Voice, Music, and the Power of Sound with Snapdragon

It’s no secret that Snapdragon^Ⓡ technology is all about delivering immersive experiences and that includes premium sound. We’ve spent years developing Snapdragon Sound™ Technology, a suite of Qualcomm technologies that gives listeners unparalleled audio experiences across music, gaming, and calls. But what does this really mean for listeners? Some friends and I got together recently on Twitter Spaces to answer this question and chat about all things voice, music, and the power of sound.

Joining me (@AudioSarah) were: Grammy-nominated artist and singer JP Saxe (@jpsaxe); digital creator Archie Beatz (@archiebeatz); and host Jason Woodmansee, Staff Manager, Marketing for Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. Here are some highlights:

What is Snapdragon Sound? Snapdragon Sound is a collection of audio and connectivity technologies developed by Qualcomm Technologies that work together end-to-end, from your phone to your earbuds, to improve the listening experience. And it improves not just music, but calls and gaming, too.

With Snapdragon Sound, we've been able to optimize all of these technologies to work together to deliver a premium music experience, while also delivering very low latency for gaming and very high quality audio for voice calls. And the cool thing is that when you’re using your devices for these things on the go, the technology is robust enough that you're not going to get any of those really annoying audio dropouts or glitches that you would with standard Bluetooth^®.

What is lossless audio? Lossless audio is a reproduction of the original music with no loss of the audio file, meaning it's mathematically bit for bit exactly the same as the original audio data. Now with Snapdragon Sound supporting lossless audio, it means you're hearing your music exactly as the artist intended.

This is important because there are so many lossless audio formats out there. Previously, when you listened to lossless audio files with Bluetooth headphones or earbuds, you weren’t getting true lossless audio quality. With Snapdragon Sound, we’ve solved the final problem in the audio chain to make lossless audio available over Bluetooth for the first time.

As JP points out, he wants his audience to be able to hear his music with the best possible audio quality—and that’s what you get with lossless audio. Archie agreed, “With lossless audio and Snapdragon Sound, it's so important that these technologies exist because you get to hear music in the way it was intended to be heard.”

How does audio quality impact creators and listeners? JP broke down his creative process step by step and shared how technology informs his choices. When in the studio, he works to ensure that the music he’s listening to sounds as close as possible to what a fan will hear. For him, that means listening to music across a spectrum of audio qualities. He added that by using earbuds that support Snapdragon Sound, everyday listeners can get as close as possible to the studio listening experience.

Archie echoed JP’s thoughts of wanting the listener’s experience to be as close as possible to what’s recorded in the studio. He also shared how his creative process is informed by the technology he has available to him, and at every step of the way he’s considering the final listener's experience with the music he’s creating.

JP and Archie compared Snapdragon Sound lossless audio to an IMAX^® theater experience. A good movie can still be enjoyed on the small screen, but seeing it in IMAX is what the director intended. It’s the same with audio; a good song may be fine on an old car radio, but it’s transformed into what the creator intended when listening with Snapdragon Sound.

What’s the experience like using Snapdragon Sound enabled devices?

It’s a great question and, given that Archie had been using a Motorola edge+ with Snapdragon Sound enabled Noble Falcon ANC earbuds, I was interested to hear how my fellow audiophile would respond. Archie said he compared the quality of sound he got from his Noble Falcon ANC earbuds with Snapdragon Sound to his thousand dollar headphones and he was impressed by the earbuds' sound quality. A previous Bluetooth skeptic, he’s now been converted by the power of Snapdragon Sound.

And this question led into a great discussion about one of the other amazing aspects of Snapdragon Sound: its affordability. JP and Archie both love that everyday listeners are getting the ability to have such high quality audio experiences. It’s why I’m so happy that we are partnering with leading audio brands like Noble to create earbuds at a lower price point, so more consumers have access to incredible sound quality that was previously unattainable.

Of course there was quite a bit more to the discussion, including confessions of my teenage mischief and our first concert experiences (turns out JP is a huge Hilary Duff fan); so check out our full Twitter Spaces conversation.

We also gave away two pairs of the Noble Falcon ANC Wireless Earbuds enabled with Snapdragon Sound to a couple lucky Snapdragon Insiders who tuned into the chat. Sign up to become a Snapdragon Insider so you don’t miss out on future events and giveaways.

What was your favorite part of the Twitter Spaces? Let us know in the comments below.