On paper, it looks like a mismatch. LDAC, Sony’s proprietary Bluetooth codec, streams at up to 990kbps and 32-bit/96kHz — the number audiophile marketing loves to print. LC3, the newer codec built into Bluetooth’s LE Audio standard, typically runs at somewhere between 160 and 345kbps. If bigger numbers won, this wouldn’t be a war at all. But bitrate on a spec sheet and what actually reaches your ears turn out to be different questions, and the codec actually winning the real fight is the one with the smaller number.
What LC3 is actually built for
LC3 isn’t trying to out-spec LDAC — it’s the mandatory baseline codec for Bluetooth LE Audio, the Bluetooth SIG’s successor to Bluetooth Classic Audio, and its job is different: consistent quality across every device that supports LE Audio at all, at meaningfully lower power draw. The Bluetooth SIG’s own numbers show how fast that baseline is spreading: just 5% of smartphones shipped with LE Audio support in 2022; the organization projects around 90% by 2027. Over 200 LC3-certified products — headsets, earbuds, soundbars, speakers, phones — were already listed within the standard’s first year.
The bigger feature riding on LC3: Auracast
The more consequential part of LE Audio isn’t really the codec swap — it’s Auracast, the broadcast feature LC3 makes possible: multiple audio streams broadcasting to an effectively unlimited number of receivers, with no pairing required. Point a phone at a gym TV, a museum exhibit, or an airport gate and pull the audio straight to your own earbuds. The Bluetooth SIG projects roughly 2.5 million Auracast deployments globally by 2030. Samsung’s Galaxy S23 through S25 and its Z Fold 5 through 7 already support it; Google brought Auracast to Pixel 8 and newer through a 2025 software update. Most Android phones from Samsung, Google, or Xiaomi released since 2023 have LE Audio on board already.
Apple’s position is the interesting split case. Apple has quietly added LC3 support itself — AirPods Pro 2, AirPods Max, and recent iPhones and iPads all support the codec via firmware. Auracast broadcast is a different matter: as of iOS 26 in 2026, Apple still hasn’t added it, even though the hardware in its newer devices meets the Bluetooth 5.2 and LE Audio requirements to support it. Apple has adopted the codec quietly while sitting out the broadcast feature the rest of the industry is building around it.
Where LDAC and AAC actually fit now
None of this makes LDAC or AAC obsolete — it just clarifies what each one is actually for. AAC remains Apple’s default and performs best inside Apple’s own ecosystem, though its real-world consistency varies more across non-Apple hardware. LDAC still delivers real audible benefits in ideal conditions, but its headline 990kbps figure is closer to a best case than a guarantee: to avoid dropouts, LDAC frequently falls back to a "Best Effort" mode running at 660 or even 330kbps, and running it at full rate draws meaningfully more battery than a basic codec like SBC. Sony did contribute LDAC’s encoder to the Android Open Source Project alongside Android Oreo in 2017 under an open license — any OEM can build it in — but the decoder side remains proprietary, keeping full LDAC support tied to Sony’s own licensing.
What "winning" actually means here
The 2025-2026 codec landscape isn’t really AAC, LDAC, and LC3 fighting for the same title. AAC is Apple’s default; LDAC is a premium option gated to specific hardware pairings and inconsistent in the real world; LC3 is the industry’s attempt at a universal, efficient, broadcast-capable baseline built into the Bluetooth standard itself, with adoption numbers climbing toward near-ubiquity by the back half of the decade. If this is a war, it’s not being won on peak bitrate — it’s being won on which codec ends up installed on the most devices, working the most consistently, without anyone having to think about it.