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AirPods Max Unboxing Videos: 'More Than Good Enough to Compete With Other High-End Headphones'

fel10 said:
The difference is that those products were actually revolutionary. These are just overpriced over the ear headphone that you can get $200 cheaper from Sony or Bose.
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A fairly bold statement to make, when you haven’t had personal experience of them - I’m of course assuming you haven’t.

I will grant you this, you’ve got a very, very good chance of being right.

However, if Apple really have managed to produce a set of cans, which really do have better noise cancellation, and can at the very least match, or exceed on sound quality. Then the added benefits of easy pairing, simple sharing between devices and audio sharing. May make them very competitive.

That’s a big maybe, but y’know, devils advocate.
 
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mattopotamus said:
Honestly, yes. For example, the HomePod is priced higher than the higher end google home/Alexa devices, but sounds better and looks better (IMO). These actually look worse than the competition and are significantly more expensive. While Apple products always carry a premium, they usually deliver.

They are directly competing with Bose/Sony's $300-$400 headphones, and I would argue that a large majority of those owners use them for travel. How they are lacking a 3.5mm is mind boggling. While there are alternatives (Airfly) for planes, it is hardly as reliable for in flight entertainment.
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Competing for the same people does not mean competing against the same products per se which means cost is not the only consideration. Yep, I have owned several Bose/Sony's cheaper offerings, I am looking forward to trying this upscale offering. How do we know they do or do not deliver? I know the HomePod delivers because I use it. As for the cord, shrugs, so what. Yep apple nickels and dimes me to get a lightening to audio adapter. If I want it I will pay for it. If I dont want it, dont need it included. It is actually the 3.5 mm plug/wire that fails on me with the Bose.
 
Rogifan said:
Actually MKBHD didn’t know what to compare them to. Everyone else seems to be comparing them to Sony and Bose, both of which are cheaper and have received good reviews. This is like the HomePod all over again. And you’re wrong about that. The HomePod was mostly compared to cheaper smart speakers from Google and Amazon, not high end speakers or theater systems. If Apple marketing was smart they’d be giving reviewers reference points to more expensive headphones so instead of reviewers wondering if they’re worth the premium they’d be saying wow they sound as good (or better) as [insert brand here] and they’re cheaper. Also why the heck is iJustine getting a review unit?!? She’s the last person I’d go to for advice on premium headphones. And neither MKBHD nor Nilay Patel had much good to say about the case so I doubt they will be dishonest when they do a more in-depth review of the sound quality.
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I do not know if you are remembering correctly, but "initial" impressions of the HomePod were all over-the-top and it was being compared to full Sonos, Bose and high-end home theatre systems. The reviews literally call out that Apple is not competing with Amazon or Googles "cheaper" offerings. It is the exact opposite of what you're saying.

Engadget - "The HomePod however, sounded crisp and bright no matter the musical genre fed through it -- it rendered The Eagles as well it did Kendrick Lamar. As a reminder, there's a huge woofer and seven tweeters inside, all meant to make audio sound as vivid as possible no matter where you are in a room.

And the Echo? Well, I'll put it this way: if listening to the HomePod was like listening to a CD, then audio through the Echo sounded like AM radio. In my experience it's excellent for audiobooks, but if given the choice, I'd rather have the HomePod pump out my jams."

Yeah, that sure is a "comparison."
 
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Rogifan said:
Actually MKBHD didn’t know what to compare them to. Everyone else seems to be comparing them to Sony and Bose, both of which are cheaper and have received good reviews. This is like the HomePod all over again. And you’re wrong about that. The HomePod was mostly compared to cheaper smart speakers from Google and Amazon, not high end speakers or theater systems. If Apple marketing was smart they’d be giving reviewers reference points to more expensive headphones so instead of reviewers wondering if they’re worth the premium they’d be saying wow they sound as good (or better) as [insert brand here] and they’re cheaper. Also why the heck is iJustine getting a review unit?!? She’s the last person I’d go to for advice on premium headphones. And neither MKBHD nor Nilay Patel had much good to say about the case so I doubt they will be dishonest when they do a more in-depth review of the sound quality.
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The real question is did Apple price these headphones correct so that it has a positive price to value ratio for enough buyers?
 
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Most people can tell the difference between the sound of the same audio file produced from a pair of EarPods and that from a Sennheiser HD 800 S but the majority of us are hard-pressed in distinguishing between a Sennheiser HD 800 S and a Sennheiser HD 650, for example. This is to say that if you own a pair of AirPods Pro and listen to mostly podcasts and pop, rap, hip-hop and/or country, this Max version is most likely overkill.

iJustine's review is a travesty. As a bespectacled person, I can vouch for the fact that you can't tell how comfortable a pair of over-the-ear cans is and how hard it presses against your glasses unless you have it on your head for longer than 30 minutes. Most people have their headphones on for much longer than that.
 
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PhoneI said:
have them, like them, but if planning on using them for phone and video calls....get something else. Terrible for calls.
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Really? I was actually just browsing the net, with the intent on buying a set. I'll grant you, calls are far from my primary purpose for them. But I do at least want them to be good for that purpose. Is it really so bad that you'd recommend something else?
 
PhoneI said:
have them, like them, but if planning on using them for phone and video calls....get something else. Terrible for calls.
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I'd have to agree. I have them as well and people complain about the audio when I'm on these. A lot of the time they claim of an echo or robotic sounding voice. I love them for music and videos but for calls they aren't very good.
 
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These look great and silly at the same time.

