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thank you Linux for giving a damn about Bluetooth headphones

For context, LDAC is one of the few wireless audio codecs stamped Hi-Res by the Japan Audio Society and its encoder is open source since Android 8, so you can see just how long Windows is sleeping on this. I’m excited about the incoming next gen called LC3plus, my next pair is definitely gonna have that.

oldlamps ,

Definitely. I have a pair of pixel buds that give me very noticeable latency when paired in Windows. I’ve never been able to find a way to use the low latency codecs to fix this.

In Linux it’s a complete opposite experience. I have a menu with every codec in the book, and I can actually watch video in Linux without even noticing any latency now.

nottheengineer ,

Sony did drop the ball with LDAC quite quickly, it could’ve been the new standard.

But with the release of the WH-1000XM3s (or was it the 4s?) they basically made most of the selling points incompatible with LDAC, so now almost no one uses it anymore.

denissimo OP ,
@denissimo@feddit.de avatar

Yes, LDAC and multipoint do not mix hence I’m looking forward to LC3plus that replaces it. To be fair it’s not a big issue to roll back to AAC or even SBC to use multipoint, because you probably aren’t gonna notice a difference when you don’t listen to high res apps like Tidal. It also should be known that a good codec does not fix mediocre drivers and/or chips. Regardless, Linux shines in letting you use a feature you did pony up for. :)

oeightsix ,

LDAC and Multipoint do in fact mix, just not on Sony products.

denissimo OP ,
@denissimo@feddit.de avatar

I see, so Edifier and Soundcore shall do some homework as well: LDAC and multi point don’t work there either.

oeightsix ,

Have a look at Technics A800/AZ60/AZ60MK2/AZ80, all support simultaneous use of LDAC and multipoint. I recall something else working with both simultaneously too, possibly Huawei TWS.

They do step down a quality tier to do so, and low bitrste LDAC is generally considered poor, but it’s otherwise all there and possible.

marmarama ,

I have a Radsone ES100 Bluetooth DAC/headphone amp, and that supports LDAC, multipoint, and doesn’t compromise the LDAC bitrate when you have multipoint enabled. You can even leave it plugged in as a USB DAC and still use multipoint BT with LDAC, and it switches smoothly between the sources depending on which device started playing a stream most recently.

I was distinctly underwhelmed by the BT implementation when I got my Sony XM4s, it’s kinda weak by comparison.

oeightsix ,

Nice one!

I am distinctly underwhelmed in general by the XM4.

marmarama , (edited )

Yeah, I agree.

I bought them for their noise cancelling primarily, and they’re excellent at that, but otherwise they’re not great. The un-EQed frequency response is terrible for headphones in their price range: flabby, wildly over-exaggerated bass and no mids at all. Running without EQ I can barely hear lyrics - every singer sounds like they’re mumbling underwater. I’ve had $20 IEMs with better tonal balance. They respond well to EQ but the on-board EQ doesn’t have enough frequency bands to even come close to fixing them. Wavelet on Android doing EQ duty makes them listenable. Even when you do EQ them properly, they still sound a bit dull and lifeless.

No idea how they got so much praise when they were launched. The power of marketing budgets I guess. For a while I was gaslighting myself thinking I had a faulty pair or maybe there was something going wrong with my hearing, but having heard another pair, and doing comparisons with my other headphones - most of which are far cheaper - I realised that no, they’re just not very good as headphones.

oeightsix ,

I agree wholeheartedly and would add ‘borderline unusable for voice calls’ to the XM4’s sins, which is admittedly an improvement over ‘entirely unusable for voice calls’ ala XM3/XM2/1000X. Spent quite a while trying to get the XM4 to sound ‘good’, and they just won’t.

The 1000X series has reached a level of critical mass otherwise only touched by AirPods in consumer headphoneland - people have heard of them, and want them, and read reviews which say ‘best for most people’, and their friends recommend them, and they want them more. And they buy them, and 5 stars A+++ these are the best headphones they’ve ever heard. Which is their truth. Meets the expectations of most, and exceeds for those who haven’t experienced top-tier ANC before.

Credit where it is due, Sony managed to make a product with a traditional Japanese letter-letter-number-number model, and made it famous enough to ask for by name. It is the consistency in product and marketing plus the halo effect that’s seen 1000X series reach critical mass. Reviews saying ‘actually I don’t like how these sound and struggle to get them sounding much better with the rubbish in-app EQ that doesn’t have a slider corresponding to the ~200Hz spike’ aren’t common.

We live in a world where AirPods and Spotify are good enough for most people. I’m just glad there’s room in the market for well-tuned over-ear ANC cans too.

nottheengineer ,

AAC hurts my ears. Not sure why since I can’t hear a difference between it and LDAC without listening very carefully, but after half an hour or so I need to switch it to something else because it becomes more and more uncomfortable.

Switching between LDAC/multipoint mode means rebooting the headphones and connecting them again, so it’s a massive hassle. That makes multipoint absolutely useless to me. I personally won’t be buying sony headphones (or anything else that comes with an app) in the future because of that.

InverseParallax ,

Aac has a higher frequency response and I think some decoders don’t filter transients as well with a fir filter. I’ve noticed this too.

rotopenguin ,
@rotopenguin@infosec.pub avatar

Oh LDAC conflicts with mutli-connection? That’s why I can’t get it on my 1000xm4?? It’s good to finally have an answer.

Dreadful6644 ,

On my headphones, you can either use LDAC with one device or SBC/AAC with two devices. I can only change it via the app. Is there a similar setting for you?

rotopenguin ,
@rotopenguin@infosec.pub avatar

The ios app is the only way that I can command the headphones to connect to a second device. When 2 device mode is going on, I have no idea what the connection is like in ios but Linux plainly tells me that it can only do SBC and SBC-XQ. When I turn off 2 device mode, and pair it again, LDAC is finally offered. My 1000xm4 doesn’t offer AAC, I don’t think I have anything around that sinks AAC. My Steamdeck can work as an Opus sink lol.

vrighter ,

it was the wh-1000xm3. I own a pair and can confirm most features don’t work with ldac

drwankingstein ,

LDAC never could have been the standard because it’s marketing crap, ctrl+f my name on this post and I have pointed out why multiple times

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