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DAC: Switch from USB connection to Bluetooth aptX HD: any loss of quality?

I’m playing HD music from my PC using a DAC. (I have a couple DAC’s including an Onkyo P3000R and I am planning to order an S.M.S.L M400.) Current I connect my PC to the DAC using a short, good quality USB cable with ferrite core filter molded in.
If I switch from the USB cable to Bluetooth aptX HD, will there be any loss in audio quality? If so, how significant?
In case it matters, I plan to use: 

- Audioengine B1 receiver at my DAC 
- Avantree DG60 Long Range Bluetooth 5.0 USB Audio Adapter for PC (or anything superior that I can find). My PC runs Linux, so I have to look for compatibility. 

Generally the PC and DAC will be in the same room less than 20 feet apart.
lowoverdrive
5 responses Add your response
fuzztone's avatar
fuzztone
5,582 posts
 
Try it, maybe OK for you.
lowoverdrive OP
169 posts
 
@mike_in_nc  - I appreciate your answer.
mike_in_nc
1,147 posts
 
USB can transmit lossless audio data perfectly. In practice, various sources sound different, and sound from a PC can range from OK to superb. I have heard hypothesis after hypothesis as to why this is, but I think no one knows for sure, by which I mean no one has done a study that would withstand peer review. People have impressions. Perhaps it is noise transmitted on the ground to the DAC.

aptX HD will NOT transmit lossless audio data perfectly. Whether it will sound better or worse than the PC in your system, to your ears, is impossible to predict. All you can do is try it. Last time I did, I thought it was pretty good. But it is not lossless.
lowoverdrive OP
169 posts
 
@fuzztone - thank you.
fuzztone's avatar
fuzztone
5,582 posts
 
PC sound is already suboptimal. Bluetooth is compressed but only you will be able or not to discern any difference.

AND
If you’ve read Russ’s various writings in the past, you’ll know that he finds the use of ferrite clamps on Hi-Fi mains cables, and interconnect and speaker cables, on the whole undesirable. Used by some manufacturers to reduce the effect of noise on a signal, Russ has always found that this was always at the expense of sound quality in a Hi-Fi system, resulting in a sound that was ‘flatter’, less engaging and less musical. In any event, Kimber’s braided technique solves noise problems with none of the drawbacks.
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