Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Bluetooth SIG, the industry group in charge of defining the standard, has released a new audio codec that promises to make wireless headphones more power-efficient while improving sound quality. The Low Complexity Communication Codec, or LC3 for short, can transmit at much lower bitrates without as big a drop in audio quality as you see with Bluetooth’s standard, and much maligned, SBC codec. The development of the new codec was first announced back at CES 2020.
Offering listenable audio at lower bitrates means headphones can use less power. That’s particularly important for true wireless earbuds, which have to strike a difficult balance between size, weight, battery life, and audio quality. LC3 allows audio to be transmitted at half the…