What is LDAC? How does it affect wireless audio streaming quality?

This was made possible by the emergence of the first new generation of Bluetooth codecs, LDAC being one of them. So what is LDAC and how does it affect your listening experience? Let's find out right here.

What is LDAC?

If you own Sony's new generation of Bluetooth headsets, music players or smartphones, you must have seen information related to LDAC. LDAC is basically a wireless audio codec (Wireless Audio Codec) exclusively researched, developed by Sony, and first introduced in 2015. Sony has never announced LDAC stands for the phrase. nothing, so it can be understood that this is the proper name of this technology.

The LDAC codec differs from conventional Bluetooth streaming technologies in that it uses a combination of lossless compression and lossy compression solutions in each given usage scenario, to deliver sound that is high-resolution audio to the listener's ear.

This codec offers bit rates of 330/660/990kbps at 96 and 48kHz sample rates or 303/606/909kbps for 88.2 and 44.1kHz sampling rates. All of which outperform the bitrates commonly found on older technologies like Bluetooth Special Interest Group SBC (345kbps at 48kHz) or Qualcomm's aptX (384kbps at 48kHz), thus resulting in better audio quality. .

As announced by Sony, LDAC offers efficient encoding and "optimized speed", allowing you to transfer 3 times more data than existing audio codecs.

Of course LDAC isn't the only attempt at bringing high-resolution audio to the world of wireless headphones. Qualcomm introduced aptX HD (also known as aptX Lossless) in 2016 to enable higher bit rate streaming of 576kbps on compatible Bluetooth headsets. However, this number is still lower than that of LDAC.

Where is LDAC located?

Although Sony is the exclusive unit of LDAC research and development, this Codec is still basically open source. This has resulted in LDAC being able to be included in many other non-Sony products, including Android 8.0 'Oreo' released in 2017. If you have an Android device running Oreo, you can use it. LDAC with compatible wireless products.

Since LDAC is developed by Sony, you will find LDAC support in most Sony Bluetooth headset products. Can be drawn as the newly released WF-1000XM4 and WH-1000XM4 wireless headphones. In addition, some other manufacturers have also integrated LDAC on their headphone products to provide better sound quality.

You can also use LDAC with some models of active wireless speakers, home theater and soundbar setups, dedicated portable music players, Bluetooth amplifiers (like the FiiO BTR3), and even receivers on cars like Kenwood KKX9020DABS.

Currently, there is no LDAC support in any Apple products, so you won't be able to take advantage of LDAC on headphones and speakers that support this Codec when connecting them to iPhones, iPads, and vice versa. In addition, many other popular wireless earbuds (like the Jabra Elite 75t) also do not support LDAC, but use other Codec standards. Therefore, if you like and want to use LDAC, you should carefully research the product before buying, see if it is supported or not.

Enable LDAC on Android

Currently, there are many Android devices that support LDAC, but this feature needs to be enabled manually rather than enabled by default. To do this, first enable developer options on your Android phone. Then go to Settings > Developer options > Bluetooth Audio Codec. Here you can select LDAC from the available list.

David Pac

Update 18 September 2021