Fix bluetooth headphones that crackle or jitter on Debian Linux with pulseaudio.
1 min read

Fix bluetooth headphones that crackle or jitter on Debian Linux with pulseaudio.

Symptoms:

  • Bluetooth headphones were jittery and produced crackled audio on Debian.
  • However bluetooth speakers with the same machine had no problem.
  • Headphones were also fine on other devices. 🤔
  • Turns out the bluetooth mouse (Logitech) when moved worsened the interference.

Solution:

  1. Install pulse audio system icon (sudo apt install pulseaudio) and the gui (apt install (sudo apt install pavucontrol).
  2. In the Configuration tab of the pulse audio app, changing the codec for the headphones from LDAC (high quality) to SBC XQ 552kbps made the issue 95% better without any noticeable drop in audio quality.

Seems that Sony Headphones / Logitech Mouse quite frequently cause problems when used together.

References:

https://itslinuxfoss.com/install-pulseaudio-ubuntu-22-04/
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=399161