With many modern audio speakers and systems adding wireless functionality to their list of features, you may wonder whether you are doing yourself a disservice by going wireless and ask yourself “is wireless audio quality any good?”
Believe it or not, wireless can sound just as good as a wired connection, meaning you won’t have to sacrifice quality for convenience.
Our wireless speakers utilize Bluetooth technology which definitely has its advantages; it’s fairly universal and, with its lack of proprietary software, is really easy to set up. There must be a catch, right? In the past, we felt that Bluetooth technology wasn’t up to snuff, both in terms of the range of the signal and the quality of audio. In recent years, however, Bluetooth technology has seriously done a lot of growing up; advances in the technology has increased the bandwidth and range, making it not only function great, but sound great. Bluetooth now has the capability of streaming up to CD quality, or 16-bit/44.1kHz, over the air, which means that right out of gate you’re able to send great sending audio without being tethered by cables.
Codecs play a part in how Bluetooth audio is sent and received and some codecs provide slightly better fidelity than others.
In products like our B1 Bluetooth Music Receiver, we utilize the aptX HD codec, which we feel provides you with the highest fidelity decoding possible. Some devices, like most iOS devices, don’t utilize aptX, but even though we use aptX in our products, other great codecs like SBC and AAC will work and sound great. Not to mention, we utilize built-in DACs in our Bluetooth products, which will take your audio and pad the bit-depth to a 24-bit format, giving you added benefits such a lower noise floor.
Even though we use Bluetooth in more of our newer products, we do have other wireless options if you’re looking for any non-Bluetooth solutions. We offer two different wireless audio adapters, the W3 Wireless Audio Adapter the D2 Wireless DAC. The wireless technology used in both of these products is a lot like Wi-Fi, but on a closed protocol built specifically for high-resolution audio. The W3 includes a 16-bit/44.1kHz DAC, which makes it able to send CD-quality uncompressed audio over the air. If you’re looking for high-quality, though, the D2 represents the absolute highest possible performance wireless audio device we could build, able to send 24-bit/96kHz wirelessly.
So is wireless audio quality any good? The short answer is yes!
Using only the best hardware and software, you can rest assured that the wireless gear you’ve been considering will not only add convenience to your listening experience, but will retain the authenticity that you expect from your music.
