I have the Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones. They’re good for consuming content. Audio calls with your colleagues? Forget about it.

Thanks, Bluetooth. #notsponsored by Värska, it's just very hot right now.
Thanks, Bluetooth. #notsponsored by Värska, it's just very hot right now.

This is the setup I have to go with, and it has all to do with how Bluetooth works. Your options with Bluetooth headsets are the following:

  • high quality sound output, no audio input
  • low quality sound output, low quality audio input (HSP/HFP)

That’s it.

Choice of codecs exposed by Fedora 36.
Choice of codecs exposed by Fedora 36.

This isn’t a problem with Linux, either. I’ve done a test call with the help of my friend on my iPhone SE 2020 using the same headset on Discord, and the audio quality was still crap. Even the microphone on the phone itself had better quality.

The only reasonable choice for doing voice calls is attaching a separate wired microphone to your Bluetooth headphones. The mic quality is much better now and you still have the option of disconnecting the mic whenever it’s not needed. The mic I’m using in the first image is the ModMic.

It’s a damn shame that I need to resort to this type of setup though. Who pushed for going all-in on Bluetooth and throwing out the headphone jack from phones before making sure that Bluetooth actually works properly?

Rant over.