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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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Umm, they WILL market something cheaper? They already DO market something cheaper.
A- I’d instantly trade 2mm more in thickness for significantly more useful power in an iPhone. I’m not looking for a phone the thickness of a sheet of paper after all.
B- I feel people with a cold-heart like Tim in command, Apple is a fraction of what it was with awesome creative people in the command path. Bean-counters should be kept away from the controls.
C- damn I miss Steve.
True - I’m thinking another model with a headband - time will tell.
Steve counted beans as well. He groomed Cook. He simply was more of an ***** if he personally thought it was crap. Cook seems more hands off.
I’m really not sure what their Beats branding is focussed on. Time will tell what happens.
It's great that you only leave them on your desk but a lot of people like to toss these into backpacks and what not. The reason to rant is that hopefully customers make enough noise so they do make a better case down the line. Why should people accept a mediocre case when paying $550 for high end headphones?
I think the worse part about the case other than it looks awful IMO, is you need to put your headphones in it to turn them off. If it was a charging case totally makes sense, like the rest of the airpods line, but it ain't. Hopefully if you're getting another aftermarket case it at least has the ability to turn off the headphones otherwise putting them in a case and another case. Ugh.
Based on the recent reviews I've seen I'd actually consider buying a pair but probably wait till next gen or at least a year or two. I'm not travelling any time soon so I don't really need over ears noise cancelling cans and still have beats studios if really I do.
I’m liking mine so far. Case does suck. Sound quality is as at least as good as other $500 headphones I own. H1 features work great.
Small thing for me, I’m used to grasping my earcups vertically to adjust them, and with these, that means I hit the buttons the first few times... minor adjustment there.
Also, going from wireless to wired iwhile wearing them s a bit harder because a 3.5mm port is easier to find and hit by feeling than the lightning port. However, I’m thinking that just takes a little learning, too. And, I THOUGHT I was going to have to reverse the direction of the Digital Crown for increasing volume, but increasing it by turning it to the left (by scrolling the rear edge of the crown) feels more intuitive.I got the Bose for 2 reasons: Comfort and ANC. At times I wear my headphones 4-8 hours a day, and because I am on the move a lot, I need to be able to shut out everything around me to focus on what I'm working on.
The sound is definitely better than my previous headphones, but I am sure other headphones have better sound. But the actual sound quality wasn't the most important for me.
Another thing that's important is the portability, and I really like the QC 35 case. The Bose 700 don't even fold like these.
Small thing for me, I’m used to grasping my earcups vertically to adjust them, and with these, that means I hit the buttons the first few times... minor adjustment there.
I did reverse the direction of the crown. And I only hit it by accident once
I haven’t found the weight to be a problem, either. I wore them for several hours on the first day just going through my music library and some videos. Even spent some time with them on reclined and, other than shifting the headband slightly, they were still quite comfortable.I did reverse the direction of the crown. And I only hit it by accident once
Well, wait a second.... The statement isn't "hilariously incorrect", it just doesn't make any mention of bluetooth. I agree that all the sticker shock flying around is a bit naive (there's definitely a troll contingent that finds the "overpriced" narrative irresistible). Anybody who has done their research will know that $550 isn't outrageously expensive for headphones these days.
However, I absolutely take your point on bluetooth-only headphones being a stumbling block for the high-end buyer. Personally, I love the idea of having bluetooth headphones, but I've stayed away so far (except for earbuds, of course—which I rarely use). This is a good article on the bluetooth issue:
The ultimate guide to Bluetooth headphones: Wired is still king for quality
Ever wonder how good Bluetooth is? We led an investigation to map the exact performance of commercially available Bluetooth codecs, and the results are... revealing.
www.soundguys.com
Mind you, it is still up to the listener to decide what sounds good to them. Also, I don't think it's clear yet (happy to be corrected) what Apple's "computational audio" might be able to do to improve things. I know, for example, that it's possible to "super res" images using machine learning, so perhaps Apple is able to do something similar with audio?... No idea... (From what I understand, computational audio is mostly concerned with tuning the response to the user.)
Oh, of course, I remember seeing the port mentioned, but didn't realize you could use it for wired audio. Thanks for clarifying! This article also clarifies things a bit further:
AirPods Max: 8 things you need to know if you bought Apple's new headphones
If you picked up a pair of Apple's swanky new over-ear noise-canceling headphones -- or are thinking about it -- here are some answers to frequently asked questions.
www.cnet.com
...and also mentions that the sound is "noticeably better", which is not super surprising. I wonder how they'd compare to other studio reference headphones in their price range, like the Adam SP-5, Beyer DT 1770 PRO, or Shure SRH1540s... ??
(As a composer/musician I am most interested in reference headphones, not normal/casual listening, so that's a bias of mine.)
Mine are on the way... But I was wondering, Sony released the XM4s and a week later there on sale for $278 at many locations, down from the list of $349.
Did Sony know the price of APM ahead of time and drop the price of there Flagship product to roughly half, to make the contrast more evident?
I’m gonna compare the APM’s to my XM4s, and decide which one to pick.
Coachingguy
Did Sony know the price of APM ahead of time and drop the price of there Flagship product to roughly half, to make the contrast more evident?
I’m gonna compare the APM’s to my XM4s, and decide which one to pick.
Coachingguy
So, I thought I heard a difference. Not being a deeply audio focused person, I was surprised that I could tell the difference.
The wired option might have even worse SQ though. Does not it rely on a $17 ADC built in to the cable? Not an audiophile material.Oh, of course, I remember seeing the port mentioned, but didn't realize you could use it for wired audio. Thanks for clarifying! This article also clarifies things a bit further:
AirPods Max: 8 things you need to know if you bought Apple's new headphones
If you picked up a pair of Apple's swanky new over-ear noise-canceling headphones -- or are thinking about it -- here are some answers to frequently asked questions.
...and also mentions that the sound is "noticeably better", which is not super surprising. I wonder how they'd compare to other studio reference headphones in their price range, like the Adam SP-5, Beyer DT 1770 PRO, or Shure SRH1540s... ??
(As a composer/musician I am most interested in reference headphones, not normal/casual listening, so that's a bias of mine.)
Hmm... I would assume it would just be sending data along the cable (so no need for a ADC in the cable) to avoid the bluetooth codec, but not really sure.