topic Hands free audio in spotify is muffled in iOS (iPhone, iPad)

Poor audio quality when using bluetooth

Keyatoms — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 13:02:39 GMT

I experience poor audio quality when using Bluetooth to stream Spotify audio. I’ve been able to replicate this issue by using Spotify’s microphone talk-to-search feature. The issue can be temporarily resolved by closing the app or restarting the device.

My assumption is either my phone or Spotify is recognizing my Bluetooth accessory as a headset or something with a microphone in a calling/speaking mode. As High definition audio does not work when a microphone is being used over Bluetooth (not enough bandwidth).

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

iPhone 11 Pro (rarely on my Samsung s8)

Operating System

(iOS 13.4)

Re: Poor audio quality when using bluetooth

Calventura — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 08:55:44 GMT

I also noticed lately that audio quality using bt is ugly unlike last year

Re: Poor audio quality when using bluetooth

Ver — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 10:04:02 GMT

Hey there folks,

Thanks for getting in touch with us. This sounds odd and we'll do our best to help you out.

We'd suggest you give these steps a go and run a clean reinstall. By doing that you can make sure the app is on the latest version and the cache is not causing any issues.

It's also a good idea to check the steps mentioned here.

Does the issue occur on another device? That way we can see if it's a device-related issue.

Keep us posted! If you have questions, we are here for you.

Re: Poor audio quality when using bluetooth

matedave — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 12:30:01 GMT

This issue has been driving me CRAZY since I moved from iTunes to Spotify last year.

The audio to my bluetooth speaker from Macbook Prosounds like I've walked off with my Macbook and it's struggling to reach connection, just like a scratched CD! It happens every now and then and sometimes it corrects itself, other times it stops the music completely.

This same issue also happens via the iPhone App to a different Bluetooth speaker which I use when I'm training outside.

I have tried turning the microphone off on my Mac as per another post I seen on here, but the issue happened straight after so it's definitely not the Mic. Also doesn't explain why it's happening on the iPhone App too.

Re: Poor audio quality when using bluetooth

Mihail — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 13:06:05 GMT

Hey @matedave,

Thanks for posting.

Could you let us know if the issue persists after a clean reinstall on the affected devices as @Ver suggested? Make sure to also restart your device with the freshly installed app. This is a very effective, but often overlooked step.

It's also a good idea to disable Hardware Acceleration from the setting menu of your computer. Sometimes this can cause issues like the ones you're describing.

Hope this helps - keep us posted!

Re: Poor audio quality when using bluetooth

Ewoin — Sat, 26 Jun 2021 17:23:36 GMT

I had the same problem when I first connected my JBL. I bought a bluetooth headphones and same problem again. I realised my custom equalizer setting was causing to the problem. I changed it from spotify and it solved my problem. I was using everything on high at equalizer to have lauder sound. Iphone headphones are not giving bad quality with that settings but bluetooth devices effecting from it.

Re: Poor audio quality when using bluetooth

Novy — Sat, 26 Jun 2021 17:30:58 GMT

Hey @Ewoin,

Thanks for reaching out here 🙂

We're glad to hear that you were able to sort this out.

If anything else comes up, the Community will be here.

Cheers.

Re: Poor audio quality when using bluetooth

shadowano — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 15:25:09 GMT

I had the same problem on Windows. I found out that my speaker settings in Windows was set to JBL speaker + headset device instead of JBL speaker Surround device. This solved it for me

Re: Poor audio quality when using bluetooth

matedave — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 09:26:38 GMT

How do you disable 'Hardware Acceleration' on a Mac? I've googled this and I can not find where this would be and why this could be causing an issue?

Sorry I have just seen this after coming back to see if anyone has an answer for this problem, but it's clear people still do and there hasn't been a fix.

Re: Poor audio quality when using bluetooth

the_eddster — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 13:45:02 GMT

I had this problem with Bose 700 HP headphones. I solved it by switching the audio source in Windows from "Headset (Bose NC 700 HP Hand-free AG Audio)" to "Headphones (Bose NC 700 HP Stereo)"

Re: Poor audio quality when using bluetooth

Crepaille — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 11:48:48 GMT

I had the same issue and found the way to solve it (at least for me, and on multiple devices).

When using your bluetooth device on PC, click on the sound icon on the bottom righ corner of the screen. You may find several instances of your device, try them all.

For me I had two intances :

1. "My headset" (hands-free AG audio) -> very poor audio quality

2. "My Headset" (stereo) -> good quality

Hope it helps someone in the futur

Hands free audio in spotify is muffled

user-removed — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 06:23:45 GMT

When I use hands free audio speaker in spotify the music is muffled. However, when I change to stereo speaker the music is fine