Two codecs, two completely different jobs on your Sony WF-1000XM6. Here's when to use which.
LDAC: When you want the best sound
LDAC is Sony's baby—a high-resolution codec that can push up to 990kbps of audio data. That's roughly three times what standard Bluetooth delivers. If you're listening to hi-res tracks from Tidal or Amazon Music HD, LDAC is how you actually hear that quality difference.
The downside? Higher latency. There's about 100-200ms delay between what happens on screen and what you hear. For music, that's totally fine. For gaming or video? Annoying.
Also worth knowing: LDAC only works on Android. iPhone doesn't support it, and it turns off automatically when you're connected to two devices via multipoint.
LC3: When speed matters more than quality
LC3 is the codec used by LE Audio, and its whole deal is low latency. We're talking 30-50ms delay—fast enough that most people can't perceive it.
The audio quality at 320kbps is still good, just not audiophile-grade. You probably won't notice during gaming or video calls, which is exactly when you'd use this mode.
So which one should you pick?
Use LDAC when:
- You're sitting down for a dedicated listening session
- You're on Android and have hi-res music files
- Latency doesn't matter
Use LC3 when:
- You're gaming
- You're watching videos or movies
- You're on video calls
- Lip-sync issues bother you
The annoying part
Switching between them isn't seamless. You need to toggle "LE Audio Priority" in the app and sometimes re-pair the earbuds. Not a huge deal, but it's not a one-tap switch either.
For what it's worth, I leave mine on LDAC most of the time and only switch to LC3 when I'm specifically gaming.
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How we researched this
Where this comes from: this answer draws on the product's published specifications and the reviews ShopSavvy collected for it, alongside prices from 1 retailer in ShopSavvy's price data, most recently seen Mar 18, 2026.
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