I just wanted to open some dialogue related to BT and WiFi audio, mainly with BT codecs on the devices side related to audio quality.
This isn't a discussion about latency. It's only about audio quality, and yes, we all know that if you want the best quality, use a lossless codec on a wired system, or use the source material, CD, Vinyl, etc. So, please, let's not degrade into any of those arguments. Except for a very few 'audiophiles' sitting in their sound proofed basements with a $10, 000.00 Vinyl record player and $20,000 "tube amps" and 50K speakers, wireless music really is the future, much like Vinyl gave way to digital CDs and CDs have given way to digital files. Like it or not, it's the way it is. Also, it looks like BT will be the future, not WiFi for audio transmission. Sure, yuo can stream music from your router to your computer and tehn hardwire yuor computer into speakers, and we can discuss WiFi options for home audio use.
So far, my limited understanding or not even understanding all of the nuances is thus:
If I have any of it correct, is that until the SBC standard is updated, almost everything you stream to a device is going to be re-compressed to SBC, given that the devices are not using the same codec for source and sink. (LC3 is suppose to be the new BT default for BT 5.2.) SBC is no slouch, and is arguably better than MP3, especially at high bitrates.
What I am confused about: If you have a BT 5.1 card in your system running Windows 10, does Windows do the converting when sending the data, and the card just passes that stream on t the device or the card itself? For example, the Intel 9260 card's WiFi/BT is BT is 5.1, but no other codec specs on it. Of course, it's a source/transmitting device, not a receiver device. So, yeah, confused about that.
Last, are there any WiFi options that you can plug into AUX ports on a receiver anymore? It seems like BT has taken over. 'd like to have a WiFi receiver to plug nitomy receiver for home use, as I mainly stream miusic--and as discussed, thta's getting REcompressed into SBC in most all situations.
This isn't a discussion about latency. It's only about audio quality, and yes, we all know that if you want the best quality, use a lossless codec on a wired system, or use the source material, CD, Vinyl, etc. So, please, let's not degrade into any of those arguments. Except for a very few 'audiophiles' sitting in their sound proofed basements with a $10, 000.00 Vinyl record player and $20,000 "tube amps" and 50K speakers, wireless music really is the future, much like Vinyl gave way to digital CDs and CDs have given way to digital files. Like it or not, it's the way it is. Also, it looks like BT will be the future, not WiFi for audio transmission. Sure, yuo can stream music from your router to your computer and tehn hardwire yuor computer into speakers, and we can discuss WiFi options for home audio use.
So far, my limited understanding or not even understanding all of the nuances is thus:
- Using BT, you are going to be either compression or re-compressing audio data, depending on the devices support of codecs.
- If both the source and destination (sink) support the same codecs, then the file should be transferred as it would sound on a wired system (given bandwidth is not exceeded and the radio signal is clean). For instance, if you have a device and source that support AAC, then the original AAC file should transfer it's original AAC data to the sink (destination).
- All BT devices support the SBC (2003) compression standard. All files that do not have a device to source codec match will be re-compressed to the SBC format.
- Almost no BT devices support MP3, so in those instances, the source MP3 will be converted to SBC be the destination device.
- Converting from one compressed lolly format to another decreases quality. So, even if you are streaming FLAC lossless, unless the source device supports that codec, it's getting compressed to SBC.
- Wireless or WiFi 2.4 and 5Ghz do not have this problem and if you have a WiFi device at the destination, does not convert the original data, but simply "passes through" the data to the destination device, which then passes it uncompressed to speakers. This is not Bluetooth, though and requires a router to work. (I had an old Sound Blaster WiFi dongle and small receiver that plugged into the audio receivers AUX port, for instance.
If I have any of it correct, is that until the SBC standard is updated, almost everything you stream to a device is going to be re-compressed to SBC, given that the devices are not using the same codec for source and sink. (LC3 is suppose to be the new BT default for BT 5.2.) SBC is no slouch, and is arguably better than MP3, especially at high bitrates.
What I am confused about: If you have a BT 5.1 card in your system running Windows 10, does Windows do the converting when sending the data, and the card just passes that stream on t the device or the card itself? For example, the Intel 9260 card's WiFi/BT is BT is 5.1, but no other codec specs on it. Of course, it's a source/transmitting device, not a receiver device. So, yeah, confused about that.
Last, are there any WiFi options that you can plug into AUX ports on a receiver anymore? It seems like BT has taken over. 'd like to have a WiFi receiver to plug nitomy receiver for home use, as I mainly stream miusic--and as discussed, thta's getting REcompressed into SBC in most all situations.