Two Devices at Once Costs You LDAC

The feature has a price, and only one maker prints it. Sony’s Help Guide says that turning on two-device mode means “LDAC cannot be used. The codec is automatically switched to the connection by AAC or SBC.”

So the headline codec you may have paid for is off for as long as your laptop and your phone are both connected. Not degraded. Off.

What “seamlessly” is doing in that sentence

Bose’s product page describes the same feature in one line: with multipoint “you can seamlessly connect to two devices simultaneously via Bluetooth.” No caveat, and none is owed on a product page.

Sony’s manual, describing what looks like the same thing, says something a buyer would not guess. Start playback on the second device while the first is still playing and nothing happens — the first keeps playing, and you have to stop it before the second is heard. Switching is manual in the only sense that matters: you do it, the headphones do not.

Both statements can be true of one feature name, which is the problem. Two devices connected is the specification. Which one you hear is a behaviour, and it is not in the specification.

The app is part of the feature

Sony’s mode is not a button on the headset. The Help Guide tells you to install the Sony Headphones Connect app on one of the two devices and enable [Connect to 2 devices simultaneously] there, then connect the second device.

That is worth knowing before you buy a pair for someone who will never install the app, and worth knowing if you are the sort of person who would rather not run a manufacturer’s app at all. On those headphones, refusing the app means refusing the feature.

What happens with a third device

One rule, and it is sensible once stated: connect a third device and the headphones keep the one that played music most recently and drop the other. The device you were last listening to survives; the one merely sitting in standby does not.

Apple’s version is a different mechanism wearing similar words

AirPods switch between devices too, and it is not multipoint. Apple’s guide is specific: it works when you are signed in to the same Apple Account on the devices, and then the AirPods follow whatever you start playing. Apple also publishes a separate page for pairing AirPods with a non-Apple device, which is the tell — an iPhone and a Windows laptop are not one account, so this is not the thing that helps you there.

Neither approach is better in the abstract. They fail differently, which is the useful part: Apple’s depends on an account, Sony’s depends on an app, and only Sony’s costs you a codec.

Three things to check before buying

1. Find the maker’s manual, not the product page. Search the model name and “help guide” or “manual”. The caveat that matters is in the manual, and on Sony’s models it is in a Note at the bottom of the page.
2. Decide whether you actually use LDAC. If you listen on an iPhone you never had it — our piece on what the codecs really deliver has the rest. If you listen on Android and chose LDAC deliberately, two-device mode is a real trade rather than a free convenience.
3. Check what switching costs in calls, which is the case people actually buy this for. A second incoming call while you are already talking rings on the phone, not in your ears, and call audio is the weakest link in the chain anyway.

Bose has since announced a second-generation pair and a cheaper Sport model, both with two-device multipoint; what separates the three on paper includes which ones Bose says support aptX Adaptive.

If you are shopping rather than diagnosing, our headphone shortlist and earbud shortlist rank what the reviews agree on, and neither ranking moves on this feature — because on the evidence above, what “multipoint” gets you depends on whose manual you are reading.