Any flagship headphones or earbuds you buy these days are going to be very good. Noise cancellation is better than ever, and Bluetooth codecs like LDAC and AptX Adaptive greatly improve audio quality.But there’s always room for our technology to take advantage of BetterWe’re pushing the limits of what Bluetooth can offer, especially in the area of wireless audio.
That’s been true for a while, and Qualcomm believes they’ve found a solution. Starting with the upcoming Snapdragon Sound platform, the company plans to rely on Wi-Fi in addition to Bluetooth to untie the next wave of headphones and earbuds. This is due to general Bluetooth limitations. If the company’s promises come true, you’ll no longer have to worry about being within 20 feet of your phone or laptop. Also, people with good ears will be able to enjoy true lossless music playback more often.
Today, Qualcomm announced the S7 and S7 Pro, a platform that third-party manufacturers will power in earphones, headphones, and speakers starting next year. His current Snapdragon Sound partners include Audio-Technica, Bose, Edifier, Fiio, Jabra, LG, Master & Dynamic, Shure, and other brands, many of whom are planning to use his S7 series silicon in their future audio gadgets. I can imagine that it will be integrated into. .
As with the Snapdragon hardware for the company’s latest phones, Qualcomm is touting significant improvements in computing power, memory, AI capabilities, and more. ANC on the S7 and S7 Pro is said to be more powerful and intelligent, adapting to let important external sounds through whenever it detects them. As Dino Bekis, Qualcomm’s vice president and general manager of wearables and mixed-signal solutions, explained to me, you can even listen to audiobooks while riding your bike. When a truck passes by, the earbuds go into transparency mode at the right volume level, allowing you to be aware of your surroundings without drowning out your entertainment. (This is very similar to Apple’s Adaptive Audio mode in his AirPods Pro.) Bekis says the new chip also offers better voice recognition, allowing the product to recognize your voice from the voices of those around you. It helps you pick out your voice.
But to me, they feel like promising progress. Things get even more fun when it comes to the new micropower Wi-Fi support built into the high-end His S7 Pro. “This will allow devices to take full advantage of both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to deliver a revolutionary new user experience, even with earbuds,” Bekis said. I am. These experiences include his 192kHz lossless audio delivered over Wi-Fi. This method probably won’t reduce the battery life of the earbuds and the small battery inside them. To accomplish this, the S7 Pro leverages what Qualcomm calls Extended Personal Area Network (XPAN) technology.
Bekis summed it up as follows:
You can now use AptX Adaptive as part of Snapdragon Sound to deliver 24-bit 48kHz audio over Bluetooth. It’s not lossless. It’s far from lossless. A lossy music stream. You can’t do lossless at 24-bit 96kHz because the bit rate is not supported by Bluetooth. However, the power consumption has been reduced and Wi-Fi can now be installed in earphones. can Deliver 96kHz lossless audio to your earphones via Wi-Fi. Here you can see that a 50mAh hour cell will give you the same 10 hours of playback. This allows you to deliver lossless audio over Wi-Fi with the same power consumption as lossy audio over Bluetooth.
But the S7 Pro is probably even more focused on freedom and convenience, as well as high-resolution audio. Bekis said that when you step away from your phone, the earbuds can seamlessly pass from a direct Bluetooth connection to his Wi-Fi, allowing you to continue playing media even across different access points. This unlimited operating range also appears to extend to calls. “It operates in the 2.4, 5, and 6 GHz bands, so you can get a great connection even when there is potential for congestion.” This allows for continued lossless audio over distance.
Now, this is Qualcomm we’re talking about, so to do all of this you’ll need a phone powered by the company’s also new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 once that platform starts shipping. is not surprising. Next year’s device. He also won’t be seeing any audio products featuring the S7 or S7 Pro for several months. How well this juggling between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth actually works is a big question for now.
Even before I got that far, I had my own doubts. Will this wave of future headphones require him to start entering Wi-Fi credentials during the pairing process? “Actually, the problem is solved once you pair them conventionally.” says Bekis. “Once the phones verify that both ends support now recognizes your credentials to use your network, so you can stay connected anywhere you have Wi-Fi in your home.”
And there’s also the reality that, at least for now, none of this applies to Apple devices like the iPhone, iPad, or Mac, as Apple is focused on its own cross-device ecosystem and isn’t participating in Snapdragon Sound. . We’re getting closer to wireless, lossless audio for the first time, but only between the Vision Pro headset and the latest AirPods Pro earbuds. “Whether Apple wants to be a part of it or not, they know where to come and knock on our door if they want to,” Bekis said. “My suspicion is that they always want to do their own thing.”
