Possible to use Bluetooth headset in Stereo mode with Mic?

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Okay, so I have this bluetooth headset (it's a Skullcandy Hesh 2 Wireless). I want to use it with my PC which is running Windows 8.1. I can pair it just fine. After pairing it adds three devices under the "Sound" setting window: Hesh 2 Wireless Stereo (corresponding to the Audio Sink service) and Hesh 2 Wireless Hands-Free (one for audio out, the other for audio in). This is where I run into my problem.

The stereo output is awesome for listening to songs, in game sounds and music, watching movies, etc. What I want is the capability to do all of those things while using the built in mic to talk to my friends over Skype or Steam. I cannot find a way to do that. Whenever the mic is active any sound output to the Stereo part just stops. From what I can tell, Windows suspends the stereo part and lets the hands-free part do its thing until I stop talking.

What I'm wondering is: Is this even possible? The headset has a 3.5mm wire as well for those times when the battery is low. Using that wire everything works flawlessly.

Jariullah Safi

Posted 2015-06-20T06:28:00.200

Reputation: 233

Anyone got input on this? – Jariullah Safi – 2015-06-22T05:18:20.790

Did the Skullcandy headset have any software to install? Might be a limitation of windows and the appropriate software could help. – Papa – 2015-07-03T04:14:07.213

Did you find the solution? if so, please share. I am facing the same issue. – 5A7335H – 2016-03-06T12:08:24.163

1https://www.reddit.com/r/bluetooth/comments/5rvpg4/petition_for_duplex_highquality_audio_for/ – allquixotic – 2017-02-06T01:49:51.320

Answers

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Your headset needs to support aptX (https://www.aptx.com/products). This is a limitation of the bluetooth A2DP profile. Without aptX, it will not be able to receive hifi stereo sound one way while sending microphone audio the other way.

And no, contrary to some information floating around in various forums you cannot make this work via playing with Windows mixer settings or downloading some application. This is why most gaming headsets that do support two-way audio in stereo quality don't use bluetooth but a proprietary wireless protocol with their own little USB dongle.

EDIT: User "Horn OK Please" below is correct that aptX alone unfortunately is no guarantee of this working! You can get aptX headsets that nonetheless suffer from the same limitation!

Toumal

Posted 2015-06-20T06:28:00.200

Reputation: 231

6This is half right. While it's true that gaming headsets use a proprietary protocol, just using aptX alone will NOT guarantee that a headset supports duplex (playback and capture) audio at high quality (particularly in the playback direction, it'll only be mono channel (1 channel) audio and very low bitrate). Only certain models of Creative hardware that has to be matched between transceiver and peripheral will work this way. Most aptX supporting hardware will not work. – allquixotic – 2017-02-06T01:49:34.287

2I just wanted to confirm that allquixotic is correct: I just tested this with a JoyGo JH03 and a LogiLink AptX bluetooth dongle. While AptX did decrease the latency considerably and provided a higher sound quality, I was not able to activate both the stereo audio renderer AND the mic source at the same time. You do need a matched setup that specifically supports this. Note that technically there's no reason why it shouldn't work. There's plenty of bandwidth available for both to work. – Toumal – 2017-02-08T20:46:29.013

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I've started a petition to try and get industry attention on this, but few people have signed it. Maybe you'd like to? https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/duplex-high-quality-audio-for-bluetooth

– allquixotic – 2017-02-09T13:54:18.930

Thanks guys for shedding some light on this. Can you recommend any headsets that can actually do what is desired by the OP? I'd be very interested in investigating these.

(The reason I'm not looking at proprietary headsets is that while I'm not a big fan of bluetooth, as a laptop user I do enjoy the fact that it means I do not have to lug around wireless dongles that consume usb ports) – fostandy – 2017-11-20T05:33:58.853

3@fostandy If you want to use the Bluetooth transceiver inside your laptop, you're out of luck, unfortunately. The only Bluetooth transceivers that can work with the duplex headsets are USB transceivers, like the Creative BT-W2, which requires a compatible Creative-brand Bluetooth headset. So you still need a little dongle hanging out of your laptop's USB port. There is no way whatsoever to get bidirectional/duplex high-quality stereo audio using the Bluetooth adapter built into any laptop, smartphone, desktop, or tablet on the market. It's literally 100.0% impossible. – allquixotic – 2018-03-09T02:24:14.787

@allquixotic Could you please write your comments as your own answer? I'd like to upvote, because your comment are the most clear and definite answer I could find in the entire internet, to a question I've been asking myself for years now. – mic_e – 2018-08-25T12:01:53.240

I had long forgotten about this question and stumbled onto it again. I've since resigned myself to using my bluetooth headset (bose qc35 now since I got a job and all) with a modmic wireless to use for gaming + discord with friends.

I did do some more research a couple of months ago and arrived at the same conclusion that you need 1) an aptx headset, 2) a bluetooth dongle that actually supports aptx and bidirectional high quality audio, and 3) software that'll allow for this to happen (windows 10 it seems cannot even if you have the right hardware).

Edit: I've accepted this as the answer – Jariullah Safi – 2019-03-05T23:29:32.970

@allquixotic so if I understand correctly from your comments and petition, if we are to look for a "hi-fi" wireless headset that is capable of also receiving high quality audio while engaging the mic, our best bet is looking for specialised headsets that have their own proprietary dongle (like the gaming ones) as this is the only guaranteed way to find one that works? Any other option of mixing aptX dongles and headsets is purely experimental? – Fiztban – 2019-09-18T09:57:34.853

Just wanted to add that this has been a most helpful post post as it has solved my headache trying to figure out why my headset wouldn't work. – Fiztban – 2019-09-18T09:58:17.220

Asked: 2015-06-20T06:28:00.200

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Active: 2019-11-29T18:45:01.463