Summary
It might be hard to believe, but the original version of Bluetooth — officially known as Bluetooth Classic Audio — is over two decades old. The wireless communication protocol linking headphones, earbuds, watches, phones, and other devices together is built upon ancient technology. As the hardware around Bluetooth improved, the standard quickly became the weak link in the chain. To address the growing problems associated with Bluetooth Classic Audio, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (Bluetooth SIG) introduced Bluetooth Low Energy Audio as part of Bluetooth 4.0. But the real breakthrough was Blueooth Low Energy Audio (LE Audio), added with Bluetooth 5.2. This specification brought all the benefits of Bluetooth Low Energy to audio products like headphones and earbuds. Fast-forward to 2026, and Bluetooth LE Audio is on its way to becoming ubiquitous. It’s not hard to see why — Bluetooth LE Audio solves these five problems with Bluetooth Classic Audio. Audio quality and efficiency Bluetooth LE Audio sets LC3 as the mandatory codec Bluetooth Classic Audio uses the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) to stream audio from source devices to connected outputs. The A2DP is a limited profile, as it merely supports a one-way, stereo stream. Bluetooth Classic Audio and the A2DP mandate the Subband Codec (SBC) as the baseline wireless audio codec. This means that every Bluetooth device using the A2DP must support SBC, but they can also support optional codecs like AAC, or proprietary codecs such as Sony’s LDAC or Qualcomm’s aptX suite. The problem with SBC as the baseline codec for Bluetooth Classic Audio and the A2DP is that it’s extremely compressed. SBC supports audio sources with a 16-bit depth and up to a 48kHz sample rate, but the limiting factor is the 328kbps maximum bitrate. Technically speaking, SBC has a higher sample rate and maximum bitrate than alternatives like AAC. So, what’s the issue with SBC? It all comes down to efficiency. AAC tends to preserve more audio data than SBC, particularly when used on Apple devices. SBC also has high latency, usually between 150ms and 300ms. Bluetooth LE Audio replaces SBC with the Low Complexity Communications Codec (LC3) as the mandatory baseline, and it’s a major upgrade. LC3 is even more efficient than SBC and AAC, delivering better sound quality than both codecs at lower bitrates. The new codec can use bitrates roughly half that of AAC or SBC while preserving more of the audio information. Power consumption Bluetooth LE Audio devices offer longer battery life Bluetooth headphones and earbuds feature tiny batteries, and brands need to find a way to squeeze every bit of power out of them. Bluetooth Classic Audio isn’t known for its power efficiency. The name, Bluetooth Low Energy Audio, gives it away. Bluetooth LE Audio is designed to use less power and deliver longer playback times for connected audio outputs. The new LC3 codec and its lower bitrates help explain how LE Audio achieves peak efficiency. If a codec can deliver the same or better audio quality at half the bitrate, it demands less power. On a technical level, Bluetooth LE Audio devices have a special Low Energy radio. The standard Bluetooth radio only supports one-to-one device connections, and isn’t as efficient. Meanwhile, the Low Energy radio is made with efficiency in mind, and supports multi-stream connections. This all helps your earbuds provide the audio quality you expect while extending battery life, solving one of the biggest problems with legacy Bluetooth audio products. Audio sharing Auracast broadcasts one audio stream to many LE Audio clients The Bluetooth Classic Audio radio only supported one-to-one wireless connections, and it proved to be a serious limitation. For a set of truly wireless earbuds to connect to your phone over classic Bluetooth, only one earbud could receive the audio stream. That earbud had to relay the audio data to the other earbuds, syncing up the sound streams in the process. The new Bluetooth LE Audio radio allows the host device to send separate audio streams directly to each client, such as the left and right earbuds in a truly wireless pair. It’s not the only upgrade Bluetooth LE Audio enables due to its one-to-many wireless connection support. Bluetooth LE Audio also supports Auracast, an accessibility standard that allows one host to broadcast an audio stream to many LE Audio receivers. This has major accessibility and infrastructure applications — an airport or train station could broadcast public address announcements directly to LE Audio earbuds or hearing aids. It also has consumer benefits, as Android 17 uses Auracast to share audio from a single Android source to many nearby LE Audio earbuds. Latency Bluetooth LE Audio is better for gaming and low-latency media We briefly covered the high latency of Bluetooth Classic Audio’s mandatory Subband Codec (SBC). SBC has a typical latency of between 150 and 300 milliseconds. This doesn’t cut it for time-sensitive applications like gaming and video playback. The delay associated with Bluetooth Classic Audio can cause sync issues where an actor’s lips move before you actually hear their speech through your wireless earbuds. For gaming, the lag can cause you to hear footsteps or gunshots fractions of a second too late, which can make all the difference. Meanwhile, the minimum theoretical latency of a Bluetooth LE Audio connection is only 7.5ms. You’ll never see this figure in the real world, but you can expect LE Audio connections with a latency as low as 50ms in practical deployments. At roughly one-third of the real-world latency of Bluetooth Classic Audio at its best, LE Audio is a notable upgrade. Hearing aid connection Bluetooth LE Audio makes it easy to connect hearing aids Finally, all of Bluetooth LE Audio’s improvements make it ideal for seamless hearing aid connection. The multi-stream audio support allows LE Audio to send separate transmission streams to a left and right hearing aid with a minimal delay between the channels. Specifically, Bluetooth LE Audio can sync the left and right channels of a hearing aid down to 20 microseconds, something that Bluetooth Classic Audio could never do. Hearing aid users also benefit from Auracast, allowing them to hear audio from nearby broadcasts directly through their hearing aids. Why Bluetooth Classic Audio couldn’t keep up Bluetooth Classic Audio is built on old technology, both in terms of hardware and software. The old Bluetooth Classic Audio radios use more power and aren’t as efficient as LE Audio radios. Plus, classic Bluetooth’s use of SBC as the baseline audio codec pales in comparison to LE Audio’s LC3 baseline. The result is a wireless audio experience that clears classic Bluetooth, solving key gripes with the aging standard.