Qualcomm has a Hi-Fi USB Type-C DAC in it's new chipset

Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 845 chipset is official now, but it was not the only noteworthy news that came straight from the company's Hawaiian Tech summit this week.

It would seem that Qualcomm is taking Hi-Fi audio pretty seriously in line with the recent early retirement of the 3.5mm audio jack from most phones as it announced that it will be making a brand new Hi-Fi DAC available for device manufacturers to bake into their devices.

Aqustic Hi-Fi DAC AQT1000

The Aqstic AQT1000 Hi-Fi digital to analog converter is a USB Type-C plug'n'play module that will aim to bring out the best audio-centric experience to consumers than a regular DAC coupled with a 3.5mm audio jack would normally do.

The module has a dynamic range of 123dB up to 384kHz, 32-bit audio, and THD+N of -105dB. You will have to plug the DAC in your phone's USB Type-C port on one end and your 3.5mm headphones/line-in on the other end and you're pretty much set for a Hi-Fi DAC experience.

Aside from those, the Aqstic also supports high-res Direct Stream Digital (DSD) audio, which is a rather faithful format loved by audiophiles that is most often used to store live performances and concerts. Of course, it's just another audio container that largely depends on the used sample rate, but many will swear that DSD is one of the most 'natural' audio file formats you can possibly encounter. So there's that.

Qualcomm's Aqstic AQT1000 Hi-Fi DAC will be available for third-party accessory makers.

Aqstic audio codec family