Apt-x looks interesting. Any SQ and compatibility experience? Specs?

[shooter]

real.africa:
So we still have a situation of cr*p in and cr*p out. mp3's are never going to sound good at any bitrate. Why oh why do you guys throw your good money after bad on anything less than 16bit/44.1 lossless?

Personally i don't use Spotify or any other on line stream. I rip in lossless on a mac basically so i can be a lazy ****** some evenings. My experience of the Gem was a poor.

 

[Anonymous]

so how do i know whether my chord gem is aptx or are they all aptx enabled

 

[Craig M.]

according to rick@musicraft, they have an apt-x sticker on the bottom.

 

[AlmaataKZ]

MUSICRAFT:

stokes2608:do you have to send it away to get the firmware upgraded so it can play apt-x?

Hi stokes2608

From what i have been told Chord Electronics are not offering a firmware upgrade to non APTX Chordette Gems.

Thanks

Rick @ Musicraft

Rick, that sounds alarming... I just packed my Gem to send to Chord on Monday - that is after I spoke to them and they said I can send it in... Do you have information to the contrary? I will have to double-check on monday.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

shooter69:MUSICRAFT:shooter69:qedbob:
Firstly, Bluetooth has had a long and very chequered historyin terms of audio quality, and rightly earned a reputation for being poor and unpredictable.

I had high expectations with the Chord Gem being able to pick up the Bluetooth signal from the imac. First of the sound dropped out but this was soon resolved by moving the Gem nearer but the awful sibilance on vocals basically for me rendered it useless.
The Gem when hardwired was a great product and sounded very good. If it was going to be used this way i would be highly recommend it, but in the end i purchased a Airport Express which works well but the sound from it overall isn't a patch on the Gem.
Hopefully sometime soon the Apt-x bluetooth will work out well and deliver quality bluetooth audio.

Hi shooter69

After i read your post yesterday i listened to Don't Look Back by Bliss on Spotify (128kbps) via bluetooth APTX through the Chord Electronics Chordette Gem and the QBD76 DAC. The sound quality through the Chordette Gem was very good and with the QBD76 DAC the performance was simply excellent. I did not have any loss of signal and nor did i detect any unpleasant sibilance through the Chordette Gem or QBD76 DAC.

Thanks

Rick @ Musicraft

Hello Rick,

May be i just had a 'duffer'. In the end it went back to whom i bought it from and never heard anything back so i'm not sure of the outcome in the end.

I may try another Gem at some point as the AE is a bit dull and see if i have a a better result.

Thanks for the post.

Hi shooter69

I would be surprised if your Gem was faulty but than again it is still possible. I do hope you'll try another Chordette Gem and hopefully find it positive the second time around.

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[MUSICRAFT]

AlmaataKZ:MUSICRAFT:

stokes2608:do you have to send it away to get the firmware upgraded so it can play apt-x?

Hi stokes2608

From what i have been told Chord Electronics are not offering a firmware upgrade to non APTX Chordette Gems.

Thanks

Rick @ Musicraft

Rick, that sounds alarming... I just packed my Gem to send to Chord on Monday - that is after I spoke to them and they said I can send it in... Do you have information to the contrary? I will have to double-check on monday.

Hi AlmaataKZ

I have double and triple checked with Chord Electronics and this was again confirmed to me recently that they will not be offering a firmware upgrade to non APTX Chordette Gems.

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[AlmaataKZ]

looks like the web-ste has been updated. Lots of info on specs:

http://www.aptx.com/Documents/Matrix.aspx

http://www.aptx.com/Technology-Portfolio/apt-X-Bluetooth.aspx

http://www.aptx.com/Documents/Bluetooth-Datasheet---SBC-comparison.aspx

 

[Anonymous]

Not sure if this has already been covered, but Apple Mac OS X 10.6.4 (free update to any Mac user running OS X 10.6) now natively supports apt-X, so any Mac lap top owners can now benefit from this. No need for dongles

 

[AlmaataKZ]

Thanks! Just to clarify - do you mean laptops specifically (only laptops) or anything with osx10.6.4? I read that the new macmini is apt-x capable, but do not know if e.g. the previosu macmini can be apt-x'ed with osx10.6.4?

Do you know if native apt-x is coming to ipods/iphones?

 

[Steve Reichert PR Manager ArmourHome]

It would apply to all Mac machines capable of running the OS X 10.6.4 including what should be all Intel Mac Mini's

We hope so 🙂

From QEDBob via Steve Reichert's PC (i'm a Mac man myself)