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ANY DEGREDATION IN ALAC VS ACC WHILE STREAMING BLUETOOTH

Would audio quality be somewhat degraded streaming ALAC to Bluetooth speaker vs using ACC to stream wirelessly to Bluetooth speaker ?

iPhone 7 Plus, iOS 14

Posted on Jun 26, 2021 2:18 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 26, 2021 11:47 PM

ALAC is uncompressed (lossless – better)

AAC is compressed (lossy – worse).


Bluetooth has limited bandwidth – it can't receive an ALAC stream, unless a lossy compression is made (and subsequently losing its lossless benefit) before it leaves the transmitter device (iPhone or whatever).

If the bluetooth speaker support AAC, I'd go with AAC. At least the audio remains untouched up to the speaker:


AAC (already compressed) -> Bluetooth


Otherwise, regardless the codec chosen (AAC or ALAC), it'll be compressed to fit the bluetooth transmission.


ALAC (not compressed) -> Compression -> Bluetooth

AAC (already compressed) -> 2nd Compression -> Bluetooth

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 26, 2021 11:47 PM in response to KC5ZHZ

ALAC is uncompressed (lossless – better)

AAC is compressed (lossy – worse).


Bluetooth has limited bandwidth – it can't receive an ALAC stream, unless a lossy compression is made (and subsequently losing its lossless benefit) before it leaves the transmitter device (iPhone or whatever).

If the bluetooth speaker support AAC, I'd go with AAC. At least the audio remains untouched up to the speaker:


AAC (already compressed) -> Bluetooth


Otherwise, regardless the codec chosen (AAC or ALAC), it'll be compressed to fit the bluetooth transmission.


ALAC (not compressed) -> Compression -> Bluetooth

AAC (already compressed) -> 2nd Compression -> Bluetooth

ANY DEGREDATION IN ALAC VS ACC WHILE STREAMING BLUETOOTH

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