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. Note that Bit Depth, Sampling Rate and Bit Rate are three critical parameters.
Codec Logo Bit Depth Sampling Rate Max Sample Rate Max Bitrate Introduced Audio latency
aptX Aptx logo 16 bit 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz 48.0 kHz 352 kbps 2009 ~ 40-70 ms
aptX HD Qualcomm aptx HD 24 bit 44.1kHz, 48kHz 48.0 kHz 576 kbps 2016 ~ 250-400 ms
aptX LL aptX LL codec logo 16 bit 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz 44.1 kHz 352 kbps 2016 ~ 30-40 ms
AAC AAC codec logo 24 bit Between 8 kHz and 96 kHz 96.0 kHz 264 kbps 2015 ~ 100-400 ms
SBC SBC codec logo 16 bit 16 kHz, 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz 48.0 kHz 320 kbps 2003 ~ 200-300 ms
aptX Adaptive aptX Adaptive codec logo 16/24 bit 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 96 kHz 48 kHz 420 kbps 2018 ~ 40-90 ms
LHDC LHDC codec logo 24 bit 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz 96 kHz 990 kbps 2019
LLAC 24 bit 48 kHz 600 kbps ~ 30-120 ms
LDAC LDAC Codec logo 24 bit 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 96 kHz 96.0 kHz 990 kbps 2015 ~ 200-400 ms
UAT UAT codec logo 24 bit Up to 192kHz 192 kHz 1.2 Mbps 2019
SSC Samsung Scalable Codec Logo 24 bit 44.1kHz, 48 kHz 96 kHz 512 kbps 2019
Airoha's Hi-resolution codec 24 bit 192 kHz
AptX Lossless Qualcomm_aptx_lossless_logo.png 16 bit 44.1 kHz 1 Mbps 2021
AAC-ELD 96 kbps
LC3 16/24/32 bit 8 kHz, 16 kHz, 24 kHz, 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, and 48 kHz 48 kHz 345 kbps 2020 ~ 20-30 ms
Atpx Voice 32kHz 32 kHz 2020
FastStream 16 48 kHz 212 kbps ~ 30-40 ms
L2HC 24 bit From 8 kHz to 96 kHz 96 kHz 960 kbps 2023 ~ 5-10 ms