- Microsoft improves the sound quality of Bluetooth headphones
- This will allow high quality sound in Windows 11 while using a microphone, for the benefit of players who often use the game in the game with a helmet
- The PC and headphones will however have to support Bluetooth the audio and run the latest version of Windows 11
Microsoft announced that it gave a major boost to the sound quality of Bluetooth headphones in Windows 11.
As Microsoft explains in a blog post (highlighted by Neowin), it replaces the current way of facilitating wireless headphones, Bluetooth Classic Audio, with Bluetooth Audio in Windows 11. (The notable warning being that you will need equipment that supports it – and I will come back to this).
Bluetooth Classic Audio is a rather clumsy beast in that it has two operating modes, which offers no complete solution for sound and microphone. With the advanced audio distribution profile (A2DP), you get a full quality sound, but there is no possibility of using a microphone, which could be a problem if, let’s say, that you play and you want to use the headset microphone in the game.
The alternative hands -free profile (HFP) offers you the microphone management, but at a cost, namely the lower audio quality. In fact, you don’t get stereo with HFP, just mono audio played in both ears. This has serious limits in terms of poor sound quality not only – Microsoft compares it to listening to AM radio, compared to the quality of the CD with A2DP – but there is also a lack of spatial effects (which require stereo for their virtual positioning).
Bluetooth audio solves these problems in a single swoop, offering the same CD quality audio as A2DP, but also allowing the use of the microphone at the same time. Indeed, this new way of working in Windows 11 offers a “super wide band” sound with a sampling rate of 32 kHz, which means an even better quality of voice.
Analysis: it is time, frankly
This is a welcome boost on the audio front, although in reality, it is more a question of making Bluetooth properly functioning – as it should be – rather than a big step forward for Windows 11. Not having stereo reading if you want to use the microphone is a huge drop, but unfortunately, this is the case for most people on Windows 11 now.
What do you need to benefit from this new technology, then?
As already mentioned, your wireless helmet must support Bluetooth audio, and your Windows 11 PC will also have to support audio. Note that it is not enough for your PC supporting Bluetooth Le, but specifically, you will need the audio. Microsoft explains how to check if your Windows 11 device has this functionality in an assistance document here.
If you have audio the – supported by your headphones, as well as a PC – you will also have to run Windows 11 24:2 updated to the latest version (the August update).
In addition to that, you will need a support for audio audio audio Bluetooth – and Microsoft notes that later this year, “some existing PC models will receive updates from the manufacturer’s driver to support the functionality”. So you may have to be patient a little.
Microsoft also tells us that most new laptops published at the end of 2025 should cook this support and be good to take with this improved Bluetooth sound.
