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AirPods Max Development Took 4 Years, According to Former Apple Engineer

EchoplexSE said:
$549 is a lot of money, however I have my Sony XM2's and they have been fantastic but I cannot stand for the life of me the touch controls (on the XM2s they cannot be disabled) and the plastic squeaky built quality. The latter is a minor quibble but I would happily pay 2x the price for something that is make out of some nice materials.
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Ive been using the qc 35 v1 for 4-5 years now 5 days a week for atleast 3 hours a day (sometimes 6). Only one issue and still love them. The issue is the leather started peeling off. I can wear them for 6+ hours and have zero ear fatigue. A co worker of mine picked up the xm2's and i could not stand them for the exact reasons you described. they felt cheap and then dang touch controls were more on a hassle than a feature. They did sound good though
 
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drunkdane said:
People complaining about the $550, and here I am just wishing it was only $550 for us. In Denmark, it's 4.799 DKK (781 USD). No way I'm paying that, and judging by the "short" 3 week delivery, I guess I'm not alone.
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actually thats cheap, you guys get health care, university and a ton of other things paid by those taxes. Its still cheaper.
 
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I too find Apple's pricing for the headphones to be high for me but, if the sound quality is there, they're not that expensive when compared to B&O, Grado and other high end headphones that sell for even higher.
 
sockdoggy said:
A bit of a PR stunt... Bose, Sony, et al have been in R&D on their headphones for decades. Apple looking for a pat on the back / justifying price for par actions in the industry.
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Bose, Sony, et al learned and struggled for many years here figuring out how to make decent headphones. These Apple guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in.
 
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Not by any means an audiophile, have no idea if these are overpriced, guess we'll see when the reviews start coming in.

It'll have to be convincing though, here in Canada they are $779 Cdn... I guess I am not the target customer.
 
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sockdoggy said:
A bit of a PR stunt... Bose, Sony, et al have been in R&D on their headphones for decades. Apple looking for a pat on the back / justifying price for par actions in the industry.
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Same way they cant compete with Intel that basically monopolized PC`s for the past 30 years , oh wait.....
You fail to understand something about Apple , they can and are getting the best minds in the business (whatever that might be) , the ONLY competition regarding pay is from the other tech giants (FB Microsoft and Google on SW and Amazon and to some extent Nvidia on HW) , how can Bose compete with Apple for the brightest in the business ??decades of R&D is already a known quantity , what happened a decade ago in any R&D intensive field is already common knowledge and a baseline for everyone that are competing.
Also Bose/Sony are not a good example for quality headphones , they are the prosumers headphones.

Go read some audio forums , Apple are doing great with the homepods in regards to quality and price , but yha a 2 trillion dollar company that worked 4 years (according to recent post in this site) on a product are just doing a PR stunt and wont compete with Bose.... yha.... OK.
 
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These are a hard pass for me. Headphones are one of the biggest tech scams in the industry. I even consider $250 headphones insanely over priced. I DJ and work in video production and have always used a set of Sony $65 headphones that sound amazing, rich and clear enough to mix vocals and other frequencies. They finally broke and I bought a off brand pair on Amazon for $35 that use a cord for realtime or bluetooth. The mids are not as nice as my Sony's were but they still sound great for a wide range of music and production uses. I would have bought a pair of Sony's again but I figured what the heck I could also use them as bluetooth headphones for watching TV on my Apple TV when my daughter is sleeping at night.

People are spending way too much on headphones these days and it is almost criminal the cost of some of these that don't provide much benefit. I realize some technologies like noise canceling can add to the cost but there are lots of headphones out there that do that. I don't need noise canceled that badly listening to music in less than optimal environments to pay $550.
 
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bobmans said:
I agree with you.
I don't like the plastic feeling of my Bose headphones and I don't mind paying a premium price for premium build materials. 550$ is still a hard pill to swallow but imo it's worth it for the build materials we're getting (assuming audio quality is great also ofc).
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$550 seems like a lot but if these things are the quality of most Apple products then you're looking at a long term investment that's well worth it. I sorta justify these things by looking at something like what you splurge on (coffee, drinks, food, etc)...and then cutting back and putting it towards a higher purchase like this that you'll have around vs 'piss away'...literally sometimes lol.
 
