Bluetooth speaker sound distorted (ubuntu 18.04)

Ok, I finally got through this. :)

Simply: the sound is distorted only while the Bluetooth settings window is open and scanning for devices. Closing the windows clears the sound.


This worked for me:

  1. Update your bluez version:
    • Open the terminal and check the current bluez version in your system with the following command: dpkg --status bluez | grep '^Version:' (in my case I received version: 5.48-0ubuntu3.1)
    • Add the following repository to get the last version of bluez (5.50 as of November 2018): sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bluetooth/bluez sudo apt-get update
    • After running the command you should be able to update to bluez 5.50 via: sudo apt upgrade
  2. Disable bluetooth
  3. Install blueman from Ubuntu Software Center
  4. Open blueman, search for devices, find and mark as trusted
  5. ..and voila - the sound from bluetooth speaker is clear and without distortions

Bluez install credit: https://medium.com/@overcode/fixing-bluetooth-in-ubuntu-pop-os-18-04-d4b8dbf7ddd6