Airpods Pro: very bad quality in Headset mode on Windows 10

Anonymous
2020-04-02T12:50:11+00:00

Dear all,

I've got my new Airpods Pro, they work well with my iPhone.

Also on Windows 10 via bluetooth, sound quality is good when using the "Airpods stereo" mode.

However, in the headset mode ("Airpods Hands-Free AG Audio") sound and especially microphone quality is extremely bad. I tried to change the default format (see screenshot, it's only 8000Hz), but I cannot change it as it's grey. Any advice to get a better microphone quality?

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2022-01-17T19:57:00+00:00

According to this post it should be fixed already in Insiders Build (currently Dev Channel only).

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-02-04T14:44:16+00:00

    I don't have other bluetooth headsets, but I can confirm that with AirPods 2 microphone quality went from mono 8KHz (Telephone quality) to mono 16KHz (Tape Recorder Quality). Which I believe uses mSBC codec.

    Audio quality is still much worse in headset mode comparing to headphones mode (at least it switches automatically without issues since 21H2 update) but mic is better (2 times arguably).

    iOS/iPadOS/MacOS devices will use AAC-ELD codec instead (24KHz) so it is still better compared to Windows 11.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-12-25T19:08:32+00:00

    Hi Rene,

    thank you for analysis, but you have not considered two things, that were already mentioned:

    • I don't have issues with HSP in principle, it's the fact that this profile comes with the lowest imanginable audio quality, I don't like.
    • there are Windows 10 Systems capable making connection Airpods with an acceptable recording quality (16000Hz, my HP EliteDesk 840)

    Of cause, there are a lot of workarounds, Stereo Profile with room/camera mic would work for most, ...

    What I cannot underdstand, that there is no official information about how to use a quite standard component (BT headsets, e.g. airpods) in quite standard PC environment with reasonable audio and speech quality.

    What is it, that makes some/most Windows 10 installations decide to connect BT Headsets in Handsfree with the lowest quality?????

    wk

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-02-22T05:23:33+00:00

    As far as I understand, it is a bandwidth issue. There is not enough throughput available in the Bluetooth connection for both audio and mic.

    that's not correct. if it were a bandwidth issue, then Android and Mac would have the same problem but they don't. this is a problem with Windows which they could fix but some reason have chosen to ignore it.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-12-31T17:59:55+00:00

    Hello guys,

    I just found a way to make my AirPods 2 work fine in Windows 10. Integrated laptop bluetooth won't work unfortunately, I got the same behavior as you : very poor audio quality in Zoom and Teams using the "AirPods hands-free AG audio" peripheral.

    However, if you use a headset USB dongle like the Jabra Link 370 to associate your AirPods, it will work perfectly and you won't have to switch between the peripherals as only the Jabra Link is seen by Windows.

    I still need to test it more in the coming weeks with real calls but it looks good. The only problem I noticed is that the double-tap feature for play/pause won't work anymore.

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