Poor audio quality when using bluetooth

[Keyatoms]

I experience poor audio quality when using Bluetooth to stream Spotify audio. I’ve been able to replicate this issue by using Spotify’s microphone talk-to-search feature. The issue can be temporarily resolved by closing the app or restarting the device.

My assumption is either my phone or Spotify is recognizing my Bluetooth accessory as a headset or something with a microphone in a calling/speaking mode. As High definition audio does not work when a microphone is being used over Bluetooth (not enough bandwidth).

Plan

Premium 

Country

USA

Device

 iPhone 11 Pro (rarely on my Samsung s8)

Operating System

(iOS 13.4)

[Calventura]

I also noticed lately that audio quality using bt is ugly unlike last year

[Ver]

Hey there folks,

Thanks for getting in touch with us. This sounds odd and we'll do our best to help you out.

We'd suggest you give these steps a go and run a clean reinstall. By doing that you can make sure the app is on the latest version and the cache is not causing any issues.

It's also a good idea to check the steps mentioned here. 

Does the issue occur on another device? That way we can see if it's a device-related issue.

Keep us posted!  If you have questions, we are here for you.

[matedave]

This issue has been driving me CRAZY since I moved from iTunes to Spotify last year.

The audio to my bluetooth speaker from Macbook Prosounds like I've walked off with my Macbook and it's struggling to reach connection, just like a scratched CD! It happens every now and then and sometimes it corrects itself, other times it stops the music completely.

This same issue also happens via the iPhone App to a different Bluetooth speaker which I use when I'm training outside.

I have tried turning the microphone off on my Mac as per another post I seen on here, but the issue happened straight after so it's definitely not the Mic. Also doesn't explain why it's happening on the iPhone App too.

[Mihail]

Hey @matedave,

Thanks for posting.

Could you let us know if the issue persists after a clean reinstall on the affected devices as @Ver suggested? Make sure to also restart your device with the freshly installed app. This is a very effective, but often overlooked step. 

It's also a good idea to disable Hardware Acceleration from the setting menu of your computer. Sometimes this can cause issues like the ones you're describing.

Hope this helps - keep us posted!

[Ewoin]

I had the same problem when I first connected my JBL. I bought a bluetooth headphones and same problem again. I realised my custom equalizer setting was causing to the problem. I changed it from spotify and it solved my problem. I was using everything on high at equalizer to have lauder sound. Iphone headphones are not giving bad quality with that settings but bluetooth devices effecting from it. 

[Novy]

Hey @Ewoin, 

Thanks for reaching out here 🙂 

We're glad to hear that you were able to sort this out. 

If anything else comes up, the Community will be here. 

Cheers.

[shadowano]

I had the same problem on Windows. I found out that my speaker settings in Windows was set to JBL speaker + headset device instead of JBL speaker Surround device. This solved it for me

[matedave]

How do you disable 'Hardware Acceleration' on a Mac? I've googled this and I can not find where this would be and why this could be causing an issue?

Sorry I have just seen this after coming back to see if anyone has an answer for this problem, but it's clear people still do and there hasn't been a fix.

[the_eddster]

I had this problem with Bose 700 HP headphones. I solved it by switching the audio source in Windows from "Headset (Bose NC 700 HP Hand-free AG Audio)" to "Headphones (Bose NC 700 HP Stereo)"

[Crepaille]

I had the same issue and found the way to solve it (at least for me, and on multiple devices).

When using your bluetooth device on PC, click on the sound icon on the bottom righ corner of the screen. You may find several instances of your device, try them all.

For me I had two intances :

1. "My headset" (hands-free AG audio) -> very poor audio quality

2. "My Headset" (stereo) -> good quality

Hope it helps someone in the futur