Qualcomm today announced Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound technology, an optimized chain of audio innovations and software designed to provide seamless, immersive audio in, and across, devices including smartphones, wireless earbuds and headsets.
Snapdragon Sound is designed to provide an enhanced sound experience for consumers while listening to streaming music, communicating on the phone, or wirelessly gaming. To coincide with this launch, Amazon Music and Qualcomm Technologies also announced a curated Snapdragon Sound Playlist.
By optimizing interactions between Qualcomm technology stacks, Snapdragon Sound is designed to deliver a more robust and seamless wireless listening experience, supporting high-resolution 24-bit 96kHz audio, ultra-low latency, improved pairing, and crystal-clear voice quality.
To solve end-to-end Latency challenges, Snapdragon Sound can support Bluetooth latencies as low as 89 milliseconds (45% lower than a leading competitor) for more immersive gaming and a better video watching experience. For those who prefer listening directly from the mobile device, Snapdragon Sound incorporates the Qualcomm Aqstic DAC, designed to support formats of up to 384kHz 32-bit PCM and DSD with ultra-low THD+N.
“By focusing from end-to-end, as opposed to on every single device, we can deliver innovation to solve common consumer pain-points across the broader audio chain. Qualcomm Technologies is uniquely positioned to provide tremendous value to customers with Snapdragon Sound; our system-level approach aggregates multiple platforms from across our mobile and audio portfolio to help achieve our vision of delivering high-resolution wired quality audio”, said James Chapman, vice president, and general manager, Voice, Music and Wearables, Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd.
The Snapdragon Sound platform consists of a wide range of existing Qualcomm products and solutions, including Snapdragon 8xx series SoCs, Qualcomm FastConnect 6900, Qualcomm QCCX series Bluetooth SoCs, Qualcomm ANC, aptX Adaptive, aptX Voice, Qualcomm Aqstic, and more.
Snapdragon Sound platform is available to OEMs starting today. It will power a wide range of products including not only audio products such as earbuds, headphones but also smartphones, PCs, and even XR glasses. All devices will have Snapdragon Sound branding imprinted on their product boxes.
Xiaomi will be the first smartphone OEM to bring a Snapdragon Sound-powered device to the market. Qualcomm also partnered with Audio Technica as it will be one of the first brands to feature the new technology in its products this summer.