If you're using a high-end bluetooth headset on your Macbook Pro it's likely your mac is using an audio codec which favors battery efficiency over high quality. This results in a drastic degradation of sound, the SBC codec is the likely culprit, read more about it here.
- Play a song on your headphones
- Option (⌥) click the Bluetooth button at the top of your screen
- If you're using AAC or aptX, you can stop here—those are the highest quality codecs.
UPDATE: It looks like Apple has silently dropped support for aptX, leaving only AAC
You'll need to download Apple's Bluetooth Explorer in order to change codecs.
-
Head over to Apple's Developer Downloads
-
Search for
additional tools
and downloadAdditional Tools for XCode 11.dmg
-
Click on
Tools > Audio Options
and change your audio codec to the following settings:- Enable AAC
- Force use of aptX
-
Disconnect your Bluetooth headset, reconnect it, and while some music is playing, inspect your codec. It should now show either AAC or aptX.
You can increase the AAC bitrate in Audio Options
but be sure to keep an eye on the graphs. The retransmission percentage is roughly equivalent to packet loss, and if you increase the bitrate too high your audio will start cutting out:
The retransmission rate is a function of distance and interference, and you'll need to disconnect/reconnect on each attempt before you find the sweet spot.
@Eugene-Y
That's the setting that the Bluetooth Explorer util sets. Not sure about Monterey, but for everything else just setting those values enables AAC without the need for Bluetooth Explorer.
AAC is working fine for me on Monterey and my Sony WH-1000XM3 with all the default settings. (nothing in
bluetoothaudiod
). Haven't tried aptX.Too bad about aptX going away, but it seems like it has. Though it was probably only ever used by a tiny number of people in the first place. Maybe it's extra tricky because aptX is proprietary and patented? Apple might be unable/unwilling to support it and have to hand over money to the patent holders.