[kishinmanglani]

I'm a sucker. I just bought them. I love being able to switch between my iPhone and my Mac on my AirPods.

I have the Sony MX3's, and they are great. I don't like toggling between devices and having it automatically connect to my last used device, have to disconnect it from one, blah, blah.

This is what Apple does. They raise prices. People are stunned initially. Others follow, then those prices are the norm. iPhone was considered overpriced when it was released. I think people have always thought the same about Macs, iPad, Apple Watch, etc.

[gwd]

My Bose QC35's connect to both my Macbook & my iPhone at the same time. Hit play on either one, and sound comes out. Listening to something on my laptop and someone calls? It rings and I can answer.

I'm sure the AirPods Max will be pretty awesome in its own way though.

[dijit]

I have the QC35's and I love them, but they have drawbacks.

the audio quality for calling is disastrous, disabling (or turning down the noise cancelling) is impossible without their App, and the "primary" source of audio overrides the secondary source. Which can be an issue if you have something the headphones 'think' is playing, but isn't. -- common when my linux laptop is the primary source.

[gwd]

> the audio quality for calling is disastrous, disabling (or turning down the noise cancelling) is impossible without their App

Do I have the QC35 II's or something then? There's a button on the side of mine which will change noise cancellation level.

At any rate, yeah, there are annoyances for sure. Keeping open two connections rather than having to switch is a definite improvement, IMHO.

[dragonwriter]

> Do I have the QC35 II's or something then? There's a button on the side of mine which will change noise cancellation level.

That button can be configured for that or for voice assistant activation, lots of people probably use it for the latter.

[dont__panic]

It seems a little silly to complain that a feature is missing from headphones when it actually exists, but the user has made an active choice to include a different feature instead. With always-on listening and easy activation from phones these days, I can't help but think that there's little reason to use the button to activate a voice assistant anyway. Not least of which is the dubious usefulness of voice assistants.

[dijit]

More like a passive choice as it’s what is configured out of the box.

And I don’t remember seeing this option in the Bose connect app either.

[Yaggo]

That's an excellent example of those seemingly minor but annoying issues which seems to be hard to get right without a complete control of the software-protocol-hardware stack (like Apple has). Also, that's the reason many are more than happy to pay Apple the "premium".

[bredren]

It’s not just about control of the hardware software stack, it’s about a dedication to providing a finished product.

Sometimes you need the former, but you always need the latter. Apple can be counted on to doing this more often and consistently than any other company.

[saddestcatever]

I really do like my QC35's, but I agree the primary issues are:

- I can have 2 connected sources of audio (ex: phone/laptop). However, only one works at a time. So when I get a spam phone call, I loose audio for my ongoing video call until I decline the ring. - I can't use wireless without turning on noise cancelling. This means, I can't really walk around and use them at the same time

[dragonwriter]

> I can't use wireless without turning on noise cancelling.

QC35, at least QC35 II can set any NC level, including “none”, from the Bose Connect app (or the accessory button, if it's set for that purpose instead of voice assistance activation) while turned on.

[ehsankia]

Does anyone know why multipoint is so rare? Is it hard to implement? Does it drain too much battery?

[pedroma]

Also wondering. Does a headphone like that even exist?

A BT headphone that can stream from 2 sources at the same time, mix the audio streams together, have the controls play/pause both sources at the same time, only use voice assistant from a primary source.

My guess is it's just too complex, and maybe there's no BT chip that can do 2 high quality audio streams at the same time that fits the power requirements for a 20hr headphone experience.

What I do is use an A2DP sink that sort of does this. But I need a Windows machine that pairs with all my BT sources, it mixes the audio output from the sources (along with the Windows audio), and outputs it to the default audio output. It's quite nice if you don't like taking your headphones on/off all the time.

[ehsankia]

I don't think there's mixing, but normal Multipoint keeps both connections alive, and switches to whichever has active audio coming. It can be a little annoying if you have notification sound on your phone stealing the attention, but generally it works pretty well.

But again, simple multipoint support seems to be pretty rare. I think the newest WH-1000X M4 finally added it, the Microsoft Surface headphones also have really good ones, and that's kinda it.

Some devices like Samsung instead use a fast switch, I think that's what Apple is doing here too?

[propelol]

It becomes almost unusable when you connect the third device.

[fastball]

My $50 headphones do this.

Also they fast charge with USB-C.

[yoavm]

What's the model?

[fastball]

https://www.amazon.com/Cancelling-Headphones-TaoTronics-Blue...

Forgot to mention they have active noise cancellation too.

[burlesona]

Ok, can you explain to me how you do it? I have AirPod pros and the only way I can switch between devices is to go to the Bluetooth menu on the device I want to listen to and tell it to connect to the AirPods. That’s fine, and it doesn’t bother me much, but it doesn’t seem especially fast or magical to me. Is there a better way?

