Problematic Latency with Bluetooth Headphones (Solved: Don't Use Bluetooth Headphones)

[Emergent]

I like my heavy metal music loud, so I generally prefer to listen to such music with Bluetooth headphones. From some fiddling around and a little bit of research, I figured out the culprit is the headphones.

When I'm using my headphones, the latency is utterly baffling. I'll bring my mouse up to my ear and click in unison with the beat and yet be way off in-game according to the beat tracker. I've played other rhythm games before so I know it's not me - or at least it can't be that bad. One ear hears the beat, the other ear is off the headphones with the mouse clicking up to the ear and clicking in unison to the beat, yet the game tells me I'm way off.

I fiddled around with audio latency and found that a latency of -200ms (-0.2 in the file) or +300ms (maximum in settings) works fairly well. These values are unsurprising given that apparently the beat tends to be at 500ms. But still, it's way off - once I did these calibrations, doing the same click-test with my headphones off allows me to hit the beat nearly perfectly with great consistency.

Except... the actual firing sound in-game is way off. So I can click perfectly to the beat, but the sound I'm hearing is very delayed. Without the -200ms or +300ms latency adjustment, the game is unplayable. With this latency adjustment, it's barely playable, because the sounds I'm receiving as feedback (the sounds of shooting or swinging the sword) are so off.

I eventually figured out it's the Bluetooth headphones at issue. Once I let the speakers do the playing, I can use 0ms latency and hit as perfectly as I can at -200ms or +300ms latency with the Bluetooth headphones. Moreover, with the (non-Bluetooth) speakers, 0ms, and clicking in unison with the beat, not only do I hit it perfectly, but it also sounds out logically (so I don't hear the shooting a bit after I click; I instead hear it as I click). So I suppose I need to play this game out loud rather than with my headphones - and at least it's playable.

Still, I wonder whether it could be optimized to allow for headphone play (or perhaps it's something with my headphones specifically).

In either case, I'm hoping the above narrative helps anyone else that might find themselves with such a problem.