How to Get Better Quality Audio From Your Bluetooth Headphones With LDAC

How to Get Better Quality Audio From Your Bluetooth Headphones With LDAC.

LDAC and LHDC are Bluetooth audio codecs that provide high quality sound, even reaching 960 Kbps. However, if you leave the default settings, the speed will usually drop to 320 Kbps. This is done to conserve battery power and to avoid interruptions in communication.

However, if you usually hold your phone about a meter away, there is nothing wrong with getting the device to provide the best streaming experience. So here’s how to improve the sound quality on your LDAC / LHDC / Hi-Fi headphones.

How to check if your bluetooth device is using LDAC?

LDAC / LHDC is an almost lossless Bluetooth audio codec. They must be supported by both the sending and the receiving audio device. So, to check if your headphones support LDAC / LHDC, you will need to look at the product description page or codec support on the product packaging. For example, I have an Oppo M31 neckband, LDAC support can be found on the product detail page.

Likewise, the transmitting device must also support the LDAC / LHDC audio codec. macOS and iOS do not support LDAC. Thus, even if you use LDAC compatible headphones with them, in most cases you will have to go back to using AAC. There is also no way to change the Bluetooth codec in Windows 10 and Ubuntu. Fortunately, many Android smartphones allow you to customize the codec in Advance settings. Let’s see how to configure Android to use LDAC.

Get better sound quality on your Bluetooth audio device

Android now supports LDAC / LHDC since Android 8.0. First of all, in order to ensure the highest possible streaming speed, we need to enable Developer Options. To do this, go to the system settings menu. Scroll down and tap About Phone.

On the About Phone page, click Software Information and then click Build Number 5 times. After that you will receive the message “Developer mode is enabled”.

Developer options will now appear in the settings menu. Under Developer Options go to the Network section and you will find the Bluetooth LDAC Audio Codec: Playback Quality option. Click on it and it defaults to Best Effort (Adaptive Bit Rate). Switch to “Optimized for sound quality (990 kbps / 909 kbps)” for the best sound quality.

Once you enable optimal audio quality for LDAC in developer settings, Android will be forced to stream at 960/909 Kbps if available.

If you are streaming to YouTube Premium or Spotify Premium, the streaming quality is limited to 320Kbps for maximum audio quality. To get the speed of 960/909 Kbps, you need to either use Tidal Premium or download audio files. Here’s a table that quickly shows the maximum streaming quality of the various music streaming services.

If you have further problems or questions, let me know in the comments below.

Also Read: 7 Best Equalizer Apps for Android for All Music Lovers