Qualcomm recently announced the launch of the latest Bluetooth audio lossless codec, aptX Lossless, which will bring a breakthrough sound quality improvement for all audiophiles who are still accustomed to listening to music with Bluetooth headsets.

According to the introduction, Qualcomm's latest aptX Lossless is the first Bluetooth audio lossless codec, which can accurately transmit CD quality (16-bit, 44.1kHz) audio via Bluetooth. This means that your wireless headset can finally support CD-quality lossless sound. The compression process will incorporate the 1.4 Mbps bit rate of the CD into the more limited 1 Mbps bandwidth. However, Qualcomm succeeded in ensuring that they were using completely lossless compression. This is different from the existing lossy Bluetooth codec; when listening through aptX Lossless technology, the output audio stream exactly matches the input audio stream (if the audio source is not higher than the CD sound quality).

With the decision to switch to aptX lossless codecs, Qualcomm will have the opportunity to greatly improve the data rates of its existing aptX and aptX HD codecs. In fact, it may eventually exceed the current highest Sony LDAC transfer rate of 990kbps. Although how to maintain this high bandwidth under the unstable signal of Bluetooth is the main problem, Qualcomm introduced how it can use end-to-end control and optimize its radio stack to solve this problem through the Snapdragon sound ecosystem.

Qualcomm also pointed out that Snapdragon Sound will support aptX Lossless for the first time. They also plan to let all brands of its products support new codecs in the future. Of course, this also means that the existing product line will not be backward compatible.

It should be noted that Qualcomm’s aptX Lossless is not another independent codec. Developers can get it from the aptX adaptive tool suite, which means that the device will also benefit from Qualcomm's other codec features.

Qualcomm’s decision is mainly due to the increasing number of music streaming platforms that support lossless formats. Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal and many others now support lossless audio, and Qualcomm really has no reason not to introduce new technologies.

According to reports, aptX Lossless and Snapdragon Sound branding and interoperability testing should arrive sometime in 2022.