Multitasking ruins my music experience over bluetooth

[ramius]

When Im playing music from Spotify to my bluetooth speaker, the sound cracks and hisses like and old casette player some times.

First I thought it was the speaker, but no. I soon began to see that this mostly occured when Im multitasking on the computer. Loading a new website in Edge will most definitly stop the music for a second, before it has to pick up the signal again.

In short, bluetooth problems. What do?

 

[FAHMI BASSEM]

I don't think it has anything to do with Bluetooth but the performance of your device...redo the thing while watching the task manager (If you use ADBlock extension try turning it off, my CPU and Memory goes as high as 95-100!!)

 

[AndyCalling]

Hmm, unlikely. This is a desktop PC. If it was a laptop or tablet I'd blame the Bluetooth/wifi chipset drivers as they tend to use the same aerial for both and issues can arise. Could be an issue with desktop but separate aerials tend to avoid the issue. So, try updating your drivers first. Then try turning off wifi. If that clears up the issue then you know it's a driver difficulty. Using BT4.1 devices will help, but updated drivers will help more.

Another possibility is latency. Use a suitable latency checking utility (one that the devs state works for your specific OS as some will give duff readings for Win10 devices). Test your latency whilst your system is at idle. If any drivers are causing latency issues, it may well mess up your audio output.

Another possibility is interference. A common source is USB3 ports which put out a tonne of RF on the 2.4GHz band especially designed to ruin your day. Make sure your BT dongle (and any 2.4GHz transmitter) is not connected to a USB3 port, even with an extension cable. Use a USB2 port, and if that port is close to a USB3 port (especially one in use) then use an extension cable to try to get it as far away as you can. Best to use a USB2 port that's nowhere near your USB3 ports.

 

[AndyCalling]

Oh, on reading again I must have imagine the desktop thing? So, if a laptop, or tablet, it will likely come down to BT and wifi using the same aerial. Best approach is to turn off wifi when using BT and vice versa. If you need both, consider using a cheap external BT or wifi dongle so only one internal radio is turned on. Often, updating BT and wifi drivers will improve this, and even eliminate BT issues. Wifi speed will be seriously affected though. Using BT4.1 devices can mitigate the issue (depending on their feature set).

 

[ramius]

turn off wifi when using BT and vice versa

Im just gonna say a big LOL to this. What year are we in, 2002?

Im using a Surface Book. Is this a known problem? I have hard to imagine the brilliant designers behind these high end products has made Wifi and BT compromising each other.

 

[AndyCalling]

Those designers can't change the WiFi and BT protocols, and there are the rules of physics with radio spectrum which are hard to mitigate. We are getting there, but it is down to the evolution of the standards. These physics issues are far greater with small devices where further compromises for space need to be applied (such as shared aerials). Some devices find better approaches than others, but they all have the same balancing act to cope with.