Bluetooth sound quality on Linux

I have owned a pair of Bose QuietComfort headphones for years, but I recently upgraded from the wired version to a Bluetooth model.

While they have worked flawlessly on my Lenovo Carbon X1 laptop since day one, the audio quality was terrible on my newly built desktop. To resolve this, I began investigating the root of the problem.

My desktop uses a X870 GAMING WIFI6 motherboard, which features the Realtek RTL8851BU Bluetooth chipset. After some research, I discovered a few essential steps to optimize the Bluetooth experience and restore high-fidelity sound.

Install dependencies

sudo apt update
sudo apt install pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber pulseaudio-utils libspa-0.2-bluetooth

1. Optimize PipeWire

sudo mkdir -p /etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d
sudo tee /etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/99-bt-buffers.conf > /dev/null << 'EOF'
context.properties = {
    default.clock.quantum = 1024
    default.clock.min-quantum = 1024
    default.clock.max-quantum = 2048
}
EOF

2. Set the better profile for the headphones

Here is a more technical and polished way to phrase that. I’ve corrected the terminology (it’s usually A2DP) and improved the flow: Improved Version

"I discovered I was using the wrong Bluetooth profile, which caused the audio to cut out and sound scratchy. Once I switched to the A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) Sink, the sound quality was exactly as I expected.

sudo mkdir -p /etc/pipewire/media-session.d
sudo tee /etc/pipewire/media-session.d/99-bose-a2dp.conf > /dev/null << 'EOF'
context.properties = {
    bluez5.a2dp-codec-priority = {
        "BC:87:FA:1B:B7:F0" = "sbc_xq"
    }
    bluez5.default-profile = {
        "BC:87:FA:1B:B7:F0" = "a2dp-sink"
    }
}
EOF

3. Disable USB autosuspend (Realtek BT fix)

sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/realtek-bt.conf > /dev/null << 'EOF'
options usbcore autosuspend=-1
EOF

4. Update initramfs

sudo update-initramfs -u

5. Restart services

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber
sudo systemctl restart bluetooth

If you have a music client like Spotify open, you will need to restart the application for the new settings to take effect.

Script

To simplify the process, I have combined these steps into a script that automates the entire configuration (Steps 1–5) and ensures your settings remain persistent.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -e

echo "▶ Setting up PipeWire Bluetooth optimizations..."

# 1. PipeWire buffer tuning
sudo mkdir -p /etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d
sudo tee /etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/99-bt-buffers.conf > /dev/null << 'EOF'
context.properties = {
    default.clock.quantum = 1024
    default.clock.min-quantum = 1024
    default.clock.max-quantum = 2048
}
EOF

echo "✔ PipeWire buffers configured"

# 2. Force Bose QC to use A2DP SBC-XQ
sudo mkdir -p /etc/pipewire/media-session.d
sudo tee /etc/pipewire/media-session.d/99-bose-a2dp.conf > /dev/null << 'EOF'
context.properties = {
    bluez5.a2dp-codec-priority = {
        "BC:87:FA:1B:B7:F0" = "sbc_xq"
    }
    bluez5.default-profile = {
        "BC:87:FA:1B:B7:F0" = "a2dp-sink"
    }
}
EOF

echo "✔ Bose QC forced to A2DP SBC-XQ"

# 3. Disable USB autosuspend (Realtek BT fix)
sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/realtek-bt.conf > /dev/null << 'EOF'
options usbcore autosuspend=-1
EOF

echo "✔ USB autosuspend disabled"

# 4. Update initramfs
sudo update-initramfs -u

# 5. Restart services
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber
sudo systemctl restart bluetooth

echo
echo "🎧 DONE!"
echo "Reboot recommended for full effect."
echo "After reboot, your Bose QC will always use SBC-XQ A2DP."

If you want to have a visual insight you can install pavucontrol.

sudo apt install pavucontrol

The start the pavucontrol

• Go to the “Configuration” tab
• Find your Bose QC Headphones
• Set Profile → High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink)

Hope you will have better sound now.