Bluetooth audio quality and volume

[rjwill10]

Software version = Mint 20 64 bit Cinnamon
Hardware = Macbook Pro (5,4) Mid 2009 2.5ghz Intel dual core.
Bluetooth hardware = Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
Bluetooth device = Bose SoundLink Revolve

I recently added Mint to my old MBP...it's working really well and am now able to access up to date software .

The only issue I have run into so far is the bluetooth audio quality on a Bose speaker playing audio over the web via Deezer. My internet speeds were high and the playback quality was set to best.

At first the issue appeared to be one of volume i.e. the volume of the music would not go above a certain level. To solve that I used Pulse Audio Volume control and checked the audio output (which was already set to ADP2 as other posts have suggested)

Using pulse audio, I was able to increase the volume past the default high, but this caused the audio quality to diminish dramatically. It became muffled and grainy. I had used this speaker the same day as installing Mint with the same computer running OS X without issue.

I disconnected the speaker from bluetooth, and connected it directly to the MBP via the audio jack to headphones port. The audio quality was as expected, and the volume seemed not to be restricted. I also tested the audio using the MBP internal speakers, with no issues.

My initial thought was that a driver was missing as the issue is bluetooth only, but using driver manager, the NVIDIA driver was already selected and up to date and no other driver options were available.

I've searched for similar issues on the forums, and it appears that the volume issue is quite common, and a failure to connect is quite common, but I could not find anything that matched this specific issue of bluetooth audio quality.

Thanks

[MrEen]

Hi rjwill10, and welcome to the forum.

BT issues are often beyond my knowledge, but there's one thing you can check; In pavucontrol have the Output Devices tab set as high as you can before it sounds bad, then go to the Playback tab and try increasing the volume some more there. This one will only be available while sound is playing.

Let me know if that helped as I do have one other idea.

[rjwill10]

Hi rjwill10, and welcome to the forum.

BT issues are often beyond my knowledge, but there's one thing you can check; In pavucontrol have the Output Devices tab set as high as you can before it sounds bad, then go to the Playback tab and try increasing the volume some more there. This one will only be available while sound is playing.

Let me know if that helped as I do have one other idea.

Hi, thanks for getting back to me.

I tried, and that didn't seem to work. Everything is set to 100% (0 dB), which had a very low output volume. As soon as I increase past the 100% on either tab, it starts to decrease the quality. I also tried to turn the volume up from 100% using the speaker, but the volume won't increase at all that way.

I also used the following command previously which I forgot to mention:

Code: Select all

 xed admin:///etc/pulse/daemon.conf 

and modified as follows:

Code: Select all

default-sample-format = s24le

Code: Select all

default-sample-rate = 48000

This did nothing as well.

I assume it's a software issue, as the hardware worked as intended with the original operating system.

Thank you again.

[MrEen]

If you're not using WiFi, disable it in youe Networking options. That has fixed some Bluetooth issue, though I can't remember which.

[rjwill10]

If you're not using WiFi, disable it in youe Networking options. That has fixed some Bluetooth issue, though I can't remember which.

Na, haven't hooked the machine up to wifi yet, it's running on Ethernet. Should I log it as a bug?

[MrEen]

If you're not using WiFi, disable it in youe Networking options. That has fixed some Bluetooth issue, though I can't remember which.

Na, haven't hooked the machine up to wifi yet, it's running on Ethernet. Should I log it as a bug?

Well, yes it's a bug, but where I'm not sure.

And WiFi can still be enabled even though not in use. I've never used WiFi myself, so not sure where exactly to look.

[rjwill10]

If you're not using WiFi, disable it in youe Networking options. That has fixed some Bluetooth issue, though I can't remember which.

Na, haven't hooked the machine up to wifi yet, it's running on Ethernet. Should I log it as a bug?

Well, yes it's a bug, but where I'm not sure.

And WiFi can still be enabled even though not in use. I've never used WiFi myself, so not sure where exactly to look.

Yeah, I did check. Wifi was set to off, and no devices were listed under "Network connections".

[MrEen]

I'm afraid I'm out of ideas at this point.

Hopefully someone else might have an idea.