audio - Bluetooth headphones: great quality on iPhone, poor quality on notebook and PC

I recently got a new pair of Sony MDR-1RBT Bluetooth headphones. On my iPhone 4, they sound fantastic. But when I try to use them on my Windows PC or 2010 Macbook Pro, the sound quality drops substantially. I'm pretty sure they're still using the A2DP profile, but they sound like FM radio, or like an MP3 encoded at 64kbps. (I don't think they're pairing in headset mode.) On OSX, many people have recommended changing the "bitpool" setting, but this didn't help me much. There's also maybe a second of lag, so gaming is out of the question.

I remember having these sorts of problem with Bluetooth 5 years ago, and I'm shocked that they still haven't been fixed. Am I missing something? Why does my dinkly little iPhone play wireless audio so well while my powerhouse computers do not? Is this adaptor dependent? Can I just force Bluetooth to send the highest quality stream possible at the expense of latency?

Answer

I managed to fix the audio on my 2010 Macbook after fiddling with the bitpool settings a little more. For future reference, here's what you need to do:

1. Go here and download the Hardware IO Tools for Xcode. (You'll need a free developer account for this.)


2. Open Bluetooth Explorer.


3. Go to Utilities->Special Options.


4. Slide the "Minimum bitpool" slider up to 45+. (Mine is set to 50.)


5. Disable and re-enable Bluetooth.

For the record, my headphones work perfectly fine with my 2011 Macbook at work, so hopefully this won't be an issue with Apple's newer laptops.

On my Windows PC, I'm guessing the issue is my crappy Bluetooth adapter combined with generic drivers.