Comment by coldtea | Hacker News Reader

Comment by coldtea | Hacker News Reader

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I had the AirPods and AT MX50 but wanted NC for the office, so I bought the Sony WH1000MX3 (the highest rated, $400, wireless nc headphones with the best NC) before I got the AirPods Pro. Those were praised on reviews as beating the Bose NC (which was considered king until then).

They required me to manually disconnect from one device in order to connect to another (e.g. from laptop to phone or tablet). As far as first world problems go, it was a huge pain in the arse. And nobody cared to mention it in their reviews (found out later in forums it was just not supported).

I ended up preferring the AirPods Pro (and the slightly worse nc, but much lighter and automatically connecting) over them, and now I hardly ever use them. So those were $400 down the drain.

If those AirPods Max work like I want (which, judging from the AirPods Pro, they will), that would be a solid $500 spent without the remorse and dissapointment, which is much better than my Sony purchase...

I have the XM4s, and they support multi device connections - which is how I use them. They can be paired with up to 8 devices, can be connected to 2 devices at a time, and support one active audio stream.

I also have a similar experience, I hate the unpair-pair dance and just use my AirPods even though Sony has a better sound quality and a bit better ANC.

The new version (WH1000MX4, terrible naming scheme) supposedly have multi device support but I haven't experienced it yet so not sure if it's as smooth as the AirPods.

I have the XM4s, and the multi device support does work. My only real complaint with that is it has to be initially configured in the companion app, and enabling multi device support disables certain higher quality codecs. Once configured, the app isn't necessary for multi device switching.

I bought and sold my MX3s having had this exact experience, and have been waiting for Apple to release over ears so that I could have the same seamless experience I have with my AirPods Pro.

The number of times I’ve had to pull my laptop out of the overhead compartment on a flight to turn off Bluetooth so I could pair them with my iPad meant I eventually gave up using them. As you say, definitely a first world problem, but I guess that just means I’m in the target demographic.

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