Windows 10: Windows Bluetooth headphones bad sound quality

Notes:I am using Bang & Olufsen bluetooth earbuds model Beoplay EX. When connected to Windows 11 the sound quality is absolutely atrocious.Things I have tried:disconnecting and reconnecting the bluetooth earbuds forget and re-establish connection - result: did not fix.looked into sound settings - unable to select between hands-free and stereo therefore does not affect sound quality, still awfuluse another device as microphone: does nothingIt seems as if Windows is using the driver for the hands-free mode rather than the headphone mode by default and there is not a way to change this thus

:)

 

Bad sound quality via bluetooth headphones on windows 11

Hello, M P_491

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

In Windows, when you are simultaneously playing audio and having a voice call, the system may automatically switch to the hands-free mode, which can cause a decrease in sound quality. This is because the hands-free mode compresses the audio signal, lowering the sampling rate and bit rate of the audio device. This reduces the data transmission and latency but also results in loss of audio detail and quality, leading to poorer sound quality. In Ubuntu, the system may handle this situation more flexibly.

The hands-free mode of Bluetooth is primarily designed for phone calls, prioritizing stability and low latency over sound quality. This means that the poor sound quality of the hands-free mode is inherent, and there's no way to completely solve it. The issue lies in why Windows automatically switches to the hands-free mode.



If you want to improve the sound quality of the Bluetooth hands-free mode, there are several possible workarounds, each with their own pros and cons. You can choose the method that suits your needs and preferences.

• Change the audio device. You can use wireless gaming headphones with a 2.4GHz dongle. This will bypass the bluetooth connection and the Hands-Free Telephony service, and provide you with high sound quality and low latency. However, this also means that you will need to buy new headphones and have a USB port available on your computer. You can look for some wireless gaming headphones online or in your local stores.
  

• Disable the Bluetooth hands-free mode, as indicated in the question you mentioned. This way, Windows won't switch to the hands-free mode when you use the microphone, maintaining high-quality stereo mode. The downside is that you won't be able to use the microphone of your Bluetooth headphones, and you will need to use a separate microphone device, such as the built-in microphone of your computer or an external microphone.
  

• Adjust the audio settings. In the sound settings of Windows, you can find the playback and recording options of your Bluetooth headphones, right-click and select properties. In the advanced tab, you can adjust the default format of your Bluetooth headphones, choosing a higher sampling rate and bit depth, such as 16-bit, 48000 Hz, or 24-bit, 96000 Hz. This can improve the sound quality and bit rate of your Bluetooth headphones, making them sound better. The downside is that you may encounter some latency or compatibility issues, and you need to test if your Bluetooth headphones work correctly.
  

If you hope to completely resolve this issue in the future, consider providing feedback to the developers. Although you mentioned that this is a very old issue, without providing feedback to the developers, the problem is unlikely to be resolved:

How to send feedback to Microsoft with the Feedback Hub app - Microsoft Support

Yuhao Li

Microsoft Community Technical Support

 

Bad sound quality via bluetooth headphones on windows 11

Similar to many other questions about this problem. But I noticed that everything works fine on my Android phone and on my Linux laptop.

Device: "Pixed buds pro" (and all other headphones as far as I uderstand).

Windows: 11 (and 10).

Steps to reproduce:

1) Run game or play music.

2) Run Discord or any other app (Whats App, Telegram, ...) with voice channels.

3) Enter a voice channel or make an audio call.

4) Then Windows changes sound quality to bad (unbelievably awful) on both: game (or music) and voice chat.

Ubuntu 22.04 works fine in this scenario which allows to play games and talk to friends in Discord (or any other app) without sound quality loss.

So, the question is: how to fix the issue on Windows or when Windows developers fix it? Seems like the issue is many many years old.

 

Bluetooth headphones bad sound quality on windows 11

My WH1000XM4 Sony Bluetooth headphones have bad sound quality when connected to my laptop, compared to other devices such as an iPhone where the sound is fine. This is presumably because of the hands free headset mode. I am unable to disable the hands free setting in windows 11 compared to windows 10 where I could simply fix this issue in the bottom right volume settings.

I have tried searching in device manager, but the hands free device is the only available audio output. The sound quality for this device is also stuck on 16 bit 1600Hz, again because of the hands free device mode.

Thankyou in advance for assistance.