Does the iPhone 12 Pro support aptX HD?
Does the IPhone 12 Pro support aptX HD Bluetooth codec? I have some Nura Headphones and want to use them to their full potential.
Posted on Oct 17, 2020 7:41 AM
Posted on Oct 17, 2020 7:49 AM
So here’s the thing. There’s a lot of buzz and snake oil out there about bluetooth codecs. In a blind taste test, you’d be hard pressed to hear any difference at all honestly. Both codecs support 24bit and 48khz which are the two biggest factors you want in a wireless codec. The only difference is that AAC tops out at 320kbps whereas aptX HD can hit 570kbps.
Now while that might sound like a big difference, I urge you to do a hearing test such as this or this. If a song has been mixed and mastered well, even a professional audiophile can have a hard time hearing the difference between 190, 256, and 320. The single most important part of what we listen to is the distortion within the mix. If there’s distortion, the bitrate doesn’t matter. Basically clean is clean.
I have the Nura’s as well and I’ve listened to them in aptX HD and AAC. This is entirely subjective, but in a blind test they sounded identical to me. You know what sounded spectacular though? Hard-lining those suckers with the USB cable. Which brings me to my final point: we’re comparing bluetooth codecs, which after a certain point is a bit like comparing deck chairs on the Titanic. Bluetooth is the great bottleneck and regardless of how good you think HD will sound, it still won’t sound as good as a simple hard-line.
Long story short: don’t feel like you’re missing out. Enjoy the awesome headphones.
Edit: all that preamble and I never actually answered your question about the iPhone 12. I don’t see it apt listed anywhere on the specs. I also doubt Apple would ever pay to license aptX HD while they have AAC.
aptX HD Bluetooth Support on iPhone 14 Pro is needed! My 3 year old Huawei sounds better.
I recently switched back from Android to OS and although I’m enjoying being back in the Apple ecosystem, as an audiophile there are some features that are seriously lacking, namely the quality of Bluetooth transmission to wireless earbuds on the iPhone 14 Pro.
My last phone was a Huawei P30, bought in 2019, which was impressively specced out and transmitted Bluetooth via aptX HD. Upon connecting the latest Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds to the new iPhone I was completely disappointed in the audible and obvious loss in sound quality through AAC (or whatever Apple is currently using).
How can the latest «pro» iPhone still have such outdated lossy Bluetooth transmission? To test this further I connected my Cambridge Audio Melomania 1+ earbuds, which I’m very familiar with, and the results were the same. A serious loss in audio quality compared to what I was used to with the Huawei P30.
To confirm this I did a side-by-side comparison between the Huawei and the iPhone and this further confirmed what I thought. The iPhone 14 Pro sounded markedly worse. The soundstage was smeared, the sub-frequencies weren’t as present, and there wasn’t nearly as much clarity all over. Interestingly this was noticeable when streaming HD from Tidal as well as standard from Spotify.
I bought the iPhone with the natural assumption that it would sound the same, my confirmation-bias was in favour of Apple from the beginning, but the difference was so staggering that I had to double and triple check, and then do some reading.
Will we ever see aptX HD support for iPhones? Granted I’m a mastering engineer, but I truly think if the average consumer did a blind test even they would hear the difference in good headphones. This puts the «pro» into question for me and I’d think twice before buying a new iPhone.
Posted on Dec 20, 2022 12:52 PM
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Unitron hearing aids dropping connection to iPhone 11 bluetooth I have a problem with my Unitron Moxi Jump R hearing aids on my iPhone 11 with IOS 13.1.2. They are Bluetooth hearing aids and *not* «Made for iPhone» hearing aids. I had no problems with my iPhone 6. My audiologist claims it is an iPhone 11 problem; Apple wants me to do a full factory reset which I hesitate to do. I did do a «Reset Network Suggestions» which did wipe out my WiFi and previous Bluetooth settings, but did not solve problem.Any suggestions? I can pair the hearing aids to the phone. However, when I connect in Settings->Bluetooth the connection lasts for between 10 and 30 seconds and disconnects. When I paired the iPhone 11 to my old MacBook Pro the connection stayed up for many minutes — although I didn’t really have a way to transmit anything between the phone and MacBook to see how good it was. Surprisingly, when I open the Unitron «Remote Plus» App on my phone, it can connect to my paired hearing aids and the menu works — for example changing the hearing aid program to «mute» or «car» or back to «automatic» and I can change the volume. So that works the same as the iPhone6. What doesn’t work is getting music or podcasts or audiobooks to play through the hearing aids — there is no Bluetooth device option for the audio because they have disconnected — except, once, during one of the longer 30 second connections, I got about 10 seconds of podcast play through the hearing aids before it quit. Have never succeeded doing that again despite several attempts. I have attempted at several locations with more or less electronic noise, but no difference. I have researched this a bit and my iPhone 6 was using Bluetooth protocol version 4.2, while the iPhone11 is using Bluetooth protocol version 5.0. The hearing aids specs state they are Bluetooth 4.2 Dual-Mode and include some specs that I don’t know how to interpret but include here: Antenna type: Resonant loop antenna Operation frequency 2.4 GHz – 2.48 GHz Modulation GFSK, Pi/4 DPSK, GMSK I have been told that Unitron is communicating with Apple, but I would like to be able to tell them to «hurry up!». Or just find a solution!
