5

Headset model

Sony WH-1000-XM2 (tested with Jabra Elite 75t as well with same symptoms)

Bluetooth receiver

Ubit-AX200 802.11AX WiFi 6 using the drivers found here

Sound card

The onboard card in this motherboard is a GIGABYTE B550M DS3H and the drivers are from here (Realtek HD Audio Driver (Note) Win10 ver.2004 supported. -- [6‎.0.8945.1] -- 2‎020/05/08)

OS

Windows 10 Pro 2004

Symptoms

I can pair the device like normal, no issues. Once paired, playing audio over something like Spotify works fine, playing games mostly works fine (Apex Legends has no audio at all -- not sure if this is related) UNLESS I enable the microphone. If the microphone is enabled, all sound stops (Spotify, games, whatever).

My simple test case is to play some music on Spotify then open sound settings (right-click the sound icon). This is what I see:

Sound settings

I think click Device properties and test microphone. On the next screen if i click Start test I can see the microphone receiving input but all music stops playing. It doesn't pause the music, Spotify continues to progress on the song it's on, just the audio output stops. No sound from the headphones.

This happens in online games. If I enable the microphone, game audio stops as well.

Back in the sound settings screen, if i switch the input to anything else, audio is fine as long as the mic is either disabled or a different mic is selected.

In the sound settings found via the Control Panel, I see this:

Control panel sound

As in the image, if the Headphones entry is set as the default device, all the symptoms above occur. If i switch the default device to Headset, everything starts working as expected (audio and mic work simultaneously). The problem is that the Headset devices is limited to 1 channel, 16 bit, 16000 Hz (Tape Recorder Quality):

Headset options

What I've tried

I've mostly tried re-installing drivers and using different combinations of default devices. Setting Headphones as the default device and Headset as the default communication device has no effect.

I don't have easy access to a wired headset with a microphone so I haven't been able to test that way to rule out/in bluetooth as the issue. I'll update if/when I am able to test this. It does happen with both bluetooth headsets that I have so I don't believe it's a headset specific issue.

Improve this question
8
  • 1
    I answered your question about whether bluetooth is the root of the issue and if it is headset specific but @DavidPostill♦ deleted my answer. The answer is that bluetooth is the cause and it isn't headset specific. Below are some sources. audeze.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/… howtogeek.com/354321/…
    – rfii
    Commented Feb 24, 2021 at 5:18
  • 1
    While Exclusive Control or another setting to Mute All Other Applications are both Windows sound settings that can cause the same symptoms, the underlying Bluetooth limitation I cited will still be a problem. In other words, those two sound settings could solve a similar problem for non-bluetooth sets
    – rfii
    Commented Feb 24, 2021 at 19:15
  • 1
    @Arctiic the issue was definitely just how bluetooth works (as the link rfii provided points out). When the mic is enabled, bluetooth uses one channel for the mic and one channel for the audio. Windows does a bad job of switching to the one channel audio device automatically when the mic is in use. MacOS does a much better job of this (as well as mobile devices). This is why wireless gaming headsets often use 2.4ghz wifi type signals to do wireless audio instead of using bluetooth.
    – gregghz
    Commented Feb 24, 2021 at 19:37
  • 1
    @rfii you are 100% correct. If you put an answer in again that doesn't get deleted, I'll mark it as solved. Bluetooth is just bad for gaming because of the 2 channel limitation and other latency issues. I've since picked up non-bluetooth headset. With bluetooth as-is, it's just not viable for this right now.
    – gregghz
    Commented Feb 24, 2021 at 19:39
  • 2
    @rfii Apologies I didn't catch that my first glance over, now that you mention that I do recall that it was around the time I bought a wired mic that the issue was "resolved" haha.
    – Arctiic
    Commented Feb 25, 2021 at 8:53

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
5

I believe your bluetooth device is showing up as two audio devices to windows but your headset can only play the output one of these virtual devices at a time. Normally the high quality one is active in the actual physical headset, but as soon as activity is detected on the low quality one or the mic, then the high quality output shuts off and the headset switches. So you need to move the output of the game to the low quality output which may be called handsfree possibly by temporarily disabling that one or selecting the output in "app volume and device preferences" in sound settings.

https://audeze.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018651652-Notes-on-Bluetooth-quality-for-gaming-video-and-microphone-use

https://www.howtogeek.com/354321/why-bluetooth-headsets-are-terrible-on-windows-pcs/

Hope I am wrong though bc it sucks!

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11
  • OK thanks for the apologies. Can you undelete superuser.com/q/1566378/1199304 which is even clearer case?
    – rfii
    Commented Feb 27, 2021 at 19:15
  • I am asking about the other related question for which I posted only one answer that you deleted: superuser.com/q/1566378/1199304
    – rfii
    Commented Feb 27, 2021 at 19:27
  • 1
    Two questions can have the same answer. 1+4 = 5 and 2+3 = 5. Having the same answer doesn't mean they're the same question... You don't even believe it's a duplicate because you haven't closed the other question. I cannot tailor the answer because you deleted it... I'd appreciate your help tailoring it because it seems pretty short and direct.
    – rfii
    Commented Feb 27, 2021 at 21:01
  • 1
    Question 2 is correct in saying "output"; input would be a mic, so it would be incorrect to relabel as you said. Anyway, I rewrote the answer putting the prescribed actions closer to the top albeit it makes a little less sense now in my mind since the background cause of it is now explained later.
    – rfii
    Commented Feb 27, 2021 at 21:22
  • 1
    OK all I did was move one statement up by one sentence. Everything else is pretty much synonym replacement. Hope you think about this as well. Thanks
    – rfii
    Commented Feb 27, 2021 at 21:29
0

Have tested this on multiple computers, with Windows 10 and Bluetooth 4 as well as 5, with Sony WH-1000XM4, Apple Airpods Pro, Apple Airpods Max, and cheap headphones too. As soon as you select Mic, the headphones switch to Hands-Free AG Audio and sound from other applications stops while sound into headphones goes to AG Audio (poor quality.) So it works, both mic and sound, but at mono quality.

Of course if the device is a laptop you can use the laptop's mic, and use the bluetooth headphones in stereo for listening only.

I take all those headphones and connect them to my new desktop computer running Windows 11, and ALL of them work fine. Sound plays in Stereo, music keeps playing while in chat (Discord/Teams, etc.) if I want, and mic works perfectly fine too. THIS is what I wanted, but cannot do on any other device not running Windows 11. There is not even an Hands-Free AG Audio setting I can select on this machine.

While there are many variables in play here beyond the OS, the fact is in Windows 11 it works while NOTHING I have done in Windows 10 gets it to. Your mileage may vary, but this is what I see.

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2
  • 3 times the same answer to differennt questions!
    – Toto
    Commented Jul 6, 2022 at 16:19
  • Windows 11 appears to hide the lower quality hands-free output device and automatically switches to it when the hands-free microphone is in use. This means sound will keep playing (you'll be able to hear discord/game/whatever without manually switching devices). Unfortunately, it's still using the lower quality output so it sounds like trash.
    – Adam
    Commented Jan 8 at 18:27

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