Gone are the days when if you wanted to stream lossless audio tracks to your phone, you only had one option that was Tidal. Since then, a lot has changed. Audiophiles amongst you have known and are acquainted with lossless music. But it was only recently when tech giant Apple entered the scene that the mainstream audience started paying attention to such a thing. Apple Music had announced its support for lossless streaming in June and Spotify and other competitors are also joining the bandwagon sooner than later. But things are still to pick pace on the Android side, until today. Qualcomm, the chipset vendor for a bulk of the Android phone market is about to change that by rolling out aptX Lossless Bluetooth codec later this year.
What is Qualcomm’s aptX codec?
The new codec is considered quite similar to Sony’s LDAC and promises ‘CD Quality’ audio over wireless transmission with a maximum bitrate of about 1Mbit/second. The company also claims that the bitrate is a variable scaling down to 140kbits/second in congested environments with a lot of radio interference to maintain stable audio quality. Claims from Qualcomm establish that their codec would be able to deliver CD quality audio at 16bits/44.1kHz resolution, with bit-for-bit transmission. You can also switch between 16 bit 44.1kHz and 24bit 96kHz streaming modes manually. In most conditions it is expected to perform better than existing aptX codecs.
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Qualcomm says
“At Qualcomm Technologies we’re excited about the future of sound, and we’re continually looking for ways to help our customers deliver new and exciting listening experiences. Lossless audio means mathematically bit-for-bit exact with no loss of the audio file and up to now the necessary bit rate to deliver this over Bluetooth has not been available. With many leading music streaming services now offering extensive lossless music libraries, and consumer demand for lossless audio growing, we’re pleased to announce this new support for CD lossless audio streaming for Bluetooth earbuds and headsets.” Said James Chapman, V.P. and G.M. Qualcomm Technologies.
Will aptX lossless codec work everywhere?
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipsets come with support for its aptX codecs built-in. That means almost any Android phone you buy in North America or Europe (for the time being) will support the standard. We expect more countries to receive this tech eventually. As is the case with all other codecs, it is not enough for only the phone to support this technology but you also need a pair of compatible headphones or earbuds and a streaming service.
AptX Lossless Launch Date
Qualcomm expects products featuring this codec to be available later this year. Although no specific announcements have been made, usual partners like Jabra or Master and Dynamic are expected to be on board. Keep reading this space for more updates on this.
