As both a musician and a technologist, I often find myself torn between focusing on the audio capabilities of a given device and its technical features. Sometimes, however, I get to combine my passions when new technologies are specifically used to improve the overall sonic experience. Such is the case with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon Sound, which addresses some of the little-understood challenges of delivering high quality music and voice over a wireless Bluetooth connection.
Though people tend to focus more on the visual qualities and specifications of mobile devices like smartphones, many consumer studies have shown that people also care about high-quality audio. The problem is, they often don’t know how to compare the audio capabilities of different devices. On top of that, many consider audio quality to be a more subjective measurement, making comparisons even more challenging. Combine that with the fact that the wireless audio experience is defined by both a source device and a listening device—such as earbuds or speakers—and it’s easy to see how consumers can get confused.
Despite these potential barriers, consumers are painfully aware when mobile audio doesn’t work the way it should: dropouts, audio/video synchronization issues, fast battery draining, and more are high on the list of issues that consumers want to avoid. Plus, with growing interest in higher-resolution audio files and streaming services, as well as our growing dependence on things like Zoom calls for both work and personal life (where high-quality sound can make a very noticeable difference), it’s clear that there has never been a better time to focus on improving audio quality.
The problem is that this growing interest in improved sound has arrived just as the best option for delivering high-quality audio—the wired headphone jack—has essentially disappeared from most smartphones. People clearly prefer the flexibility that a cord-free connection provides, however, so now the challenge is to deliver wire-like quality over a wireless Bluetooth connection. That is exactly the goal that Qualcomm is attempting to achieve with Snapdragon Sound.
One of the biggest issues to tackle is the large percentage of Bluetooth audio connections that are based on technologies that are nearly 15 years old—specifically the SBC codec (low-complexity subband codec). When SBC was adopted as the default option for Bluetooth audio connections, storage costs were much higher and network capacities were lower, which forced companies to use various types of compression technologies on the audio in order to make wireless transfers practical. Unfortunately, the only practical options were “lossy†compression schemes that reduced the quality of the sound. To make matters worse, many music files were compressed multiple times—first into file formats like MP3, and then once again by the codec in order to send the file over a Bluetooth wireless link.
Just to add insult to injury, Bluetooth connections (which transmit at 2.4 GHz) were often subject to a great deal of interference from 2.4 GHz WiFi signals, particularly in busy or “noisy†(from a radio signal perspective) environments. This, in turn, led to the kind of audio dropouts and synchronization issues that many of us have likely experienced with existing Bluetooth products. In addition, these types of noisy connections often require the use of even higher levels of compression that further reduce the quality of the audio.
That’s why one of the most important parts of Snapdragon Sound is the use of Qualcomm’s latest aptX Adaptive codec for both mobile “source†devices and connected listening devices. aptX Adaptive has two key capabilities that help to offset the limitations that SBC has saddled Bluetooth audio connections with for so long. First, it supports higher data transfer rates between smartphones and earbuds, thereby reducing the amount of compression necessary to transfer the files. Second, it includes the ability to automatically adjust or “adapt†to the environment it finds itself in. Practically speaking, this can dramatically reduce the number of times that Bluetooth audio packets have to be resent over a wireless connection which, in turn, reduces things like audio latency, or lag, and improves audio/video synchronization. In other words, your streamed videos play properly, and your mobile games are more responsive.
As important as improving the codec may be, however, that’s not the only thing that Snapdragon Sound provides. It turns out the only way to dramatically reduce potential interference between Bluetooth and WiFi signals from the same device is if the two elements controlling them can function in a more coordinated fashion—something only possible if the same company engineers them to work together. This is why, in fact, a complete Snapdragon Sound validated solution incorporates not only an 8th generation Snapdragon CPU to efficiently run the aptX Adaptive codec and related software, but a specific set of WiFi and Bluetooth chips (from the company’s FastConnect 6900 and QCC51xx and QCC305x family) installed in both the smartphone and any connected Bluetooth listening device (such as earbuds, headphones or speakers). Only through this complete end-to-end approach is it possible to achieve the kind of high-quality audio experience that Qualcomm is promising with Snapdragon Sound.
Of course, getting consumers to figure out whether all these elements are there and how to properly configure all the settings would be impossible. To address that, Qualcomm has created a logo program to make it easy for consumers to tell they have compatible products and a visual indication on compatible Android smartphones to clarify the capabilities have been enabled. The company’s initial partners, including Xiaomi and Audio-Technica, are expected to bring the first Snapdragon Sound-compatible products into the market later this year.
Most of the attention on Snapdragon Sound will likely focus on its music capabilities—including the ability to support high-resolution music streaming services like Amazon Music HD, as well as general support for up to 24-bit, 96kHz audio files. However, another important new capability for Snapdragon Sound is improved audio quality on voice calls, thanks to support for something called super wideband voice, which uses a variant of the aptX codec called aptX Voice Audio.
Given the growing amount of media consumption, mobile gaming, and video calls that 5G networks are going to enable on our mobile devices, it’s easy to understand why higher-resolution audio is having its moment in the sun. In that light, it’s good to see Qualcomm delivering what looks to be a comprehensive set of audio improvements. That’s definitely something both the musician and technologist in me can get behind.
Disclosure: TECHnalysis Research is a tech industry market research and consulting firm and, like all companies in that field, works with many technology vendors as clients, some of whom may be listed in this article.
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