Qualcomm Promises Much Broader Range With Latest Chips for Mobile Headphones

pcmag.com:

MAUI—Qualcomm says its newest Snapdragon Sound technology will bring premium audio experiences to the next generation of mobile headphones.

Its S7 and S7 Pro Gen 1 Sound platforms, announced today at Qualcomm's annual Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii, target a wide range of activities, including lossless music, gaming, multi-point connectivity, and extended-range listening so you can wander further away from your phone or PC without dropping the connection.

Qualcomm relied on its latest State of Sound Report to generate the feature list for the S7 and S7 Pro. Its research, which polled 7,000 people across seven countries, suggests that 79% of people want whole-home audio when listening. In other words, four out of five people would like to be able to connect headphones to their phone or PC and then be able to wander throughout their home without disconnecting from the source. That's a challenge given that the range of many Bluetooth headphones is limited to about 30 feet. Qualcomm also found that 73% of respondents want higher-quality music and that 68% of people would like to use the same set of headphones for multiple activities, such as music or gaming. The S7 and S7 Pro hope to help device makers ease these pain points.

To start, the S7 Pro packs a combination of radio enhancements that should give people more room to roam. The chip supports Bluetooth 5.4 with Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast Broadcast Audio. Qualcomm is combining this with micro-power Wi-Fi connectivity to create an Extended Personal Area Network, or XPAN. This mode relies on your phone's and router's Wi-Fi radios to maintain music streaming wherever the two can provide coverage with up to 24-bit 192kHz lossless with spatial audio.

Qualcomm didn't say