you’re simply mistaken. I’m heavy into understanding some fundamentals of psychoacoustics and how it applies to audio consumption in general. I’m thousands of hours into educating myself, reading, watching, listening, comparing, experimenting, conversing with some highly informed people, etc. With all due respect, you’re not nearly as informed just based on your other comment not knowing basic info like LDAC and AptX availability on Samsung devices. Most importantly, there are blatant and objective measurements in the form of frequency response graphs. Measurement rigs from the likes of Head Acoustics, GRAS and Brüel & Kjær are used to record various metrics of performance. These are industry standardized rigs costing 10s of thousands of dollars. The same rigs that companies like Apple, Sony, Sennheiser, Samsung and virtually any reputable company uses. Measurements are readily available comparing frequency responses of a pair of earbuds using different codecs across different devices, for example. I’m not trying to come at you. Just wanted to try and provide you with an informed perspective that may spark a thought in your head to investigate further. As Picky Audio just explained in this video, when you pay a lot for a fancier piece of gear and press a button that shows you a higher number on the screen, you can easily convince yourself that you hear something that’s not readily perceptible. Rolins3279 has a very informed comment on this same video that I replied to as well. Peace!
hmm how about BT for IEM... same IEM but different high quality wireless IEM adapters, to see which one is better. like getting KZ AZ20 and use your 1 IEM. not sure if there are LDAC for that.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the galaxy buds 3 pro paired with a Samsung device, it is supposed to be higher quality but I don't know if that would be just streaming over similar to APTX lossless or if it would be better.
Scam. It's working only with Samsung products with is unacceptable in case when Samsung is using it instead aptx codecs. It's one of worst features of Samsung, also counting ultra series - which is not any ultra in audio neither in photo.
I just got myself the Senn TWS m4s and testing out the higher quality mode at a 80% (full charge with battery saving mode) gave me about 3hrs music time before I got told they were down to 10% remaining...not planing on using that mode ever again as 3hrs playback on a 7.5h advertised spec is a joke, feels like a wasted $430AU TBH.
@@sicebim1 No I meant that 80% battery protection mode sorry... Volume was like 1 or 2 clicks off being muted, super low. I think I noticed if I use the earbuds volume at max, i can only use my phones volume at like 10% or less thats how loud these can go. But today I used the phone at max volume and tuned down my earbuds, same overall volume (quiet) but now I could get well over 7hrs. Not sure why this is the case but its annoying
Im currently in the market for some new buds but im kinda stuck on 3 deciding mostly between the sony link buds s, Redmi buds pro 5, and One plus buds 3 and i have a redmi note 12 pro phone if that effects anything I would love to know.
@@pickyaudio hoesnlty speaking, their ANC is out of the world....so fucking perfect, their sound is also awesome.. But I feel 50-60$ earbuds atleast stay in ears and xm5 are like shinny pebbles ...so fucking smooth, hard to hold them , and harder to keep them in ears while working out . Also in terms of sound quality I can say that 50$ (OnePlus buds 3)vs 250$(xm5) , 5 times difference and sound quality difference would be 8 vs 10 🤔🤔🤔 Am I wrong? Because I'm not that good at catching audio quality differences.
To begin with, for me, almost all the so-called "Lossless" codecs are marketing, scams, 99% of the population does not perceive the difference in sound 🔊 quality. SBC, AAC and APTX / APTX ADAPTIVE are more than enough. Effectively, in reality, SBC is better than AAC on Android, just that it's not very stable, otherwise, it actually has more details in music, and especially less latency in video and games. The best codec for Android / Windows is APTX / APTX ADAPTIVE, more details in music than SBC and AAC, much more stable than SBC, but above all much less latency than AAC in video and gaming, being much more energy efficient, compared to the so-called "Lossless" codecs. AAC on iOS is effectively equivalent to APTX on Android/Windows. What is important is the quality of the hardware used by the manufacturer, and the tunning of the earbuds / headphones 🎧. Wireless is more for convenience, if you want real Lossless music and no latency, buy wired ones. 🙏🏽
Preach to ‘em 🗣️ this is how I know you know a thing or two. (Remember we had that lengthy convo a little while back on that JBL Live Beam 3 video). I hope the latest advancements in Bluetooth - LE audio, will put this all to rest. LC3 and LC3plus codecs provide more advanced compression, lower latency and lower power consumption. We can look forward to higher quality transmissions that matches and surpasses current hi-res codecs while doing it faster and with less power. But again, it won’t be any meaningful difference from what we already have as far as audio performance goes. As Rolins explained, we’ve already reached a threshold where the vast majority of adults can no longer discern between it and a lossless transmission. So this updated Bluetooth spec can provide a more predictable and standardized experience for quality, latency and power consumption regardless of which earbuds are connected to which kind of phone. Of course, the tuning and acoustic design is what really differentiates the sound signature. Let’s see if manufacturers will play nice or instead continue to push their bs proprietary codecs as superior.
