Spontaneous SILENCE (AirPods Pro 3) - AUDIO DROPS OFF RANDOMLY

Hi, so I bought a brand new pair of AirPods (Pro 3) less than a week ago

(never had AirPods before, so this might be common?), mainly to use with my MacBook Pro (M1 MAX) ...

already, a handful of times, the audio has dropped, like it paused, or disconnected ...

BUT when I check, the video is still playing (YouTube), the headphones are connected

(bluetooth connected and AirPods still selected as the audio output), NOTHING HAS CHANGED ...

my point being, it's not like a call comes in, or a notification pops up, seemingly nothing is triggering it,

it just happens ... I tried 'forget this device' and reconnected them from scratch, same thing happened

like an hour later ... THE ONLY 'FIX' THAT WORKS (so far) is when I go to the menu bar and JUST PLAY

AROUND with the audio settings (switch from noise cancellation to transparency and back, then to

the mac audio and back, etc. etc.) until it magically decides to work again ... either that, or

put them in the case and take them out again ...

GETTING WORRIED I MIGHT HAVE TO RETURN THEM IF THIS CONTINUES ...

seams like an simple enough fix, I know, but I often put my earphones in and don't want to touch them

or the computer while I'm busy working, I might even be in the next room away from the Mac ...

this will be a lot more of a nuisance if I have to stop what I'm doing, take gloves off /

wash hands and go to another room to play around with settings every hour or so ...

HOPING someone knows an easy fix and I'm doing something wrong?

or maybe it's an actual bad pair and I should take them back to the Apple store?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT:

This has never happened with previous headphones, I've used many with this Mac.

By next room, I'm not leaving the bluetooth radius ... and I haven't had chance to be this unlucky yet,

I have always been sat at my desk when it has happened so far.

And, by bad pair, i mean faulty, is this maybe a rare fault and apple will trade them?