What LTE Tablet that can send music with LDAC or LHDC codec?

[TechnoMax]

Finally I want to try to go wireless with my music (512 GB microSD card). At least partly. I do not want to have another Bluetooth headphone (I have some on ear and IEMs) but this time I want to try a Bluetooth receiver to feed my wired IEMs or over ear headphones. My favourite so far is the Shanling UP4 as it has a dedicated volume wheel and supports better Bluetooth codecs als LDAC and LHDC / HWA.

I read a few times that since Android 8.0 every device has LDAC support and some even LHDC. No, this is not true, at least for me:
Neither my Huawei Mate 10 that was billed as the first to support LHDC does offer this for me nor my Samsung tablet S6 which only has SBC! (I enabled developer options on all my Android devices.) The best device I have regarding Bluetooth is my newly bought backup smartphone, a super cheap Xiaomi Poco M3: This has every better codec activated, aptX HD, LDAC and LHDC. But I like to have a nice "big" screen of 10 inch or so for decent album art and therefore I am searching for a tablet with LTE as the only device to take on a ride to the park (I have a multi SIM contract).

Is there a decent modern tablet (that supports 512 GB microSD cards ) that actually supports these codecs? (Perhaps the Huawei MediaPad M5? The faster Huawei MatePad Pro has LHDC but accepts only the proprietary smaller NM cards)

 

[TechnoMax]

I finally had success: After Chris advised buying the Lenovo P11 Pro directly from China as XiaoXin Pad Pro I bought one for online reading. After two weeks it arrived.
And to my surprise it has all current Bluetooth-Audio-Codecs: SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive-Audio, aptX TWS+Audio, LDAC. And it connected without any problems to my Sony Blueetooth headphone mit LDAC. Stable connection in all rooms of our flat. The only feature it is missing is LTE. But for music listening from the SD card with a big screen for the covers in good wireless quality this is perfect.

 

[B. Diddy]

Glad you found a device that works for you, and sorry no one could come up with a suggestion here in the forums! I kept seeing your thread title, but knew I wouldn't have any good input, since the LTE tablets that are out there are typically pretty mediocre (along the lines of outdated LG G Pads and Samsung Tab A's).

I like Lenovo's tablets, and have looked at P11 Pro reviews with interest. How do you like it overall? Did you get the keyboard?

 

[TechnoMax]

I was a little bit astonished that such a simple technical question regarding media consumption, which is basically the reason for tablets (and smartphones practically too) found no answer here. And nowhere else, I asked this in several english and german forums. Well tablets are going down the tubes anyway, with the iPads as the sole exception, but I had to learn the hard way that not even Samsung with their relatively pricey tablets does still care in regard to HiFi music. Youtube videos and Netflix in HD is the important feature these days, music quality not so much. And all those crazy HiRes fans buy dedicated DAPs anyway.

I bought the Lenovo/XiaoXin Pad Pro without keyboard. I have a lot of Bluetooth keyboards of every size that I could use but for input tasks I always prefer Windows notebooks. I like the power switch finger print sensor much better than the in display sensor of my Samsung Galaxy S6 tablet. The bigger size (and weight) is acceptable, but the S6 is more comfortable when I hold it in my hand of course. I do not miss the better speed of the Samsung but I do not do anything demanding, especially I never game. Magazin reading is on par and of course it is nicer because it is a small amount bigger than the S6.

 

[B. Diddy]

Keep in mind that high fidelity music playback has become progressively less prominent in the market, as we've gone from vinyl with vacuum tubes to cassettes to CDs and now MP3's mostly over Bluetooth audio. It's good enough for the vast majority of people, but true audiophiles have become more and more of a niche market.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Keep in mind that high fidelity music playback has become progressively less prominent in the market, as we've gone from vinyl with vacuum tubes to cassettes to CDs and now MP3's mostly over Bluetooth audio. It's good enough for the vast majority of people, but true audiophiles have become more and more of a niche market.

This is an excellent point. When I want hifi, I play vinyl through sensitive speakers using valve amps (both the phono stage and the power amp).

 

[TechnoMax]

High fidelity music never was big. It always was a niche. But some things have changed over the decades: music (and videos) are not only consumed at home but with mobile devices "everywhere". Since the early days of the walkman from Sony and the invention of MP3 the quality has improved. Some of the more recent trends are bluetooth cola boxes (mono and definitively no hifi) and streaming instead of CDs and DVDs. And streaming is not only low fidelity consuming but can be high fidelity again, at least with TIDAL and Qobuz. And the niche market for high fidelity mobil players as HiRes-DAPs and Full HD or more video devices shows that the traditional way of a Thorens player and a McIntosh amp as the ultimative hardware is not the only way to listen to good music anymore. A sad development is multi room music where in many cases not even stereo sound remains.