OPINION : Qualcomm caused a bit of a stir at its yearly Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii , announcing several new bits of technical school that could have a prominent impact on the future of headphones .
What ’s got everyone so frantic is the mention of phone in the same largeness as Wi - Fi . WhileBluetoothhas been a very commodious wireless applied science for mobile and home devices , some are unconvinced , especially if you want a high - fidelity audio performance .
That ’s not something that Bluetooth can provide , despite the many advances over the years to increase the amount of data it can take . Despite some claims of headphone substantiate lossless audio over Bluetooth – like theNuraTrue Pro – that ’s proven to be rather thought-provoking , since Bluetooth can only really doHi - Res Audioin lossy rather than genuine lossless manakin .
You must understand that for technical school stigma , Wi - Fi has become more and more more golden – whether it ’s earpiece , soundbarsoreven TVs . We ’ve seen this with tech such as Samsung ’s Q - Symphony , LG ’s WOW Orchestra , and headphones such as theHED Unitythat leverage Wi - Fi to connect to gimmick or in the caseful of the Unity , use the Wi - Fi connection head on your fluid gimmick to stream audio straight from your music service .
Which , late , leads me to back Qualcomm ’s announcement of its upcoming S7 Pro Platform sustain micro power Wi - Fi connectivity .
In essence , the fresh chip merges Bluetooth and Wi - Fi connectivity together , seamlessly switching between the two . If you leave alone your phone somewhere in the house and take the air aside from it , the earbuds / headphones will switch to the Wi - Fi internet , so your music keeps on playing . With this tech , you ’ll never be out of chain , it wo n’t drain your battery further , and lossless audio up to 24 - bit/192kHz through wireless headphone would be a tangible matter .
I have reservations…
This all sound great , right ? But I ’ll be a Debbie Downer and vocalise a few arriere pensee .
The most obvious one is that you ’ll necessitate devices that supportSnapdragon Soundfor this to be a possibility . While there are hatful of audio brands that do tolerate the Snapdragon platform , not all of them do . Sony has followed its own path with its headphones , as has Apple – that ’s a fair chunk of the market that , unless something happens , wo n’t be include the technical school in their headphones .
The second is that this reliant on your domicile Wi - Fi meshwork , and the way I ’ve take it described , is only a possibility if you ’re far enough away from your phone for it to tack to the Wi - Fi . How often do citizenry consciously take the air out from their earphone ? For some it seems as if it ’s constantly attached to their pelvic arch .
Sure , perhaps the Wi - Fi / Bluetooth blend would exercise on Wi - Fi mesh outdoors of the dwelling , but anyone who ’s experienced the faff of trying to localise up Wi - Fi access on the London Underground will know how baffling that process can be .
And the third peak is that , while streaming music at 24 - bit 48kHz , 96kHz or 192kHz would be swell , how many of you hear to music at that quality ? Spotify is still the most popular music streaming armed service , pass 200 million pay ratifier , and untilSpotify HiFior Supremium comes along , they ’re all listening at 320kbps .
There ’s no doubt that what Qualcomm is introduce is a convenient melodic theme , but it does endanger a limitation . Like the event I attend earlier in the year when it bear witness off its S3 Gen 2 dongle that offers lowly latency performance with gaming and low energy audio recording performance . The engineering science on show worked really well , but when it come to the question of who is supporting , there was n’t much in terms of details Qualcomm could supply . It can only present the technical advances , it ca n’t ram ingestion . It ’s the honest-to-god saw of leading a horse to water , but you ca n’t make it pledge .
So yes , this is an interesting engineering science with hope , but there ’s still some agency to go before lossless audio streaming for headphones becomes a realness . If you ca n’t wait , there ’s always wired earphone …
