How to Maximize Audio Quality on your Bluetooth Headphones with LDAC

LDAC and LHDC are Bluetooth audio codecs that offer high-quality sound, even reaching 960 Kbps. However, by default, the settings are optimized for battery life and connection stability, which means the audio quality drops to 320 Kbps. But, if you want to enjoy the best streaming quality possible, you can tweak the settings on your device. Here's how to get better audio quality on your LDAC/LHDC/Hi-Fi headphones.

How to Check if your Bluetooth Device Supports LDAC

Before we proceed, you need to ensure that both your headphones/earphones and the transmitting device support LDAC. You can check the product description page or the codec support on the product box to see if your headphones/earphones support LDAC/LHDC. Keep in mind that macOS, iOS, Windows 10, and Ubuntu do not support LDAC. So, if you're using LDAC compatible headphones with these systems, it will fallback to using AAC. Fortunately, many Android smartphones allow you to change the Bluetooth codec in the Advance settings. Let's see how to set Android to use LDAC.

Maximizing Audio Quality on your Bluetooth Audio Device

Starting from Android 8.0, Android devices support LDAC/LHDC. To force the best possible streaming rate, you need to enable the “Developer Settings.” Here's how:

  1. Go to the “System Settings” menu on your Android device.
  2. Scroll down to the bottom and tap on “About Phone.”
  3. Tap on “Software Information” and then tap on “Build Number” five times.
  4. Once you see the message “Developer mode has been enabled,” you'll have access to Developer Options in the Settings menu.

Under Developer Options, go to the Networking section and look for the option “Bluetooth audio LDAC codec: Playback quality.” By default, it is set to “Best Effort (Adaptive Bit Rate).” Switch to the option “Optimized for Audio Quality (990 kbps/909 kbps)” to get the best audio quality.

Once you have enabled optimal audio quality for LDAC under developer settings, Android will stream at 960/909 Kbps, if available.

Please note that streaming quality is limited to 320 Kbps on platforms like YouTube Premium or Spotify Premium. To enjoy 960/909 Kbps, you can either use Tidal Premium or download audio files. Here's a table showing the maximum streaming quality for various music streaming services:

Max Quality Spotify Apple Music YouTube Music Amazon Music Tidal
Mobile (kb/s) 320 256 256 256 1411

If you have any questions or issues, feel free to let us know in the comments below.

Also Read: 7 Best Equalizer Apps for Android For Every Music Lovers