Windows 10: Windows 11 audio issue between "Stereo" and "Hands-Free"

My company migrated me to Windows 11 on a brand new PC, but I can no longer use wireless Bluetooth headphones for calls or stereo intuitively.We use a softphone service where I have to manually select the audio input and output sources - which now only provides one single option in the sound settings. In Win10, there used to be two that I could choose from. One would be "Stereo" and the other would be "Hands-Free".This may have to do with the bluetooth driver itself, and relying on the applications being used to intelligently switch sources based on the need. However, I used to be able to watc

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Option not available to choose between Hands-Free Audio and Stereo Audio for my Galaxy Buds2 on Windows 11

I upgraded my PC to Windows 11 two months ago. Since then, I have been unable to pick between the Hands-Free Audio device option and the Stereo Audio device option for my Galaxy Buds2 (whereas I could on Windows 10). Windows 11 simply displays the name of my earbuds as "Galaxy Buds2." Also, judging by the audio quality, it appears that Windows plays via Hands-Free Audio without displaying it.

I would like to note that this is not an issue with my earbuds. I have a laptop that came with Windows 11 preloaded. I can pick between the Hands-Free Audio device option and the Stereo Audio device option on the laptop. This leads me to believe that this may be an audio driver issue with my Galaxy Buds2 on this device. However, I am unsure.

 

Bluetooth Hands Free AG and Stereo Audio Interaction

I'm trying to use my bluetooth headphones, Sony WH-1000xm3's, and when paired with my laptop running windows 10, it gives me 2 options for audio: Hands-Free AG and Stereo, as well as 1 option for the microphone: AG Hands-Free. The issue arises when the AG Hands-free option has very poor audio quality compared to stereo or analog connections, which would normally be okay, except I cannot use the stereo audio option unless I disable the AG Hands-Free Service in the control panel, which also disables the microphone I want to use.

I've tried the following, and some other things that I forget: Re-installing audio drivers, reconnecting the device via bluetooth, and nearly every surface-level option relating to audio inputs and outputs.

I'm aware similar problems have been posted, but none of them are exactly the same to what I'm describing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

TLR When Hands-Free Telephony is enabled, I can use the mic but the stereo audio doesn't work, and when it's disabled, the audio is good but I have no microphone.

 

Bluetooth headset audio problems (hands-free unusable, stereo choppy)

Hi, and thank you for following me on this journey trying not to pull my hair from my head as I try to enjoy music on my new laptop.

Long story short: I've treated myself to an "ASUS TUF506IV-AS76 TUF A15 Gaming Laptop", but I'm bumping into some issues as I've started using it. Particularly, Bluetooth Audio seems to be a mess!

Now, before I blame the laptop (and try something radical like a BIOS firmware update) I want to rule out everything else.

I'm using Windows 10 Home 64-bit that came pre-installed. It's up to date with Version 20H2 v19042.630 (except for the optional "2020-11 Cumulative Update Preview for Windows 10 Version 20H2 for x64-based Systems (KB4586853)").

Drivers, including Bluetooth are updated.

Now, the main culprit here I think is windows choice of mishandling APTX (or AD2P) high-quality audio and the mono-headset mode. The headphones I'm using (Sennheiser HD 405BTNC) work flawlessly with any and all devices I've tried them on, but here's the catch: this headset can be operated in one of two modes at a time: a) one-directional HD stereo audio listening only, or b) bi-directional "hands-free" mode, listening to only low-quality and mono audio, but enabling the included microphone.

In Linux there's a clear cut between the two modes, and you can't fall in mistakenly ambiguous modes like trying to use the microphone while being in stereo mode.

In my old laptop's Windows 10 (Enterprise 64bit, not updated to 20H2) the B mode isn't even recognized by Windows (Linux does pick it up, so it's not a hardware incompatibility issue) but A mode works great.

In my new laptop, however, Windows 10 decides to recognize both modes, but allows you to set incoherent states, such as selecting HD Stereo audio output at the same time as trying to grab the headset's microphone input:

If I select both input and output as B mode ("Hands-Free AG Audio") then audio quality is terrible beyond expectations: other OS' play mono audio with low quality, but this Windows 10 displays something totally distorted and incomprehensible, so while I normally like to use the headset in that mode during meetings so people can hear me clearly even if I don't hear them as well, but it looks like that will be an option for now.

If I choose to use A mode (Stereo) as output and use the laptop's Realtek Microphone Array as input, then the audio I hear is OK... Except when it isn't and chops up horribly as well. The only way I've managed to workaround this is to go to device manager and disable the Hands-Free AG Audio device; this removes the choice of B mode from input and output sections on the sound console and fixes the choppy audio issue 99% of the time.

So, coming to this point, I have 2 problems I'd like to solve:
1) How can I get the Hands-Free mode to work so I can actually use the headset's microphone without entirely losing the ability to understand what other people are saying?
2) How can I more reliably reproduce and then completely fix the 1% of the time that audio still breaks up?

I'll post any information that may be of use for troubleshooting this. I've checked out other people asking similar questions, but nothing's helping.

Here's the full speccy dump on my new laptop with bad sound: http://speccy.piriform.com/results/T...0Ta62flSPytmfB

Here's LatencyMon while listening to Spotify with no issues on Stereo mode:



Here's LatencyMon while listening to Spotify trying not to cry on Mono mode:



So.. Something's definately adding latency to the Hands-Free mode. I've tried disabling all "enhancementes" and the Windows troubleshooters with no luck.

And here's the dump for my old laptop with no audio issues: http://speccy.piriform.com/results/0...nI6Z8lMLcrLBxf