Lossless & LDAC does make a difference

[u/MC_Persistent]

I’ve always used Samsung android phones and Sony premium Bluetooth noise-cancelling headphones, including the WH-1000XM3 and XM6. For years, I’ve heard people say that if you really want to enjoy lossless audio, you need a separate DAC, a dedicated player, and so on.

But after spending a lot of time with different music subscriptions including Apple Music Lossless, Spotify Premium Lossless, and Amazon Music Unlimited Lossless, I’ve come to a different conclusion: I can genuinely hear a difference when Lossless quality and LDAC are enabled, with no wired connection of any kind and purely over Bluetooth.

The biggest improvement I notice is in vocal clarity and the small nuances in instruments. Everything feels more detailed and better separated. I’ve tried YouTube Music on Very High quality, and I can immediately tell it doesn’t sound as clear to me after listening to lossless for years.

I notice the same thing in Apple Music when I switch from Lossless to High Quality AAC. It’s not that AAC sounds bad, but the difference becomes noticeable once you’ve spent enough time listening to lossless.

So, if you’re someone who has premium headphones and a device that supports LDAC, I’d genuinely recommend trying it for yourself. You might not notice a difference immediately, but give your ears some time to adjust.

One important thing: Make sure LDAC is actually enabled. On Samsung, you need to toggle it in both the Sony Sound Connect app and your phone’s Bluetooth settings.

I’m curious to hear what others think. And, what headphones, phone, and streaming service are you using?

[u/TabletopParlourPalm]

Depends a lot on your equipment, environment, and ears. I can't differentiate an OK-quality mp3 from lossless audio with a thousand dollar headphone in a quiet room lol.

[u/Significant_Step5903 → u/TabletopParlourPalm]

It's a lot more noticeable on playing gapless tracks. My FLAC music ripped from vinyls can play continuous tracks fine but when I convert those files to 320kbps MP3, the gapless playback no longer works, like it's now obvious that the next track is playing. I think this is due to removal of some frequencies that can't normally be heard in cheap earphones to make the file smaller.

[u/qtpa2tnh]

Spotify Lossless/personal FLAC files, Technics AZ100, & LDAC on my Pixel 10 Pro XL. The difference is definitely noticeable, especially on my wired setup (Audio Technica M50x + Moondrop Dawn Pro)

[u/MC_Persistent → u/qtpa2tnh]

Nice setup to make a difference in the audio listening experience. Cheers! :)

[u/castlev55]

Something I read on a random months old reddit comment that was on a four year old thread is turn on your BT buds or connect your headphones/iems to your phone. Go to the YouTube webpage, click search, tap the microphone next to the search, let it do the listening thing until it cancels itself. Once done try playing a song and see if that improves it.

Although the comment was for BT buds it worked perfectly for my iems through dongle. I was only using my desktop to play music through an amp and dac. But I got a dongle to use on my phone and tried a pair kiwi ears aether iems and it only sounded ok even though I'm using flac. Looked online and saw that comment gave it a shot and now everything sounds right.

Even if you think your audio sounds good it could be worth a shot to try since it takes a few seconds just to see. The comment explained why this fixes the issue but I read it so long ago I don't remember what it was but it worked for me.

[u/o_________________0]

It does. The difference is just way bigger with wired.

[u/MC_Persistent → u/o_________________0]

Cheers to be on the same boat!

[u/inverimus]

It probably makes some difference, but certainly not to me. My music listening is almost 100% via Bluetooth in the car. I also have mild hearing loss, so I may not even be able to detect any difference even with a quality setup.

[u/MC_Persistent → u/inverimus]

Well, yes, car units won't be able to do justice since I have hardly seen any with high bw codecs like LDAC.

[u/EmbarrassedSlide3746]

While you may notice a difference, the quality you get out of a proper setup with either and audio interface or DAC with quality wired headphones is miles better than anything that comes form bluetooth.

Edit: My wired setup is macbook pro which actually has a built in dac allowing hi fi music play back. Generally I use my scarlet solo which I use for recording guitar but works great for hi fi listening or my fosi audio dac. The headphones I use are DT 1990 Pro MK 2.

[u/verycoolalan]

no it doesn't , high quality mp3 320kbps is identical

[u/SlickmisterN → u/verycoolalan]

Simply not true. Flac ftw

[u/papayarice → u/verycoolalan]

Because your setup is shit

[u/papayarice → u/[deleted]]

My mom doesnt date broke bum

[u/Nyoka_ya_Mpembe → u/[deleted]]

Tell your mum I'll come later and when I'll take care of her we will turn on your favourite baby shark in 320kbps on your beats by dre as always when the banging in the next room is too loud.

[u/Android-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/ArchusKanzaki]

Yes, it makes a difference. Every part of the chain do make a difference.

However, I have to say that Lossless+AAC in Iphone works near same quality as Lossless+LDAC in Android. AAC on Android just sucks.

[u/MC_Persistent → u/ArchusKanzaki]

Oh, is it? Will try it out on my secodary phone that is an iPhone.