Sennheiser HD 4.50BTNC audio issues

[BrianDH]

Hi everyone, looking for a tech tip. I'm having issues with my Sennheiser headset. When I use it via Bluetooth, selecting the "Headset" option as the output in Windows, I get weird noises, as if the headset was skipping a beat or something, and also some tapping noises. If I select "Headphones" the sound is perfectly fine yet I can't use that output for Discord for some reason.

 

I tried a Jabra headset and I don't get this issue at all (it also allows me to select either Headset or Headphones as the output), so I assume the issue is with the Sennheiser headset itself.

 

Any idea on how to possibly fix this?

 

I recorded the headset playing a 432Hz sound where it can be clearly heard how it "skips a beat" every now and then.

 

 

Thanks in advance!

[rippy4500]

Does it have this problem with other devices/operating systems?

Windows doesn't handle bluetooth very well cause it doesn't support certain codecs and also bluetooth is prone to artifacts like this if your connection is bad. Make sure there is no weird power saving stuff enabled for your bluetooth module and also that enhancements are off in the sound settings.

Just switch to a wired pair of headphones, it wont have this problem and it'll sound much better anyways. I never recommend bluetooth audio cause of stuff like this.

[BrianDH]

11 minutes ago, rippy4500 said:

Does it have this problem with other devices/operating systems?

Windows doesn't handle bluetooth very well cause it doesn't support certain codecs and also bluetooth is prone to artifacts like this if your connection is bad. Make sure there is no weird power saving stuff enabled for your bluetooth module and also that enhancements are off in the sound settings.

Just switch to a wired pair of headphones, it wont have this problem and it'll sound much better anyways. I never recommend bluetooth audio cause of stuff like this.

I tried it on my Android phone and it works fine. It's only when I select the "Headset" output in Windows that I have this issue. I tried disabling sound enhancements but it made no difference. I couldn't find any energy saving settings for the Bluetooth antenna doodad.

[rippy4500]

3 hours ago, BrianDH said:

I tried it on my Android phone and it works fine. It's only when I select the "Headset" output in Windows that I have this issue. I tried disabling sound enhancements but it made no difference. I couldn't find any energy saving settings for the Bluetooth antenna doodad.

Drivers maybe then. If its a motherboard wifi/bluetooth module then you should be able to find drivers on the website of whoever made the module (probably intel or realtek). Also you can try completely resetting the device, find the headset in device manager, uninstall it, and then reconnect it.
Also what are your system specs?

[BrianDH]

19 hours ago, rippy4500 said:

Drivers maybe then. If its a motherboard wifi/bluetooth module then you should be able to find drivers on the website of whoever made the module (probably intel or realtek). Also you can try completely resetting the device, find the headset in device manager, uninstall it, and then reconnect it.
Also what are your system specs?

Motherboard: ASUS TUF GAMING B450M-PLUS II

CPU: Ryzen 5 5600G

Bluetooth/WiFi card: TP-Link AC1200 Archer T5E

OS: Windows 10 22H2

 

I downloaded the latest drivers I could find for the Bluetooth card and Realtek drivers from Asus yet it made no difference. 

 

Further more, I tried the headset on an old Windows 10 laptop that I have lying around and it didn't make that noise either (even though it was a bit staticky still).

 

By the way, thanks for your help so far. Any other ideas?

[rippy4500]

5 hours ago, BrianDH said:

Motherboard: ASUS TUF GAMING B450M-PLUS II

CPU: Ryzen 5 5600G

Bluetooth/WiFi card: TP-Link AC1200 Archer T5E

OS: Windows 10 22H2

 

I downloaded the latest drivers I could find for the Bluetooth card and Realtek drivers from Asus yet it made no difference. 

 

Further more, I tried the headset on an old Windows 10 laptop that I have lying around and it didn't make that noise either (even though it was a bit staticky still).

 

By the way, thanks for your help so far. Any other ideas?

Make sure the card is fully seated.
And also make sure that message signaled interrupts is enabled, cause if it's not it can cause massive latency on pcie devices which causes problems obviously. You can look up how to enable it, there is a tool to do it easily and I can send it if you want.

[BrianDH]

6 hours ago, rippy4500 said:

Make sure the card is fully seated.
And also make sure that message signaled interrupts is enabled, cause if it's not it can cause massive latency on pcie devices which causes problems obviously. You can look up how to enable it, there is a tool to do it easily and I can send it if you want.

I tried reseating the card and still no chance.

Could you send me that MSI tool? I looked a bit online and I found a few different articles and tools but I'm unsure as to which way to go.

[rippy4500]

16 hours ago, BrianDH said:

I tried reseating the card and still no chance.

Could you send me that MSI tool? I looked a bit online and I found a few different articles and tools but I'm unsure as to which way to go.

-Run as admin
-Check "MSI" for everything
-Set interrupt priority to undefined for everything
-apply
-Restart

If it doesn't fix your issue it'll at least make stuff faster.

I suggested enabling MSI cause when disabled it caused the same issue for me over onboard audio in the past, cause some dumb drivers disabled it by default.

MSI_util_v3.exe

[BrianDH]

6 hours ago, rippy4500 said:

-Run as admin
-Check "MSI" for everything
-Set interrupt priority to undefined for everything
-apply
-Restart

If it doesn't fix your issue it'll at least make stuff faster.

I suggested enabling MSI cause when disabled it caused the same issue for me over onboard audio in the past, cause some dumb drivers disabled it by default.

MSI_util_v3.exe 38 kB · 0 downloads

As soon as I opened it, the only ones that were unchecked were the audio controllers. I did everything as you said there but the issue is still there.

If you have any other ideas, I'm open to give them a try. Thanks for your help so far!

[rippy4500]

2 hours ago, BrianDH said:

As soon as I opened it, the only ones that were unchecked were the audio controllers. I did everything as you said there but the issue is still there.

If you have any other ideas, I'm open to give them a try. Thanks for your help so far!

Try changing sample rate/bit depth, usually id recommend 48KHz and the highest bit depth available but bluetooth can't transmit that in uncompressed PCM so im not sure what options it'll show.

[BrianDH]

10 hours ago, rippy4500 said:

Try changing sample rate/bit depth, usually id recommend 48KHz and the highest bit depth available but bluetooth can't transmit that in uncompressed PCM so im not sure what options it'll show.

It doesn't allow me to change that (I hope I'm in the right place), and it's quite low as it is already by the looks of it.