Forum Discussion
Bluetooth headset microphone bad quality
- Apr 17, 2020
Philipp71 Hard to say what the problem is. Microsoft have a certification program where audio devices are certified for Teams. They check quality of microphones and bluetooth connection before a device can be certified. One requirement is to use a bluetooth dongle to connect the audio device since the built-in bluetooth in the computer can be of low quality.
Check out certified devices here:
https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/across-devices/devices/category?devicetype=36
After a week of testing, STR-STR solution does seem work most of the time to increase mic volume - Thanks!!
Now I need to figure out how to enable sidetone that is not delayed...
- Gorge_AutherJan 21, 2022Copper ContributorBluetooth audio is good now, right? That’s what I’ve been hearing, so I purchased a $300 Bluetooth headset for my Windows PC, expecting to have a good experience. It was terrible. I blame Bluetooth—and Windows.
Full disclosure: My coworkers have had great experiences with Bluetooth audio on both Android phones and W1-enabled Apple devices. This is about PC headsets <a href="https://teatimeresultsz.com/">@Uk49s Teatime Results</a>.
Windows Won’t Tell You If It’s Using AptX
Bluetooth is confusing. As audio website Darko.Audio puts it: “Bluetooth audio’s dirty secret is not that it doesn’t sound very good, it’s that it will only sound good if certain conditions are met.”
Modern high-end Bluetooth headsets support AptX, an audio codec compression scheme that offers better sound quality. But AptX is only enabled if it’s supported on both the transmitter and receiver. When using a Bluetooth headset with a PC, it only works if your PC’s hardware and drivers are compatible.
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Other configuration issues may also disable AptX audio. As Darko.Audio explains, on a Mac, if you’re using 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, if you have more than two Bluetooth devices connected to a desktop, or if you have more than one connected to a laptop, macOS drops down to lower-quality SBC audio over the Bluetooth Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) connection. That’s according to Apple.
Windows 10 now has integrated support for AptX, but it’s impossible to tell if your Bluetooth connection is actually using AptX. Android and macOS let you see this information, but it isn’t visible anywhere in Windows. So you’ll never know if you’re getting the highest sound quality possible.
RELATED: What's the Difference Between Bluetooth A2DP and aptX?
Bluetooth Doesn’t Support High-Quality Audio When a Microphone Is In Use
My headset had an integrated microphone, so I expected I could continue using the headphones normally while using the microphone.
But, shockingly, this doesn’t work. If you have a stereo headset with an integrated microphone, you can’t use the headset with normal sound quality while using the microphone. There just isn’t enough bandwidth available to Bluetooth devices, as Sennheiser explains.
Technically, when you’re just using the headphones as a sound output device, they’re using the A2DP Bluetooth profile, and ideally using AptX for maximum sound quality. When you need the microphone, they’ll use the headset profile or hands-free profile (HSP or HFP). This allows for both recording via the microphone and playback via the headphones, but the headphone sound quality is terrible when using HSP or HFP.
If you’re just using a Bluetooth headset to take a phone call, that might be fine. If you want to speak into your headset’s mic while listening to music, playing a game, or watching a video on your PC, you’ll be frustrated.- stefanwilaonOct 25, 2023Copper Contributor
Solution: How to improve the audio playback quality when using a Bluetooth headset
The reason why your audio quality is poor when using a BT headset might be that your operating system might have changed its audio profile. Bluetooth headsets are typically only being able to use one audio profile at a time uk49s.
Bluetooth headsets typically use the A2DP profile when playing audio as it is optimized for high audio quality. The drawback is that you can't use your microphone while your Bluetooth headset is using the A2DP profile.
When you choose the microphone of your BT headset as audio input - e.g. during a CoScreen session or a Zoom meeting - the profile switches to the HSP or HFP profile so you can use your microphone but the sound quality degrades considerably.