@@Triple-6 LC3/LC3 Plus, is indeed normally the codec of the future, I would even say that it should have been the codec of the present, it should have been adopted by everyone for at least 3 years. But the problem is that its name is not glamorous 💕, it's not a proprietary codec on which manufacturers can rely to artificially inflate the price of their products, and especially to put restrictions to lock people into their closesystem (Samsung, I'm looking at you 🙄).
@@rolins3279That’s for sure. I don’t know what’s the hold up. LC3 and LC3plus are clearly superior and would supersede everything else available. I guess it makes sense that some of these manufacturers are worried about their proprietary “advantage” becoming obsolete overnight. Maybe this is part of why companies like Apple have chosen not to rush into supporting one of these power hungry, soon-to-be outdated codecs. My fingers are crossed for next year being when we finally start seeing this spec more widely implemented.🤞🏼
Thanks for posting this video. Yes - the whole Bluetooth codec thing is a mess… Rumour has it that Apple may be introducing UWB (Ultra Wide Broadband) for hi res, low latency connectivity. It’s what they use in the very latest AirPod Pro 2s (USB case), and Vision Pro. Regarding Spotify. I moved to Apple Music a few years back. Even at its lowest quality of 256 it is noticeably better than Spotify 320. Better again, when I stream 24/48 Lossless via the Sonos App to my Sonos Amp (gen 2). Maybe a topic for a future video - the sound quality & sound profile over the main streaming services. Thanks again
Just use wired headphones and the apple usb c to 3.5mm dongle. Or if your headphones accept usb C to usb C audio cables then that works too. It depends on what heaphones you have.
Yt music is using very good quality codec, so quality is good despite low bitrate. It's better than spotify. Good bt codec will be advantage here. But ldac is not good bt codec.
TH-cam music is 256kbps. If you want good quality you have to switch to either Apple or Tidal. Theres no point to listening on youtube outside of unreleased music bc it sounds much worse and in your case youre not getting anything out of your sony LDAC.
@@RiqMoran wrong statement as only bitrate is not only one what is important. Yt bitrate can not be compared with for example spotify bitrate. The same in case of bt codecs. Ldac bitrate can not be compared with aptx bitrate. There is no equivalent in case of totally different codecs. Less can be still much better. When ldac bitrate is in fact, low.
When I got in to the audio hobby I started with bluetooth speakers. I eventually found out about tws earbuds and started buying them as well. A couple of years ago I became interested in iems and have been generally focused on them since then for sound quality. I think they all have a place (depending on use case). Iems can't offer the special features of tws (ANC, transparency, app experience). Neither can offer a shared listening experience that bluetooth speakers can for a party setting or other group events. Established iem companies like Moondrop, TinHifi, and KZ also recognize a difference in need. I believe that's why they've begun to produce wireless offerings as well. They understand that iems can't completely replace tws (and vice versa) and want to expand their market share (although their special features need some work at this point). Thank you for another great one, Picky! 👍
1. Compression can be lossy or lossless. If compression is lossless, codec is lossless despite lower bitrate than original file. Lower bitrate has no meaning here. Only type of compression. Flac is compressed and it is lossless. Aptx lossless the same.
2. Main difference between aptx adaptive and other codecs is that there are no drops in connection thanks to adaptation. Drops are possible in not adaptive codecs like ldac. Aptx lossless is also adaptive. Exceptions are models with errors in project and implementation - like Bose.
3. Hi res is a scam. There is no value in hi res in listening, and bt codecs are not hi res in fact, so all hi res codes are double scam. Hi res in such codecs is fake, and even if would be true, there would be no value in sound. Additional bit depth is needed in mastering, not in listening. Dacs currently in use (delta sigma) are always upscaling sound to perfect audio wave. 16bit dynamic is a lot more than is possible to hear. Bit depth and kHz should be ignored. Nothing more than scam. In fact, best quality dacs on market (r2r) can not work in hi res.
4. Bit to bit function in Tidal on android is not working. But can be triggered from external aplication, so there is tidal bit to bit without resampling possible on android. Actual used bit rate and parameters are very easy to check.
4. Level of compression do matter for audio quality. So sound should be 44khz, 16bit but as close to Lossless as possible. Difference in compression is clear to be heard. In case of bt codes, adaptive features ale second very important thing. Good codec should be 44khz 16 bit, lossless and adaptive.
I appreciate all the info! 👊
You can easily switch between codec on fiio products and turn your LDAC on and off with LDAC headphones (a stable codec btw). People who tell you it is not different are the same people that think diet coke taste the same and normal coke. Just test it yourself.
@@mortezamoryhajiha4452 ldac is not stable from definition. It is not adaptive. Even worse, on many phones it is always working in lowest mode (from only three) worse in some aspect than sbc. This codec should be avoided.
