Alternative A2DP Driver

Alternative A2DP Driver is a device driver that replaces Windows 10/11 inbox Bluetooth A2DP driver and allows you to fine-tune CODED parameters.

Who is this software for?

If your headphones support a CODEC that is not supported by the standard Windows A2DP driver

aptX HD and LDAC can provide higher quality audio than other CODECs such as SBC, AAC and aptX. If your headphones support aptX HD (many Qualcomm chip-based headphones do) or LDAC (most mid/high-end Sony headphones do), and your Bluetooth radio condition is reasonably good, there is no reason not to use it.

aptX Low Latency provides low-latency (~50ms) audio (compared to 150~200ms latency with other CODECs), which is good for gaming and other time-sensitive applications.

If you are using Windows 10 with Apple headphones, which only support SBC and AAC, adding AAC support will significantly improve the audio quality.

The following table summarizes the CODECs supported by each A2DP driver.

	Windows 10 Driver	Windows 11 Driver	Alternative A2DP Driver
SBC	✓	✓	✓
SBC-XQ (SBC with higher bitrate)	—	—	✓
AAC	—	✓	✓ †1
aptX	✓	✓	✓
aptX HD	—	—	✓
aptX Low Latency	—	—	✓
LDAC	—	—	✓

Notes:

1. Requires "with AAC CODEC support" edition license.
2. Please see the FAQ for otehr CODEC support.

If you are suffering from stuttering/choppy noise

A2DP transmits data with error detection and re-transmission. So, if the Bluetooth radio's signal quality is poor (due to the lack of adequate antenna, interference with other radio signals, etc.) and causes a lot of re-transmission, it will start dropping streaming data packets (or the packet is not delivered on time). This is one of the reasons why you hear stuttering/choppy noise.

If that is the case, reducing the bitrate (the amount of the data transmitted) and creating more time to re-transmit may be able to eliminate packet loss. This will slightly reduce audio quality but significantly reduces the annoying noises.

Please see the FAQ for the step-by-step instructions.

If you want to increase the bitrate of the audio stream

If your headphones are working fine with the Windows inbox driver, you may want to increase the bitrate and enjoy the better sound quality.

To do so, you have two knobs. One is simply to increase the bitpool parameter. The other knob is using Dual Channel mode instead of using Joint Stereo, which is used by the Windows inbox driver.

Please see the FAQ for the step-by-step instructions.

If you want to eliminate sound quality loss by the downsampling

Windows inbox A2DP driver supports only 44.1 kHz sampling frequency for SBC CODEC. But, many contents are encoded at 48 kHz, including many video contents. As a result, when those contents are played, they are forced to downsampling to 44.1 kHz.

Alternative A2DP Driver supports all sampling frequencies that your headphones can handle. So, if the media player app you are using allows it, it can dynamically switch the sampling frequency based on the source media and eliminate the audio quality loss by the downsampling.

Please see the FAQ for the step-by-step instructions.