Windows 10 poor audio quality and static

Bluetooth USB-BT4LE
1

I am using the pluggable usb adapter with Windows 10 and have had really low audio quality using my headphones. The headphones work well with my other devices. The headphones also have a microphone component which is being received well. There are no objects between the pluggable usb and my headphones and they are less than 3 feet away from each other.

2

Hi Charlie,

Thank you for posting. I’m sorry about the sound issues.

There are two possible things going on, both of which could be contributing to the lower quality. Since the microphone is working, the computer is probably using the Headset/Hands-Free profile for your headphones. This profile, the only one that supports two-way communications, was developed for mono telephone headsets, and only offers telephone quality, mono sound. For stereo CD-quality sound, you need to use the A2DP profile, which unfortunately does not support a microphone.

Static could also be caused by radio noise in the area around the adapter. Desktop computers often generate this kind of noise because they don’t have any shielding to prevent it.

I have a few questions that should help me understand what the problem is:

  1. Are you intending to use the headphones for two-way communication (like Skype or Discord)? If not, we can switch it over to the stereo A2DP profile.

  2. Is the adapter plugged into a desktop computer?

  3. Is the adapter plugged into a USB 2.0 (white or black tab inside) or USB 3.0 (blue tab inside)?

Thanks!

David
Plugable Support

3

Hi David,

Thank for the quick response, hope you had a great labor day weekend. I have answered your questions below. I would think telephone quality audio would be acceptable. That is not the type of audio I am hearing. More like the music is far away and tinny, with occasional static bursts.

  1. Yes, I intend to use 2 way communication.
  2. No, laptop computer that is on a dock. I have tried both the laptop direct, and through the dock.
  3. USB 3.0 (not blue but marked SS).

Thanks,
Charlie

4

Hi Charlie,

Thank you for your answers. It sounds like the sound issue could be caused by radio interference from the USB 3.0 port. This is a fairly common issue that is caused by a design flaw in USB 3.0 that wasn’t discovered until after it was released.

Basically, the 5 GHz USB 3.0 frequency produces a harmonic close to the 2.4 GHz frequency used by Bluetooth and many other consumer wireless devices that causes interference unless the port is well shielded. Intel wrote a white paper about this: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/e…

It especially affects Bluetooth since the Bluetooth signal is weak compared to wifi and others in order to save battery power in headphones or other peripheral devices.

Fortunately, there is an easy workaround. You can use a commonly available USB 2.0 extension cable (like this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NH136GE/) to move the adapter away from the USB 3.0 port and closer to line of sight with your device.

Do you have a cable like that you could test with?

Thanks,
David
Plugable Support

5

Hi Charlie,

I’m closing this thread so others don’t post on it with unrelated issues. If you have any further questions or issues, please contact us directly at support@plugable.com. Thanks!