Can't wait for the forum posts about scratches on the ear cups.

The headband was designed specifically to recognize they are Apple AirPods Max too.
 
Quick observations, not having had these in hand personally:

1. The "carrying case" makes the rig look like the weirdest purse I've ever seen; and as a dude? Awwww-kwarrrrd.

2. Way too heavy. I want to just hear the music, not get a tension headache from wearing a helmet.

3. Other than the Apple Watch, wireless charging seems highly overrated and based on my experiences with my iPhone 11 Pro and my wife's iPhone 8, I wouldn't bother. Using a Lightning cable seems to be a much better choice. Even my AirPods Pro wireless charging experience has been less than stellar, with the case occasionally getting warm, even though I have the thing centered on my Anker charging pad I have on my nightstand.

4. For someone in their late 50s such as myself, I still love great sound quality but having mild tinnitus limits my range somewhat... so a plunking down $549 for product like this makes ZERO sense whatsoever.

5. That PRICE.

6. That PRICE.

7. I don't know where this product truly falls amongst the competition, and I'm likely not the target audience... but it's also difficult for me to understand who is. I'm not sure Apple knows, either. It seems to be below true audiophile equipment and above the average Joe who just likes good quality headphones.

8. That PRICE. And $69 just for replacement cups?! WTF?

9. My AirPods Pro does the job for me... if only they offered those in different colors, I'd pick up a new pair quickly and hand off my current set to The Mrs., who is a somewhat late tech adopter.

10. That PRICE.


Verdict: hard pass.
 
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arn said:
Apple makes the return rules. You say this like $550 is a lot of money for them. It’s not. The MacRumors channel has 375k subscribers compared to iJustine’s 6.8million, and even we can afford a $550 pair of headphones for YouTube without hesitation.
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If they get them back, they can't really sell them. Nobody would want to pay for used headphones. Especially not in 2020 when you would be afraid of catching something. And obviously Apple doesn't pay $550 for them.
 
gnasher729 said:
If they get them back, they can't really sell them. Nobody would want to pay for used headphones. Especially not in 2020 when you would be afraid of catching something. And obviously Apple doesn't pay $550 for them.
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I think Apple budgets for "review units".
 
blcamp said:
Quick observations, not having had these in hand personally:

1. The "carrying case" makes the rig look like the weirdest purse I've ever seen; and as a dude? Awwww-kwarrrrd.

2. Way too heavy. I want to just hear the music, not get a tension headache from wearing a helmet.

3. Other than the Apple Watch, wireless charging seems highly overrated and based on my experiences with my iPhone 11 Pro and my wife's iPhone 8, I wouldn't bother. Using a Lightning cable seems to be a much better choice. Even my AirPods Pro wireless charging experience has been less than stellar, with the case occasionally getting warm, even though I have the thing centered on my Anker charging pad I have on my nightstand.

4. For someone in their late 50s such as myself, I still love great sound quality but having mild tinnitus limits my range somewhat... so a plunking down $549 for product like this makes ZERO sense whatsoever.

5. That PRICE.

6. That PRICE.

7. I don't know where this product truly falls amongst the competition, and I'm likely not the target audience... but it's also difficult for me to understand who is. I'm not sure Apple knows, either. It seems to be below true audiophile equipment and above the average Joe who just likes good quality headphones.

8. That PRICE. And $69 just for replacement cups?! WTF?

9. My AirPods Pro does the job for me... if only they offered those in different colors, I'd pick up a new pair quickly and hand off my current set to The Mrs., who is a somewhat late tech adopter.

10. That PRICE.


Verdict: hard pass.
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The most important part of your post.
 
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People are comparing these against the Bose and Sony headphones, but at over $200 more (Bose 700s currently selling for $339.95) they should outperform them by a wide margin. Are you really paying for performance or for the Apple brand name?
 
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G5isAlive said:
mentioning two instances over five years old out of literally 100's of releases that refute the point, doesn't make your examples a pattern, makes them the exception (not sure about the rule though lol). A better example might have been the HomePod. All this talk about them being overpriced assumes they are the same or similar to cheaper units. They aren't. Time will tell, but from what I read there are advanced features that are not available on the $300 units. Whether those features are important to people, is for that individual to decide, just like it is up to individuals to decide if too heavy or not (after they have actually tried them). I doubt Apple is going to discount these.
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They were the examples given. My airpods were $99, despite them having a $159 price at launch. They've been "on sale" for months at 20% off. Homepod was $100 off for a while too.

citysnaps said:
OK... Seeing as though headphones are judged on audio quality, comfort, and price (relative to other headphones)...How long have you been using yours, and what other headphones have you personally compared them to, in order to come up with that assessment?
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Well, looking at the specs I can tell that they're about 30% heavier than comparable headphones and around $200 more expensive. Sound quality is limited in many instances to bluetooth codec support and audio file encoding, but since Apple doesn't say what the frequency response is, I can't even begin to tell you about the sound quality. Except that they've positioned the price point past the point of deminishing returns for most people, who probably wouldn't even notice the sounds difference compared to a $350 pair.
 
Really want these, but also realize they left a lot of room for improvement, and it's definitely best to wait for the Gen 2 model.

1) U1 Chip
2) Lightness
3) Foldability/case
4) Battery Life

are some I can think of right off the top of my head.
 
reviews got me...sucks they are sold out...will order 2 when they come back in stock...they seem real good...I bought the orginal Beats over the ear, they were awesome! haven’t had one since then, I like these!
 
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