Bluetooth 6.2 – more responsive, improves security, USB comms, and testing

What’s the status of audio on modern Bluetooth? The only decent mic+audio configuration I’ve ever experienced is AirPods on apple devices, anything else sounds terrible when the microphone is activated.

Every apple user I've seen on meetings using airpods for their mic sounded terrible as well.

I don't think any ear pod style mic exists that isn't completely outclassed by a mic I could pickup 2 decades ago at Walmart for $10-$20.

But for many the audio you hear also gets degraded. Like when Windows sets it as communication device instead of headphones and it sounds like a 64kbps mp3s

My information may be a little out of date, but in Bluetooth there was two types of audio. There is isochronous streaming (Headset profile) and audio streaming (Audio Profile). The Headset profile is bidirectional and time-sensitive (packets will be dropped if they take too long), it was designed for headsets as per its name ("communication device") rather than the Audio profile which, although it can be a source or a sink is basically for streaming, where the audio is not time-sensitive as such.

So yeah, the isochronous streaming mode is much lower bit rate but thats probably why Windows sets it as a communications device, because it needs that mode.

Its difficult to know exactly, but I use a Logitech Zone Vibe 125 headphones with microphone and find it works fine for phone calls and listening to audio. However, I am not an audio nerd and neither are the people I speak to using it. I never had any luck with in-ear devices.