[mjburgess]

That's right. It's just not that easy with other devices.

Not sure how apple devices "just switch", it might be that they have multi-device bluetooth; or they have custom hardware.

But other devices are very "sticky" with their BT connections. My approach is mostly to turn off bluetooth one one device when I want to switch to another.

[fuzzylightbulb]

I have a pair of Jabra 65T active earbuds that I bought for $50 and they connect to multiple devices at a time and "just work". If they are connected to my computer and I am watching a video and my phone rings, they switch over without any intervention. At the end of the day when I hop on my Peloton they connect to that without intervention, too.

I am sure the Apple stuff works well too but let's not pretend that they are doing anything unique in this space.

[BoorishBears]

The most popular PC Operating System out there will just steal BT audio connections any time it can.

If your phone to PC handoff works after calls in a way you like, I take it as you just have a use case where bad behavior works in your favor.

After all, what happens if someone wants to continue using their phone audio after the call?

Or use BT with their phone outside of a call?

[spop]

With most BT devices the problem would be if someone else tried to use your Peloton, it'd steal audio from your PC or phone

But Peloton remembers your previously paired audio devices per user; so if someone else uses the bike and has never explicitly paired that set of headphones, they'll show up as an option, but won't automatically pair

[0x008]

Proprietary blue tooth implementation most likely?

[Aaronn]

If your devices are on iOS 14 / macOS Big Sur then you can just start playing music or a video on one device and the audio automatically switches to that device and pauses on the one you had previously been using.

[bdcravens]

Each device has a native place you select the Airpods from (MacOS: sound menu; iOS: the playback widget in the Control Center). Still a menu, but a little easier to going into the bluetooth menu.

[ps]

Happy for you, however my mileage is completely different. Watching Youtube on the iPad having my iPhone lying next to it, pausing the video by taking one Airpod off. Then put it back and iPhone immediately steals AirPods Pro and I have to either connect them back to the iPad in Settings or play/pause/play/pause/... and wait about 20s seconds and they may reconnect. iPhone is lying face down all the time, no music or any sound activity in progress for hours.

I was initially impressed, but the quirks got more and more frequent and I actually hate the broken switching now.

[malshe]

I think you are describing this behavior: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/switch-airpods-automa...

You can turn it off by doing this:

"To turn off automatic switching, go to Settings > Bluetooth, tap the Actions Available button next to the name of your AirPods, tap Connect to This iPhone, then tap When Last Connected to This iPhone."

[ps]

Heard about it but I would love to use switching if it worked :-( Btw the “AirPods connected” notification visible on the iPad while the built-in speakers are screaming at everyone around me is phenomenal.

[saberdancer]

Toggling between devices really needs to be implemented better. Wouldn't it be possible for headphones to have a button to switch "inputs" between devices they are paired to?

I've come to use NFC to switch quickly to my phone, but I can't really NFC back to my PC as easily. Several awkward clicks and menus later I can start using them on my PC. Not a huge deal sure, but for a premium device I'd expect something more streamlined.

[turshija]

I own Bose QC35II, and they definitely have a button to switch between paired devices. They do the switch automatically based on whether the sound is playing on your devices, but if both devices are playing audio at the same time you need to switch them manually by pushing the switch to Bluetooth position once (if you push and hold it goes into pairing mode, but pushing and releasing it quickly does the toggle).

[saberdancer]

It's possible I just don't know how to use it, so I'm hoping someone can shed some light on it. I have XM4s.

[jc__denton]

You can turn on multipoint and switch sources in the app, but it's clumsy. AFAIK, there's no way to do it on the device itself (and that's disappointing). I loathe having to disconnect one source to connect another.

[eCa]

> Wouldn't it be possible for headphones to have a button to switch "inputs" between devices they are paired to?

Bose QC35 has such a switch toggle. It can be paired with four devices, and connected with two simultaneously. Switching between my private Windows computer, iphone and work-Mac is pretty flawless.

[whyoh]

>but I can't really NFC back to my PC as easily

It should be doable with an NFC sticker switch. (With NFC Tasks on Android, for example.)

[bhandziuk]

This is why (well one of the reasons) I just can't switch to bluetooth anything. If I want to use with multiple devices it's a pain.

[e40]

My $350 Bose QC35s connect to both my iPhone and Mac Pro. Seemlessly.

[iqihs]

the mic is hot garbage on those

[0x008]

If the mic on the AirPods max is anything like the AirPods Pro it will be hot garbage as well.

[justinsaccount]

Sony fixed the multi device pairing in the mx4.. would be nice if they could just do a software update to fix it on the mx3.

