GoKawiilWhen it comes to listening to music over Bluetooth, there are only really two camps: those who plug in, play, and think everything sounds great out of the box, and those who are compelled to ensure they’re listening to pristine sound (as much as Bluetooth will allow).
There’s good news for those golden ears among you, as the arrival of Android 17 has also brought LHDC Bluetooth codec support to Google’s Pixel handsets. If you’re curious what this new option is and what it means for your listening habits, then you’ve come to the right place.
What is LHDC, and what can it do?
The Low Latency High-Definition Audio Codec (LHDC) is not actually a new wireless audio technology. HWA Alliance promoted it as a high-quality Bluetooth audio codec all the way back in September 2018. Since then, it’s been adopted across a range of audio products, from earbuds and headphones to home audio stations, and even in our smartphones. This feature is only really new to Google’s recent Pixel flagships, and even then, it was announced back in March.
Still, in June 2024, the Japan Audio Society (JAS) certified LHDC with its Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification. It joins the ranks of aptX Adaptive and LDAC as a high-bitrate capable codec considered transparent enough to transmit Hi-Res audio over the air. But how exactly does it do that?
LHDC has a few specifications variations: LHDC-48K (16bit/48kHz ~400kbps), LHDC-96K (24bit/96kHz ~1000kbps), LHDC-192K (24bit/192kHz ~1000kbps), and LHDC-RAW (24bit/96kHz ~4600kbps). On paper, those all look like very high-end options, but astute readers will know that even 1000 kbps is pushing the limits of a stable Bluetooth connection. But we’ll get more into that in a minute.
LHDC supports 24-bit/96kHz audio, but it's not lossless.
For Google’s Pixel, LHDC supports 96kHz playback, but other Android devices can hit 192kHz. We saw this option when pairing the OnePlus 16 with OnePlus Buds 4 back on Android 16.
The audiophiles among you may have noticed that 1,000 kbps is not even enough for a raw 16-bit 44.1kHz stereo track (1,411 kbps) and would be tight even with Level-8 FLAC lossless compression applied. 24-bit, 96kHz tracks or anything with a 192kHz sample rate is out of the question without compression. Despite the Hi-Res credentials, neither LHDC nor any other Bluetooth codec can push lossless high-resolution audio over a bandwidth-limited Bluetooth connection.
Unfortunately, there is no public information about exactly how LHDC achieves its compression levels while retaining high musical fidelity. Part of the trick is that LHDC supports a variable bitrate, ranging from 160 kbps to 1,000 kbps, but that’s about all we know.
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