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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 s

by gwd 6y ago

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 6y ago
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 6y ago
  > 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 6y ago
    > 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 6y ago
      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 6y ago
        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 6y ago
  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 6y ago
    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 6y ago
  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 6y ago
    > 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.
fastball 6y ago
My $50 headphones do this. Also they fast charge with USB-C.
- yoavm 6y ago
  What's the model?
  - fastball 6y ago
    https://www.amazon.com/Cancelling-Headphones-TaoTronics-Bluetooth-Wireless/dp/B082LQDT2C https://www.amazon.com/Cancelling-Headphones-TaoTronics-Blue... Forgot to mention they have active noise cancellation too.
propelol 6y ago
It becomes almost unusable when you connect the third device.
ehsankia 6y ago
Does anyone know why multipoint is so rare? Is it hard to implement? Does it drain too much battery?
- pedroma 6y ago
  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 6y ago
    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?

by gwd 6y ago

dijit 6y ago

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 6y ago
> 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 6y ago
  > 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 6y ago
    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 6y ago
      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 6y ago
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 6y ago
  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 6y ago
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 6y ago
  > 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.

fastball 6y ago

My $50 headphones do this. Also they fast charge with USB-C.

yoavm 6y ago
What's the model?
- fastball 6y ago
  https://www.amazon.com/Cancelling-Headphones-TaoTronics-Bluetooth-Wireless/dp/B082LQDT2C https://www.amazon.com/Cancelling-Headphones-TaoTronics-Blue... Forgot to mention they have active noise cancellation too.

propelol 6y ago

It becomes almost unusable when you connect the third device.

ehsankia 6y ago

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

pedroma 6y ago
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 6y ago
  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?