Creative BT-W5 Bluetooth 5.3 Smart Audio Transmitter with aptX Adaptive, 24bit/96kHz High Resolution Audio, Device Change Function, Works with PC/Mac/Game Consoles

Paired with Creative speakers but forgot the adaptor. Worked and paired with ease

This is a great little dongle to allow pretty much anything with a USB port to deliver AptX Adaptive / HD sound quality over bluetooth.I use mine both with my PC and also my phone which only supports LDAC which my buds don't.The dongle uses an app on the computer to adjust settings, reset, update firmware, enable room modes/eq etc.I find the app a little lacking in friendlyness. I often am unsure which mode i'm in or whether an adjustment will persist across devices.I tend to just use it therefore for a straight connection and don't both with all the room simulation modes etc.The dongle is a USB type C port device. So if you want to use it on something with a USB-A port you'll need to buy an adapter, which for the price of this device i would expect to be included.The overall sound quality when paired with a set of buds / headphones that support AptX Adaptive is really one of the best sounding experiences i've ever had via bluetooth.I am using this with Tidal lossless service as i genuinely can hear the difference between Spotify and Tidal lossless.It does sound better, in my experience, than the Sennheiser BTD600 but not by much.Given the 2x price difference i think on balance the Sennheiser is a much better value proposition and i would expect this Creative dongle to really be similarly priced or maybe £40-45. I think the £55 price tag is definitely too much.Works great though, can be used without a PC using the button on the device to trigger pairing but updates or tweaks does need the app.Be nice to see a mobile version of the app too

I've been playing the Creative app, transmitting to a pair of Q ACOUSTICS M20 in my leaving room and I could tweak the sound of the speakers to reach a perfect combination for me, with my specific living room setup. This has been a massive quality improvement and I found myself listening to much more music. Everything I play now sounds awesome. Kudos Creative

If you own a Qualcomm-powered Galaxy S or Z series phone and pair it with a pair of earphones or headphones that support aptX Adaptive High Quality at 24-bit/96Khz mode and use a music service such as Apple Music or Tidal with the lossless music options this is a game changer.It's a shame, but this dongle does unlock the full potential as Samsung doesn't want to do that despite the hardware having full support on the devices through the SoC.

This has solved the Bluetooth problem on my Mac book air m2 I can now use codec I want

I am a big fan of Creative and own many of their other audio products.I tested the transmitter with: PS4, PS5, Switch, XBOX, PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, and an Panasonic OLED TV.Sadly, I can not find a positive side to this device, so, let me start the list of negatives straight away:BUILD QUALITY:The only button rattles when moving the dongle in any way.The button also has multiple click-stages. So, you might think you have pressed it already when you actually need to press harder for the second click - that's when it usually triggers. I remember "crunchy" buttons like this one from mobile phones of the 1990s.THE LED:The LED is positioned on one side of the stick, so, you have a 50/50 chance of actually seeing it. (Seeing it is important because everything is communicated via this one LED)The USB-C plug:Most PCs and earlier versions of the Playstation 5 do not have a USB-C plug and there is no USB-A adapter included. If you think you're smart and bought an adapter yourself - it's likely not going to work. (Apart from PS5, where an adapter does work)AptX CODEC:(Which is most likely why you're thinking about buying this)It does have AptX codecs and it does sometimes connect to compatible devices via AptX...However: If you're using this to watch TV, or play videogames: You will be stuck with a laggy transmission because the default of the stick is NOT the LowLatency version of AptX!You'll have to download a program on your PC in order to be able to adjust that setting. But the stick won't be found by the Creative Program under Windows10. (See attached screenshot: Win10 finds it but Creative Program doesn't)You can maybe force your headphones to only accept LowLatency codecs but this requires pairing them to your phone first - then unpairing them again and then pairing them to the stick.(Pairing is usually very slow and unpredictable.)COMPATIBILITY:PC: NoPlaystation 5: Yes but with severe lag - unusable.Panasonic OLED TV from 2024: NoNintendo Switch: Yes with severe lag - unusableXBOX - No (To be fair: this wasn't claimed)iPhone / iPad: No (See attached screenshot - stick needs too much power!!)Mac: Yes but only via USB-C and after tweaking the settings in the Mac app. (Otherwise laggy, which would be ok for music.)SUMMARY:This device is entirely useless, no matter what you're planning to do with it.The ONLY reasonable use-case would be to listen to uncompressed music on a Mac. (If you're using iTunes or Apple music or Spotify - you will not hear a difference between the SBC or the AptX codec as the source material is not righ resolution enough. Also, if high-res audio is what you want to listen to on a Mac, you should probably use LDAC not AptX. Which means that there is literally no point in buying this stick.I really hope this helped!(Sorry for the bad news)

Disappointed in summary. Using aptx adaptive (favouring low latency) and audio crackles and pops constantly. When optimising for high quality these stutters are completely gone but latency is far too high for watching video.Will be returning.

I purchased this device so that I could use my headphones to speak to my friends on discord. It would connect only as headphones, after changing the settings I eventually managed to get it to connect only for it to disconnect and go back to headphone only mode. I eventually did get it to connect, but the audio would intermittently distort and I couldn't hear anyone I tried with a different set of headphones same problem. I have now purchased a sennheiser bt600 and that works perfectly. I have sent the creative device back. If you are only using for headphones and don't want to use a mic, the performance was very good, it recognises all the supported aptx modes.