Heyo, I wanted to do a little deep dive into the fancy audio tech used in modern samsung devices. The focus will be auracast, something that the majority of people will have no idea exists.
Starting out simple, Bluetooth audio on a basic level is a 1 on 1 connection. 1 phone, connects to 1 Bluetooth audio device. Nothing fancy going on. That connection is usually encrypted and secured. It also as a default will be using SBC as an audio codec. Every Bluetooth device must at least work like this to function.
What's an audio codec?
Well, yout phone doesn't send sound waves to your Bluetooth devices, it has to send them computer data that they then convert into sound for your ears. On a modern samsung device, 5 audio codecs are available. There is a 6th but shh thats the title of this post. I'll not give super technical details but a good feeling and understanding of their differences. Your phone will usually auto select the best one that your Bluetooth device supports, to most people never need to know about these. But knowing means you can pick better on buying a new device, plus just learn how your things work.
SBC, easy, basic, everything supports it, gets the job done. This isn't anything special and almost all Bluetooth devices that aren't fancy or mention otherwise will be using.
AAC. This is a more advanced codec used prominently as the codec airpods use. This usually offers better sound quality and performance than SBC but is harder to make work. On android devices especially, it has been known to increase battery life and not be tuned very well compared to iphones.
aptX. This is a family of audio codecs that include aptX, aptX HD, aptX low latency and aptX adaptive. These are special codecs created and owned by qualcom. Qualcom is the creator of the snapdragon chips in your phone (unless you have an exynos but that complicates things). Their aim was to create a really high quality audio codec that only works on their chips, so devices with qualcom chips have better audio than competitors.
This codec is usually only on smartphones and Bluetooth devices that have paid to use it. It should be a bit better than the previous codecs as the creator of the phone chips made it specifically for their phone chips.
I must mention aptX adaptive in a separate section. It's similar to the rest of it's family except it has a dynamic bit rate. Lemme explain that. Bit rate is how much information your phone sends to the Bluetooth device, more data usually means better audio but less range. All the previous codecs have a static bit rate, it never changes. aptX adaptive can change the bit rate to compensate for the environment. Up close to your earbuds? Better sound quality. Far away from them? Bit rate is lowered, quality drops but they work at a longer range.
LDAC. This is a really fancy audio codec that I personally have never seen. It's made by Sony and is designed for the highest quality sound. I'd say it's for being alone in your studio listening to really expensive earbuds or headphones via Bluetooth. It does have a dynamic bit rate but it uses steps instead of being fully fluid. Meaning it has 3 set bit rates it uses. The final one being double that of any other codec mentioned.
The last of the normal codecs,SSC or samsung seamless/scalable codec. This is a samsung only codec only available on samsung devices and Bluetooth devices. This is arguably the best audio codec you can use on a device. It allows all the fancy audio features that LDAC has while being fully dynamic bit rate and offering bit rate 3x that of even LDAC. Depending on your phone and eaebuds, there are 2 versions of this. To save explaining bit depth and technicalities on how audio works, the v2 found on the buds 3/pro and s24 series can carry much more audio information from the phone to the ears. The v1 still sounds good, just the v2 pushes it even further. Also fun fact, the v2 upgrade is disabled by default. Check your buds settings, sound quality and effects, advanced quality options, enable ultra high quality audio.
Now I've explained how audio is transfered, there's another little feature that breaks the norm. Remember how I said you can only connect to 1 Bluetooth audio device at a time? In recent smart phones, you can now connect to multiple at once. If you and a friend both have Bluetooth earbuds, your phone can now send the same sound to both. No need to each have 1 earbud in and share the other.
Now I've finally examined the way things currently work. Let me explain the future.
Auracast. This is a rather new system that currently works on the buds 3/pro and newer phones. The whole way audio works has been remade. A single device acts as the broadcaster. This could be a phone, an airport or whatever else supports this system. An unlimited number of devices can then connect and listen to the audio being played. Kinda like an FM radio but all digital. A special separate codec is used for this system that is designed to be power efficient and high quality.
The aim of this system is maybe you go to a train station, no one can understand the announcements can they? You set your earbuds to listen to the auracast signal, the announcement is now in your ears. This same tech is also included in hearing ***** and other medical devices.
It swaps the model from Bluetooth audio being 1 to 1 to 1 to everyone while increasing the quality of the basic SBC codec used by every device on a basic level.
Of note, some devices do have workarounds for these limitations. As stated, modern phones can connect to maybe 2 devices at once and some devices can quickly swap the device they are connected to.
Auracast is still quite new and unused so I've never seen anyone or anywhere it is being used. But hopefully soon when more people get it it'll be a popular standard.
I also hope this is the right topic to classify this as as I have a habit of accidentally miscatagorising my giant posts
