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.įor a PC headset with an integrated microphone, Bluetooth is a terrible choice.

If you’re just using a Bluetooth headset to take a phone call, that might be fine. 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. When you need the microphone, they’ll use the headset profile or hands-free profile (HSP or HFP). 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. There just isn’t enough bandwidth available to Bluetooth devices, as Sennheiser explains. If you have a stereo headset with an integrated microphone, you can’t use the headset with normal sound quality while using the microphone. My headset had an integrated microphone, so I expected I could continue using the headphones normally while using the microphone.īut, shockingly, this doesn’t work. RELATED: What's the Difference Between Bluetooth A2DP and aptX? Bluetooth Doesn’t Support High-Quality Audio When a Microphone Is In Use

So you’ll never know if you’re getting the highest sound quality possible. Android and macOS let you see this information, but it isn’t visible anywhere in Windows. Windows 10 now has integrated support for AptX, but it’s impossible to tell if your Bluetooth connection is actually using AptX. 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. Other configuration issues may also disable AptX audio.

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