Yosemite and Bluetooth AAC

to follow up - i also have never seen AAC as the codec, though my device supports it. so, clearly this is something poorly supported on apple's part. however, my device does support aptX - after selecting "force use of aptX" in the bluetooth explorer, it works consistently. before that, it would always use SBC. without a doubt, very obvious to my ears, aptX is much better than SBC. so, if you can use aptX, i would suggest that in the meantime until apple gets it together to improve their bluetooth software.

if you look around the discussions, you'll see that apple's bluetooth software is pretty terrible with yosemite at the moment, too. clearly they are dropping the ball. with 10.10.2 there were random and frequent full-volume white noise blasts. with the beta's those are gone, but now whenever i use bluetooth audio it knocks out my apple wireless keyboard. all i can say is, it's not just you.

Just so you guys don't think i'm making it up. I am MUCH happier with the quality using the AAC codec vs using SMC. And I DID used to get some of those incredibly loud white noise blasts which thankfully seem to have disappeared with 10.10.3.

I'm also experiencing this issue with by Beats Studio Wireless (2.0, 2014 model).

My iPhone correctly uses AAC codec (verified by inspecting the logs as gathered following https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/ios/bluetooth/), but two Macbook Pros that I've tested my Beats with use SBC (late 2013 model and mid 2014 model, both running OS X 10.10.3).

Has anyone found a solution for this? I've tried playing around with settings in Bluetooth Explorer to no avail.

Same problem. Using Sony MDR-ZX750BN, which can support AAC and aptX. Put the headset in the mode that will automatically select between AAC, aptX or SBC, always goes to SBC with Yosemite 10.10.3.

Might have some bad news if you think beats have implemented Aptx properly as I have read here http://www.head-fi.org/t/746519/huge-comparison-of-almost-all-the-best-bluetooth -headphones-post-your-own-comparisons-he… under the ALREADY TESTED tab there may be an issue.

http://www.head-fi.org/products/beats-studio-wireless-over-ear-headphone/reviews /12205

At first, there is a big "?" on these Headphones; the ghost of the Aptx.

They are not listed on the Official Aptx Website, there is no notification about an Aptx connection when they connect to an Aptx Phone or PC, even the Sennheiser BTD500 dongle blinks blue (like for "no Aptx") and not red (like for "Aptx") when connected to these beats, and there is NO mention to Aptx for them on the Manual or on Beats Website.

And nobody would hide that. Aptx is a major selling point.

So, the obvious conclusion is that they do NOT have Aptx.

But you can read lot of reviews claiming they do.

And some of them say that Beats told them so.

So I tried myself and after a long wait their Customer Care came with the answer of their Tech Support: the Studio wireless support Aptx.

This is clearly false, so I wanted to have a proof of such falsity and I asked for a written confirmation, an Email.

I have got this email. Cool.

So, for how I see it, this is a Fraud, or a case of very bad Support.

And this is not acceptable from such a name (which now is Apple).

I'm not too fussed about the lack of AptX; it's the lack of AAC that is annoying. The Mac supposedly brought in support for AAC as a Bluetooth codec in Yosemite (and there are AAC options in Bluetooth Explorer), but the Mac will still choose SBC.

The Beats definitely do support AAC, I've checked the Bluetooth logs on my iPhone and it correctly chooses AAC there.

Any update on this? I've forced AptX for my headphones but would be curious to compare with AAC and understand what is really happening here.

I solved it. SBC codec was always coming up whenever i connect my beats, now, AAC codec is getting used. I updated my Beats Studio Wireless using Beats Updater and i re-paired again after deleting Beats from bluetooth menu on the Mac and restarted my mid-2014 Retina Macbook Pro. But still it wasn't working. Then i turned off Wi-Fi and turned off the beats after that, i turned on Bluetooth and connected my beats and voila! AAC codec showed up. That was a very easy thing to do and i still can't believe it was that easy. Now it uses AAC codec when i connect my Beats even when Wi-Fi turned on. Give it a try and let me know if it works or not.

Posting here in case if anyone has trouble enabling AAC codec on El Capitan. I have Sony MDR 1RBT which supports AAC, but it always came up as SBC. Here what I did:

1. Downloaded Hardware IO tools and launched Bluetooth Explorer.

2. Found audio settings via menu.

3. There I ticked “Enable AAC” box which was unticked and also moved AAC bitrate slider to the right edge (unfortunately no number was displayed).

4. Turned off headset then turned it on, forcing it to reconnect. It displayed “no codec selected”.

5. Started playing some good music in iTunes. Codec changed to “AAC”.

Can you please post a screenshot of these settings? I am only able to find "Special Options" where I can only

enable/disable AptX which does not work, though.

Where can these "audio settings" be found?

It looks like you are using an older version of Bluetooth explorer. Mine is 4.4.0 and here is what audio options where look like:

Where did you get that version? I downloaded Hardware IO Tools from https://developer.apple.com/downloads/

which contains v4.0.9

I just checked Hardware IO tools for Xcode 7.1 and it has 4.4.0. Go grab it there.

Ah, yes, I did not select Developer Tools for searching, that was the problem.

I just couldn't find the enable AAC button, my version is 4.3.0 Bluetooth Explorer, thanks.