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> Transcoding doesn't make much of a difference either.

I respectfully disagree. Transcoding does make an audible difference, at the bitrates typically used, and should have no place in "high fidelity" audio. My issue with these Bluetooth codecs is that they are not used at the sources and so will always be used in practice for transcoding.

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Have you ABX tested an SBC transcode at the maximum bitpool settings vs the original? Because I have, and I couldn't tell the difference.

The "transcoding is bad" story is about low quality settings, archival, and/or bad encoders. E.g. don't do repeated transcodes with the ffmpeg AAC encoder, not even at 320kbps. But one final transcode with SBC for over-the-air delivery at the max allowed bitrate? That's totally fine, especially for typical Bluetooth use cases (listening on the go, casual headphones, etc).

Well, I have noticed significant degradation of 128kbps MP3 sources when sent over Bluetooth, whereas my FLAC CD rips sound fine. I don't think that the effects of transcoding are well understood or well-studied, especially the interaction between different codecs.

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