"CSRA6640 enhances our product portfolio with our proven DDFA technology to help bring high-end amplification to lower power applications. It makes the integration of complex, premium amp technology more commercially viable for the first time in small form-factor speakers, sound bars and amplifiers,” says Rob Saunders, director, product marketing, Qualcomm Technologies International. “This solution opens the door for OEMs to help them bring more power efficient amplification capabilities to more compact, cost-effective devices."
Audio quality is of paramount importance to audio consumers. According to Qualcomm's latest State of Play audio consumer insights report, sound quality was by far the highest ranked buying consideration when choosing wireless headphones or speakers, with 76% of respondents noting it as the most important factor in their buying decision. In addition, almost half of consumers surveyed would like the ability to take a voice-enabled speaker outside and use it “on-the-go,” indicating a shift in consumer interest towards portability. Bringing premium amplifier technology to more portable devices may help manufacturers to address consumer desires for loud audio and sound quality while also looking to meet needs for extended battery life and connectivity.
With Qualcomm DDFA Digital Amplifier Technology comprehensively integrated on a single chip, the CSRA6640 is designed to allow audio OEMs to optimize their materials costs by reducing the need for additional external components.
“This new amplifier offering builds on the rich legacy DDFA technology has with premium and high-end audio brands and we hope it will serve as a catalyst to propel audio performance forward in coming years,” added Saunders. “Building on more than ten years of R&D and proven solutions, this product is designed to almost perfectly balance the power efficiency of Class D devices alongside the high-performance audio output of traditional, linear amplifiers.”
To further simplify product scoping and integration, CSRA6640 can be supplied with an evaluation kit including the necessary hardware, software, development tools and information needed. Designed to support developers, including those who may not have specific amplifier expertise, and help them to integrate DDFA capabilities into their products more easily, the kit is directly compatible with several of Qualcomm's other speaker, smart speaker and soundbar platforms. The evaluation kit offers a unique modular architecture to support streamlined scoping of both the CSRA6640 and CSRA6620 amplifier chips with DDFA, as well as supporting the ability to simply scale up to 12 channels being evaluated simultaneously.
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