distortion on bluetooth

[jazzmo]

I am a newby, just starting on Audacity.
I have a problem playing over bluetooth.
When I use the build-in speakers everything sounds great.
As soon as I choose a bluetooth device the sound gets
distorted and lags behind.
Any advise would be great.
Martin
MacOs 10.14
Audacity 2.4.2
MacBook Pro 2015

[billw58]

We've never been able to get Audacity to play well with bluetooth headphones/speakers on Mac.
-- Bill

[kozikowski]

There is a sister forum posting from someone who is trying to cure the noise and distortion on their production. The production is perfect and clear, but they can't hear it.

It can get much worse. If you're intent on Overdubbing or Sound-On-Sound, you'll find that Perfect Overdubbing is only possible when you plug your headphones into your microphone, microphone preamplifier, or interface. The interface that probably doesn't have wireless. Doesn't work if you use the computer sound.

Koz

[steve]

We've never been able to get Audacity to play well with bluetooth headphones/speakers on Mac.

I don't think that's entirely true. I recall this being discussed a while back and it seems that it works for some people but not others. I suspect that it depends on the headphones, though without having a lot of headphones to test there's probably no way to know for sure.

[jazzmo]

Thanks for your replies. I have tried a Sony over-ear headphones, JBL in-ear headphones and a logitech bluetooth receiver, all show the same distortion. Pity it won't work. Best wishes, Martin

[steve]

The "lagging" problem is probably unavoidable with bluetooth headphones because the audio has to be encoded before transmitting over bluetooth, then decoded in the headphones. It is also common for bluetooth audio to use "buffers" which create additional delay.