the android device I might buy with the audio format I usually listen to.
Some of my flacs are way over 3 mbps (up to 6 mbps). The bluetooth on my desktop supports speeds up to 1 mbps. If the pixel is going to support similar rates, I don’t see how this is going work.
ETA: Im still going to nuke the device and install graphene or lineage on it. Do both foss support higher rates?
There has been some attempts like Qualcomm Aptx-lossless but the hardware support, compatibility and reliability it’s lacking . It’s good companies are working on it but we still are a few years from getting it right.
I got big Shure headphones supporting aptX HD (and that Sony codec) both to my little NAD amp and my phone. The Sony earbuds only support the proprietary Sony lossless codec and only to the phone, but they’re for walking around, so that’s fine.
It’s not hard if you just make this a requirement when picking your kit.
Obviously no Apple stuff.
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The quality of AAC depends a lot on the encoder. The iPhone does it pretty well, Android not so much.
That’s what the audio nerds say, at least. Personally I can’t really hear a difference except when using the headphones with the microphone, when it reverts to some ancient codec with more noise than signal.
Yeah, the microphone mode is pretty bad. Actually, on desktop I have enabled a setting (mSBC-XQ) that basically forces way more bandwidth through the connection than is officially supported and it actually works, lol. Audio is still mono and not as good, but it no longer makes me want to scratch my ears out. I think some custom ROMs also offer this.
Once modern Bluetooth standards start getting implemented, things will change for the better. May take a couple of years for cheap chips to make it to every device, though.