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DAP with Snapdragon Sound - When?

rochambeaux

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Dec 18, 2021
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I know this is heresy for most audiophiles but I cannot bring myself to continue using wired headphones anywhere except at my desk.

For mobile situations it has to be true wireless.

It sounds like the new Snapdragon Sound codecs is what will finally convince me to sink $700+ for a really nice DAP.

Has anyone heard of any of the usual suspects in the AP world heading that direction? I could see Snadragon Sound in a nice DAP as a huge game changer.
 
I'm confused. Snapdragon sound builds on Bluetooth so you'd need a player device and buds that both are SS compliant. But why buy a dap that has limited use rather than ensure your next phone handset is SS compatible?

Also, doesn't look like there are many buds that are SS compatible and surely the sq from the buds is more important than the transmission codec into them?
 
Regarding Snapdragon mobile phone DAC/AMP's and AQstic amp is D-H class but in all builds (on each and every phone) used as class D (for a little better efficiency). To my better knowledge they don't put those (but worser ones) on their BT SoC's ment for TWS.
DAP is a self stand player. From that category if you are sure that's what you really, really want check if you can still find HiBy R3Pro (CS43131 version!) it should be around 200 $/€. Be warn and aware that it's BT/WiFi range is rather limited (not great antennas) and that you can operate it remotely trogh BT with HiBy Link as long as you use HiBy Music with it.
 
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I'm confused. Snapdragon sound builds on Bluetooth so you'd need a player device and buds that both are SS compliant. But why buy a dap that has limited use rather than ensure your next phone handset is SS compatible?

Also, doesn't look like there are many buds that are SS compatible and surely the sq from the buds is more important than the transmission codec into them?
Absolutely understand that it needs to be on both "ends" - but there are already TWS buds with it and many more to follow. As far as phones go, the real limiter on those will be storage space - DAPS consistently have at least 1 SDCard slot - pretty much all phones have abandoned that. All of the existing phones that have Snapdragon Sound do not have a an SDCard option. So that means having to "dongle" a card adapter to the phone to carry your library with you.
 
Regarding Snapdragon mobile phone DAC/AMP's and AQstic amp is D-H class but in all builds (on each and every phone) used as class D (for a little better efficiency). To my better knowledge they don't put those (but worser ones) on their BT SoC's ment for TWS.
DAP is a self stand player. From that category if you are sure that's what you really, really want check if you can still find HiBy R3Pro (CS43131 version!) it should be around 200 $/€. Be warn and aware that it's BT/WiFi range is rather limited (not great antennas) and that you can operate it remotely trogh BT with HiBy Link as long as you use HiBy Music with it.
Thanks but that DAP (like all others) are limited by the current/older generation of Bluetooth CODECS. LDAC is OK but there's no point in taking your library of FLAC files "mobile" on a dedicated DAP if you're "settling" for LDAC. If that was the case then I could just encode teh FLAC library down to 320 MP3 and load them all up on a tiny DAP like the R3Pro and be done with it...
 
Thanks but that DAP (like all others) are limited by the current/older generation of Bluetooth CODECS. LDAC is OK but there's no point in taking your library of FLAC files "mobile" on a dedicated DAP if you're "settling" for LDAC. If that was the case then I could just encode teh FLAC library down to 320 MP3 and load them all up on a tiny DAP like the R3Pro and be done with it...
You can stream over WiFi (from server or smartphone), store on DAP (SD card) and control remotely among other things. Mentioned one supports LDAC and UAT (from app) among other BT codecs if that is your thing (isn't mine).
 
You can stream over WiFi (from server or smartphone), store on DAP (SD card) and control remotely among other things. Mentioned one supports LDAC and UAT (from app) among other BT codecs if that is your thing (isn't mine).
Thanks. To me the benefit of a DAP is to be able to take my entire library of lossless files "in the wild", i.e. no internet/WiFi required. I know I'm a niche market in that I also do not want to be forced to used wired headphones/IEMs. This is where Snapdragon Sound comes in. Smartphones are already using Snapdragon Sound but none have SD Card slots - and a phone with 1TB of storage is rare and stupidly expensive. Plus by the time your non-music apps/data are taken into account that 1TB quickly shrinks down to what's available for music.

I'm thinking I may need to just do some research into the best way to convert the FLAC to something like 320 MP# and see if I can actually tell the difference.
 
Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec (and second gen is a downgrade) is wired DAC/AMP and still not present in TWS.
Snapdragon Sound (brand name) is just new IP policy for all together not meaning its all present or suported. So if you didn't read "Snapdragon Sound" never comes in (at least it didn't yet). They made some bold claims which are false and physically impossible about BT losseles 24 bit 96 KHz suport (has to be lossy taking in consideration BT bandwidth). There are still smartphones with SD card and hedaphone jack, mostly Sony's but they are expensive. Best lossy codec is lossy hybrid WavPack (you leave correction file at home and when you combine it with lossy one you get losseles master back) but you won't get much of the space saving with it (30% on CD quality and 50~60% on 24 bit 88200~96000 Hz) compared to flac and not exactly easy one regarding decoding.
Regarding me a small DAP in inner pocket or shirt uper pocket and wired are fine.
 
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