Ongoing Poor Bluetooth Audio Quality

[MikeSuff]

Right, I'm bringing this to the forums because I'm losing my mind on this issue, and I'm reaching out to see how many other people are affected, or if there's a fix.

I have a Lumia 920. It is paired to my Axxera XDMA7200 car audio deck. Previous to GDR3, I experienced the same issues others were reporting with their Bluetooth streaming: songs would not advance on shuffle, Nokia Music would freeze, and the audio quality was sub par.

I updated my phone to GDR3 on Monday, and low and behold the majority of the streaming issues have vanished: songs play one after another, and do not freeze or stop playing. HOWEVER, the audio quality is still TERRIBLE. It sounds like the files are being played in mono, at a low bitrate (sub 64kbs). They somehow sound both tinny and murky at the same time.

For reference, my audio deck supports the following Bluetooth profiles:

HFP (hands-free profile)A2DP (advanced audio distribution profile)
AVRCP (audio video remote control profile)

I have deleted my deck's profile from my phone and re-paired to no avail. I contacted Nokia support pre-GDR2 and they wanted me to wipe my phone as part of the support process, which is a no-go right now.

There doesn't seem to be a consistent answer to any question re: Bluetooth when it comes to MS/Nokia customer support, so I'm reaching out to you, the Hive Mind, to help me solve my issues, or at least drown my sorrows in your echoed complaints.

Thanks in advance,

- Mike

 

[squire777]

I have a 920 as well and listen to music (my collection on the phone + Nokia Music) with my headphones connected via Bluetooth. I have never had any issues with the connection or audio quality as you are describing.

This is what I use to connect my headphones via bluetooth:

Amazon.com: Sony SBH20 NFC Bluetooth 3.0 Stereo Headset - Black: Cell Phones & Accessories

i would suggest you test your phone with another bluetooth receiver or other bluetooth headphones before you try anything else.

 

[jiayit]

I use a Sony Ericsson Bluetooth headset for music and I found that my music randomly stops only when I play music from Nokia Music. It doesn't happen when I play from Music+Videos.

Haven't updated to GDR3 yet but you've just managed to convince me to, hoping that it'll solve my audio issues.

 

[MikeSuff]

I definitely recommend you upgrade to GDR3 as it will solve you streaming issues. I haven't found a downside to it yet, and I like the new app dismissal implementation directly from the multi tasking screen.

As for the audio quality issue, you are right squire777, I need to rule out it's the deck and not the phone, so thanks for that. I would still like to know if others are having a similar issue.

 

[AndyCalling]

I suspect you are connecting via HFP instead of A2DP somehow. Perhaps there is an option to change this on your stereo?

My wireless speaker has no issues connecting via A2DP, so it is possible.

 

[MikeSuff]

No option that I've found so far, but your theory is interesting. Would there be any way to check from the phone what protocol is being used to send the information?

Just to be clear: if I connect the phone to my car deck using a regular phono jack cable into my aux in, the sound quality is tonnes better, which means I can rule out the mp3's as the quality issue.

 

[N_LaRUE]

No option that I've found so far, but your theory is interesting. Would there be any way to check from the phone what protocol is being used to send the information?

Just to be clear: if I connect the phone to my car deck using a regular phono jack cable into my aux in, the sound quality is tonnes better, which means I can rule out the mp3's as the quality issue.

I checked out your owners manual for your stereo head unit and on the whole I can't see a reason why you would be having any issues.

What I would suggest is doing a Bluetooth reset on the head unit and then pair with it again to see if that does anything.

When you pair with the head unit check to see what comes up in the Bluetooth settings on the phone. You should get the words 'Connected voice, music' under the device in blue on the phone. If you're not getting the word 'music' then that's issue you're having. I had a similar issue initially with my headset as well where it wouldn't pair with it correctly.

Also prior to doing anything to the phone I agree that you should check out a bluetooth speaker or headset. It could simply be the head unit doesn't play nice with WP.

 

[MikeSuff]

Thanks for the reply. I reset my head unit yesterday, as well as deleted the Bluetooth profile from the phone. When I re-paired, on the Lumia the paired profile (named DUAL BT) comes up with the words "Connected, music, voice", so I believe I should have all the BT profiles working correctly. I'm going to head over to an electronics shop to see about streaming music through different brands of car decks.

 

[Norbert_85]

Hi,

i've got an ATIV S with GDR2.
Last week i bought the sony sbh20, connection - no problem, but the sound quality is bad.
The high frequencies were somehow cut off and sounds kinda metallic

For testing I tried the Headset on my Windows 8.1 Laptop and sound quality was very good.
As second test I connected the sbh20 to my old android phone (samsung galaxy s - with custom rom) and the sound was very good there too...

Connected the headphones directly to the phone --> very good sound quality.
Just for your information - the Ativ S don't have an equalizer, thats sad, but nothing to change about...

My last hope is somehow the gdr3 update, but after reading the first few lines of the opener I don't think it would get any better.

EDIT: some typos i found - sorry for the bad english ^^ I'm not a native speaker

 

[N_LaRUE]

Hi,

i've got an ATIV S with GDR2.
Last week i bought the sony sbh20, connection - no problem, but the sound quality is bad.
The high frequencies were somehow cut off and sounds kinda metallic

For testing I tried the Headset on my Windows 8.1 Laptop and sound quality was very good.
As second test I connected the sbh20 to my old android phone (samsung galaxy s - with custom rom) and the sound was very good there too...

Connected the headphones directly to the phone --> very good sound quality.
Just for your information - the Ativ S don't have an equalizer, thats sad, but nothing to change about...

My last hope is somehow the gdr3 update, but after reading the first few lines of the opener I don't think it would get any better.

EDIT: some typos i found - sorry for the bad english ^^ I'm not a native speaker

When it comes to Sony I don't trust anything they do personally. However, since there seems to be issues relating to BT a lot it's most likely the drivers in WP that are causing the issues. Either that or the hardware.

It would seem that some BT solutions simply don't work well with WP. I've been using BT headphones for some time with my WP and have no issues. I am using an old Nokia BT headset.

Even though there are BT standards, there is variation in the manufacturers hardware which can cause issues. This is the problem.

 

[Norbert_85]

That means that I have to try out a few BT solutions to find one that fits the best with my WP.

I think this could be the problem too (as far to a short research):
On WP the BT Audio Streaming only supports SBC (Low Complexity Subband Codec) that is integrated to BT, so there are not additional licenses to pay.
The Manufacturer (I don't know wether in my case it's Samsung or Microsoft) should integrate direct mp3 or aac streaming, but this means additional licenses.

SBC means for the device less power consumption because the hardware is able to encode the music itself, but lower sound quality because of the double encoding (mp3 to SBC) - as far as I understand

Source: Bluetooth profile - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Norbert_85]

Update:

After updating to gdr3 the Bluetooth audio streaming quality increased.
Now with the Sony sbh20 the Sound is the same like i put the headphones into the jack of the Phone directly
Now you can listen to music over Bluetooth...



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[Norbert_85]

Sorry, doublepost... I'm not used to the tapatalk icons



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