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I recently bought USB-powered aux (line-in, 3.5mm audio jack) speakers for a PC. Unfortunately they seem to pick up interference so I'm going to return them.

If I replace them with USB-data [1] or Bluetooth speakers am I just as likely or less likely to suffer from interference? [2]

[1] Are USB-data speakers rather than headsets a thing?
[2] Ignoring the inherent differences between lossy and lossless audio

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Both USB and bluetooth are digital signals capable of error recovery so apparent interference is reduced.

In addition to this usb uses twisted pair and shielding and uses digital signals which makes it far less susceptible to picking up interference.

While bluetooth uses frequency hopping spread spectrum which limits the amount of time interference matters and guard bands which limits how much interference can degrade a signal.

An aux line in uses a fairly large copper conductor to carry a signal but this signal is not shielded so its susceptible to interference, hum and popping. This is further complicated by the fact that USB powered line-in is usually cheap and may not have a shielded amplifier within either.

Yes USB speakers are a thing. Logitech S150 are an example. The marketing lingo appears to be "digital" if you want to look for them.

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  • another post mentioned audio delays with bluetooth, noticeable when watching a video, is this caused by some form of interference or a different issue?
    – lofidevops
    Commented Nov 22, 2017 at 5:19
  • @d3vid This is caused by latency usually because the bluetooth headset uses a codec that its to slow at decoding. This isn't in principal a limitation of the bluetooth protocol. Although arguably earlier versions of bluetooth codec choices could be deemed the culprit. In any bluetooth device made in the last 5 or so years this is simply bad implementation.
    – jdwolf
    Commented Nov 22, 2017 at 6:39
  • There is obviously more latency with bluetooth but it shouldn't be noticeable. Its similar to wireless vs wired keyboards.
    – jdwolf
    Commented Nov 22, 2017 at 6:41

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