Reviewers all missed the best thing about Airpods Max

[crymimefireworks]

This is 90% of the reason I got the AirPods Max...but I've never seen it mentioned in a review or comment.

Connecting and Switching is sooooooo smooth. It's 10X better than every other over-ear headphone out there at connecting and switching.

Connecting - I pick em up, put them on, they go bing and are connected to my 16" MBP and I hear sound playing within 5 seconds. No on-off needed, they seem to to to sleep and preserve battery. With my XM3s I either needed to press a button or the battery died if I didn't remember to them off. Frustrating every tjme.

Switching - Switching Airpods Max between idevices is smooth too. I pick up another device, start playing a video, the sound switches over. Seamless. Sometimes even too smooth, I'll be using my iPhone and check something on my iPad and the audio switches over to an ad or gif on the iPad. A little annoying...I tried turning off automatic switching but then you have to manually connect everytime. The false positive isn't frequent enough to outweigh the benefit of auto connect. There's some kind of a popup "connect" sometimes bht it seems to connect whether I press it or not. (edit - I disabled Autoplay in Accessibility settings just now, maybe that will stop ads)

With XM3s, switching between devices was a nightmare. Felt like I had to reset the XM3s and re-pair every time. Because of that I only used them with my laptop amd didn't switch. Connecting XM3s was the worst part of my day. They sound and fit fine of course.

And that's it. That's why i upgraded. I love it. I wish all Bluetooth headphones could be this seamless, Apple should open it up as an option for other manufacturers. There's no reason the XM3s couldn't be this smooth except they don't have Apple's bluetooth chip.

 

[johntw]

Agreed. It is the best experience I have had with auto device switching.

I actually tried them a few months ago, and wasn't sure they were worth it so I returned. I caved and tried them again this week and am loving them for music and head-tracking Spatial Audio. Can't wait tvOS 15 to allow switching to that device as seamless as others plus head-tracking.

 

[jazz1]

This is 90% of the reason I got the AirPods Max...but I've never seen it mentioned in a review or comment.

Connecting and Switching is sooooooo smooth. It's 10X better than every other over-ear headphone out there at connecting and switching.

Connecting - I pick em up, put them on, they go bing and are connected to my 16" MBP and I hear sound playing within 5 seconds. No on-off needed, they seem to to to sleep and preserve battery. With my XM3s I either needed to press a button or the battery died if I didn't remember to them off. Frustrating every tjme.

Switching - Switching Airpods Max between idevices is smooth too. I pick up another device, start playing a video, the sound switches over. Seamless. Sometimes even too smooth, I'll be using my iPhone and check something on my iPad and the audio switches over to an ad or gif on the iPad. A little annoying...I tried turning off automatic switching but then you have to manually connect everytime. The false positive isn't frequent enough to outweigh the benefit of auto connect. There's some kind of a popup "connect" sometimes bht it seems to connect whether I press it or not. (edit - I disabled Autoplay in Accessibility settings just now, maybe that will stop ads)

With XM3s, switching between devices was a nightmare. Felt like I had to reset the XM3s and re-pair every time. Because of that I only used them with my laptop amd didn't switch. Connecting XM3s was the worst part of my day. They sound and fit fine of course.

And that's it. That's why i upgraded. I love it. I wish all Bluetooth headphones could be this seamless, Apple should open it up as an option for other manufacturers. There's no reason the XM3s couldn't be this smooth except they don't have Apple's bluetooth chip.

I’m not having a problem with audio switching to my iPad. But I run ad blockers. Maybe tha will help you?

 

[bigshot]

I'm using an app called Sound Booster on my iMac. It refuses to let go to the APMs. I also have problems because I have several things in close proximity that all can use bluetooth. I always have to manually connect. It never guesses right.

 

[crymimefireworks]

I’m not having a problem with audio switching to my iPad. But I run ad blockers. Maybe tha will help you?

That's helpful!

 

[jazz1]

That's helpful!

I do note that if I'm listening to Apple Music, and I go to watch a YouTube video, Apple Music stops. I then have to go back to Apple Music and hit "play" to start up where I left off.

 

[crymimefireworks]

On this note, anyone else notice the behavior has changed in the last few weeks? There's now a 5 second or so pause when switching - same thing happens with Airpod Pros so this isn't about the Max specifically.

1. put in airpods
2. *bwomp*
3. Press play on video
4. Screen shows "airpods connected"
5. video plays silently for 5 sec
5. Sound plays on Airpods

 

[johntw]

I believe it needs that time to re-sync the audio/video. Seems to happen with YouTube more than other apps for me. Same applies to wearing AirPods, removing them, video pauses automatically, and then manually click play to resume... takes time for audio time to re-sync to playback on device's internal speakers.

 

[NastyMatt]

Great until you are on a work call on your MBP and your kids start playing on your IPP and it auto switches!!!

 

[xraydoc]

Great until you are on a work call on your MBP and your kids start playing on your IPP and it auto switches!!!

You know Apple says the solution is to buy your kids their own iPad, lol.

 

[JCCL]

This is 90% of the reason I got the AirPods Max...but I've never seen it mentioned in a review or comment.

Connecting and Switching is sooooooo smooth. It's 10X better than every other over-ear headphone out there at connecting and switching.

Connecting - I pick em up, put them on, they go bing and are connected to my 16" MBP and I hear sound playing within 5 seconds. No on-off needed, they seem to to to sleep and preserve battery. With my XM3s I either needed to press a button or the battery died if I didn't remember to them off. Frustrating every tjme.

Switching - Switching Airpods Max between idevices is smooth too. I pick up another device, start playing a video, the sound switches over. Seamless. Sometimes even too smooth, I'll be using my iPhone and check something on my iPad and the audio switches over to an ad or gif on the iPad. A little annoying...I tried turning off automatic switching but then you have to manually connect everytime. The false positive isn't frequent enough to outweigh the benefit of auto connect. There's some kind of a popup "connect" sometimes bht it seems to connect whether I press it or not. (edit - I disabled Autoplay in Accessibility settings just now, maybe that will stop ads)

With XM3s, switching between devices was a nightmare. Felt like I had to reset the XM3s and re-pair every time. Because of that I only used them with my laptop amd didn't switch. Connecting XM3s was the worst part of my day. They sound and fit fine of course.

And that's it. That's why i upgraded. I love it. I wish all Bluetooth headphones could be this seamless, Apple should open it up as an option for other manufacturers. There's no reason the XM3s couldn't be this smooth except they don't have Apple's bluetooth chip.

Except if you use iPhone and PC........that's a nightmare. XM4 improvements are multi-device pairing. I just use them seamlessly between my iPhone and PC. AirPods Pro have been relegated to be used with my Apple Watch on my daily walk with my dog.