Rolling Stone got a pair. Overall positive first impressions.
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AirPods Max Unboxing Videos: 'More Than Good Enough to Compete With Other High-End Headphones'
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TBH, when it comes to high-end audio gear, grandma's opinion is about as valid as any audiophile. The reason is that so much becomes subjective when you get past the midrange. Yes there is a difference, but a lot of it is inside your brain. So an audiophile trying to tell you things that are 50% in their head isn't very interesting. This is particularly true when it comes to headphones, since room acoustics and how you deal with them don't have an impact.
No, it does not.
(...)
"It’s not unreasonable to assume that AAC Bluetooth passes AAC audio files over the air untouched, especially given the shared names. However, there’s never been any conclusive testing done to prove this, so we converted our lossless test files to AAC and re-ran the tests.
The frequency responses are identical for each phone whether playing lossless or AAC file types. We can also clearly see that none of the phones reach the same 20kHz limit as our AAC input file type. Even Apple’s iPhone doesn’t pass through AAC files untouched. The out-of-band noise floors are also clearly differently shaped in each instance, and none reach as low as our test file.
It’s a similar situation with the noise floor: Apple’s AAC implementation remains closest to the source material, but even here we can see some an extra -15dB or more of noise added to the signal. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and Huawei P20 Pro perform much the same as before—and are clearly worse than the iPhone 7 again. Even so, all of these phones re-pass an AAC source file back through the encoder, degrading quality. Just like with lossless files, the difference lies in how much additional compression is applied to the files on this second pass.
AAC is one of the more intriguing Bluetooth codecs to analyze, owing to its psychoacoustic rather frequency band quantization. This makes judging its quality a little tougher, as we have to take into consideration auditory masking rather than the consistent noise floor that we see with other codecs, CD, and Hi-Res files.
With that mind, AAC punches above its raw numbers in terms of file size, much like the MP3 does. High-quality implementations, like that from the iPhone 7, are going to be very hard to distinguish from CD quality and other high-quality Bluetooth codecs. However, lower bitrate implementations like those seen on some of our Android phones are nowhere near CD quality in terms of frequency response or noise. Avoid using AAC on these models".
This concerns me too, as I've been in the same situation. Turns out you can use these with a cable connected through the lightning port. You can either buy a 3.5-to-lightning cable (from Apple or others) -- or, I'd imagine, use a lightning to 3.5mm adapter to plug in a standard headphone cord.
I highly doubt there is a passive mode. That entails an analog signal path into the headphones and as there is no 3.5mm input jack, there is no way to get analog into them.
I actually think that's what Apple is doing. They're aiming for a sound that's close to high-end Sennheisers for most of the songs that their potential customers listen to and they're doing it with a lower price tag. Apple has three advantages over audio companies like Sennheiser, AKG, or Sony.
- Years of purchase data from the iTunes Store allow them to know what people in the ecosystem are listening to. They can optimize the algorithm for certain genres of songs.
- Many, if not the majority of the new songs on the iTunes Store are "Mastered for Apple." They're dealing with fewer variables than Sennheiser, which has to make more compromises in catering to a more heterogeneous crowd.
- Years of research and experience in leveraging computational power to produce hi-fi sounds allow Apple to do more with less.
and it will be easy to dent. I think they look lovely and stylish but keeping them nice i think will be hard.
I unconciously put on a Bane voice too whenever I'm onto customer service
At least yours is temporary
to be fair, it’s more the tone, rather than his actual voice apparently, thank god, one that makes the walls rattle if I dare speak too loudly 😂Uh, no, it isn't. It's quite dreadful musically against speakers that cost less than what it does.
Name names. Who has published an inarguably negative review of an Apple product pre-release?
Let's be honest. Her claim to success is to be a hot/cute girl in a nerd world. Her reviews are so annoying and lack deep understanding of the products. For me the best reviews are from Rene Ritchie but he's not as cute as her. 😂
That won't work unfortunately as the headphones require ADC rather than DAC.
The cable is bi-directional, the dongle isn't (I did some checking)
Beats do not, so I'd guess thats a big no for these as well.
Not likely, Sony's built a rep better than Bose. I expect Apple will have battery life problems. And that acoustic shield looks shoddy to me.
I think the problem is that the limitations of transcoding audio 3 times (!!) might sound fine on 200/300 dollar headphones but pumping that garbage into expensive / high quality headphones is nonsense, as I can attest using my HD800s.
I agree a lossless format combined with a completely new form of lossless transmission is the only way to make a 600 dollar headphone make any kind of sense IMO.
It's a shame they were unable to do what they had planned and had to slap on the silly Apple Watch dial at the last moment to be able to release these.
Let's hope they will be able to remove this and do as they originally planned for the next models.
Let's hope they will be able to remove this and do as they originally planned for the next models.
These ‘reviewers’ are horrible. MK looks annoyed everytime he reviews Apple products while iJustine is a fangirl.
I like both of them, they seem very nice, but yikes. iJustine does give a nice review sometimes, but her initial hysteria for new Apple products got old a while ago. I am excited for mine to come, but her OTT reactions on camera got annoying.
I like both of them, they seem very nice, but yikes. iJustine does give a nice review sometimes, but her initial hysteria for new Apple products got old a while ago. I am excited for mine to come, but her OTT reactions on camera got annoying.
Sadly yes.
I wish she could realize this, but obviously she makes good money from only saying nice things, so I can't blame her for putting her own financial interests above all else.
Long time ago I did use to watch her Apple reviews but now, there really is no point.
You may as well just watch and Apple advert or Apple promotional material than listen to her.
Perhaps in years to come, when she's older and more mature she will perhaps consider having a more balanced and perhaps critical view on products.
Not three times. Only one. But I agree, this shouldn´t be happening. It´s 2020, for god´s sake. Does Bluetooth 5.0 allows for audio pass trough?.
At least the Airpods Max can be used hardwired...
We will find out soon enough. Odds are that the answer is yes. Apple knows exactly what they’re doing with regards to setting prices. Remember all of the hub-bub around the iPhoneX pricing? Not only was it correctly priced, they introduced even more expensive models the next year.
I can’t remember the last time Apple missed the mark on pricing.
why not both? If sound quality is the only important factor, then these would not be a good value proposition. But when combined with other factors, that’s where the desirability increases. Having an Apple logo will increase desirability. Ease of use in the iPhone ecosystem. Fashion and looks. Add them up together and this is the only pair of headphones that combines all 4. (Yes I know that no one else but Apple can offer Apple headphones)
You could actually afford a pair of regular AirPods and the Sony for the same price as just a AirPods max
Why do you care about these influencers?
I rather see audio/sonic characteristic review/comparison. Comparison to other HiFi wireless headcans like Beyerdynamic Amiron Wireless or Sennheiser Momentum 2 Wirelss. Or even some Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, Hifiman, or Audeze wired headphones to see how much wireless has closed a gap to wired cousins.
I rather see audio/sonic characteristic review/comparison. Comparison to other HiFi wireless headcans like Beyerdynamic Amiron Wireless or Sennheiser Momentum 2 Wirelss. Or even some Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, Hifiman, or Audeze wired headphones to see how much wireless has closed a gap to wired cousins.