Resound hearing aids: left aid won’t connect to Bluetooth in iOS 14.2 I have used ReSound hearing aids with iPhone for years—bluetooth has always been quirky, but I know how to play with things to get it to work. About a week ago, I was at my audiologist for a repair on my left aid. At that appointment, she did a firmware update on both aids. After that, my iPhone will not connect to my left hearing aid. Have tried reboots, unpairing and repairing, etc., etc. I have an iPhone 11 running iOS 14.2, and LINX Quattro rechargeable hearing aids. 1) Is anyone else having this problem? I have seen 2 recent posts from folks who mention issues connecting to their ReSound left hearing aids. 2) If you are not having this problem, what hardware/software are you using? Are you running iOS 14.2.1? I think that might fix this issue—but the update isn’t available to those with models other than iPhone 12.
Does the iphone 11Pro support bluetooth APTX? Hi There, I’am planning on Buying the new B&W headphones. Does the iphone 11Pro support bluetooth APTX or APTX HD? Thanks
How to enable aptX (HD) Bluetooth audio on your iPhone, iPad?
UPDATE March 2019: this article has been updated and expanded here.
ATTN: Bluetooth beginners. Did you receive a nice pair of wireless Bluetooth headphones for Christmas? Has the manufacturer made a big noise about aptX (HD) support on the packaging? aptX developer Qualcomm asserts that their Bluetooth codec provides “wired quality sound – wirelessly.” Understandably, you want some of that good stuff. As an iOS user you want to make sure aptX (HD) is in play when sending music via Bluetooth from your iPhone or iPad to your new headphones. But how?
At time of writing, the short answer is: you can’t . And not only because iOS gives us no way to tell which audio codec is being used to bridge smart device and Bluetooth headphone but because Apple elected not to include aptX (HD) in its iOS devices (despite putting it in Macbooks and iMacs). aptX must be present in both headphone and transmitting device (phone, tablet, PC, Mac) for it to handle the data compression required by a Bluetooth audio connection.
In aptX’s place, Apple have gone with AAC as their optional Bluetooth audio codec for iOS. The jury is still out on whether or not AAC sounds as good as aptX but one thing is certain: both codecs are lossy (no matter Qualcomm’s slippery tech talk) and both sound better than SBC, to varying degrees depending on the hardware implementation. Think of SBC as a low power, low-quality fallback codec that keeps music playing when neither smartphone/tablet and/or headphone support AAC or aptX (HD).
iOS users: forget about aptX (HD) – for now at least it remains irrelevant to your Bluetooth headphone needs. Instead, seek out AAC in your headphones’ specification sheet. Spying ‘Bluetooth 4.x’ is not enough. You’re looking for explicit mention of AAC support.
If it’s there – per Sony MDR-1000X, Sony WH-1000XM2, Bose QC35 II, B&W PX, Sennheiser HD1 * – then you’re good to go. Enjoy. If it isn’t – hello Sennheiser Momentum Wireless / HD1 – you’ll find yourself listening to sub-optimal SBC-fuelled Bluetooth audio.
Footnote / correction: Much of Sennheiser’s web copy for the HD1 headphone states the presence of AAC support but, curiously, the specs make no mention of it – only aptX and SBC support are included.
Written by John
John currently lives in Berlin where he creates videos and podcasts for Darko.Audio. He has previously contributed to 6moons, TONEAudio, AudioStream and Stereophile.
Darko.Audio is a member of EISA.