Qualcomm announced Snapdragon Sound today, which the company describes as a chain of audio innovations and software that work together to significantly improve sound quality when listening to music through wireless headphones, earbuds and other devices. According to James Chapman, Qualcomm’s VP for voice, music and portable material, it’s high resolution, wireless quality sound, wireless.
Snapdragon Sound uses the company’s latest processors, Bluetooth audio SoCs, and codecs such as aptX Adaptive to streamline hi-fi music to 24-bit 96kHz.
The concept of high quality wireless audio is not new to Android; Sony has largely propelled the mission with its own LDAC technology, which can transmit up to three times the amount of data that the standard SBC Bluetooth codec is capable of.
But Qualcomm’s components are found in the headphones and earbuds of many companies – Bose, Jabra, 1More, Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, Anker, and more – and the Snapdragon Sound badge will appear on the boxes of both audio products and smartphones that this HD support. sound chain. Existing devices will not be updated to support it; the first Snapdragon Sound products are expected in the next few months. Xiaomi and Audio-Technica have been announced as the first two Snapdragon Sound partners.
Aside from making it easier to enjoy high-quality music, Qualcomm says Snapdragon Sound focuses on improved, clearer voice call quality and lower latency when playing games – up to 89 milliseconds. Connectivity stability is also a priority, and the company promises minimal downtime and errors, even in the busiest wireless signal environments. Qualcomm claims that “devices optimized by Snapdragon Sound should be tested for interoperability in Qualcomm Technologies’ dedicated testing facility based on performance, including sound quality, latency and robust connectivity.”
One thing that Snapdragon Sound not especially focus on multi-point pairing for two simultaneous Bluetooth connections. The feature has become quite common for wireless headphones, but Jabra is almost the only earplug it can offer. We’ll have to see if that changes with these next golf products.
Today’s Snapdragon Sound announcement follows Spotify’s recent news that it will offer a lossless streaming level later this year in addition to Premium subscribers. Amazon Music already offers an HD streaming option, just like Tidal, Qobuz and other music services. Good sound is always highly dependent on the source, so you need one of the services to get the most out of Snapdragon Sound when it starts to reach products.