Sony Noise-Cancelling Headphones (WH-1000XM2/3) and bluetooth initial autoconnect

The "ambient noise" you're hearing is a loopback from your computer's mic coming out through your headphones.

This is apparently due to a bug with A2DP's implementation.

I fixed this in Ubuntu 19.04 by installing Blueman and pairing my headphones as an Audio Sink rather than a headset:

• Unpair your headphones, if they're currently paired.
• sudo apt install blueman
• Open Blueman, click on "search".
• Select your headphones, right click, select "Setup"
• Make sure they're paired as an Audio Sink rather than a Headset
• Select your headphones as an audio output in your sound settings

If you have Spotify open throughout the process you have to restart it.

I had exactly the same issue in Ubuntu 18.04 with Sony WH-CH700w. I used the solution offered by @Luiz: I installed bluez-5.52. Since I didn't want to spend my time on resolving dependencies, I just compiled it from scratch.

Step-by-step solution:

1. download bluez-5.52 (or later) from here;
2. unpack: tar -xf bluez-5.52.tar.xz
3. go there: cd bluez-5.52
4. configure: ./configure
5. here I had libical missing. I installed it via sudo apt-get install libical-dev
6. since my previous configuration failed, I did it again: ./configure
7. compile: make
8. install: sudo make install
9. restart bluetooth machinery: sudo service bluetooth restart or just reboot your computer if you have a possibility: sudo reboot

That's it!

Important note: before restarting I returned my /etc/bluetooth/main.conf into the initial state, i.e. I commented out everything I've ever added there. In fact, I commented out everything.

I had a similar issue. I had to disconnect the Headphones, remove the headset, redo the setup and than switch to A2DP in the sound setting. Disconnecting and reconnecting them was the crucial part - just switching the profile didn't change anything. I had to do this twice until it eventually worked.

Note that apparently A2DP is unidirectional, so you can't use the microphones with A2DP - if you need to use the microphone as well, you are stuck to crappy sound.