Muffled audio in Valorant really takes away your competitive edge. It gets tough to locate the enemies and communicate with your teammates. Fortunately, this common problem has a few surefire solutions that you can try quickly.
In this article, we will discuss how to fix muffled audio step by step in Valorant. Keep reading till the end.
How to Fix Muffled Audio in Valorant
First of all, investigate the Valorant audio settings themselves. Open Settings, go into the Audio tab, and make sure the volume sliders are all maxed out. More to the point, however, check your selection for an input device-especially if you use wireless headphones. One very important discovery from community troubleshooting is that the selection of certain Bluetooth devices as an input device results in muffled, low-volume output audio. If you use one such device, try changing your voice input device to your laptop’s internal microphone instead, which often resolves this issue completely.​
Audio bugs that arose with the Valorant 7.07 patch were specifically because of a conflict between Valorant’s HRTF surround sound system and external spatial audio software. To fix, disable Dolby Atmos and Windows Sonic through your system’s spatial sound settings. Having both on and operating is double processing that deteriorates audio quality. Head into Windows Start > Change System Sounds > Playback tab > Right-click your device > Properties > Spatial sound > Set to “Off”.​
Outdated drivers are one of the top culprits for causing muffled audio. Open Device Manager, and under “Audio Inputs and Outputs,” right-click on your audio device and select “Update Driver.” You should also make sure to disable “Reduce Volume by 80%” in your sound settings under the Windows accessibility feature. Some of those experiencing Bluetooth headphones connectivity also reported success by unchecking “Handsfree Telephony” in device properties, which downgraded audio quality to telephone.​
If these steps do not work, then run the repair option within the launcher for Valorant’s game files, restart your PC, or, as a last resort, reinstall Valorant. Since Valorant usually sees many updates in a short span, some audio issues fix themselves after patches. So, before taking any further drastic measures, check for the latest game patches.
