Improve headphone sound on Mac.

How to improve the audio quality of Wireless Bluetooth headphones on a Mac and check the codecs used

When we connect wireless or Bluetooth headphones to our Mac, the audio may not be as satisfying as when we listen to music on a smartphone or another computer. This quality discrepancy is caused by the use of a low-quality audio codec by the Bluetooth module built into the Mac. If we have encountered this problem, you have come to the right guide: here we will show you how to improve the sound of headphones on Mac acting on the audio codec used to transmit the audio, so as to only use the one that allows you to obtain the maximum quality with any streaming app and with iTunes.

In the guide we will first of all show you which codecs can be used by Bluetooth to transmit audio , how to check what type of codec your Mac is using at the moment and how to change it on the fly, so you can get the audio quality you want.

Types of Bluetooth audio codecs

When we connect a Bluetooth headset or headset to the Mac, one of the following codecs is used to transmit audio:

1.  SBC

2.  AAC

3.  aptX

The basic codec is SBC, used on the vast majority of headphones and earphones but which does not allow maximum audio quality to be obtained, also presenting latency and low volume problems with many devices and streaming services. The AAC codec presents notable improvements in audio compression, bringing the audio to a significantly higher level, especially with higher bitrates (which is very common when this codec is used). We can only achieve maximum audio quality with aptX : constant bitrate, no frequency cutting and sound performance completely similar to that of Audio CDs. Unfortunately, in order to take advantage of the two best codecs (AAC and aptX), support from the headphones is also necessary, otherwise the Bluetooth module will always transmit with the SBC codec.

If we have a pair of modern Bluetooth headphones with AAC or aptX support but the audio seems low quality, the Mac is probably transmitting in SBC (due to some recognition error), not allowing us to make the most of the quality of our headphones. In the following chapters we will show you how to check the codec in use on Bluetooth headphones and how to force the Mac's Bluetooth module to use AAC or aptX (if supported).

Check the audio codec you are using

Once the Bluetooth headphones are connected to the Mac, we click on the Bluetooth icon at the top right, then select the name of the headphones from the list shown in the window. Among the grayed out (non-clickable) entries we will also find Active Codec , which will show us which codec we are currently using to transmit audio to the headphones.

If we find the AAC or aptX codecs under this heading, we won't have to do anything else, since we are already taking advantage of the best codecs available to obtain the best audio quality with our wireless headphones; if instead we see the SBC codec appear and we are sure that our headphones support AAC or aptX, we will see in the next chapter how to force the higher quality codec.

How to Improve Headphone Sound on Mac

In order to improve the audio transmitted to headphones connected to the Mac, we will have to download the Additional Tools for Xcode from the Apple developers site. To download it, we need a free Apple developer account, which we can get from the Apple Developers page . Once registered as a developer, we download the file recommended at the beginning of the chapter, double-click on the DMG file we just downloaded to mount it as a drive on the desktop. We open the drive that just appeared, double-click on the Hardware folder and drag the Bluetooth Explorer.app app into theApplications folder of the Finder.

Always from the Applications folder , double-click on Bluetooth Explorer, then go to the top menu Tools and select Audio Options . A new window will open, where we can manage every aspect of the audio transmission codecs for Bluetooth.

If our headphones are certified for aptX, we check the Forza l'uso di aptX (or Force use of aptX) item , so as to be sure of taking advantage of the maximum audio quality when we connect the headphones. If instead we have headphones that support AAC, check the Enable AAC and AAC CBR items and modify the AAC Bitrate barup to the maximum, so as to obtain superior audio quality with any type of song or musical genre.

Once you have finished making changes, simply press the Close button at the bottom right; to benefit from the new codec set, simply turn the Mac's Bluetooth module off and on again (using the appropriate icon at the top right) or turn off and on the Bluetooth headphones in use. At the next connection the headphones will use the best audio codec (we can check at any time by following the instructions in the previous chapter).

These changes do not prevent the use of the SBC codec, which is still available for compatibility . If we have Bluetooth headphones but we don't know if they support the best codecs, we test with aptX and AAC and check their actual use; in case of problems or incompatibilities, SBC will always be used and any changes we make will be ignored.

NOTE : To ensure we take advantage of AAC or aptX, we only choose headphones or earphones with Bluetooth 4.2 or higher support.

Conclusions

Even if the Mac presents itself as a "perfect and infallible machine", it could make some mistakes, especially in choosing the right codec to use for our headphones: by following the steps in this guide we will be able to remedy this, forcing the Mac to use the AAC or aptX codecs (the best) when we connect our new Bluetooth headphones.