Tech that improves audio quality over Bluetooth and an AI-enhanced 5G modem are on the way
~ https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/28/22951127/qualcomm-snapdragon-sound-x70-modem-rf-5g-ai
More details are in their linked 2021-09 article focused on Snapdragon Sound (https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/1/22652655/qualcomm-aptx-lossless-announced-snapdragon-sound)
Qualcomm says Snapdragon Sound will automatically detect a lossless audio source and be able to play it at much higher data rates than previously possible with aptX HD. The company has managed to outdo Sony’s LDAC in terms of bandwidth: aptX Lossless can hit up to 1Mbps compared to LDAC’s ceiling of 990kbps. There’s still some compression being applied; CD-quality music typically has a sample bit rate of 1.4Mbps. But Qualcomm is using lossless compression to deliver mathematically bit-for-bit exact audio reproduction.
Unfortunately, not much seems to be available on what the used lossless codec might be. Qualcomm's own Snapdragon Sound (https://www.qualcomm.com/products/features/snapdragon-sound) site is littered with marketing lingo but no details.
So while I am slightly enthusiastic for higher throughput to earbuds, I'd rather like to see more progress made on the quality of headset profiles - profile switching still feels quite clunky.
Honestly, 1mbps seems a bit low to be able to provide lossless 16/44.1 stereo all the time
EDIT: I seem to remember FLAC files somewhere north of 1100 kbps on occasion
EDIT #2: 1397 kbps from a commercial CD https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=86864.msg744431#msg744431
EDIT#3: And even if it averages under 1mbps for the entire file it's quite possible for that to spike to over 1mbps for long enough where the minimal buffering that's doable for Bluetooth audio (if any is possible) would run out
Honestly, 1mbps seems a bit low to be able to provide lossless 16/44.1 stereo all the time
Indeed, but: if you look at the source where the number comes from (Qualcomm's press release!), it says "Bit-rate – ~1Mbps" - and the tilde suggests it is "expect it to be around but hey we didn't
promise you anything!"
And also from the marketing it seems to be downscaling to the connection quality - good thing, but it leaves completely open whether 1 kbit/s is "very close to theoretical maximum, in practice you won't get half this (but customers won't notice)" or whether it is what it probably wants us to believe, namely that lossless transmission for on-the-fly-encoding requires average bit rate of a megabit/s and sure we handle that.
EDIT: I seem to remember FLAC files somewhere north of 1100 kbps on occasion
%__codec% HAS flac AND %__bitspersample% EQUAL 16 AND %__samplerate% EQUAL 44100 AND %__bitrate% GREATER 1100returns more than two percent of my metal-heavy collection. Using flac -8.
Nearly all of it is hard rock to punk to metal and breakcore to power electronics to noise - a few Cypress Hill and dälek tracks in there - but a couple of exceptions:
* Destiny's Child: "8 Days of Christmas"
I am sure that must have been left here after an ex moved out, I am innocent! Well now I have played that as well. * Track 13 from this one: https://music.ubiktune.com/album/soundshock-fm-funk-maddness
EDIT #2: 1397 kbps from a commercial CD https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=86864.msg744431#msg744431
More codecs tested on that track: https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=120158.msg1001917#msg1001917
Monkey's isn't streamable anyway,
soooooo ;-)
As streaming audio services are moving to lossless, people start to realize they are paying a premium for lossless audio only to have it lossy compressed by Bluetooth.
This is what makes LDAC, LHCD, UAT so popular.
High time for a big player like Qualcomm to join the "lossless if the circumstances allow it" bandwagon and get their share of the market.