In the event you’re an audiophile, you most likely understand how essential lossless audio is. A big hurdle within the lossless audio expertise is Bluetooth, although. Even with the highest-quality recordsdata, Bluetooth will trigger compression. Qualcomm is seeking to change that with lossless Bluetooth audio.
Qualcomm’s aptX Bluetooth Lossless Audio Know-how
Qualcomm held an occasion the place it announced that it’s bringing lossless audio know-how to Bluetooth as a part of its Snapdragon Sound Know-how. Sometimes, audiophiles are pressured to make use of wired headphones and audio system to get the uncompressed audio they need. Nonetheless, that’s about to vary.
RELATED: What Is Bluetooth?
The corporate described the problem with Bluetooth in a launch. It mentioned, “Bluetooth acts because the ‘final mile’ of supply, and it’s this final step that may undercut all the lossless and hi-res course of.” It additionally continued to say, “all Bluetooth connections thus far make use of lossy compression primarily based on psychoacoustic masking strategies and whereas bit-rate environment friendly, extra audio knowledge is misplaced.”
Nonetheless, Qualcomm’s aptX know-how is completely different as a result of it’s primarily based on ADPCM (Superior Pulse Code Modulation) strategies and is a non-destructive codec. Which means it doesn’t strip the standard from audio recordsdata in the identical method conventional Bluetooth codecs would.
In keeping with the discharge, you will get CD-quality 16-bit 44.1kHz lossless audio high quality over Bluetooth wi-fi know-how. It’s not the best on the market by any means (Apple Music Hi-Res helps 24bit 196kHz audio, for instance), but it surely’s fairly a bit higher than the sound you’ll get from conventional Bluetooth headsets.
After all, there are limitations of the units themselves, however this can at the very least make it, so Bluetooth isn’t the principle hurdle stopping higher-quality audio from reaching your ears. Now you might want to resolve whether or not you want an external DAC.
RELATED: When Is Lossless Audio Streaming Actually Worth It?
