How to use Bluetooth headsets and headsets with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S

Although the new generation consoles hide under their shell some not insignificant innovations, there are still important technical gaps to be filled. Some of them are linked to choices made in the hardware design phase, justified by the fact of wanting to contain the overall cost of the machines. Others, on the other hand, such as the one we are going to deal with in this guide, have made some consumers turn up their noses who almost gave their presence in the new consoles for sure. In particular we refer to the inability to connect Bluetooth headphones to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S, a rather serious problem, justified only in part by Sony and Microsoft.

The headphones, earphones and headsets that support this types of connectivity are very popular on the market, especially thanks to their practically universal compatibility. Many people probably have a device of this type and it would undoubtedly have been very practical and immediate to combine it with a new generation console, without having to buy a specific headset dedicated to gaming.

For this reason we have decided to create the following guide in which we will explain how to connect Bluetooth headphones to a PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S console to be able to hear the audio of video games wirelessly.

PS5 and Xbox do not support Bluetooth audio

Xbox and Dualsense controllers Before starting our guide we would like to make a few small clarifications. PlayStation 5 contains a Bluetooth modem inside. Despite this, due to limitations due to the operating system, it is not possible to combine headphones to use them as the console's audio output. Xbox Series X | S, on the other hand, does not even have a modem, because according to Microsoft's words, Bluetooth connectivity does not guarantee a sufficiently low latency for the gaming world.

The latency argument is particularly important, as we will also see later in the article, and Sony is likely to prevent the connection of Bluetooth headphones for this very reason. So if you have a new generation console from Microsoft or Sony, in both cases you cannot, theoretically, use your Bluetooth headphones to listen to the audio output.

The problem of latency

Audio latency Latency is therefore one of the most important aspects to consider when talking about Bluetooth headphones. Nobody wants to hear the audio of video games playing with several milliseconds of delay. Especially in competitive games such as first-person shooters it is of fundamental importance to have a responsive audio that allows us to perceive what surrounds us at the right time. For this reason we always try to reduce the latency of the audio to a minimum in order to guarantee the best gaming experience.

Purists will say that there is no better way than wired connection. This will always be true, as the physical medium guarantees less delays than wireless communication. In particular, the delay can also increase by an order of magnitude, passing from 5-10 milliseconds to 200-300 milliseconds. However, it must be said that thanks to the optimization of wireless protocols, many headphones enjoy a very low latency, which allows you to almost not perceive the delay.

Latency and Bluetooth

Communication via the Bluetooth protocol Bluetooth headphones suffer most from this problem, because latency has never been a cornerstone in the development of this telecommunication standard. Over the years, the well-known company Qualcomm has developed a codec capable of transmitting a greater amount of data with minimal latency. Its name is aptX and it is thanks to this that we can aspire to reproduce the audio that comes out of our game console, using a Bluetooth connection without wires and with low latency.

Encoding the audio output from the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S with the aptX codec and by using Bluetooth headphones that support this encoding, we can minimize latency and enjoy an audio experience as close to a wired connection. There are several aptX compatible Bluetooth headphones and earphones, but among them we would like to point out these particularly popular models.

Sony WH-1000XM3 Sennheiser PXC 550-II OnePlus Bullets 2 Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT Bowers and Wilkins PX Wireless Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H9 Sennheiser Momentum 3 HyperX Cloud MIX

Now, however, we are missing another fundamental element: an accessory that can take the audio output from our console and encode it with the aptX codec to transmit it via Bluetooth to receiving audio devices.

How to transmit audio via Bluetooth from PlayStation and Xbox?

Creative accessory to transmit Bluetooth low latency audio As we have already explained, both PlayStation consoles that Xbox ones do not support Bluetooth audio out. This means that we need to use external accessories to be able to encode and transmit audio via this wireless telecommunication standard. In particular, we need an accessory capable of encoding the audio signal with the aptX codec to reduce latency and prevent the annoying mismatch between the sound source and the video source.

In the past few weeks we have had the opportunity to try the Creative BT-W4 accessory, created specifically for this purpose. This small USB stick must be configured on a Windows PC or Mac. Through the official Creative software it is possible to combine it with different Bluetooth headphones and customize the listening experience by retouching the equalization. Once the Bluetooth pairing is done, the USB stick can be inserted into a PlayStation console. In this way it will encode the output audio with the aptX codec and transmit it via Bluetooth to the previously paired device.

For Xbox systems it must be specified that Microsoft offers the possibility of transmitting the audio output only to particular dongles, typically created specifically for Xbox consoles. For this reason, even in the panorama of wireless gaming headsets, there are often double versions: one designed for Sony consoles and the other for Microsoft consoles. The only solution to pass the audio coming from an Xbox console to Bluetooth headphones is therefore to connect a special accessory directly to the jack output of the pad. A less practical solution, but given the limitations implemented by Microsoft, it is also the only possible way. function ready (fn) {if (document.readyState! = 'loading') {fn ()} else {document.addEventListener ('DOMContentLoaded', fn)}} ready (function () {window.addEventListener ('message', function (event) {let target_origin = 'https://aff.netaddiction.it'; if (event.origin! == target_origin) return; if (typeof event.data == "object" && event.data.hasOwnProperty ( "type") && event.data.type == "embaff") {let embed_id = event.data.embed_id; if (embed_id == '1384') {document.querySelector ('#_ aff_embed_1384'). setAttribute ('height ', event.data.embed_size);}}}, false);}) It must be emphasized once again that Bluetooth headphones and earphones must support aptX encoding to be able to receive the low latency signal, otherwise the experience of game is immediately ruined by the annoying mismatches between audio and video.

It is also worth highlighting that on Amazon and in the main online and road shops you can find dozens of USB adapters and 3.5 mm mini-jacks (to be connected directly to the pad) capable of converting the audio signal into a signal that can be acquired by a Bluetooth device, but you have to take into account two crucial elements before proceeding with the purchase. First of all, in the case of the USB connection, you must be sure that the dongle does not require special connections but that it is universal and therefore compatible with Sony and Microsoft consoles; secondly you have to check that it supports the Qualcomm aptX protocol, otherwise you risk that the encoding used is one of the standard ones with no reduction in latency. With all the consequences of the case regarding the accuracy of the perceived audio.

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