4 years of panic....

"WHAT WILL WE LAUNCH NEXT TIM? AIRPOWER, TAGS OR MORE WATCH BANDS? OUR PIPELINE IS DRY."
 
This version doesn't have leather-like fabrics. It has "lighter, breathable materials with small perforations". And it has anodized aluminum and multiple colors. This is the cheaper version. If there's another model coming out with leather it will be even more expensive.
 
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MarchyStar said:
Enough fools to push the delivery times into March 2020. Longest I can recall of any Apple product ever released.

Sounds like sound business pricing to me!
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I will never get the whole "only fools buy this" trope.

If it makes you happy and you have the money, why not? They look nice, and I'm sure will work in typical Apple fashion (although I'd wait for reviews first).

For full disclosure, I wouldn't buy these, but not because it would "make me a fool" to do so.
 
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repoman016 said:
Ive been using the qc 35 v1 for 4-5 years now 5 days a week for atleast 3 hours a day (sometimes 6). Only one issue and still love them. The issue is the leather started peeling off. I can wear them for 6+ hours and have zero ear fatigue. A co worker of mine picked up the xm2's and i could not stand them for the exact reasons you described. they felt cheap and then dang touch controls were more on a hassle than a feature. They did sound good though
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I also have been using Bose QC35 I for the last 4 years. The leather started peeling off about 1.5 years ago and I bought a replacement set of cushions for about £20 on Amazon. No issues with the replacement set yet.

www.amazon.co.uk

AHG Accessory House Global qc Replacement Ear Pads Cushions Compatible with Bose QuietComfort 35 II / QC35, QCSE, QCSC and QC45 wireless Headphones (Black) - Premium Material | Extra Thick | Durable

www.amazon.co.uk
 
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nwcs said:
I wonder why he bothered to delete the tweets? There is no prohibition on saying when you signed an NDA.
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It would depend on what it agreed to in the NDA, wouldn't it? Perhaps the NDA prohibits any mention of the existence of the NDA.
 
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NotTooLate said:
Same way they cant compete with Intel that basically monopolized PC`s for the past 30 years , oh wait.....
You fail to understand something about Apple , they can and are getting the best minds in the business (whatever that might be) , the ONLY competition regarding pay is from the other tech giants (FB Microsoft and Google on SW and Amazon and to some extent Nvidia on HW) , how can Bose compete with Apple for the brightest in the business ??decades of R&D is already a known quantity , what happened a decade ago in any R&D intensive field is already common knowledge and a baseline for everyone that are competing.
Also Bose/Sony are not a good example for quality headphones , they are the prosumers headphones.

Go read some audio forums , Apple are doing great with the homepods in regards to quality and price , but yha a 2 trillion dollar company that worked 4 years (according to recent post in this site) on a product are just doing a PR stunt and wont compete with Bose.... yha.... OK.
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I own 8 HomePods and all AirPods. Good PR is good PR! And I fall for it...

Edit: to be clear not at all commenting on quality of product (or doubting it). Apple's PR machine has run campaigns on how things are made for decades and is highly effective. Other companies try and fail or just don't even try to do it (hint Jony Ive helps to set the tone).
 
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Just picked up two pairs that will arrive on December 17th. One for me, one to sell for a grand on eBay. This should knock around $250 off my pair. I will gladly pay $350 for these :) Ahhhhhh, hooray for capitalism. There is a sucker born every minute!
 
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Naming them "pods" seems odd, as they're pretty huge and quite un-pod-like. Max huge? But not Pro huge? Hmm. But I suppose calling them something like "AirPhones" is confusing to the phone market. Oh well, someone in the naming committee got a nice paycheck.
 
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bobmans said:
I agree with you.
I don't like the plastic feeling of my Bose headphones and I don't mind paying a premium price for premium build materials. 550$ is still a hard pill to swallow but imo it's worth it for the build materials we're getting (assuming audio quality is great also ofc).
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I'm curious how the mesh fabric on the ear pieces and head strap look after a few weeks of use, as we humans tend to soil nice things.
 
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