@@trekkis ldac is actually adaptive (though I lock mine at highest rate). Also, as someone who has only experienced it on Samsung+snapdragon for 5 years (with over 15 ldac headphones)... Yes. it is unstable. only when I am more than 10 meters away from the phone.ver i You are just repeating buzz lines. I remember wen people said don't get 4k tv because you do not seat close enough to the TV. Yah, a wired connection is 100 % the gold standard, but why settle for bronze when silver has been available and proven for so many years.
@@mortezamoryhajiha4452 It is not, there are only three fixed levels, nothing more. Adaptive codec is adjusting real time by 10kbit steps. In ldac, in many cases only first two levels are in real use, and there is no working option to lock (as is in case of lhdc). It is unstable in normal use with phone in pocket - i have many ldac headphones and far better ones with aptx for comparison from years (you can not use and compare modern codecs on Samsung, there are no modern - adaptive and Lossless - codecs on samsung). Those are facts. As well as fact is that 4k tv is optimal - what was always obvious. Any other statement was ridiculous.
Regarding test, test from 10 meters does not have any real sense, it's pointless and not related with problem. If codec is stable or not should be tested on street In the midst of a densely populated city. Where ldac is lacking. In some models it is working more or less ok with connection, but with very low audio quality. But with Samsung, you do not have possibility to perform any comparison. Samsung is bad choice for audio (and even more for photo). Snapdragon or exynos - no difference, Samsung in case of snapdragon is cutting all what is in snapdragon in fact important. There is no such thing as samsung with real snapdragon. There is no snapdragon sound platform, no adaptive codecs and no lossless codecs. Why use bronze, when technology offers pure gold from years.
CD quality is 16bit at 44.1Khz x2 but that's uncompressed data stream. AptX Lossless will be using something like FLAC which is lossless compression -- so you can get the full rate lossless result from a slightly compressed source.
as long as the earbud is comfortable and most detail can be heard after tuning (even if it doesnt sound high res), a normal cheap earbud will suffice for me. i do like soundcore and audio technica products
Talk about Android phones that supports All Bluetooth Codecs and phones that doesn't support All Bluetooth Codecs. ⚠️
Flagships 2023/2024 :asus rog and zen phone,sony xperia, xiaomi,oppo,oneplus,realme,motorola does support all of them just some not aptx lossless
You’re better off having ldac buds as it is in pretty much every phone, even 250$ phones like one plus nords and Xiaomi mi series.
No need to sell a kidney. Bought Realme buds 5 pro on offer to try with my rog phone 6: blown away! Usually use cable earbuds and local mp3. I rescnoded at 320...big difference from 128. I hear things never heard before, soundstage is wider... I'm not an audiophile but I can really tell the difference. I prefer LDAC to aptx Adaptive. In android you have to activate developer option to gain full control on the codec. Never had a problem.
Thank you Picky for confirming what I've been saying since this whole Hi Res con started. I've listened to most of them and can honestly say I couldn't tell the difference from the lowest to the highest. I've been saying for years that Hi Res is a con to screw more money out of the gullible. Where the differences do come is in the equipment itself, you get what you pay for and because everyone's hearing is different we're all going to hear different. Age matters too, the older we get our hearing deteriorates and we can't hear the high frequencies like we used to but we don't notice it because it's such a gradual process our perception of what we hear adapts. So called Hi Res streaming services only work because we are told they work, it's the placebo effect. I'm 100% confident at my age I could not tell the difference between lossy, CD quality and Hi Res, even if I was using equipment costing many thousands of bucks. What you can hear is how good the recording quality is, how it's been mixed and mastered and you don't need high end equipment to hear that. I stick my earbuds in, or put my headphones on and mainly listen to good quality internet radio and it sounds extremely enjoyable and, no matter what the codec, that's all that matters.
@@mikesmith5389 you can listen to the best recording in the world but if it's being passed through to garbage earbuds over a codec that compressed the details, you will lose a lot of it.
Just because you can't hear the difference doesn't mean it's a con.
There have legit been times where I've noticed that I hadn't turned on LDAC on a new device yet because guitar or instrumentals sounded muddier than I remembered them being, and times I've listened to a song originally with AAC and then turned on LDAC, and because it was an FLAC file, there were parts of the mix that were just getting lost before that I had never heard previously.
I recommend ensuring you have thibgs set up right and/or using local FLAC files instead of streaming. If you have it set up right, you should hear the difference.
@@mikesmith5389 what streaming service charges extra for hires? Apple Music and Tidal both charge 11 dollars and you get the highest quality available. Unless youre talking about the premium bluetooth headphones that advertise codecs?
💯% right you are.
Very menial difference. You have to stay focused to hear the subtle difference. That’s it. Tried all of those.
