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Topic: AAC Bluetooth codec on Android (Read 3864 times) previous topic - next topic
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AAC Bluetooth codec on Android

I have a pair of wireless headphones that only support SBC and AAC, and an Android phone. According to this article, it seems AAC is not a good option if you're using Android?

https://www.soundguys.com/dont-use-airpods-android-20767/

For optimal performance and sound quality, should I use SBC instead? Has anyone compared the two codecs?

Re: AAC Bluetooth codec on Android

Reply #1 –
Adding clarification.
This topic is asking about changing
Android Settings > System > Developer options > Bluetooth Audio Codec

Quote
Has anyone compared the two codecs?
Have you compared the two codecs?
korth

Re: AAC Bluetooth codec on Android

Reply #2 –
What phone are you using?  Does it support the AAC codec over Bluetooth? https://bluetoothcheck.com/

What is the audio source?  Flac?  MP3?  M4A?  YouTube? (uses AAC).  SBC seems to be the common codec with all BT devices.    If your phone supports AAC, and the audio is already AAC, then I'd use the AAC codec, as audio quality doesn't seem to noticably degrade with each encoding pass.  However, I believe AAC isn't as easy on battery life.

Re: AAC Bluetooth codec on Android

Reply #3 –
Quote from: Replica9000 on
SBC seems to be the common codec with all BT devices.
It is mandatory.

Quote from: Replica9000 on
If your phone supports AAC, and the audio is already AAC, then I'd use the AAC codec,
Won't help you.
Regardless of the audio format, it is send to the BT sender as plain PCM.
There it is compressed with the codec negotiated between sender and receiver.
TheWellTemperedComputer.com

Re: AAC Bluetooth codec on Android

Reply #4 –
Quote from: Roseval on
Won't help you.
Regardless of the audio format, it is send to the BT sender as plain PCM.
There it is compressed with the codec negotiated between sender and receiver.


AAC to PCM back to AAC should still be less degraded than going to SBC.  I could tell the difference with AAC files at 96kbps

Re: AAC Bluetooth codec on Android

Reply #5 –
Honestly, in my experience the difference (if any) between SBC, AAC, and APTX over bluetooth are small enough to not be obvious to me.

There are advantages to SBC and APTX in that they're relatively lightweight to encode and decode.

Re: AAC Bluetooth codec on Android

Reply #6 –
Wow, I have found an interesting topic here.

The difference between phones is that some use hardware AAC encoder and some use software. If it uses software, it's most likely fdk-aac and you're sure to be safe with a sound quality. If it's hardware... Get ready to have a terrible sound quality that's worse than both SBC and aptX by huge margin. I have experienced that myself.
Opus VBR 256 + SoX

Re: AAC Bluetooth codec on Android

Reply #7 –
Sometimes the difference could be really dramatic, some unfortunate earbuds (Bose) produce extremely loud clicks where there's nothing like that in the source, only when using AAC - SBC is just fine.
a fan of AutoEq + Meier Crossfeed

Re: AAC Bluetooth codec on Android

Reply #8 –
My Android phone gave me a terrible experience with AAC, extreme latency (4-5 seconds), and noticeable compression artifacts.  The work around was to disable HD in the Bluetooth settings which is on by default if a newly added device supports it.  SBC was fine on every Android phone I ever had.

Previous Phones: "Kyocera Hydro Icon", "Samsung Galaxy S7" - NO AAC SUPPORT THAT I KNOW OF BOTH HAD BLUETOOTH
Current Phone: "Nokia 8.3 5G" - HAS AAC SUPPORT

Re: AAC Bluetooth codec on Android

Reply #9 –
Quote from: Chibisteven on
My Android phone gave me a terrible experience with AAC, extreme latency (4-5 seconds), and noticeable compression artifacts. 
Can't confirm latency this huge (more like a second), but compression artifacts is just what I was talking about. Hardware encoders on most (all?) Android phones are complete joke.

Quote from: Chibisteven on
The work around was to disable HD in the Bluetooth settings which is on by default
so you "downgrade" to SBC. Yeah, you got it right, that's the problem with modern Android phones.
Opus VBR 256 + SoX