We have several flavours of headphones in the house and it's getting very messy to figure out which technology delivers the best sound. I may stay with Sony Xperia handsets to reclaim something close to the warm turntable tones I learned to love.
All the newest earbuds sacrifice sound quality for Bluetooth convenience but you really need wires if you want CD audio. I'm diving into several standards that claim “better-than-CD” audio quality. One is Qualcomm’s AptX HD, which powers the Bowers & Wilkins PX and Beyerdynamic Aventho Wireless. But AptX HD is supported by a only a few Android flagships. Apple doesn't support it at all. And many of the phone stores have no idea what I'm asking about when I talk lossless.
My preferred Sony LDAC technology, which sends a boatload of audio data along with every second of audio, is actually available in Android Oreo for phone manufacturers to use, but only one device in Irish phone stores supports it.
Apple is trying to get to the same space by using Bluetooth AAC encoding but in my ears, it's a weak solution.
Previously on InsideView.ie:
The 8yo set today in all our phones, December 16, 2015.
"Brilliant noise-cancelling operations", May 8, 2010.
See photos snapped with Sony Xperia on Bernie's Flickr Photostream.
[Bernie Goldbach loves compelling audio. He teaches creative media for business in Ireland. Image of Bernie's six year old Xperia handset.]