Minimum ok is 320kbps mp3. When you have this, you will be fine
For me regular aptx is usable codec but ldac lhdc with using high bitrate is unstable and lhdc making some like jumps or cuts at speed in playing and also aptx adaptive at 24 bit 96khz making unstable connection so best I've tried is aptx adaptive 24 bit 48khz to enjoy stable high-quality and reliable connection for your music and videos 😉
Hi! I love your content; you really are one of the best audio tech channels!
And because of that, I want you to help me choose the best earbud between these two options: Soundcore Liberty 4 NC vs Earfun Air 4 Pro. Overall, what would be the best pick?
Thanks in advance.
What you said about the bandwidth (rate) of aptx lossless... You can losslessly compress and uncompress at both ends, that's what's happening (think of it like a zip file but at the bluetooth level). As to what's better between aptx lossless and lhdc, it depends on your source file and whether you are ok with transcoding or not. Higher values allow you to stream the file without recoding it, thus, better quality IF the source is high res. It only matters if your source is, say, 24 bit 192khz to start with (ie, sone files in qobuz, tidal, etc)
With the noise around you …. Even with noise canceling ….. is it really worth it? Great video though
Yes.
The standard for us in the recording biz for the 30 years I've been in it has been 24 bit 44.1khz. Only in the last few years has it been recommended to bump it to 48khz. No one I've ever worked with has used 96khz after the first year of its realase, realizing we don't have dog hearing. Totally unnecessary to go above 44.1 since the entire idea behind its engineering was to double the frequency response of the highest frequency we as humans hear.
Thanks for the intel 👍
It's called (aptX) Lossless because it operates compressed data under the hood. The closest analogy would be FLAC, which I think you have no problem calling lossless, right? :) In FLAC case, even harsh power rhythmic noise tracks can hardly touch that 1200 kbps bitrate.
Thanks for the confirmation. I've felt this way for a while, and I've found that using my iPhone is good enough for me to tell earbuds that sound good and one's that don't. There's too many out there to have the absolute best all the time.
Picky please test the samsung earbuds 3 and 3 pro 😣😣🔥🔥
Same findings as well. The improvements aren't that noticeable.
Don't forget about SSC UHQ
Please test using a hires bluetooth receiver and hires bluetooth transmitter so that you can verify the factual difference of the codecs. Would love to know if all these terms and codecs are just gimmicks and a diminishing type of return stuff.
Thanks!
Thank you! 🙏
very cool video, thanks for the info
I'll say this: Most of the time, for most songs, I'd struggle to tell the difference. But there have been a few times I've listened to songs that I'm very familiar with (i.e., songs I've been listening to for decades) and some of those I can tell the difference. On "Mr. Jones" (yeah, like I said, decades....:)) there are background vocals that become much more distinct with hi-res (LDAC) audio.
It's a bit of a mugs game. Not to mention everyone's hearing is different.
I've done a few online pick the high res sample tests, and even though I did exceptionally well, I'd have to say there is like only 5% difference in the samples, and most were so close it was more like 1%.
So now, I just go for good sounding and comfortable buds for when I go to bed for sleeping.
I also just bought myself FiiO JT1 Over Ear Headphones last week and they are just next level, especially for the price.
But if I want max res sound, then I just play direct Flac/Wav files on my computer through my Pioneer VSX-LX805 Elite in my theatre room 11.1 setup.
Wav is 1411 kbps but flac is smaller and both are truly lossless
Apple Music uses ALAC codec as long as you enable lossless or hi res lossless. Tidal does not offer lossless because MQA is lossy.
Didn't Tidal drop MQA? I think they do FLAC now
Tidal do not use mqa any more. But as one of only two streaming services it has option to work in bit to bit mode on Android, and tidal connect service is in fact Lossless. Tidal is only one true lossless service on the market. Apple music can not work in bit to bit mode in Android, and air play service is highly compressed (it's simply aac, not alac). So no lossless here. Apple music can be lossless basically only on ios and only in case of wired connection with external dac. It is not lossles on Android, and on hifi systems.
ALAC codec is only available with wired headphones, no bluetooth headphones can reproduce ALAC (at least on Apple devices). Also Tidal offer FLAC since last year.
Damn I'm early for this, great video as always. These things get marketed to us but it's better to get a real understanding of what it all is, i feel like they make it confusing on purpose or something.
Can i get your opinions on the Tozo nc7? You recently featured them in the best basshead earbuds, and they came last on your other rankings video, did your opinions change at all?
For my experiment 24bit/96khz only makes a huge difference when using it with a wired iem or any hi res wired earphones, with wireless it just sound lil bit good or maybe a some kind of placebo is goin on
It's kinda mixed feelings for me. No matter how many videos I see, I just get confident how good and underrated my Huawei Freebuds Pro 3 are. (you should test them, Picky) They were ahead their age a year ago when they were released but still beat a lot of competitors. They do LDAC even with multipoint (AFAIK), they have awesome sound, mics, ANC and transparency. Absolutely customizable gestures (any bud any gesture can be assigned).
