The Problem: - If you have a Bluetooth headset with an integrated microphone, you may expect to use the headphones normally while using the microphone (on a Windows PC). 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.
Technical Explanation: - 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.
Attempted Solution on PC (or trick to side-step this limitation): - I attached/paired two different Bluetooth headphones with integrated mics to the same PC. I activated (set as default device) the stereo audio (A2DP) profile on one headset (disabled the mic and HFP profile on it), and then activated the mic on the second headset (default device) and disabled the stereo audio and HFP profile on this second headset.
Result: - For a minute and a half I could listen to high quality stereo audio on the first device, while the mic on the second device recorded sound just fine. BUT, after that first minute or so, the stereo audio device went silent, and the mic and the whole sound and windows interface started lagging. In fact, the two devices could not be disconnected and reconnected to the same PC till I performed a Windows restart. Upon Windows restart, I could once again pair/connect the two devices like before (as stated above) and get it to work for a minute or so, before the same exact issue propped up.
Help: - Can anyone help explain what is the problem which is not allowing the attempted solution to work for more than a minute. Why isn't the attempted solution (or trick) viable. Is there any other solution to getting a Bluetooth Headset with integrated microphone to work properly on PC (in stereo mode).
Thanks for reading this long post and for all your help.
Technical Explanation: - 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.
Attempted Solution on PC (or trick to side-step this limitation): - I attached/paired two different Bluetooth headphones with integrated mics to the same PC. I activated (set as default device) the stereo audio (A2DP) profile on one headset (disabled the mic and HFP profile on it), and then activated the mic on the second headset (default device) and disabled the stereo audio and HFP profile on this second headset.
Result: - For a minute and a half I could listen to high quality stereo audio on the first device, while the mic on the second device recorded sound just fine. BUT, after that first minute or so, the stereo audio device went silent, and the mic and the whole sound and windows interface started lagging. In fact, the two devices could not be disconnected and reconnected to the same PC till I performed a Windows restart. Upon Windows restart, I could once again pair/connect the two devices like before (as stated above) and get it to work for a minute or so, before the same exact issue propped up.
Help: - Can anyone help explain what is the problem which is not allowing the attempted solution to work for more than a minute. Why isn't the attempted solution (or trick) viable. Is there any other solution to getting a Bluetooth Headset with integrated microphone to work properly on PC (in stereo mode).
Thanks for reading this long post and for all your help.
