Two trends in music that’s ever growing, at least on the consumer side of things, are lossless music, and listening to them via Bluetooth headphones. One could argue that the best way to do it right now is Sony and its LDAC codec. But it looks like that will be going back to Qualcomm, as the company announced its new aptX Lossless.
In a sense, aptX Lossless is an extension of the old aptX Adaptive announced back in 2018. Overall, it’s mostly the same story as the Sony LDAC. In other words, it’s promising users 44.1kHz, 16-bit CD quality audio via Bluetooth.
But going a bit further, it supports a maximum bit rate of about 1Mbps, just slightly higher than the 990kbps of Sony LDAC. But one potential plus point is that it’s not a constant. Qualcomm says that aptX Lossless adjusts bit rate dynamically depending on the environment and the degree of wireless congestion.
At its best it will be the maximum 1Mbps, but if there’s a lot of congestion, it dynamically scales down to 140kbps. This means that at the very least, your listening experience won’t be rudely interrupted, but if you have sharp ears, you’ll hear the difference.
Naturally, to actually make use of aptX Lossless, both the media player and the headphones will need to support the tech. And since it’s just announced, it will be a while before we actually get it.
(Source: Qualcomm)
