Meanwhile the ANC switch is sitting there all the time, I mean "hold to power off" isn't such an impossible task since the button is already there?
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AirPods Max Customer Impressions: Premium Design and Competitive Sound Quality, Can Feel Heavy on Ears and Smart Case is Useless
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Meanwhile the ANC switch is sitting there all the time, I mean "hold to power off" isn't such an impossible task since the button is already there?
I'm sure many more people can tell the difference for such an extreme comparison, they just don't care... and I really can't understand how anyone can tolerate the EarPods that came with previous iPhones. And since I have big ears, even normal AirPods (non-Pro) are unacceptable.
But a PARTICULAR YouTube guy didn’t say it so it MUST be false LOL!
Comparing, they sound better than my B&O H7’s. Obviously not a direct comparison but figured I’d share.
The build quality is marvelous. The weight doesn’t bother me.
I’m looking forward to the accessories.
This is a very high quality analysis. Soundstage on closed-back headphones is generally garbage, but if Apple were able to achieve this spacious sound while being closed back then they have the potential to be the best-of-all-worlds.
Perhaps the gen 2 will have better balance in terms of weight, price and carrying case.
My main issue is that they look a bit ... bland and boring
Remind me of some 70s beyer studio headphones I once had .
No doubt mk 2 version will be a big improvement.. true apple
Remind me of some 70s beyer studio headphones I once had .
No doubt mk 2 version will be a big improvement.. true apple
Titaniium probably. Stainless is the heavy part. Aluminium or Magnesium would also be lighter but they'd have to improve the design to avoid stressing those with all the bending. There's nothing wrong with plastic anyway, it can be a premium feeling material, it just generally isn't used that way.
Yeah well my Beats Solo Pro shows no drop in a week or two while being folded (turned off), unused. Ultra low power mode isn't power-off. I can't really see any reason why the ANC button wouldn't also be used as a power switch.
I don’t think wireless and audiophile mix.
People ignorant enough to believe they get audiophile sound out of a Bluetooth connection however will absolutely be interested.
Wait, so you think Apple developed these with the pandemic in mind? I hate to inform you that people being confined at home had ZERO to do with anything in the development of these headphones. These have been in development for years and there is not one shred of the AirPods Pro Max that as ANYTHING to do with the Pandemic. Thank you for the laugh on that one though.
I never said that no one watched movies with headphones at home, so give me a break. I said its comical that people are defending the weight of these by saying that their intended use was to sit home and watch movies with these. That is one use for them, but not the only intended use.
And you have absolutely no clue with Apple design intention for these headphones are. They are wireless headphones and wireless headphones are meant for travel. In Apple's own ad for these it shows a woman wearing them out on the street blocking out traffic, so I'm pretty sure that Apple realized when they developed these that they were developing a set of headphones for people to use out in public.
Thanks for your insights.
I don't foresee this product doing well in the market. I DO foresee it selling for $1000 NIB on eBay in 10 years.
Forget the useless case or stupid lightning connector (seriously, how much longer?). But the heavy weight is a deal breaker for me. I have high-end (but a bit old now) Sony headphones, but they are heavy and after a while become really uncomfortable. Will not ever buy heavy headphones again.
For me the price is not really an issue if the sound quality is as great as I think it is. Imho Apple is surprisingly good with Audio.
But if the headphones need to be placed in the stupid case to get them to power down is a deal braker for me. I really wish they would have done some simple stand using magnets and wireless charging and would have done a more traditional box case.
But if the headphones need to be placed in the stupid case to get them to power down is a deal braker for me. I really wish they would have done some simple stand using magnets and wireless charging and would have done a more traditional box case.
AirPods products generally don’t cater to audiophile audiences. Great in many other respects of course.
Audio is so subjective and the internet is losing their collective mind over these headphones which probably indicates they’re going to do pretty well.
These are the best closed-back headphones I’ve ever heard, but I haven’t heard the Sennheiser 820 which I assume would be better overall at 3x the cost and requiring a great, separate, amplifier. Not all songs sound impressive but the ones that do sound REALLY good.
These headphones are very revealing; I’ve heard 3-4 things I’ve never heard or noticed before in certain songs out of probably ~40 listened to so far. That’s impressive. Instrument separation is magnificent, the soundstage is less so but still pretty good and excellent for closed back headphones. They do accurately reproduce intentional distortion, particularly on drums which most other headphones and speakers do not. If you hear this you might assume that the audio quality is poor but I’m nearly positive the few places I’ve heard it have been producer / mixing engineer decisions, because listening to very well mixed albums this has not happened at all. It’s extremely common to add intentional distortion to the drum bus because it makes them more bombastic which people tend to like.
