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Re:AirPods are now available by erikpukinskis on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @06:18PM (#13172215)
Properly encoded MP3s are sonically indistinguishable in blind tests from FLAC, so I'm not sure what you're referencing.
Re:AirPods are now available by bhauer on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @06:39PM (#13172385)
That's actually my point.

I believe modern Bluetooth headphones are indistinguishable from equivalent non-Bluetooth headphones. If you can tell whether headphones are Bluetooth or not—the other components being equal—then you have particularly acute hearing. And if that's you, then you are probably a FLAC aficionado.

For what it's worth, I listen to MP3s on Bluetooth headphones and they sound great.

(Though to be clear, I've not actually researched the bit rate of Bluetooth, though I suspect it's high enough for 44 KHz stereo. To my ears, Bluetooth is indistinguishable from an analog 3.5mm connection.)

Re:AirPods are now available by btym on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @07:58PM (#13172884)
The quality has nothing to do with Bluetooth, it has everything to do with the digital-to-analog converter. A $25 headset is going to have the cheapest chip the manufacturer could find. Non-Bluetooth headsets don't process digital signals and don't have to do this conversion, it's up to the device you're listening on.
Re:AirPods are now available by bhauer on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @08:42PM (#13173108)
Okay.

Again, that's my point. Bluetooth has a undeserved/outdated bad reputation for adversely affecting audio. I contend that, all else being equal, I could not distinguish a modern Bluetooth wireless headphone from a wired headphone.

Yes, as you point out, they also need a DAC. So I will clarify my contention: all else being equal, I could not distinguish a Bluetooth wireless headphone from a wired USB headphone that uses the same DAC.

Re:AirPods are now available by archagon on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @07:54PM (#13172859)
It's not all about the codecs. On my Sony MDR-1RBTs — which are admittedly a few years old at this point — you can hear the radio buzzing when there's nothing playing. I don't know if it's possible to design a pristine, noiseless set of Bluetooth headphones when there's just so little room in the earcups.