Bluetooth has been a steady feature of the tech ecosystem for several decades now. Many people encountered the technology via audio devices, particularly headsets for mobile phones that allow hands-free calling, and later on music streaming, and it probably hastened the demise of the humble CD player from cars.
This is not a technical treatise. It is just one personal anecdote which can be summarised as follows: seek and use Bluetooth LE Audio. It is a significant upgrade to the Bluetooth audio experience, and well worth making a priority the next time you’re in the market.
Audio playback via the “Advanced Audio Distribution Profile, A2DP” enabled music streaming, and nearly 2 decades later, several mobile phones caused a furore by dropping the venerable 3.5mm audio jack from their devices.
Bluetooth audio works of course, but not without drawbacks. One of the top complaints is usually around audio quality. This is a subjective metric, and it is fair to surmise that most people find Bluetooth audio to be good enough, and there have been lots of developments to improve the options and capabilities.
A less subjective limitation of Bluetooth audio via A2DP is related to latency. For various reasons including protocol limitations, Bluetooth audio has high latency, in terms of amount of time before an audio signal generated by the source is reproduced in the speaker. This is often measured in hundreds of milliseconds, and while it is inconsequential for music playback, or even watching of videos, it can have an impact on real-time or interactive applications, such as gaming — any situation where sounds need to be synchronised with user input.
My frustrations with Bluetooth audio grew because I like learning languages in Duolingo, and it is more considerate to use a headset when you’re in a shared space. Despite my appreciation for the higher audio quality of wired earphones, I find my interest in the convenience of wireless options wins, so I have had and used wireless earphones since 2008, always keeping a pair of wired compatible ones for situations where I wanted the higher fidelity or just to avoid Bluetooth limitations on rare occasions.
On a recent session with Duolingo, I got really frustrated with the beginnings of audio samples cut off, and long delays between action and sound. Lacking any motivation to fish out my wired earbuds every time I wanted to fill a gap of 5 minutes with language practice, I decided for the umpteenth time to investigate if this was finally a solved problem, for surely, there must be people out there who experience this problem and who have the means to actually fix the problem!
I have an android phone (Pixel 10) and Google Pixel Buds 2 Pro currently. My beloved partner has an iPhone and Airpods Pro. I resolved that I would see what options were available for Android, up to and including getting a new pair of earbuds if necessary, for a reasonable price to be determined, and then also evaluate the iPhone, and if Apple had solved the problem, this would be the final straw that sent me packing into the ecosystem of iOS.
Needless to say, this led me to Bluetooth LE audio. I keep up with technology news, so I am aware of Bluetooth LE audio and had been curious to try it, but my only two devices which claimed to support it never worked — my Pixel 8 at the time and my Pixel Buds Pro 2. Toggling the LE audio switch would silently toggle back off, and since I have a life, I looked into Sony Link Buds, but was not willing to invest more money into “unproven” tech, so I silently continued to endure the issues with Bluetooth audio.
This time, I did some more digging, and finding that LE audio is supposed to work with the Pixel and Pixel Buds 2 Pro, decided to give it another try. I went to the Pixel Buds app, and enabled the switch for LE Audio. This time, it stayed on. What sorcery! Either the combination of the newer phone, or firmware updates to the Pixel Buds Pro 2 since I last tested had finally got Bluetooth LE audio working.
Bluetooth LE Audio immediately improves the audio latency, significantly reducing the instances of start of stream audio loss. I am now able to use Duolingo with much less frustration. About 95% of the time, when cold starting the app, the first sounds make it to my ears with a minor delay. Once the app is running, the reliability of the interactive audio goes up by my unscientific estimation into the high 99s. This means that I can actually use Duolingo with my earbuds.
What’s more, I have not observed any degradation in audio quality. The LC3 codec that Bluetooth LE audio requires is considered to be superior to AAC in that it can provide equivalent quality at lower bitrates. I streamed a lot of music using the Tidal app at the maximum bitrate, and it’s transparent to me compared to the AAC codec that my earbuds use otherwise.
I’m leaving Bluetooth LE enabled, and from now on, support for Bluetooth LE will be an important feature to look for in any new devices I purchase.
I have not gone on to test the state of Bluetooth audio on iOS because I am now satisfied with the performance of my Pixel 10 paired with the Pixel Buds 2 Pro when Bluetooth LE Audio is working. I’ve got other issues with the Pixel 10, but that’s a story for another day 🙂
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