If you are completely new to the world of Bluetooth and its possibilities, you have come to the right place. From understanding what Bluetooth is to how it works and why it matters, continue reading for a better understanding of this valuable technology.
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What Is Bluetooth?
Throughout the vast majority of the 20th century, wires were necessary if you hoped to connect devices. Before Bluetooth, connecting music streaming from your desktop computer to your home’s speakers would have been impossible without a trail of cables and wires. This level of impracticality for connecting devices led to the need for Bluetooth, which arrived on the scene in 1994.
In short, Bluetooth is a technology that lets one electronic device connect to another device without the need for wires. Bluetooth enabled devices ultimately transmit data to one another via low-power radio waves on a 2.45ghz frequency.
This wireless connectivity solution is commonly found in hi-fi separates and wireless speakers, allowing consumers of Bluetooth audio products to place speakers anywhere in the home without the need to worry about whether wires can easily connect to devices.
Connecting — also known as pairing — devices is typically as easy as turning on your Bluetooth audio device, making it discoverable within your device settings before turning on Bluetooth on the device you wish to connect to as well. From there, simply follow any more instructions that might appear, and you should be finished and connected in no time.
However, not all Bluetooth products are created equal. There are different iterations of Bluetooth, which need to be understood to grasp the full range of Bluetooth product offerings.
Differences Between Bluetooth Versions
Over time, new versions and iterations of Bluetooth are released. As a general rule, these later iterations improve upon pairing reliability, speed, power consumption and similar benefits. In simplest terms, the higher the number (Bluetooth 4.0 versus Bluetooth 2.0, for example), the better the Bluetooth functionality. That said, most versions are backwards compatible with the last, meaning it is possible to inter-operate Bluetooth devices that have different version numbers.
Bluetooth 2.0 — and later, 2.1 — introduced enhanced data rate (EDR) to the Bluetooth world, for example. This technology improved the data rate potential up to 3 Mbps, far outpacing the capabilities of its Bluetooth 1.2 predecessor. Bluetooth 2.1, which released in 2007, also brought secure simple pairing (SSP) that overhauled, simplified and improved the pairing process.
Bluetooth 2.1 is still common in devices where the 2.1 improvements still meet the device’s Bluetooth needs, such as high-end home audio. Generally speaking. 2.1 + EDR is all you need to enjoy premium sound from a leading home audio speaker.
Bluetooth 3.0 + HS (High Speed), on the other hand, took the 3 Mbps upgrade from Bluetooth 2.0 and multiplied it by eight. The end result was Bluetooth 3.0’s optimum speed of 24 Mbps. However, be aware that only devices with the ” + HS” suffix will be able to hit the maximum 24 Mbps provided by 3.0, whereas devices that are simply labeled as Bluetooth 3.0 will also be limited to the 3 Mbps maximum brought by 2.0, albeit with improvements to power control and a better streaming mode.
Bluetooth 4.0, for its part, split Bluetooth’s specifications into three separate categories:
• Classic
• High-Speed
• Low Energy
The benefits of Classic are most similar to the Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR era, while High-Speed is reminiscent of 3.0+HS performance. The new breakthroughs in Bluetooth performance are found in the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) spec.
For all intents and purposes, BLE combines the convenience of classic Bluetooth iterations and adds significantly lower power consumption to the list of benefits. While it does sacrifice some range and data throughput to achieve these benefits, it has become the de facto gold standard for peripheral devices that rely on batteries and do not have a need for constant data transmission.
As such, smartwatches and products looking to connect to the Internet of Things (IOT) are the greatest beneficiary of the 4.0 enhancements, making it a big player in the personal fitness and health market. It is worth mentioning, however, that Bluetooth Low Energy is not backward compatible like most of the other versions.
Lately, Bluetooth 5.0 has arrived on the scene, which is the latest and greatest Bluetooth iteration. The primary benefits of 5.0 is lossless and more secure communication in light of recent technological advancements. 5.0 promises twice the data transfer speed of previous versions, as well as quadrupled range compared to 4.2.
Best of all, 5.0 even has the potential to support two sets of wireless devices at once, meaning two sets of headphones could connect to the same device. At present, however, few devices are compatible with Bluetooth 5.0.
Aside from all these tech specifications, however, you may just be wanting to know which is best for your audio needs. To that end, here is a simplified guide to getting the best Bluetooth products for your specific audio needs.
Choosing the Right Bluetooth Products for Your Home Audio Needs
While understanding the different Bluetooth iterations is important from a buyer’s standpoint, the latest Bluetooth evolutions are not necessarily important for home audio. You are going to get all the speed and easy pairing for a satisfactory audio experience from Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.
That said, it is absolutely worth your time to find a high-end audio solution that offers the aptX codec. Before diving into why aptX is so important, we need to talk about how Bluetooth impacts digital audio performance.
Bluetooth is capable of transforming your home audio experience into a wires-free environment, but that comes with a loss in audio performance due to compression. In simplest terms, compressed audio often will not sound as good as uncompressed audio when listening on a high-end speaker or home audio system. Ordinary Bluetooth uses SBC to transmit audio, which stands for Low Complexity Subband Coding.
This form of transmission is efficient, but is not designed for audiophile, high-end performance. The compressed audio was instead designed to use as little processing power as possible. Functionally, this means ordinary Bluetooth playback can make you lose audio performance in the reencoding process.
There are even multiple levels of SBC, and the lowest common denominator between your device and audio will win. For example, if your phone does SBC at the highest rate, but the speakers cannot, you will hear sound at whatever the headphone’s maximum rate is. The aptX audio codec is designed to fix these Bluetooth limitations. For starters, however, both products must have the aptX codec to enjoy the benefits of this technology, so make sure your Bluetooth audio product has this technology before purchasing if you are serious about sound quality. The aptX codec essentially provides a superior form of audio compression that will make your music sound far better on a high-end Bluetooth speaker system.
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