[toast0]

I dunno how big the sound files are, but mp3 is going to use a lot less storage than uncompressed PCM. Using a smaller flash chip saves money on the BOM.

Bluetooth headphones already need to manage several formats to decode, and the chipset that does that may also decode mp3, and mp3 is easy to work with to prepare the files.

[krackers]

Bluetooth audio uses SBC codec by default (unless your device something modern like aac or apt-x) right? I imagine that there's probably some all-in-one decoding chip that includes various codecs.

[abdullahkhalids]

Yeah. So Bluetooth never uses mp3 for transmission as far as I am aware - it is simply not one of the codecs specified in the protocol.

So why does that decoding chip have mp3 decoding, and why use mp3 when you could just use SBC.

[distract8901]

MP3 decoding is just math. If you have enough CPU to decode a compressed audio stream, it doesn't cost anything to also have it decode MP3.

Sure, you could store those clips in a more appropriate codec, but what do you gain? It's dead simple to encode an MP3, every audio editor from the last couple decades can do it. How common is SBC support?

If MP3 decoding is free, and MP3 encoding is free, why bother spending any effort at all on anything else? Sometimes good enough is good enough and cheap and easy wins over correct every time.