What is SBC? How headphones and wireless speakers stream audio

Bluetooth is the means by which many a device connects to each other to transfer data. For this article, we’re talking about how audio data is transferred from your smartphone to your listening device.

You see, while Bluetooth covers the way in products ‘talk’ to each other, there are different (and very technical sounding) protocols that govern how they communicate. When it coms to audio you’ve got several ways of establishing a connection between a smartphone and, say, a pair of headphones.

SBC is one of them. We’ll explain to you what it is, and whether it’s any good.

What is SBC?

SBC is an audio codec, and it stands for low-complexity subband codec. In its simplest form, it’s an encoded and a decoder to transfer data from one Bluetooth device to another, such as a pair of headphones or a wireless spaker.

It was conceived with low Bluetooth bandwidths in mind, taking up less data to transfer data between two devices. It remains the default codec for transferring audio but you can change this within the settings (you can bump it up to HD audio, which is AAC). Some headphones and wireless speakers will automatically choose the highest quality Bluetooth codec, which depending on your device could be AAC or a form of Qualcomm’s aptX.

Is SBC any good?

Because it was designed to take up less data, SBC hits lower bitrates that other Bluetooth codecs. You won’t get as much detail or clarity as you would with AAC or higher-quality codecs such as LDAC and aptX, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad…

While SBC is often thought of as the worse codec for streaming, we’d say it’s completely fine for its purpose if you’re listening to low quality streams (say Spotify’s free tier). If anything it’s the quality of the drivers in your speakers or headphones that will have greater impact on the sound you hear. Marshall’s Willen wireless speaker only supports SBC but it offers a clear, detailed performance for its size and price.

It all depends on how the driver was tuned, so if you have a device that only supports SBC, don’t despair. Give it a listen and it could sound better than you think.

In the latest Bluetooth spec (Bluetooth LE Audio) set out by Bluetooth SIG, it has been replaced by LC3, which essentially does the same thing but offers a higher quality performance.