On the other hand and watching this video I'm not sure LDAC actually matters. I'm also not an audiophile.
I'm looking forward to Auracast and LE3 and whatever that brings.
Thanks! I’ll keep them in mind 😊
Thank you very much for the video. I'm curious about the subject. Can you please make a CMF Buds Pro 2 review video or I would appreciate it if you review it and add it to the headphone list.
Do you have these earbuds and if so, how do they sound to you?
Excellent research Picky. 🙌🏻 I’m on team placebo as well - the one time I think there’s a difference in immersion, the next time I can’t reproduce it.
Thanks bro! I’m glad you’re on the same thinking 👍
Minirig speakers only use a basic codec and I haven't heard better portable speakers. I have a few pairs of BT headphones and earbuds some with LDAC and some with aptx adaptive however the ones I reach for most are the Donner buds with SBC and the Earfun 2S with aptx. Honestly I cant hear any difference with my Edifiers no matter what CODEC. However I am in my 50's and worked in some noisy environments so that may have something to do with it. Nice explanation of the BT quagmire, it's a proper smoke and mirror mess. 👍
I'm sticking to AAC on my buds.
Right now I 'm using the OP Buds Pro 2 (LHDC) and the Soundcore Space A40 (LDAC).
In noisy environments and even inside the house there is not really a difference that I could pickup besides battery drain and much worse signal drops, especially in busy areas.
Is practically unusable where I live here in Sao Paulo/ BR and I imagine is like this in most of big cities.
This is why I'm perfectly fine with my edifier 240tn that had a great dynamic range on SBC using Spotify. You just can't tell the difference...
Dynamic range has basically nothing to do with audio quality. Sbc and spotify are both not acceptable.
@@trekkis cool cool...so I shouldn't like how they sound compared to other high res options? I'm confused
@@xWilcoXx not each person is able to hear difference. If someone is not able, should enjoy what he is using. Good for him. But from technical point of view and for other persons - such low quality is simply very low quality. For me, difference is Huge.
@@trekkis and what would you recommend if using Spotify?
@@xWilcoXx aptx adaptive is best solution in every case.
Theres an almost flatearther sentiment thats taken over the lossless discussion. There IS a sizable difference between standard BT quality and wired lossless, we just havent been able to bridge the gap with the quality of the hardware acting as a bigger constraint than the data transmission rate and these codecs promising more than they can deliver. Remember the speakers matter just as much as the amount of data you put thru them. It will get better over time as both the hardware and the software advance.
Call me old school but I still prefer wired headphones. I have cheap $20 Type-C earphones and they sound way better than my Pixel buds. The only advantage the TWS offer is better controls and well, lack of wires, duh.
These are my fave wired.... SoundMagic E10C, Sony MDR-EX650AP In-ear Headphones and FiiO JT1 Over Ear Headphones, all awsome sound and fairly cheap.
If you using an Android device then hi res makes a difference as AAC sucks on Android, however if you use an Apple device AAC is a good enough codec and hi res codecs are not supported anyway.
some earbuds like huawei freebuds pro 2 i feel that sbc is less dynamic than ldac
but another one like liberty 4 nc i really did`nt find difference between ldac and sbc
I need the extra audio available cause my ears are not the best...however I couldnt tell any major difference with the SONY's. Plus the spatial audio is severely limited and doesn't work for the average user unless you can get on the platform LAME
I can easily tell the difference when I use LDAC on my S23 Ultra - sounded great on my WF-1000XM4 and sounds even better on my Technics AZ80s.
Keep in mind, this is using FLAC files over LDAC vs MP3 320kbps files over LDAC or FLAC over AAC. (Not streaming, because of course there will be losses there.)
Exactly
@@BRSxIgnition I thought LDAC, Aptx were not available on Samsung devices?
@@sicebim1 why would you think that? I've used LDAC on my S23 Ultra for and S22 Ultra before that for years.
@@BRSxIgnition On my Fold 3 I couldn't activate LDAC. Apparently Samsung is trying to 'force' people to use their earbuds by offering HiRes through their codec SSC.
@@sicebim1 that's weird, I have no problem setting it up on my S23 Ultra.
Nice video... what about "Snapdragon Sound" ? Where that one falls in your list? How does it compare with the rest of the codecs?
Yep, it's a rabbit hole, a lot of smoke and mirrors, I think a simple set up will have you covered,, Denon Pearl Pro + Tidal + Galaxy S22 and above, but don't look for any answer with the numbers, Tidal sez on some tracks 24 bit 192 kh but Aptx on the phone sez 16 bit 44.1 kh. The real difference comes in the hardware, for example Galaxy buds 3, can do amazing things, but they skipped on sound stage, no tight punchy base, no analytical treble, but you can stream 24 bit music through galaxy s22 and beyond, but what's the point if the hardware is not as good as the software. Good review, one of my favorite subjects, hoping someday this riddle will be solved.
