No option to check if LDAC is being used when connecting via bluetooth using a Headphone amp with HiRes Audio

REPRODUCIBILITY (% or how often): Always
BUILD ID = OS VERSION (Settings > About product): latest build 3.4.0.24
HARDWARE (Jolla1, Tablet, XA2,…): Sony Xperia 10 Plus Dual SIM
UI LANGUAGE: English
REGRESSION: (compared to previous public release: Yes, No, ?): ?

DESCRIPTION:

When connected a headphone amp like my FiiO Headphone amp, on checking the settings in bluetooth there is no way of checking whether it is connected using LDAC to take advantage of the optimum sound quality passing through it to hi-res headphones eg: my Sony MDR-Z7 headphones.

PRECONDITIONS:

Test using a Hi-Res amp connected via Bluetooth

STEPS TO REPRODUCE:

  1. Pair the Hi-Res amp via bluetooth to your mobile
  2. Go back to bluetooth settings

EXPECTED RESULT:

You should be able to check the settings used for each device paired to your mobile like:
HD Audio
LDAC
Phone calls
Media audio
Contact sharing

etc or similar.

ACTUAL RESULT:

None of this information is available to be seen not even in developer settings unless I am missing something.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Again by now I would of thought all these default things should now be present for all devices. Prior to installing Sailfish O/S on one of the recommended devices the Sony Xperia 10 Plus - Android 9 did allow me to see those options and switch on or off after pairing the device should I wish to change.

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I’m somewhat sure, Sailfish only supports SBC right now, no high quality codec. So there would be no settings to check.

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Yes that’s what I suspected having tested the same music vis My Google Pixel mobile as a backup plan. Maybe in the next release we can dream.

bluez5 version in sailfishos is currently v5.54 (iirc), which does have support for multiple bluetooth A2DP audio codecs.

The problem is in pulseaudio, which does not (yet) have support for multiple codecs. Basicly pulseaudio currently only supports SBC (with quite low quality settings).

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There is a project that enables all the fancy stuff in pulse:

But given its gpl3 don’t expect it coming to SFOS. You can thank the FSF for that :slight_smile:

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In theory it should be easy enough to package that on openrepos. It’s really just corporate interests, that are incompatible with the GPL3, but that discussion does not belong here.

Did anybody try to pack it for SFOS?
Bought myself a pair of Sony 1000XM4 headphones and want to have LDAC on SFOS.

EHfive/pulseaudio-modules-bt is deprecated, and it was never suitable for upstreaming anyway.

meanwhile alternative, proper implementation has been merged to upstream pulseaudio, and will be part of upcoming pulseaudio 15.0 release.

sfos feature request: Support for higher quality bluetooth A2DP audio codecs in sailfishos

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it is wonderful but I can’t wait another 2-3 years before Jolla moves to pa 15.0

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update in 4.1.0

pulseaudio

  • Updated : 12.2+git9-1.2.6.jolla – 14.2+git2-1.4.6.jolla

But given its gpl3 don’t expect it coming to SFOS. You can thank the FSF for that

We can probably “thank” Jolla for not making SFOS a really open OS. Essential binary-only components are evil.

PulseAudio 15 is released.
Jolla, please, take a look at it.

1 Like

" [ANNOUNCE] PulseAudio 15.0":
https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/pulseaudio-discuss/2021-July/032099.html

Related RFE: Support for higher quality bluetooth A2DP audio codecs in sailfishos

you may try new gstreamer 1.20 with LDAC and aptx support Gstreamer 1.20.0 (JollaPhone & X & XA2) | OpenRepos.net — Community Repository System in combination with gstreamer-bluez module gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad-bluez5 (X XA2 X10) | OpenRepos.net — Community Repository System

disadvantage is that you will have to use gstreamer at commandline to establish a connection. Pulseaudio is not involved…

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hopefully new SFOS release will upgrade pulseaudio to 15.0

Nope, it didn’t. Still 14.2 on 4.4.0

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PulseAudio 16.0 has been released, release notes: 16.0

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I can see this would definitely be a useful feature to have, but since it’s not a currently supported feature, and to keep things clear, I’ve moved it from Bug Reports to the Feature Requests section.

This doesn’t mean it’s any less important, it’s just a classification. However, if anyone feels this is incorrect, please say and I can review it.

3 Likes