Why Does Bluetooth Earphones Have Lower Sound Quality Than Wired Earphones

February 25,2022

As we all know, the sound quality of Bluetooth earphones is not as good as that of wired earphones. While improving portability, some losses are inevitable. What are the reasons that limit the sound quality of Bluetooth audio devices?

 

Bluetooth Earphones

 

Lossy compression during Bluetooth transmission

 

The root cause of the poor sound quality of Bluetooth audio devices is very simple, because lossy coding is used to compress the audio signal during transmission. Lossy coding is used to achieve a larger compression ratio and smaller size during compression. If the amount of data is large, some original information in the audio signal will be discarded. However, the compressed information is insufficient, resulting in distortion in the process of decompression and restoration.

 

What is the distortion of lossy audio?

 

Many people know that over-compressed images will produce obvious noise or color blocks, and these two phenomena are distortions caused by lossy compression. The same is true for lossy audio compression, which also introduces distortion during restoration, but It's not very intuitive. Many people find it difficult to distinguish the difference between lossy and lossless music, so even if you don't feel the loss of sound quality caused by Bluetooth transmission, it's very normal.

 

The sound quality is actually improving

 

Even if the amount of data during Bluetooth audio transmission is limited by the protocol, the sound quality can be improved by improving the compression quality of the transmission encoding. And now the very popular APTX encoding is achieved in this way. Simply put, it is at the same bit rate. It can bring better compression effect under the circumstance, so even if it is limited by the protocol, it can still improve the sound quality. Although APTX improves the sound quality, it does not achieve lossless, and there is still a gap between the sound quality of true lossless audio.

 

After reading the above, do you know the reason for the poor sound quality of the Bluetooth headset? Both types of headphones have their own advantages and disadvantages, and you can choose freely according to your preferences.

SHARE US: