Codecs

When you have a Bluetooth headphone connected to your phone, digital audio data transmitted over Bluetooth from your phone to your headphones is encoded and decoded, so called codec (codec is short for coder/decoder) - a specified format. Each code determines how audio data is transferred (encoded and decoded) over Bluetooth. In terms of fidelity, the LDAC codec is the best, but it's not very good for latency, stability and battery life (it drains battery faster than other codec). LC3 replaced the AptX-LL for the lowest latency but it's varied between devices and how it is implemented. AAC and SBC don't sound as good as LDAC, but it drains Bluetooth accessories' battery slower.
Codec Logo Max Bitrate Bit Depth Max Frequency Introduced Audio latency
aptX Aptx logo 352 kbps 16 bit 48.0 kHz 2009 ~ 40-70 ms
aptX HD Qualcomm aptx HD 576 kbps 24 bit 48.0 kHz 2016 ~ 250-400 ms
aptX LL aptX LL codec logo 352 kbps 16 bit 44.1 kHz 2016 ~ 30-40 ms
AAC AAC codec logo 264 kbps 24 bit 96.0 kHz 2015 ~ 100-400 ms
SBC SBC codec logo 320 kbps 16 bit 48.0 kHz 2003 ~ 200-300 ms
aptX Adaptive aptX Adaptive codec logo 420 kbps 16/24 bit 48 kHz 2018 ~ 40-90 ms
LHDC LHDC codec logo 990 kbps 24 bit 96 kHz 2019
LLAC 600 kbps 24 bit 48 kHz
LDAC LDAC Codec logo 990 kbps 24 bit 96.0 kHz 2015 ~ 200-400 ms
UAT UAT codec logo 1.2 Mbps 24 bit 192 kHz 2019
SSC Samsung Scalable Codec Logo 512 kbps 24 bit 96 kHz 2019
Airoha's Hi-resolution codec 24 bit 192 kHz
AptX Lossless Qualcomm_aptx_lossless_logo.png 1 Mbps 16 bit 44.1 kHz 2021
AAC-ELD 96 kbps
LC3 345 kbps 16/24/32 bit 48 kHz 2020 ~ 20-30 ms
Atpx Voice 32 kHz 2020
FastStream 212 kbps 16 48 kHz ~ 30-40 ms