LC3 is simply one of the brand-new technologies coming as part of Bluetooth LE Audio, an umbrella term for a collection of brand-new Bluetooth functions that includes assistance for hearing help and the capability to broadcast to an “unlimited” variety of audio devices.
Bluetooth SIG, the market group in charge of specifying the requirement, has released a brand-new audio codec that guarantees to make wireless earphones more power-efficient while improving sound quality. The Low Complexity Communication Codec, or LC3 for brief, can send at much lower bitrates without as big a drop in audio quality as you see with Bluetooths requirement, and much reviled, SBC codec. The advancement of the brand-new codec was first announced back at CES 2020.
The Bluetooth SIG states companies are already developing products using the brand-new LC3 codec, and a Q&A published on the website says these items must be readily available next year.
Included in LE Audio is the ability to stream to 2 audio devices simultaneously thanks to support for multistream audio, which is helpful if you desire to send an independent audio stream to each specific bud in a real cordless set. By default, Bluetooth sends out data to one earbud, which then sends out the audio to the opposite. Apple and Qualcomm currently support similar performance with their own proprietary Bluetooth software application, today its entering into the Bluetooth SIGs spec.
Using listenable audio at lower bitrates means earphones can use less power. Thats especially crucial for true cordless earbuds, which have to strike a challenging balance between size, weight, battery life, and audio quality. LC3 allows audio to be transmitted at half the bitrate of SBC without suffering a huge drop in audio quality, the Bluetooth SIG states. This boost in effectiveness implies earbuds can be less large thanks to utilizing smaller sized batteries, or can offer better battery life at the exact same size.
You can listen to a comparison between SBC and LC3 above (or discover it on the Bluetooth website here). Notification how SBC starts to sound crackly even at 192 kbps, while LC3 still sounds clear at 128 kbps. To my ears, LC3 begins to sound quite rough at 96 kbps, however its a trade-off I d want to accept for an ultra-small pair of workout earbuds.
