I notice a rise in the use of Bluetooth for audio in recent years, and it is even being recommended in some quarters as a way of driving equipment - for example - http://mp3.about.com/od/consumerelec...2b439-0-ab_msb
I thought I'd check to see what standards Bluetooth actually provides. It seems clear to me that basic Bluetooth is unlikely to be able to support high quality sound. The effective bit rate is only about 2 mbps, and while this is greater than CD bit rate, there is not much margin, and the protocols probably absorb quite a lot of the available link bandwidth. Bluetooth, as other communications systems, is an evolving "standard", and it's not quite clear what methods are used.
The original intention seems to have been for Bluetooth to extend the capability of mobile phones, to allow headsets and other wearable devices. Thus it is a potentially useful tool for mobile users, but not necessarily to provide high quality - either audio or video.
There is more on Bluetooth here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth
It looks as though the earlier versions are relatively limited in bandwidth capacity, and may use techniques such as delta modulation, which are perhaps appropriate for speech, but not necessarily good for music. Also, because of the phone applications, audio may be required to have low latency, certainly for real time operation - and the standards may have evolved round that.
The v1 and v2 versions have only limited capacity. Possibly v3 and v4 have greater capacity, but note that this is achieved by using other LAN resources cooperatively, such as a local WiFi network. The details look rather involved.
Essentially, it does not seem to me that Bluetooth provides a means to deliver really high quality audio, though it may be useful to some, and there is the possibility that it will gradually evolve to do so. This will be a fundamental limitation, and irrespective of any other qualities of the equipment being used for playback.
I thought I'd check to see what standards Bluetooth actually provides. It seems clear to me that basic Bluetooth is unlikely to be able to support high quality sound. The effective bit rate is only about 2 mbps, and while this is greater than CD bit rate, there is not much margin, and the protocols probably absorb quite a lot of the available link bandwidth. Bluetooth, as other communications systems, is an evolving "standard", and it's not quite clear what methods are used.
The original intention seems to have been for Bluetooth to extend the capability of mobile phones, to allow headsets and other wearable devices. Thus it is a potentially useful tool for mobile users, but not necessarily to provide high quality - either audio or video.
There is more on Bluetooth here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth
It looks as though the earlier versions are relatively limited in bandwidth capacity, and may use techniques such as delta modulation, which are perhaps appropriate for speech, but not necessarily good for music. Also, because of the phone applications, audio may be required to have low latency, certainly for real time operation - and the standards may have evolved round that.
The v1 and v2 versions have only limited capacity. Possibly v3 and v4 have greater capacity, but note that this is achieved by using other LAN resources cooperatively, such as a local WiFi network. The details look rather involved.
Essentially, it does not seem to me that Bluetooth provides a means to deliver really high quality audio, though it may be useful to some, and there is the possibility that it will gradually evolve to do so. This will be a fundamental limitation, and irrespective of any other qualities of the equipment being used for playback.
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