I’ve only listened to Apple music (and concert itunes films, omg) so far, and there could be some special sauce going on there because at least initially with the HomePod I remember Apple Music sounding better than airplay streaming to them with a different source. I have the $35 cable but I’m waiting on a balanced high-end adapter to convert the 1/8 plug to 1/4 for my pro audio equipment.
If you like any of the concert films on itunes I recommend buying one to treat yourself to. I bought Metallica S&M on itunes (which seems to have no menu or chapter markers FYI) and Master of Puppets sounds probably the best I’ve ever heard it on headphones period. I don’t know if it’s getting 5.1 and doing a stellar DSP job with the positional audio (I hate the default 5.1 mix on a surround system for that specific album) but sweet hell it’s amazingly good and for me maybe worth the price alone since that’s my favorite album. I wish I could turn off the positional audio in a way that kept it locked but ignored my relative position / head motion, but that probably doesn’t make sense for 99% of the use cases - actual films.
Enter Sandman from the Black Album sounds excellent and evoked a similar feeling to hearing it on my McIntosh tube stereo which is about 20x the cost of these headphones. And that’s wirelessly with lossy audio. Every song on that album wasn’t blowing me away impressive, Nothing Else Matters sounds clearly better on my HD700s. I have a Pono player with that album in HD quality so I’m looking forward to getting the adapter and seeing how it works there, as well as with a tube preamp.
Some things, particularly distorted guitar, just sound incredibly good and accurate. I heard fret noise in a City and Color song I’ve never heard before. Fret noise on an electric guitar! They nailed the ’sizzle’ that good producers put into tracks; the treble overall is nearly as good as my more expensive Sennheiser headphones and whatever the DSP is doing is really pulling it out of the songs in a way that is very pleasing. I have Tannoy studio monitors for my high end stereo - I prefer natural sounding / flat response (with tube amp/preamp to smooth things out) / wide open soundstage, and I really like these AirPods Max for what they are. I’ve had Sony XM3 headphones for traveling for a couple of years and while they’re decent, not once did they make me say “wow, this sounds exactly like my guitar amp” and on day one the AirPods Max had that impact on a particular song. These are a league above if they work with the track you’re listening to. Poorly mixed audio sounds pretty bad on these which surprises me because I would have assumed they would err on the side of the mass market, but thankfully even modern Pop has amazing production now. (Lover by Taylor Swift comes to mind as a standout example).
The noise canceling seems to work well and transparent audio is decent, but I think the AirPods pro do transparent audio better - these slightly amplify the environment in a way that the AirPods pro do not. I turned the ANC / Transparent audio totally off for critical music listening and it seemed to make a small positive difference in quality.
This is where Apple is pretty special, they can democratize a really fancy thing down to a relatively mass audience. The ease of set-up / device switching / wireless / ANC / positional audio for films / premium build (outside of the God awful case) make these a no brainer if you have the disposable income. If your head or ear shape doesn’t work out with them at least they have a generous return policy. The weight is a non-issue for me and not a lot greater than my other high end headphones.
I hope we get an owners thread where folks share great songs to enjoy rather than arguing about headphones they don’t own or won’t buy, but it is the internet.
Happy listening!
These are the best closed-back headphones I’ve ever heard, but I haven’t heard the Sennheiser 820 which I assume would be better overall at 3x the cost and requiring a great, separate, amplifier. Not all songs sound impressive but the ones that do sound REALLY good.
These headphones are very revealing; I’ve heard 3-4 things I’ve never heard or noticed before in certain songs out of probably ~40 listened to so far. That’s impressive. Instrument separation is magnificent, the soundstage is less so but still pretty good and excellent for closed back headphones. They do accurately reproduce intentional distortion, particularly on drums which most other headphones and speakers do not. If you hear this you might assume that the audio quality is poor but I’m nearly positive the few places I’ve heard it have been producer / mixing engineer decisions, because listening to very well mixed albums this has not happened at all. It’s extremely common to add intentional distortion to the drum bus because it makes them more bombastic which people tend to like.
I’ve only listened to Apple music (and concert itunes films, omg) so far, and there could be some special sauce going on there because at least initially with the HomePod I remember Apple Music sounding better than airplay streaming to them with a different source. I have the $35 cable but I’m waiting on a balanced high-end adapter to convert the 1/8 plug to 1/4 for my pro audio equipment.
