Yeah. I remember my reason for switching to AirPods Max.
My Sony xm3 kept connecting to the laptop in my backpack - which was asleep - when I was getting on my bike.
I had to unpair my phone and re-pair it to force it to "own" the headphones. It was such a pita.
That really was the biggest value add of the Apple headphones, and it works absolutely great. It almost (a 99.5%+ kind of almost) always connects to the device I want it to connect to, right away.
It's a pity though that they have the common issues of Bluetooth, and turning on the microphone immediately kills the sound quality... It's one of the cases where I'd appreciate them just using a proprietary protocol. The headphones basically only work well with Apple devices anyway.
I had the Bose QC35 IIs and had the exact same issue. My work laptop was in sleep mode and still they decided to keep connecting to it.
I had to either open up the mobile app, wait for it to do its stuff and force a disconnect with the laptop OR get up, walk to the laptop, open it, turn off BT and close it again.
Ordered AirPods Max and I've had pretty much zero issues since.
I can walk from my computer to the TV and Apple TV will prompt me to connect to it with one button. I can grab my phone, walk away and the headphones will move to the phone automatically. Magic.
For non apple headphones I just hold the power button when I turn them on so they go into pairing move and pair again to the device. (Mainly switching between laptops) I wish apple did over ear headphones for like $200 instead of $600.
I have two versions of Sennheiser Momentum, but I decided to “trial” the AirPods Max by buying them with the intent of return, because they’re over half a grand $$$.
After literally minutes of use, the thought to return them evaporated just as quickly.
Pretty much all because of the seamless connection.
To be fair to the Sennheisers, they are durable: they survived contact with a wall at least twice.
I have an XM3 also. Only occasionally does it try to pair with the wrong device. That might have a lot to do with me turning bluetooth off on unused devices though. However, in the rare instances where it does connect to the wrong device, I hold the power button down which forces it to enter pairing mode and disconnect. And almost always, the device I want to use will then connect. It hasn't happened often enough to be an annoyance yet.
I have XM3. Hold power for 7 seconds and it will enter pairing mode. Fairly minor issue for me as I mostly use them for coding. Amazing headphones otherwise.
What bugs me about this UI is that there is another button on the headphones that I NEVER use. Why can't that just be the pairing button? Or maybe their top-of-the-line headphone model could have... Three buttons?
Also if you have a phone with NFC (or possibly any device with NFC other than an iPhone) you can just slide the device over the NFC logo and it will switch over to being paired with that device. Really convenient when switching from my computer to phone.
Bluesnooze[1] mostly resolved this issue for me on MacOS. I also own the XM3s, as well as non-Apple Bluetooth earbuds (Edifier X3), neither of which support multiple devices.
>Bluesnooze prevents your sleeping Mac from connecting to Bluetooth accessories.
I generally just put my XM3s straight into pairing mode and then select them from the device I want to use them on. Otherwise they are bound to pair to the wrong device, usually my sleeping mbp.
Apple creates the problem by leaving bluetooth on in the first place. When I close the lid on my laptop, no power, no external monitor, I would expect it to be sleeping. This is also a security issue. Thieves can detect that you left your laptop in the trunk of your car.
My Sony xm3 kept connecting to the laptop in my backpack - which was asleep - when I was getting on my bike.
I had to unpair my phone and re-pair it to force it to "own" the headphones. It was such a pita.
That really was the biggest value add of the Apple headphones, and it works absolutely great. It almost (a 99.5%+ kind of almost) always connects to the device I want it to connect to, right away.
It's a pity though that they have the common issues of Bluetooth, and turning on the microphone immediately kills the sound quality... It's one of the cases where I'd appreciate them just using a proprietary protocol. The headphones basically only work well with Apple devices anyway.