[te_chris]

or xm2

[buttersbrian]

the Sony MX4's do this as well. They also are likely better at Sound and ANC.

The thing with the iphone is it was absolutely segment shattering.

Your iPhone comparison falls on deaf ears, as this isn't a defining product like the iPhone. The iPhone was stunning enough that people questioned the audacity. This is by comparison -- pedestrian for the price point.

[vincentmarle]

> I love being able to switch between my iPhone and my Mac on my AirPods.

Is there some secret feature of Airpods that I don’t know about? I use Airpods everyday, but I still need to go to Settings > Bluetooth > Connect every time to change devices.

[microtherion]

I use the AirPlay icon in Control Center: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202769

[deanclatworthy]

This requires the same clicks as long press (or force touch) on bluetooth icon in control center.

[microtherion]

True, but I think either of those is a bit easier than going through the preferences app like the parent post was describing.

[KX2UOWQ9ZN]

Don't think this is new. I have bose supersport, been using it for a couple of years perhaps. Battery lasts weeks, connects to both my work and personal phone as soon as I turn it on, and hit play on either device. And, I don't remember ever facing any connectivity issues either, just works since the day I paired.

I am not sure what other features airpods have but if this is "the" feature, you can have it even in products for about a fifth the price since years.

[_imba_]

Most newest gen premium headphones can do that, Sony MX4 included.

[dkonofalski]

No they can't. Not automatically.

[xvector]

Uh, what? They absolutely can. I don’t have to do a single thing to switch sources. They automatically pick up the device that is playing sound.

[dkonofalski]

Only between 2 sources. Airpods can switch seamlessly between all my Apple devices without me needing to do anything. The only exception is my PC since I have to connect via Bluetooth.

[valarauko]

How many (Apple) devices can be simultaneously paired with the Airpods?

[dkonofalski]

As many as are synced via iCloud. I currently can switch between iPhone, iPad, Mac (multiples), Macbooks (multiples), and Apple TV and also Apple Watch. I also have them paired with my gaming PC and some gaming consoles but those don't automatically switch. I have to go into a Bluetooth menu and connect them but that's quick and no different from most Bluetooth headsets. The in-ecosystem stuff is the killer piece for me.

[bhaile]

XM4 can. https://helpguide.sony.net/mdr/wh1000xm4/v1/en/contents/TP00...

[dkonofalski]

That's not the same thing. With Airpods, I can start a video on my iPhone, switch to my iPad for a bit, walk over to my Mac and listen for a bit, and then turn on the Apple TV and watch a show and they switch to every device seamlessly. If I use handoff from one device to the other, I can even do that same process with the same video and switch from device to device without doing anything with the Airpods.

[_the_inflator]

Apple takes care of the minor details that just bug you. Same here. Also got Sony MX and it annoys me to sync them between my iPad and Mac.

[NationalPark]

Same boat here. I've already spent thousands of dollars on fancy audiophile stuff. Can you guess what I use to listen to music most? My Airpods, because everything about them is so damn convenient. Can't wait to get these, even if they don't sound quite as good as the ideal set.

[bitcharmer]

I'm not an audiophile myself, but if you yourself claim to be one and then state you settled for Airpods something here rings very untrue.

[NationalPark]

Maybe I'm not as discerning as some but I grew up with music and a lot of hands on experience listening, writing, and producing it, including some professional training. I dunno, I guess for me, the bluetooth experience + noise cancelling + transparency + phone integration all just adds up to being worth more than the marginal quality improvement from the prosumer alternatives people have been mentioning.

After all, anyone who really cares about audio quality is listening on monitors in their sound isolated home studio /s

[petre]

Audiophile and Bluetooth is a contradiction in terms.

[jordache]

>Audiophile and Bluetooth is a contradiction in terms.

Not true.

Yes, bluetooth compression puts a ceiling on audio quality. However, the majority of sound output devices are so crappy that they don't even exercise the full bluetooh potential.

So if you couple quality sound output system with a bluetooh source, they can still sound much better than bluetooth + crappy headphone + crappy speakers.

[bitcharmer]

Yes, that's the first thing that struck me in their comment. It just doesn't sound genuine.

[NationalPark]

Ah you got me, I'm a paid Apple shill, here to spread lies. When I woke up this morning, all I could think of was fooling hackernews user bitcharmer, but it seems I have failed, probably due to your exceptional intellect and commitment to talking about products you hate.

Could it possibly be that I'm actually just a rich guy who owns both fancy audiophile equipment and fancy Apple products, and happens to have his own opinions about them? Is such a thing even legal?

[bitcharmer]

Why the snark? We're just calling out the obvious inconsistency.

[bhandziuk]

Spending money on "fancy audiophile stuff" isn't necessarily the same as being an audiophile.