diff --git a/.gitlab-ci/variables.yml b/.gitlab-ci/variables.yml
index c57217c034cae6e042f5a55858099b7f4f88778e..817be6f79192020444bed06f80489de19fdd3cf1 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci/variables.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci/variables.yml
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ variables:
   LOGS_BACKUP_SOURCE_DIR: ""
   LOGS_BACKUP_TARGET_DIR: ""
   # set this to true to skip the external HRTF testcases in pytest calls
-  DISABLE_HRTF: "true"
+  DISABLE_HRTF: "false"
   MANUAL_PIPELINE_TYPE:
     description: "Type for the manual pipeline run. Use 'pytest-compare' to run comparison test against reference float codec."
     value: 'default'