Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
As someone who reviews Bluetooth headphones , earbuds , and speakers for a life , I get to essay a lot of the newest audio technical school first . Not gon na consist — it ’s one of the best parts of the job .
And sometimes I get sweep up in the ballyhoo for these raw technologies , which is arguably one of the worst voice of the Book of Job , because I can end up give my referee the wrong belief .
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
have ’s take lossless audio recording as an example . Statistically speaking , you probably ca n’t hear it when using Bluetoothwireless headphonesor earbuds .
I do n’t have in mind you could’tgetlossless audio . Plenty of masses have their own program library of losslessFLAC tracks , several stream euphony services provide lossless audio ( some inhi - res audio , too ) , and if you own any CDs , well , they ’re the original lossless sound recording data formatting .
What I mean is that one of the coolheaded late change to the wireless audio landscape — the ability to work lossless audio frequency over a Bluetooth connecter — is something that most of you ca n’t experience yet , and may not be able to live for some time to come .
Bluetooth lossless? Who cares?
But before I get to why you ca n’t discover it , a immediate recapitulation of why you should ( maybe ) care .
We all have sex the convenience of die wire - destitute , whether it ’s greater exemption of movement during workouts , or being able-bodied to take the air from our keep room to our kitchen without removing our headphones , or simply never need to wrestle with sweep up cable . But as convenient as Bluetooth is , it can alter audio quality .
If you ’ve ever wondered why some folks ( mostly those who take to be audiophiles ) are still haunt with wired headphones and in - ear monitors ( IEMs ) , it has a lot to do with the personnel casualty of quality that confine Bluetooth bandwidth has historically meant for wireless audio .
So when Qualcomm announced it had finally solved the quality problemthanks to aptX Lossless — a newBluetooth codecthat predict minute - perfect preservation of compact disk - timbre lossless audio frequency — it was kind of a big deal .
For the first clip , it was possible to buy a circle of wireless earbuds and make love that whether you enjoyed the room they go or not , the fact that they were wireless was no longer a business organization . In theory , as long as you only listened to atomic number 48 - character audio ( as oppose to hi - res sound recording ) , the front or absence of a wired connection should be irrelevant .
In possibility .
Unfortunately , Qualcomm ’s solution to the Bluetooth quality job is a proprietary one . In order for aptX Lossless to pull off its sorcerous magic of render flake - perfect audio frequency , both your wireless earbuds ( or headphones , or speaker ) and your source equipment ( usually a phone ) need to be outfit withQualcomm ’s Snapdragon Sound platform .
Snapdragon Sound is n’t just software — it bank onQualcomm ’s system on a on chip . In other words , the earbuds and phones postulate to have compatible Qualcomm silicon . This is where things get tricky .
While it ’s true that a growing bit of wireless headphone and earbud makers are integrating Qualcomm ’s Snapdragon Sound chips ( with some vainglorious names like Bose and Sennheiser among them ) , on the telephone set side of the equating , espousal has been slow . Worse still , the companies that have supply Qualcomm chip to their phones interpret the smallest portion of the market place , at least in the U.S.
How bad is it?
At the end of March 2024 , Apple was the No . 1 U.S. seller of smartphones by a vast gross profit , and Samsung was No . 2 . Between them , they control just over 82 % of the market . Neither company uses Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound chips .
Google ’s Pixel phones do n’t either . sum in its comparatively small share as the No . 4 marketer , and we ’re now around 85 % .
According toQualcomm ’s website , the only companies that trade Snapdragon Sound smartphones are Asus , Vivo , Motorola , Sony , Sharp , Xiaomi , and Nubia .
That seems like a decent natural selection until you take a closer feel . Motorola , the No . 3 brand in the U.S. , only has three Snapdragon Sound models . And Xiaomi , the No . 5 brand , has just one — the Xiaomi Redmi K70 Pro , which it does n’t sell in the U.S.
In other words , the huge majority of smartphone users in the U.S. can not enjoy lossless sound recording over Bluetooth , even if they bought Snapdragon Sound - compatible wireless earbuds like theBose QuietComfort Ultra Earbudsor theSennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 .
This make a existent conundrum for me as a commentator . It ’s beguiling to praise wireless headphones and earbuds when they support aptX Lossless — especially when I can see the advance the codec promise . But in the back of my mind , there ’s always that lounge fear : Why praise something that most buyers ca n’t take heed with their current smartphone ? ( And belike wo n’t with their next one , either . )
Thankfully , most of the headphones and earbuds that work with Snapdragon Sound also are genuinely great products even if you neglect Qualcomm ’s lossless Bluetooth contribution . So , my valuation are rarely affected by this issue .
Still , I ca n’t aid feeling that whenever I mention lossless Bluetooth audio frequency in a review , I ’m perpetuate a form of simulated advertising . It ’s not that these companies are lying , it ’s just that they ’re stress a benefit that most of their customers will never get .
On the other hand , these thing often end up being an “ if - you - build - it - they - will - come up ” scenario . If there are no wireless headphones or earbuds that are aptX Lossless able , what incentive does a company like Google have to add Qualcomm ’s chips to its telephone set ?
I ’m not privy to the backroom batch between tech giants , but I ’m pretend there ’s been more than one conversation around who do good the most when a telephone set is Snapdragon Sound - compatible .
So where does this leave you if you ’re in the market for new wireless cans or buds and have no design of trading in your exist phone for one of the few that supports lossless Bluetooth audio ? candidly , it means you ’re in the same lieu as before the Second Coming of aptX Lossless : you should read reviews and ratings and decide based on the features that weigh most and which you could use today with your current earphone .
It ’s just that , for now , that list likely wo n’t include lossless audio .
