First moments of audiobook speaking cuts out after any pauses, when using bluetooth earbuds.

I'm listening to an audio book using iPhone 14 pro max and some generic Bluetooth ear buds.

Whenever the speaking starts up again after any pause, the first second or two is missing, so the first few words of a sentence are inaudible and then you distinctly hear the volume quickly turn up and the rest of the speaking is normal, until the next pause.

It seems a bit like the old fashioned VOX systems you had on hands-free walkie talkies and radio coms, where the system muted the volume until it detected speech, but there was always that brief delay between volume going on and off, so you often missed the first few words when someone started speaking.

Is there some setting I need to adjust to stop this?

Appreciate any assistance.

Thanks.