Apple Music works great for me with Lossless.
3anc is only aac and sbc and it sounds almost as good as wired iems.
Yep 👍
The next KING IS COMING to dethrone Sennheiser momentum 4 THE ONEPLUS BUDS PRO 3 🔥🔥
PICKY JUST DO THE REVIEW WITHIN ONE WEEK AFTER RELEASE PLEASE😢😢😢
i would listen to pantera on the lowest res earbuds tho
If I want high quality audios I go to my iems. Still love tws since they're so convient especially for when I clean my room and everything.
Please I hope you to tell me which has better sound quality the semi in ear Jbl live or the new in ear nothing ear a thank you
I use ldac on my realme buds air 5 pro and the sound gets more detailed and soundstage is wider. But aac is still better because ldac has so much connectivity issues and the touch controls on my earbuds gets laggy. Also ldac is not really a night and day difference with aac. Aac makes my earbuds perfect with accurate touch controls and no connectivity issues. Also i use aptx (the basic one) on my sennheiser momentum 4 headphones and it sounds amazing. No lag issues. I think high res is overrated. Better be wired than use high res codecs.
When it comes to streaming services, YES apple and tidal are 100% better and you should switch. That is not placebo. When it comes to BT iems, the codec should not be your priority. The drivers are not good enough to fully leverage the higher bitrate fully.
Please make a video showing how to connect 2 earbuds simultaneously to the same device.
I know that Samsung devices have this possibility, but what about other devices? I've tried with my Xiaomi devices, my Lenovo tablet and my Windows laptop, but I couldn't do it with any of them.
I have the Jabra 75t and I wanted to upgrade so I bought the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro but in terms of audio quality I feel they are less good. There is a recommendation for a significant upgrade in audio quality from the 75t up to $300 ?
Great review. I was always wondering about the difference. I am surprised you said Spotify sounds great. I used it for 6 years and when I tried ITunes I definitely heard a difference in the highs. Just a bit cleaner. I definitely understand about changing though and losing all your songs and playlists. It was mostly Metal music that sounded worse on Spotify. Love their app though.
Does sound good if you adjust the audio quality to very high. By default it's not set to this.
@@bidzam I did but still was not impressed. I really like Spotify but ITunes just sounds better to me.
Greetings! In my country I can get my hands on the one plus buds 3, the soundcore liberty 3 pro, liberty 4 nc, and sony 700 for about 100 euro. Which has the best sound quality for listening to prog/metal?
Thanks, good stuff!
Android 14 supports 96 khz with bit perfect over a usb c connection. I use usb audio player pro and I select hi res direct driver to bypass android internal audio driver. With usb audio player pro, I also select bit perfect in the internal hi res audio settings and turn it on and for usb audio, I select bit perfect and I also turn it on. I use my sennheiser hd 600 the original marble version with my lg v30 quad dac with usb audio player pro when I commute by bus, walking around and running errands. I don't use mqa since it's lossy and not real lossless audio but I also have dsd hi res audio that I use with usb audio player pro. I wish that the fiio music player had the option to bypass the 48khz android limitation since I like using fiio music player app. It requires to check the license whenever there is a new update with usb audio player pro. I wish that usb audio player pro would work without checking a license since I tried it without an internet connection and it says that it can't find the license with usb audio player pro new update. I have to let usb audio player pro check the license and than turn off the internet connection every time whenever I want to use the app offline when the app checks for the license.
Android version has nothing to do here. Android as os do not support bit to bit to date. Player pro is working on all Android versions.
help me choose between qcy t13 and soundcore p20i please? which has better app and sound
Thank you for the effort, the research, and the tests you do for us. Very informative, and I really believe the sound you prefer is totally subjective.
Keep up the videos! Love them!
Thank you!
Thanks for this video Picky Master.
I definitely do hear the difference and I prefer hires. LDAC/LHDC abd Apt-x Adaptive are more than enough. But it also seems to me phone brands make a difference. Obviously LG is renowned for their sound chops and I found OnePlus phones sounded great as well. My first OnePlus phone was the OnePlus 7 Pro.
I've almost always had a Samsung phone since the Note 1 and they don't sound great. I ventured briefly into iPhone and found them mediocre.
This is a joke man. You know there’s frequency response graphs to measure the audio performance of a pair of earbuds, for example? There aren’t differences between phone models. You can see differences using AAC between Android devices where there’s inconsistencies. Some phones roll off the high frequencies before others, while AAC on iPhones is consistent. That’s why it’s recommended to instead use one of the high quality codecs on Android.
