Qualcomm today announced Snapdragon Sound, which is what the company describes as “a chain of audio and software innovations” that work together to significantly improve audio quality when listening to music through wireless headsets and other devices . The goal is to provide “high-resolution, wired, wireless quality wireless audio,” according to James Chapman, Qualcomm’s vice president of voice, music and wearables.
Snapdragon Sound takes advantage of the company’s latest processors, Bluetooth audio SoCs and codecs like aptX Adaptive to play high-fidelity music up to 24-bit 96kHz.
The concept of high-quality wireless audio is not new to Android; Sony has largely driven this 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 transmitting.
But Qualcomm components are found in the headsets of many companies – Bose, Jabra, 1More, Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, Anker and more – and the Snapdragon Sound emblem will appear on the boxes of audio products and smartphones that support this HD audio chain. Existing devices will not be updated to support it; the first Snapdragon Sound products are expected in the coming months. Xiaomi and Audio-Technica were announced as the first two partners of Snapdragon Sound.
In addition to making it easier to enjoy high-resolution music, Qualcomm says Snapdragon Sound focuses on clearer and improved voice call quality and lower latency when playing – up to 89 milliseconds. Connection stability is also a priority, with the company promising minimal outages and failures, even in the busiest wireless signal environments. Qualcomm says that “devices optimized for Snapdragon Sound will be tested for interoperability at Qualcomm Technologies’ dedicated test facilities on performance measures, including audio quality, latency and robust connectivity.”
One thing that Snapdragon Sound no the focus is on multipoint pairing for two simultaneous Bluetooth connections. The feature has become quite common for wireless headsets, but Jabra is practically the only headphone manufacturer to offer it. We’ll have to see if that changes with the next wave of products.
Today’s Snapdragon Sound announcement follows recent news from Spotify that it will offer a lossless streaming level later this year as an add-on for Premium subscribers. Amazon Music already offers an HD streaming option, as do Tidal, Qobuz and other music services. Good audio always depends a lot on the source, so you’ll need one of these services to get the most out of Snapdragon Sound when it starts to hit the products.