40% off / TempoTec LHDC ONE Bluetooth Dongle - US$41.9 (AU$67.50) w/ Free Postage

Explanation for those who don't know about these things (AKA me):

Specs:

Bluetooth: v5.3
Codec Support: SBC/ LHDC V3 / V4 / V5
Supported Sampling Rates: 48Khz/96Khz/192Khz for Ultra-Res Audio Support
Supported BT Low Latency Codec: LHDC-LL
Port: USB Type-C UAC2.0

What is this?

• A Bluetooth dongle which you plug into your phone/PC to enable the LHDC codec when it is not supported by the hardware/firmware of your transmitting device.

What does it do?

• It is specifically designed to enable the Chinese-developed Hi-Res Wireless Audio codec LHDC which is currently mostly implemented only on Chinese-origin audio headphones & earphones.

What is LHDC?

• (Low-Latency Hi-Definition Audio Codec)
  It is a high-resolution codec with dynamic performance analogous to LDAC and APT-X Adaptive.

Is it a relevant codec?

• LHDC has gained industry recognition and certification across China and Japan under the Hi-Res Wireless Audio Union, the Audio Quality Society (Oppo, Vivo, Xioami) and the Japan Audio Society, so it is likely to be implemented on many devices in the future due to favourable hardware compatibility and licensing terms.

Why might I want this?

• If you own a supported LHDC device and also like to enjoy Hi-Res music such as .flac, then you can now do this over bluetooth.
  LHDC is mainly implemented only in Chinese branded phones, so it is not supported by Apple or Samsung or Sony and this probably will not change, because they want to push their own proprietary codecs.

Why do I need a dongle for it?

• Currently there is no other peripheral device, portable music player or dongle which can add LHDC to non-Chinese phones. This dongle was originally developed by the codec developers, Savitech / lhdc.co as a Kickstarter, and is now being sold through their associated company Tempotec.

• Therefore this dongle enables your player device to transmit the LHDC codec if your speakers/output device support LHDC playback.

Why are the Dyson headphones tagged = why did I research this device?

• Because this dongle is most beneficial for owners of these devices.
• Because those of us who took advantage of the $99 deal on the Dyson Zone headphones and use an Android phone are suffering with the abysmal SBC (192-256kbps) and AAC codecs (at least Samsung's 128kbps implementation), which are totally underserving of the pretty good hardware in Dyson's headphones.

Both of these Dyson headphones are at least certified for playback of LHDC V4 at 24-bit 96kHz and a bitrate of 990kbps! The Dyson Zone doesn't support a wired/USB-C connection and the OnTrac wired mode is limited to 44.1kHz. There is still a lot of stock around for the discontinued Zone headphones so there will likely be more deals soon. And quite possibly, the OnTrac will be the last foray as well, so expect them on sale for similar in future.

In terms of the music player app, the default implementation of Android that most app players use will default Hi-Res audio down to 48kHz.
Therefore you need to use Compatible source music/audio (e.g. high-bitrate .flac 16/24 bit 48/96kHz) -> Compatible App Player (e.g. Poweramp) which implements its own audio drivers -> LHDC broadcast device with the relevant Android Settings' Developer Options enabled.

You can search a database of LHDC-supporting products here:
https://www.lhdc.co/en/products/1

If you use a Chinese-branded phone, it's likely your device can already broadcast LHDC and you don't need this dongle!