Resolved Enabling AAC (Terminal or Bluetooth Explorer) on Monterey

[pierrespartan]

Hello,

I updated to Monterey yesterday (Clean Install, from Mojave), but I had the bad surprise that right-click on the Bluetooth icon in the Menu Bar didn't show anymore the Bluetooth Codec currently used.

I used to connect my Sony MDR-1000x via AAC, enabled using Bluetooth Explorer. So I tried re-activating AAC using Bluetooth Explorer, in Monterey, here 2 issues I got:

* After clicking on Enable AAC (+ also pushing the bitrate slider to its maximum) and quitting Bluetooth Explorer, when re-launched the settings were not saved anymore.
* In Bluetooth Explorer, the window 'Graph' shows nothing (it should show different graphs of Bitrate, RSSI, etc... as it was on Mojave for instance)

-> I tried different versions of Bluetooth Explorer, same issue. I tried by activating AAC using the Terminal, sudo domain read bluetoothaudiod show me AAC set to Yes (1), but I don't know how to check this is well applied to my Headphones.

Does anyone have an idea about how to check that on Monterey? Or maybe a fix for Bluetooth Explorer graph and its saved settings?

Thank you in advance!

 

[Gara_kons]

I think bluetooth explorer no longer works for Monterey. At least for me I tried various versions but nothing loads up. Found an article with users getting bluetooth explorer to crash every time they moved the bitrate slider to the right. I tried the two commands I found
sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod "Enable AptX codec" -bool true
sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod "Enable AAC codec" -bool true

And after that checking with the read command gives me both as = 1, but the app of my Sennheiser's connected still shows the codec used is the AAC and not the AptX I was aiming for.

 

[pierrespartan]

Thanks for your reply (feel less alone on that topic!)

Did you try:
sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod "Enable AptX codec" -bool true
sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod "Enable AAC codec" -bool false

[edit] don't forget to shut down and restart your headphones after the change.

To see if your Sennheiser's get connected to Aptx?

On my side I'm interested by the AAC connection, as my files are ALAC and AAC, but without app I found no way to check which connection is in use, unfortunately.

 

[Gara_kons]

Ok so I found that if I copy the bluetooth explorer on my applications folder it opens. I clicked the force AptX left enable AAC unticked and now the terminal shows the AAC = 0 and AptX = 1 after reboot. Bluetooth explorer shows me no graph and a blank active audio codec but the earphones app shows AAC. I really don't believe it works for Monterey to be honest.

Bluetooth explorer log gives me an updateChainPower error: -3903.

 

[pierrespartan]

Hope this will be solved in a next update, I'll create an Issue on the Apple feedback page.

 

[northlondon77]

I've got an iFi ZEN Blue that displays (and announces) the codec in use. No matter what I try around the above I get a solid "AAC" so suspect that bluetooth explorer functionality was deprecated with or prior to Monterey. Disappointing to lose this insight.

For the record though I've never encountered SBC.

 

[pierrespartan]

After some investigation in the Console, AAC is well activated, at VBR, as I expected:

A2DP configured at 44.1 KHz. Codec: AAC-LC, VBR max: 244 kbps. 1 frames * (12+709) bytes = 721 per RTP (max=879) every 23.22 ms

 

[pierrespartan]

Just an update from Apple engineers regarding the Bluetooth Explorer app:
"Thank you for your feedback, it is noted. Engineering has determined that there are currently no plans to address this issue."

So it seems that this useful app is clearly no longer supported.

 

[chamsters]

Reviving a few months old thread - did any of you work this out? Or did you just switch to new headphones / an external bluetooth device? It's infurating how much of a step back this is in monterey...

 

[pierrespartan]

Reviving a few months old thread - did any of you work this out? Or did you just switch to new headphones / an external bluetooth device? It's infurating how much of a step back this is in monterey...

No change with the new updates either. Simply managed to get AAC working via sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod "Enable AAC codec" -bool true, and double-checked in the console as well as I explained before (A2DP configured at 44.1 KHz. Codec: AAC-LC, VBR max: 244 kbps. 1 frames * (12+709) bytes = 721 per RTP (max=879) every 23.22 ms).

Apple doesn't seem to change anything regarding that unfortunately...

 

[andres-3]

double-checked in the console as well as I explained before (A2DP configured at 44.1 KHz. Codec: AAC-LC, VBR max: 244 kbps. 1 frames * (12+709) bytes = 721 per RTP (max=879) every 23.22 ms).

Care to share, what was the console command you used which produced such output?

In my case, I'm just trying to understand if my old Sennheisers which do support aptX additionally to SBC, really are working in aptX mode. Best result so far I got with "system_profiler" command which dumped 5MB text file with various mac configuration, from which I extracted following, the only part mentioning my earphones:
Bluetooth: Connected: Sennheiser MM500-X: Address: 00:1B:66:02:37:6C Minor Type: Headset RSSI: -33 Services: 0x800019 < HFP AVRCP A2DP ACL >
but as you can see, it doesn't provide any info about audio codec. So I guess there must be some other command you used?

 

[andres-3]

Never mind, I figured it out. With "Console" app (not terminal app as I first assumed) I was able to filter out using keyword "codec" the information of interest:
A2DP configured at 44.1 KHz. Codec: SBC, Bitpool: 42 (267 kbps). 9 frames * 97 bytes = 873 per RTP (max=879) every 26.12 ms
So it is SBC for me, as I suspected determined on the sound quality. Oh well, at least I know this for sure now. Have to figure out what to do next. The "sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod "Enable AptX codec" -bool true" didn't change anything.

 

[andres-3]

Another update: done lot of research, based on what I've seen over different mac forums, I guess it is quite safe to say now that additionally to dropping "bluetoothaudiod" daemon (and therefore making obsolete all thematic guides of changing bluetooth audio codec), Apple has unfortunately also dropped AptX support in Monterey completely. SBC and AAC are still supported, but there's no known method to force one over another.

For my old favourite Sennheiser "AptX" MM500-X headphones, I guess it's finally the time to retire. You served me well

 

[pierrespartan]

Another update: done lot of research, based on what I've seen over different mac forums, I guess it is quite safe to say now that additionally to dropping "bluetoothaudiod" daemon (and therefore making obsolete all thematic guides of changing bluetooth audio codec), Apple has unfortunately also dropped AptX support in Monterey completely. SBC and AAC are still supported, but there's no known method to force one over another.

For my old favourite Sennheiser "AptX" MM500-X headphones, I guess it's finally the time to retire. You served me well

Hello andres-3,

Actually the method I described to enable AAC on Monterey worked for me, as I described I can see AAC codec activated in the Console (indeed, by searching for the keyword 'AAC') after enabling/forcing it via (in the Terminal) sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod "Enable AAC codec" -bool true. Same should work with Aptx, or perhaps they removed Aptx support since the last minor Monterey update(? my bad... ).

Feedback from Apple, they don't plan to restore the Bluetooth Explorer app.