Bluetooth is a good format
this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2023
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Headphones
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It’s not 2010 anymore iPhones support hi-rez lossless
Not for Bluetooth though.
You can run audio over usb-c to an external dac/amp, or you can stop being neurotic about essentially transparent high bitrate AAC.
most people probably can't tell the difference between aac or ldac. some people can't tell the difference between aac and wired. if it sounds good to you then you shouldn't worry about it.
I’d say the AAC in iphone is good enough anyway.
Can’t hear the great compromise.
You don't have to use Bluetooth when using headphones with an iPhone. You can use a Lightning to 3.5mm connector.
Is the statement in this post a description of your experience or are you quoting someone?
Bluetooth can sound transparent and while AAC is not as good as LDAC, it's used with a high bitrate in iOS. Sure, there is some high frequency cut-off, but from what was measured in this article, it does go to almost 19 kHz on the iPhone 7.
It's further explained in that article how Android phones often automatically use lower bandwidth in AAC to reduce battery usage. For those devices, even the simpler SBC codec gives better results, since it's running at a higher bitrate.
In any case, the most important aspect of a headphone in terms of how good it sounds to you is the frequency response, the relative balance of how loud each frequency is played by the headphones. Once you have headphones with a frequency response that you like, the AAC compression artifacts, even when audible, shouldn't ruin your fun.
And as others said, you can always use a dongle. Even the cheap ones usually exceed CD quality signal.
Thanks for the reply, I’ve got a hybrid wired/wireless headphone, when using the lightning to 3.5mm jack adapter, it sounds indeed crispy and clear, but the bass isn’t as impressive as the Bluetooth mode, the volume feels low, there’s less bass, is it because the adapter can’t fully power up the headphone? It requires more energy to reproduce.
Lack of power is often simply a volume limitation, or in rare cases, non-linear distortion (a certain harshness to the sound. You can check how increasing levels of THD sound like in a test site like https://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_thdFull.php)
More likely, when in Bluetooth mode, your headphones apply digital signal processing, most often to improve channel balance (to compensate for one cup having the electronics etc.) but also to tune the sound further.
It's an especially prominent effect in many ANC headphones, where the microphones are used to determine what correction to apply to the sound go get the intended frequency response. If same headphone is connected passively, none of this processing is working and whatever improvements could be made via DSP are gone.
Does you headphone have an app with equalizer? If yes, see if you can boost the treble in the bluetooth mode.
My iphone 12 supports alac. I use the camera adapter (lightning to USB) to a Dragonfly Red then headphones from the 3.55mm connection.
False. I run an iphone 6s with my IEM everyday without any complaints. At home I have a usb-dac for my laptop and secondary phone.
The phone has zero effect on the audio quality since it only sends the digital source to the DAC, which is what generates the analog signal.
I'm pretty big into headphones and I still am content with MP3 generally (though I do admittedly listen almost exclusively to FLAC since... why not?) AAC is just as good as mp3, and your actual limiations are probably with the headphones you're using. If you really wanted to; you can just buy a (whatever port your iphone has) to 3.5mm dongle. It's good enough for 99% of people probably. Unless you have a headphone that's difficult to drive.