Sound issues with Epix gen 2 and AirPod 4. Constant sound glitching and dropping out.

I am having issues with music functionality with my Epix gen 2 and AirPod 4. I have issues with songs glitching or dropping sound completely. If I pause the song then wait a sec or two then unpause it, it will resume playing. Unfortunately I have to do this for like every other song, it’s very annoying. Now with the newest update, the volume functionality no longer works and I can barely hear music. I have reported issues to Garmin and sent video of this issue and was given a reference number, however when I follow up with Garmin they “know nothing about it”. I have followed their instructions for trouble shooting with no fixes. I’ve done a factory reset of watch and AirPod 4s were even replaced by Apple thinking it was an AirPod issue, however it has now been confirmed as a Garmin issue. I’ve disconnected and reconnected the Bluetooth. I’ve tried everything advised by Garmin in their generic copy and paste responses and nothing has worked. This has been going on for quite some time with zero help from Garmin. Any suggestions would be helpful! At this point I have an expensive watch that is not compatible with AirPod 4s. I have tested the AirPod 4 with an old Garmin forerunner 745 and they have no issues, so it appears to be specific to the epix/fenix line of Garmin software.