Jesus christ Bluetooth audio is a mess.
I've been trying to find Bluetooth earbuds that are low enough latency to work with gaming. This sent me down a rabbit hole.
We have the following Bluetooth audio standards:
SBC - classic Bluetooth audio
HFP - hands free profile
AAC - better Bluetooth audio. Mainly Apple
LDAC - Sony codec, high quality
Aptx - Qualcomm proprietary. A bit like AAC
Aptx-LL - Qualcomm proprietary low latency codec
Aptx-HD - Qualcomm proprietary high bitrate
Aptx-Adaptive - Qualcomm proprietary mixture between LL and HD
LHDC - Low latency HD codec. Only supported on Android and only on very limited set of hardware
LLAC - Very low latency codec. Only supported on Android and only on very limited set of hardware
SSC - Samsung proprietary
LE Audio LC3 - Standard low latency codec
Then we look at what Windows supports. Well, it supports LE Audio LC3 but only on an Intel EVO machine. My laptop for example has the correct WiFi/BT chipset, the correct main chipset, but isn't an EVO machine and so cannot use LE audio..... All the Aptx standards are only on Windows if you have a machine that uses Snapdragon Sound - ARM-based essentially.
So, what to do? I found a device by Creative Labs called BT-W6 that is a little USB dongle that supports everything. All the Aptx versions, LE audio etc.
I then set about purchasing and returning various earbuds that may or may not support the different audio standards. Some only support Aptx for example when connecting to a Samsung phone. Others only support LE audio in a very specific set of circumstances.
In the end I bought a set of Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra earbuds. These support Aptx-LL and connect nicely to the Creative BT-W6 and give me very low latency audio. As a bonus, the Steamdeck also support Aptx-LL.
What a mess.
How anyone is supposed to navigate this is anyone's guess.
I've been trying to find Bluetooth earbuds that are low enough latency to work with gaming. This sent me down a rabbit hole.
We have the following Bluetooth audio standards:
SBC - classic Bluetooth audio
HFP - hands free profile
AAC - better Bluetooth audio. Mainly Apple
LDAC - Sony codec, high quality
Aptx - Qualcomm proprietary. A bit like AAC
Aptx-LL - Qualcomm proprietary low latency codec
Aptx-HD - Qualcomm proprietary high bitrate
Aptx-Adaptive - Qualcomm proprietary mixture between LL and HD
LHDC - Low latency HD codec. Only supported on Android and only on very limited set of hardware
LLAC - Very low latency codec. Only supported on Android and only on very limited set of hardware
SSC - Samsung proprietary
LE Audio LC3 - Standard low latency codec
Then we look at what Windows supports. Well, it supports LE Audio LC3 but only on an Intel EVO machine. My laptop for example has the correct WiFi/BT chipset, the correct main chipset, but isn't an EVO machine and so cannot use LE audio..... All the Aptx standards are only on Windows if you have a machine that uses Snapdragon Sound - ARM-based essentially.
So, what to do? I found a device by Creative Labs called BT-W6 that is a little USB dongle that supports everything. All the Aptx versions, LE audio etc.
I then set about purchasing and returning various earbuds that may or may not support the different audio standards. Some only support Aptx for example when connecting to a Samsung phone. Others only support LE audio in a very specific set of circumstances.
In the end I bought a set of Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra earbuds. These support Aptx-LL and connect nicely to the Creative BT-W6 and give me very low latency audio. As a bonus, the Steamdeck also support Aptx-LL.
What a mess.
How anyone is supposed to navigate this is anyone's guess.
