A console that can render 4K graphics still can't connect to the most basic Bluetooth headphones — this bizarre quirk has been true of the PS5 since day one. Controllers and Sony's own Media Remote pair over Bluetooth just fine, but audio is the one thing it flat-out refuses.
The blame doesn't fall on Sony being lazy — it comes down to a fundamental limitation of Bluetooth itself. The latency baked into Bluetooth audio transmission barely matters when you're just listening to music, but it's a completely different story in gaming. In fast-paced shooters where reaction time is everything, a gunshot that hits your ears half a second late means the fight is already over. Beyond latency, the connection drops and mediocre mic quality that plague many Bluetooth headsets are likely additional reasons Sony chose not to offer native support.
If you're running your PS5 through a smart TV, in theory you could pair your Bluetooth headphones to the TV instead and let the TV pick up the PS5's audio signal and pass it through. But this route doesn't escape latency either — fast-paced games will still feel sluggish.
The actual way to get Bluetooth headphones talking to your PS5 is by adding a USB-C Bluetooth adapter — something like UGREEN's transmitter. The process isn't complicated: plug the adapter into the PS5 or PS5 Pro's USB-C port, hit the pairing button on the adapter (many models will automatically enter pairing mode), then press the pairing button on your headphones as well. Once the two are connected, if the PS5 still isn't outputting sound, head into Settings > Sound > Audio Output and manually switch the output device to the Bluetooth adapter you just paired.
The dongle solves the "is there any sound at all" problem, not the "is the latency low enough" problem. If the PS5 is your late-night gaming battlestation, what you really want is a dedicated gaming headset that supports a USB dongle — stable signal, low latency, plug and play. To hear the PS5's Tempest 3D audio at its full potential, the storm sequence in Returnal is one of the best tests out there. The $170 SteelSeries Arctis 7P+ Wireless supports this spatial audio format, and Sony's own PlayStation Pulse Elite is also a solid first-party option.
