Two codecs receive Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification
Shawn Chung - Singapore
Japan Audio Society (JAS), the internationally respected audio research organization, recently announced that, following an extensive objective and subjective testing process, the certification of MQair and LC3plus audio codes as ‘High-Res Audio Wireless’.
MQair, formerly known as SCL5 (MQA Ltd) and LC3plus (Fraunhofer IIS) follows the LDAC (Sony) and LHDC (Savitech) codecs to receive this certification, and will provide audio device manufacturers and sellers more options for adopting “Hi-Res Audio Wireless” to offer high quality sound.
Thanks to Bluetooth connectivity, we are now fully immersed in the era of wireless audio, cutting the cable to our smartphones, PCs, tablets, speakers, TVs and even smartwatches, but many listeners are still using lossy, compressed music, often described as ‘below CD quality’. With the advert of High-Res Audio Wireless codecs, we now have devices, such as Sony’s LDAC supporting Xperia 1 IV smartphone and WH-100XM5, with superior high quality wireless audio.
MQair
According to MQA (Master Quality Authenticated), MQair delivers detail and clarity by focussing on the time domain – a critical factor in the human perception of high-resolution sound. This fresh perspective enables an exceptional audio experience and responds to rising consumer demand for better wireless sound. The technology supports both MQA and PCM audio up to 384kHz, and the encoded data rate can be scaled seamlessly from 20Mbps to below 200kbps, covering Bluetooth, Ultra-Wideband (UWB) and WiFi links. It offers low latency and high efficiency for extended battery life.
MQA has yet to announce which devices will support the MQair codec.
LC3plus
76 institutes and applied technology research units work together under the Fraunhofer IIS umbrella in Germany, which has an annual research budget of 2.9 billion Euros. In audio technology, Fraunhofer created the MP3 format, and announced the LC3 and LC3plus codecs in 2020 as an open ETSI standard alternative to aptX and LDAC.
While LC3 was optimized for Bluetooth Low Energy applications, LC3plus (Low Complexity Compression Codec plus) is suited for high fidelity audio as it can transmit bit rates up to 1000 Mbit/s with maximum resolution of 24 bit and 96 kHz, and also offers special modes for particularly low latency or particularly high error protection.
LC3plus codec is already used by Bang & Olufsen for its wireless streaming systems, including the Beolab 28 and Beosound Balance speakers.
The Cadence Tensilica HiFi 1 ultra-low-energy DSP supports LC3plus for multi-stream and broadcast audio.