But to say different phones sound different is plain wrong. The truth is, AAC on Apple devices and any high quality codec on Android devices achieves transparency for the vast majority of adults. This is the threshold where you can no longer discern between a high enough quality lossy transmission vs. its lossless counterpart.
@@Triple-6 I disagree with you.
The OnePlus 7 Pro sounded better than the Samsung phone I had at that time. I think it was a Note 10 or something.
People that had LG phones said they definitely sounded better than many other phones.
@@sicebim1 People who talk about LG phones and audio quality are typically talking about their DAC/ Amp for traditional wired connections.
I don’t wanna waste either of our time with a back and forth. The fact is, you’re simply mistaken. I’m heavy into understanding some fundamentals of psychoacoustics and how it applies to audio consumption in general. I’m thousands of hours into educating myself, reading, watching, listening, comparing, experimenting, conversing with some highly informed people, etc. With all due respect, you’re not nearly as informed just based on your other comment not knowing basic info like LDAC and AptX availability on Samsung devices.
Most importantly, there are blatant and objective measurements in the form of frequency response graphs. Measurement rigs from the likes of Head Acoustics, GRAS and Brüel & Kjær are used to record various metrics of performance. These are industry standardized rigs costing 10s of thousands of dollars. The same rigs that companies like Apple, Sony, Sennheiser, Samsung and virtually any reputable company uses. Measurements are readily available comparing frequency responses of a pair of earbuds using different codecs across different devices, for example.
I’m not trying to come at you. Just wanted to try and provide you with an informed perspective that may spark a thought in your head to investigate further. As Picky Audio just explained in this video, when you pay a lot for a fancier piece of gear and press a button that shows you a higher number on the screen, you can easily convince yourself that you hear something that’s not readily perceptible. Rolins3279 has a very informed comment on this same video that I replied to as well. Peace!
@@Triple-6 👍🏽👍🏽
hmm how about BT for IEM...
same IEM but different high quality wireless IEM adapters, to see which one is better.
like getting KZ AZ20 and use your 1 IEM.
not sure if there are LDAC for that.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the galaxy buds 3 pro paired with a Samsung device, it is supposed to be higher quality but I don't know if that would be just streaming over similar to APTX lossless or if it would be better.
Nice shirt m8
Pls review Soundpeats Air 5
Should I go with cmf buds pro 2 or soundcore liberty 4nc? Mic and sound quality is top priority plus ANC
of course soundcore
Man why this gotta be so complicated to do
What about Samsung Seamless Codec?
Scam. It's working only with Samsung products with is unacceptable in case when Samsung is using it instead aptx codecs. It's one of worst features of Samsung, also counting ultra series - which is not any ultra in audio neither in photo.
Similar to Aptx/Aptx Adaptive. Works well with Samsung products
I just got myself the Senn TWS m4s and testing out the higher quality mode at a 80% (full charge with battery saving mode) gave me about 3hrs music time before I got told they were down to 10% remaining...not planing on using that mode ever again as 3hrs playback on a 7.5h advertised spec is a joke, feels like a wasted $430AU TBH.
I find that a lot of these so called battery life times are not real world and they often fall short of their spec times.
@@liiich6175 80% volume. 😬
Doesn't that give you a headache or something?
@@sicebim1 No I meant that 80% battery protection mode sorry...
Volume was like 1 or 2 clicks off being muted, super low.
I think I noticed if I use the earbuds volume at max, i can only use my phones volume at like 10% or less thats how loud these can go. But today I used the phone at max volume and tuned down my earbuds, same overall volume (quiet) but now I could get well over 7hrs. Not sure why this is the case but its annoying
in short no is not worthed u just losing battery i tested few and literally no diffrence none
Yep battery is another big issue
Im currently in the market for some new buds but im kinda stuck on 3 deciding mostly between the sony link buds s, Redmi buds pro 5, and One plus buds 3 and i have a redmi note 12 pro phone if that effects anything I would love to know.
Just recently found out that the one plus buds 3 pro are coming out on august 20th hope those might get a review soon
waiting for your review for the samsung buds3 pro and oneplus buds pro 3
One pluse buds 3 pro rewiew plz ,love from India
Pls review earfun air pro 4.
Just got wf xm5 and now regretting it...all earbuds sound the same
Why do you regret it they’re a solid sounding bud with decent EQ customisation
@@pickyaudio hoesnlty speaking, their ANC is out of the world....so fucking perfect, their sound is also awesome..
But I feel 50-60$ earbuds atleast stay in ears and xm5 are like shinny pebbles ...so fucking smooth, hard to hold them , and harder to keep them in ears while working out .
Also in terms of sound quality I can say that 50$ (OnePlus buds 3)vs 250$(xm5) , 5 times difference and sound quality difference would be 8 vs 10 🤔🤔🤔
Am I wrong? Because I'm not that good at catching audio quality differences.
