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by Sephr 3486 days ago
Still no audio profile that supports Opus. Why are we still using a 20 year old audio codec (SBC) for Bluetooth speakers?

Opus is low enough bitrate that it could even theoretically be used over BLE (ignoring latency problems), while still wiping the floor with SBC.

Regardless of whether BLE transport is possible, it depresses me that Opus support still hasn't been added to the A2DP.
2 comments
rasz_pl 3486 days ago
We got brand new 25 year old codec now! PATENTED and owned by Qualcomm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AptX

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DiThi 3486 days ago
I tried to use that and after I received an expensive aptX-LL capable receiver I found out my Google Pixel doesn't support aptX!

I've been wanting an Opus powered headset too, for years. Maybe someone can make a non-A2DP opus receiver and some type of virtual audio device in PC and Android?

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tinus_hn 3484 days ago
If it's 25 years old the patents either already have expired or are due to do so soon. Patents don't last forever.
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DiabloD3 3486 days ago
Bluetooth 5 now has enough bandwidth to do uncompressed 16/44.1 stereo PCM in real world situations.

Bluetooth has also optionally supported device-side AAC and MP3 encoding (which Apple now supports, after 10+ years of being in this game, on exactly one chipset: theirs, the W1, via iTunes only, or AAC only).

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kalleboo 3485 days ago
> which Apple now supports, after 10+ years of being in this game, on exactly one chipset: theirs, the W1, via iTunes only, or AAC only

I remember having rock-solid, fully-featured (volume control, display of song titles etc), well-sounding Sony Ericsson Bluetooth gear back in the featurephone era, but once the iPhone and Android came on the scene, it all regressed with the iPhone not even supporting A2DP for a long time, and when they first added it, the fidelity was atrocious. I can't believe they're still stuck on SBC!

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