what is sbc in bluetooth

SBC stands for Sub-band Coding, which is a digital audio encoder and decoder used to transfer data to Bluetooth audio output devices like headphones or loudspeakers). It is the mandatory and default codec for all Bluetooth headphones with an Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP). SBC divides the signal into multiple frequency bands and encodes each one independently, making it the lowest common denominator among Bluetooth codecs. It provides fairly good audio quality without requiring a lot of processing power to encode or decode, but the quality can be inconsistent at times. SBC is capable of bit rates up to 328 kbps with a sampling rate of 44.1kHz. Since SBC is the default codec, it is also the most commonly used, making it more likely to find two products that are compatible with one another if you were to focus your peripherals on SBC rather than another codec.