To begin with, for me, almost all the so-called "Lossless" codecs are marketing, scams, 99% of the population does not perceive the difference in sound 🔊 quality.
SBC, AAC and APTX / APTX ADAPTIVE are more than enough.
Effectively, in reality, SBC is better than AAC on Android, just that it's not very stable, otherwise, it actually has more details in music, and especially less latency in video and games.
The best codec for Android / Windows is APTX / APTX ADAPTIVE, more details in music than SBC and AAC, much more stable than SBC, but above all much less latency than AAC in video and gaming, being much more energy efficient, compared to the so-called "Lossless" codecs.
AAC on iOS is effectively equivalent to APTX on Android/Windows.
What is important is the quality of the hardware used by the manufacturer, and the tunning of the earbuds / headphones 🎧.
Wireless is more for convenience, if you want real Lossless music and no latency, buy wired ones.
🙏🏽
Preach to ‘em 🗣️ this is how I know you know a thing or two. (Remember we had that lengthy convo a little while back on that JBL Live Beam 3 video).
I hope the latest advancements in Bluetooth - LE audio, will put this all to rest. LC3 and LC3plus codecs provide more advanced compression, lower latency and lower power consumption. We can look forward to higher quality transmissions that matches and surpasses current hi-res codecs while doing it faster and with less power.
But again, it won’t be any meaningful difference from what we already have as far as audio performance goes. As Rolins explained, we’ve already reached a threshold where the vast majority of adults can no longer discern between it and a lossless transmission. So this updated Bluetooth spec can provide a more predictable and standardized experience for quality, latency and power consumption regardless of which earbuds are connected to which kind of phone. Of course, the tuning and acoustic design is what really differentiates the sound signature. Let’s see if manufacturers will play nice or instead continue to push their bs proprietary codecs as superior.
@@Triple-6 LC3/LC3 Plus, is indeed normally the codec of the future, I would even say that it should have been the codec of the present, it should have been adopted by everyone for at least 3 years.
But the problem is that its name is not glamorous 💕, it's not a proprietary codec on which manufacturers can rely to artificially inflate the price of their products, and especially to put restrictions to lock people into their closesystem (Samsung, I'm looking at you 🙄).
@@rolins3279That’s for sure. I don’t know what’s the hold up. LC3 and LC3plus are clearly superior and would supersede everything else available. I guess it makes sense that some of these manufacturers are worried about their proprietary “advantage” becoming obsolete overnight. Maybe this is part of why companies like Apple have chosen not to rush into supporting one of these power hungry, soon-to-be outdated codecs. My fingers are crossed for next year being when we finally start seeing this spec more widely implemented.🤞🏼
What a mess really.
Thanks for posting this video.
Yes - the whole Bluetooth codec thing is a mess…
Rumour has it that Apple may be introducing UWB (Ultra Wide Broadband) for hi res, low latency connectivity. It’s what they use in the very latest AirPod Pro 2s (USB case), and Vision Pro.
Regarding Spotify. I moved to Apple Music a few years back. Even at its lowest quality of 256 it is noticeably better than Spotify 320. Better again, when I stream 24/48 Lossless via the Sonos App to my Sonos Amp (gen 2).
Maybe a topic for a future video - the sound quality & sound profile over the main streaming services.
Thanks again
Hi everyone i have a question that how to listen ALAC in Apple music
I use ip15 plus
It's possible only in case of wired connection with external dac. There is no alac bt option on ios.
Just use wired headphones and the apple usb c to 3.5mm dongle. Or if your headphones accept usb C to usb C audio cables then that works too. It depends on what heaphones you have.
No
Great video! Anybody know what the stream quality of TH-cam music is and if I could take advantage of LDAC on there?
Yt music is using very good quality codec, so quality is good despite low bitrate. It's better than spotify. Good bt codec will be advantage here. But ldac is not good bt codec.
Thanks! I’m not sure but there is an ‘Enhanced Bitrate’ option now but I’m not sure what it actually is
@pickyaudio thanks! Love your channel... just got a pair of the 2024 Nothing Ears based on your review!
TH-cam music is 256kbps. If you want good quality you have to switch to either Apple or Tidal. Theres no point to listening on youtube outside of unreleased music bc it sounds much worse and in your case youre not getting anything out of your sony LDAC.
@@RiqMoran wrong statement as only bitrate is not only one what is important. Yt bitrate can not be compared with for example spotify bitrate. The same in case of bt codecs. Ldac bitrate can not be compared with aptx bitrate. There is no equivalent in case of totally different codecs. Less can be still much better. When ldac bitrate is in fact, low.
Google pixel buds pro 2
Not worth it.
AAC is enough for 99,9% of us. Full stop;)
What do you think about Haylou Mori Pro ?