"High End" Bluetooth Receivers - Snake Oil?


I've been doing some research on the net, and came across a post somewhere (wish I'd have bookmarked it, because now I can't find it again) talking about Bluetooth receivers, lossy compression, etc., that wasn't very complementary of the "high end" receivers.  Of course we have the positively reviewed Audioengine B1 with the AKM "Miracle" DAC, the Auris BluMe with the same DAC, the Arcam rBlink and miniBlink with Burr Brown DAC's, and others with the Wolfson DAC out there on the market claiming "CD quality" sound.

I'm far from technical, so this may be askew, but evidently, given the compression and decompression algorithms, lossy this and lossy that, low bit rates, and other inherent limitations (including AptX), Bluetooth audio can only be so good.  The up-sampling, high bit rates, etc. of these "high end" receivers/DAC's is not capable of restoring or elevating Bluetooth streaming to anywhere near CD quality levels.  Supposedly it has to do with the compression algorithms that simply cannot be fixed with up-sampling, etc.  I guess like a sailboat, it's speed is limited by physics, so no matter how much power you have, it'll only go so fast.

Thoughts?
seadweller
I stay away from Bluetooth streaming because all aptX codecs are severely hindered. They don't allow for raw streaming of PCM data. I use wifi to stream PCM to a dac without any compression. Now saying that, if implemented properly, aptX doesn’t sound bad but why use it when I can just use wifi streaming?

I have a Bluetooth speaker I use that sounds very good for what it is (Harmon Kardon Onyx Studio 2). It uses Bluetooth 3.


I also only use wifi currently to my good hifi systems but am optimistic with the latest and greatest Bluetooth technology for hifi sound from what I read and may give something like the Audio Engine a shot at some point and see what I might hear. :^)

Clearly, Bluetooth is designed to function with less power and range is more limited compared to wifi.


Mapman .. various really, some friends have Android phones and others, like me, use an iPhone. Apple only does Bluetooth 4.0 and not APTX but the W4S gizmo makes quite a difference either way IMO. Very handy during a party or casual get together! I took a chance on it because their other reclockers have garnered quite a bit of praise and rightfully so.