If you like any of the concert films on itunes I recommend buying one to treat yourself to. I bought Metallica S&M on itunes (which seems to have no menu or chapter markers FYI) and Master of Puppets sounds probably the best I’ve ever heard it on headphones period. I don’t know if it’s getting 5.1 and doing a stellar DSP job with the positional audio (I hate the default 5.1 mix on a surround system for that specific album) but sweet hell it’s amazingly good and for me maybe worth the price alone since that’s my favorite album. I wish I could turn off the positional audio in a way that kept it locked but ignored my relative position / head motion, but that probably doesn’t make sense for 99% of the use cases - actual films.
Enter Sandman from the Black Album sounds excellent and evoked a similar feeling to hearing it on my McIntosh tube stereo which is about 20x the cost of these headphones. And that’s wirelessly with lossy audio. Every song on that album wasn’t blowing me away impressive, Nothing Else Matters sounds clearly better on my HD700s. I have a Pono player with that album in HD quality so I’m looking forward to getting the adapter and seeing how it works there, as well as with a tube preamp.
Some things, particularly distorted guitar, just sound incredibly good and accurate. I heard fret noise in a City and Color song I’ve never heard before. Fret noise on an electric guitar! They nailed the ’sizzle’ that good producers put into tracks; the treble overall is nearly as good as my more expensive Sennheiser headphones and whatever the DSP is doing is really pulling it out of the songs in a way that is very pleasing. I have Tannoy studio monitors for my high end stereo - I prefer natural sounding / flat response (with tube amp/preamp to smooth things out) / wide open soundstage, and I really like these AirPods Max for what they are. I’ve had Sony XM3 headphones for traveling for a couple of years and while they’re decent, not once did they make me say “wow, this sounds exactly like my guitar amp” and on day one the AirPods Max had that impact on a particular song. These are a league above if they work with the track you’re listening to. Poorly mixed audio sounds pretty bad on these which surprises me because I would have assumed they would err on the side of the mass market, but thankfully even modern Pop has amazing production now. (Lover by Taylor Swift comes to mind as a standout example).
The noise canceling seems to work well and transparent audio is decent, but I think the AirPods pro do transparent audio better - these slightly amplify the environment in a way that the AirPods pro do not. I turned the ANC / Transparent audio totally off for critical music listening and it seemed to make a small positive difference in quality.
This is where Apple is pretty special, they can democratize a really fancy thing down to a relatively mass audience. The ease of set-up / device switching / wireless / ANC / positional audio for films / premium build (outside of the God awful case) make these a no brainer if you have the disposable income. If your head or ear shape doesn’t work out with them at least they have a generous return policy. The weight is a non-issue for me and not a lot greater than my other high end headphones.
I hope we get an owners thread where folks share great songs to enjoy rather than arguing about headphones they don’t own or won’t buy, but it is the internet.
Happy listening!
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Not saying you're wrong, but you've not got the whole picture. Sound is like wine with many small variances that some can and cannot detect. Some people can hear things other people cannot. Just being into sound is not enough. To understand this you have to listen to a good system in a quiet room with music that is not all distortion for some time over and over again. Eventually, you will start to hear things you did not hear before (if you have or can develop good ears). Then when you go back to your normal speakers you will find them not as good as you thought.
To do this you have to know (really have memorized) the music as it sounds on a good system. In other words, you have to have a solid reference in your mind.
If you listen to music today on a good system you will also learn that either sound engineers do not have the ears they had 20+ years ago, or the producer does not allow good engineers to do their job. So a lot of music produced today is not capable of being that reference. I am not saying the music is bad, just that it does not have the nuances required to be a high end audio reference.
Now I do agree, that price does not equal quality. There are many fraudsters out there.
As to the NS10s, they had a very narrow use in mixing. Back in the day a lot of popular distorted music was played on poor boomboxes and car radios. So if that is what you are used to listening to then you won't be surprised by some of the things revealed with NS10s. They are not flat. They have their use, but no one serious would use them for high quality (low distortion) music. Of course, today, very few people produce low distortion music. They won't translate as well to tablets and computers which have a different response characteristic. Anyway, back in the day no one really used them except to check their mixes. Yes, they were in studios, but they were not relied on as a primary mix tool.
It's got a bi-directional DAC/ADC built in, similar to the lighting/usb-c to 3.5mm dongle.
It's actually pretty cheap in headphone terms.
I'm wondering if this isn't a software fix they could make in the future.
Coachingguy
His designs were stunning when there was someone to tell him, "No, you can't do that!" Without a parent in the room Jony's playtime just got out of control.
Looking at that case, I do miss him. Obvious case of day sleeping on the job.
I wonder if that’s something they could do with a firmware update?
That's what I thought. Which means that when using this cable the signal goes through DAC (player), ADC (cable) and DAC (headphones) again. The outcome is probably worse than with BT stack.