Do your speakers sound like a toilet? Be sure to turn this setting off

It would seem that in 2026 the technology is already at a fairly advanced stage. And yet there is one area that is just pure nightmare – and this is it Bluetooth audio on computers.

If you use such headphones, even if these are Sony WH‑1000XM5 or other Bose QuietComfortand you want to run a modern game on PC (or Steam Deck/ROG Ally), there is a good chance that you will encounter an annoying audio situation. It looks like this: you finish work and you think to yourself “tick, time for CS”, you start the game and think to yourself “now it will be time to relax and I will cut myself off from the rest of the world with my wonderful headphones.” And here’s an unbearable grinding noise, because you start, for example, Tony Hawk’s™ Pro Skater 3 + 4, Gears of War Reloaded also Doom Eternal. So what? Instead of the cool, full sound you know your headphones have, you hear sound like a toilet. It’s as if someone teleported you to 2005 and headsets for “business people”. Bandwidth dropsstereo disappears, remains flat mono and you think to yourself – what the hell?

If you suspect there’s a problem with your microphone, you have good intuition. We are heading in this direction. It’s about starting the protocol HFP (Hands-Free Profile)which cuts the audio to one channel to “accommodate” audio from the microphone and headphones at the same time. This is a standard that has been around for approx 2003 and this is the main culprit of the fact that BT headphones sound “potato” in certain situations.

And it is this protocol that is responsible for the sudden jump in quality – when, for example, we play in single-player mode and then suddenly want to connect with someone on Discord, the Xbox application or another messenger for gamers. The worst thing though is that many games and applications force HFP modeeven if we don’t use the microphone at all!

Fortunately, we don’t have to be left out in the cold with this problem. We can both use Bluetooth headphones in single-player games and maintain the highest quality, even when we talk at the same time (then it will save us external microphone). Solving this problem involves visiting the “old” version of the Windows panel, buried deep in the system settings.

To eliminate this fault, follow these steps (on Windows 11):

1. Enter the application Settingsthen jump to the tab Bluetooth and devices and select an option Devices,
2. go to category Related settings
3. you will see the screen Devices and Printers,
4. right-click on your Bluetooth headphones,
5. select a tab Services
6. uncheck ““Hands-free telephony” (Handsfree Telephony) and click Apply.

If you had a game running that still forced lower audio quality – restart it and try to start it again. The problem should be solved. This will primarily help in games that enforce the HFP protocol globally, regardless of the use of a microphone – that is, if we play single-player mode without voice chat.

Disabling this service also allows you to use a better audio profile, A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) with two-channel stereo – in situations when we want to talk at the same time. It is worth emphasizing, however, that in this specific situation the following solution will not always work, because a given game may still force connection via the HFP protocol. So everything will depend on the specific implementation.

However, if we are aware of this risk, in situations where we want to play with Bluetooth headphones and talk at the same time and maintain better audio quality, we should set external microphone as the default communication tool in Windows 11.

Finally, it is worth emphasizing that it’s not Windows’ faultbut Bluetooth itself and the HFP protocol, which is very old but is still the default standard.

He was supposed to be a godsend in this situation Bluetooth LE Audiosupport for which has already been added to Windows 11 for some time. However, as it turns out, the Bluetooth LE Audio implementation is also terrible. First of all, we are limited by the number of compatible headphones. At the moment, these include:

Sony: WH‑1000XM6, InZone H9 II
Sennheiser: Momentum 4 Wireless
Barefoot: QuietComfort Ultra Headphones
Technics: EAH‑A800
Shokz: OpenFit Pro

Sony: WF‑1000XM5, LinkBuds S, InZone Buds, LinkBuds Open, LinkBuds Fit
Sennheiser: Momentum True Wireless 4
Barefoot: Ultra Open Earbuds
LG: TONE Free T90Q
Nothing: Ear (2), Ear (Stick)
Audio‑Technica: ATH‑TWX9
EarFun: Air Pro 4

It is worth emphasizing that Despite announcements, WH-1000XM5 does not support LE Audio.

Importantly, LE Audio is also limited by hardware and although the list of devices supporting it is quite wide,

In practice, not every phone/tablet will support it. In theory, the standard came with Android 13 and Bluetooth 5.2but only now at Android 16 it starts to function somehow.

Importantly, most often enabling LE Audio on the phone is requiredto use LE Audio on your computer. Even if a given phone is compatible, enabling this service at the phone level will not necessarily make it work properly in Windows 11. At this point Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel smartphones have the best support.

Let’s also not forget that Game developers may be the weakest link here — even if everything worked on the firmware side of our headphones and Windows 11, the game may still force connection via HFP!

The above situation with the Bluetooth standard, which for two decades enforced the ancient HFP protocol, is unfortunate. LE Audio was supposed to be a salvation, but it is implemented inconsistently and there are many obstacles on the way to happiness. The situation for the future looks unstable and uncertain, so it’s probably best to switch to… good old cable.