Comparison Edifier W800BT Pro vs Edifier W830NB

Sound delay in wireless headphones is a natural process caused by the specifics of audio data transmission over Bluetooth. It can be either almost imperceptible or clearly interfere with comfortable gameplay or watching video content. This paragraph provides the declared sound delay time in milliseconds, which is written in the technical specifications for a particular headphone model.

Codecs and additional audio processing technologies supported by Bluetooth headphones (see “Connection”). Initially, sound transmission via Bluetooth involves fairly strong signal compression; This is not critical when transmitting speech, but can greatly spoil the impression when listening to music. To eliminate this shortcoming, various technologies are used, in particular aptX, aptX HD, aptX Low Latency, aptX Adaptive, AAC, LDAC and LHDC. Of course, to use any of the technologies, it must be supported not only by the “ears”, but also by the Bluetooth device with which they are used. Here are the main features of each option:

- aptX. A Bluetooth codec designed to significantly improve the quality of audio transmitted over Bluetooth. According to the creators, it allows you to achieve quality comparable to Audio CD (16-bits/44.1kHz). The benefits of aptX are most noticeable when listening to high-quality content (such as lossless formats), but even on regular MP3 it can provide a noticeable sound improvement.

- aptX HD. Development and improvement of the original aptX, allowing for sound purity comparable to Hi-Res audio (24-bits/48kHz). As in the original, the benefits of aptX HD are noticeable mainly on high-quality...audio, although this codec will not be out of place for MP3.

- aptX Low Latency. A specific version of aptX described above, designed not so much to improve sound quality, but to reduce delays in signal transmission. Such delays inevitably occur when working via Bluetooth; They are not critical for listening to music, but when watching videos or playing games, there may be a noticeable desynchronization between the image and sound. The aptX LL codec eliminates this phenomenon, reducing latency to 32 ms - such a difference is imperceptible to human perception (although for serious tasks like studio audio work it is still too high). aptX LL support is found mainly in gaming headphones.

- aptX Adaptive. Further development of aptX; actually combines the capabilities of aptX HD and aptX Low Latency, but is not limited to this. One of the main features of this standard is the so-called adaptive bitrate: the codec automatically adjusts the actual data transfer rate based on the characteristics of the broadcast content (music, game audio, voice communications, etc.) and the congestion of the frequencies used. This, in particular, helps reduce energy consumption and increase communication reliability; and special algorithms allow you to broadcast sound quality comparable to aptX HD (24 bits/48 kHz), using several times less amount of transmitted data. And the minimum data transfer latency (at the aptX LL level) makes this codec excellent for games and movies.

- aptX Lossless. The next stage in the development of aptX technology, which involves transmitting CD-quality sound over a wireless Bluetooth network without loss or compression. Audio broadcasting with sampling parameters of 16 bits / 44.1 kHz is carried out with a bitrate of about 1.4 Mbit/s - this is about three times faster than it was in the aptX Adaptive edition (see above). Support for aptX Lossless began to be introduced at the end of 2021 as part of the Snapdragon Sound initiative from Qualcomm.

- A.A.C. A Bluetooth codec used primarily in portable Apple gadgets. In terms of capabilities, it is noticeably inferior to more advanced standards like aptX or LDAC: the sound quality when using AAC is comparable to an average MP3 file. However, for listening to the same MP3s, this is quite enough; the difference becomes noticeable only on more advanced formats. AAC hardware requirements are low, and its support in headphones is inexpensive.

— LDAC. Sony's proprietary Bluetooth codec. It surpasses even aptX HD in terms of bandwidth and potential sound quality, providing performance at the Hi-Res level of 24-bits/96kHz audio; there is even an opinion that this is the maximum quality that it makes sense to provide in wireless headphones - further improvement will simply be imperceptible to the human ear. On the other hand, supporting this standard is not cheap, and there are still quite a few gadgets with such support - these are, in particular, Sony smartphones, as well as mid- and high-end devices running Android 8.0 Oreo and later versions.

- LHDC. LHDC (Low latency High-Definition audio Codec) is a high-definition, low-latency codec developed by the Hi-Res Wireless Audio Alliance and Savitech. In the vast majority of cases, its support is implemented at the hardware level in Huawei and Xiaomi smartphones. The codec is also known as HWA (Hi-Res Wireless Audio). When using LHDC, signal transmission from the phone to the headphones is carried out with a bits rate of up to 900 kbps, a bits depth of up to 24 bits and a sampling frequency of up to 96 kHz. This ensures a stable and reliable communication with reduced latency. The codec is optimally suited for high-end wireless headphones and advanced digital audio formats.

The declared operating time of headphones with autonomous power supply (see above) when listening to music on a single battery charge or a set of batteries.

As a rule, the characteristics indicate a certain average operating time in music listening mode, for standard conditions; in practice, it will depend on the intensity of use, volume level and other operating parameters, and in models with replaceable batteries - also on the quality of specific batteries. However, based on the stated time, you can fairly reliably assess the autonomy of the selected headphones and compare them with other models. As for specific values, relatively “short-lived” devices have a battery life of up to 8 hours, a figure of 8 – 12 hours can be called quite good, 12 – 20 hours – very good, and in the most “long-lasting” headphones the operating time can exceed 20 hours.

How long does the active noise canceling headphones (see above) last on a single battery charge (or a set of batteries) when noise canceling is not used.

This function is quite “gluttonous” in terms of battery consumption, up to half of the total energy consumed by the headphones can go to its work. Thus, models with noise reduction can indicate both overall battery life (see "Operating time"), and battery life with the noise reduction turned off.

The function reduces the charging time of the headphones compared to the duration of the standard procedure. For this, increased voltage and / or current strength is used, as well as a special "smart" process control. The capabilities and features of fast charging may vary depending on the specific implementation of the technology. Most often, accelerated charging implies the possibility of literally 5-10 minutes. extend the battery life of the headphones in the accompanying charging case by at least one hour of additional playback.

The total weight of the headphones; for true wireless models (see "Cable Type"), the weight of each individual earbud is listed.

This parameter is directly related to the design (see above) and some features of the functionality. Thus, the mentioned true wireless devices are very light, their weight does not exceed 25 g. More traditional in-ears and in-ears can be noticeably heavier, up to 50g for in-ears and up to 100g for most in-ears. Overhead models, for the most part, are quite massive: among them there are many models weighing 200 – 250 g, 250 – 300 g and even more than 300 g. It should be noted that a significant weight for false ears is often not a disadvantage, but an advantage: it allows them to stay on the head more securely, creates an impression of solidity and reliability, and most often does not create significant inconvenience.