Introduction
Nowadays, the market of wireless headphones is getting more and more fire, choose a product that is suitable for you, it becomes more and more difficult. Apple's AirPods stand out in numerous products, it can be said that AirPods is also one of the hearsons with fireless radio headphones. When it comes to AirPods, it has to be said that the apple self-research chip in the earphones, such as a generation of W1 chips and H1 chips in the second-generation.
The second generation Apple AirPods uses the latest Apple H1 chip, the H1 chip has a series of improvements, allowing the stability and convenience of the headphones to last steps.
What is the improvement of Apple H1?
Apple H1 chips are not like processors in smartphones or PCs, H1 is a streamlined chip specially designed for minority tasks. Although Apple does not disclose the secret inside the chip, we know that the interior of the chip includes a modem for processing Bluetooth connection, a digital signal processor (DSP) for decoding the compressed audio stream, and a coprocessor for processing sensor information (May be the second DSP).
One of the advantages of highly optimized processors is that it is lower than the general design energy consumption. Compared to the upper generation, Apple H1 is capable of longer battery life for headphones, such as a call time to 3 hours, up to 2 hours, up to 5 hours of audio playback time. In addition, the new chip supports Siri at any time, but also adds support to Bluetooth 5.0, the uphurma is Bluetooth 4.2. Bluetooth 5.0 has little significance for the sound quality of the headset, because the audio codec configuration file still uses a lower transfer rate. But Bluetooth 5.0 allows simultaneous to transmit audio to multiple devices, and other main advantages are also reduced power consumption.
In addition, the H1 chip has reduced the delay of the new AirPods by 30%, which is absolutely good for mobile gamers. Apple is also committed to the switching speed between the devices is doubled. In addition, in which the sensor of the chip can also detect in which ear of AirPod, only the actual microphone actually worn when making a call.
Although Apple H1 is very powerful, it is not perfect, for example, the chip only supports the AAC audio codec, which does not support APTX or LDAC, which can provide excellent sound quality on the Android phone. In addition, the H1 chip does not support the active noise reduction (ANC) function, which means that external noise cannot be isolated when using headphones.
In addition, Android users cannot use some of the best features of H1, such as stable connectivity and fast pairs.
Apple H1 competition
1, Boyong BCM43014 chip
Boyong is an important player in the wireless communication market, with its own true wireless audio chip series. For example, Samsung Galaxy Buds released with Samsung Galaxy S10 Series has built-in BCM43014 chip.
BCM43014 is also a chip that supports Bluetooth 5, built-in audio DSP, and touch, infrared, and proximity sensors. The chip supports fast scanning and connections to increase pairing speed. Although Galaxy BUDS does not support active noise reduction, BCM43014 has an advanced acoustic algorithm that can reduce background noise.
Galaxy BUDS supports SBC, AAC, and Samsung's internal scalable audio and speech codecs, and the programmable characteristics of the microcontroller CPU indicate that other codecs can also be supported.
Samsung's Galaxy Buds is obviously a strong competitor of AirPods. There are many design and functions between the two, but compared to the lack of the lack of the function of real-time voice activation assistants, it is also similar to AirPods. Galaxy Buds seems to be better for Samsung's own product optimization.
2, high-pass QCC and CSR series
Qualcomm is the big brother of the Android smartphone chip market, also has its own wireless audio SOC series, and can bring the industry's most cutting-edge audio function, including support for APTX and LDAC codec, and hybrid ANC and ultra-low work. Consumption.
Most of the audio chip products of Qualcomm have acquired the product after acquiring APTX from CSR in 2010, and acquired the entire CSR company in 2015. Qualcomm sells various audio chips with CSR's name, many Bluetooth headphones, speakers have their figure, which includes AAC, APTX, and LDAC codec, noise reduction and speech detection.
The latest audio chip brand in Qualcomb product lineup is QCC, where QCC5100 series chip released on CES last year is its flagship product, providing APTX HD and low delay adaptive codecs, as well as mixed ANC, TRUE Wireless Stereo Plus And voice activation assistant features, built-in dual-core DSP can be used for audio and sensors. The chip is also a chip supported by the Qualcomm Extension project, which helps developers to achieve third-party audio technologies such as custom adjustment algorithms to Sony's LDAC codec. In summary, in terms of audio quality, low delay and function, QCC5100 is not inferior to Apple's H1 chip.
The QCC300X series is a high-pass product, which no longer supports noise reduction function, and only supports the APTX Classic codec, no longer belongs to the extension project product, no longer support voice control, and only one single core DSP unit, The sensor is not supported.
Unfortunately, so far, there seems to have not yet true, wireless headphones use Qualcomm QCC5100 series chips. According to sources, this is because Qualcomm's technology is more expensive than its competitors, and some potential partners do not understand Qualcomm's wireless chip product portfolio.
3, other products
For headphone manufacturers, there are also a series of other options in the market. Micro-core, Northern European Semiconductor, Ruijing, Liaotai, etc. provide SOC for wireless audio products. However, many of their products are not optimized for headphones as H1.
Most of the above products, including Mediatek MT2533 and Microchip IS2064, which support SBC and AAC by default, but not supported more advanced codecs. Some specific products support LDAC, such as IS2064GM-0L3. Some SOC also support echo and noise suppression techniques and Bluetooth 5, and supports true and wireless headphones. However, the difference between these SOCs is very large, and few products provide a comprehensive function like Apple and Qualcomm.
Diverse chip ecosystem
Bluetooth audio SOC seems to be rarely discussed, partly because the headphones itself actually finally decides which functions, not chips. Apple H1 is considered Apple's specific vision of Bluetooth headset to ensure the balance of power consumption and functionality. However, only users who use Apple Ecosystem products can enjoy these benefits, and the chip does not support the function you want with high-end audio consumers.
In addition to Apple's ecosystem, there are also many products, each product has different features and target consumer people. In terms of function, such as noise reduction, voice commands, high quality codecs, Qualcomm has a very competitive product line. However, the company may not be able to compete with Apple's internal design team in the price, which seems to hinder its products to be used by headset manufacturers. Read more
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