Why are old Apple products considered on sale when their prices are slightly less than their original price when they should be discounted dramatically by default just for being old
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Amazon Discounts USB-C AirPods Max to $499.99 ($49 Off)
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Meanwhile I’m ecstatic about getting a set of JLab JBuds Lux ANC for $29 this week. To each their own!
And lower weight.
And better aesthetics. (Bose nailed it here with the 700s.)
And no condensation problems.
And wired listening.
And Lossless listening.
And better colors.
And a real carrying case.
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EDIT $501 at Amazon gets you B&W Px8 in black.
That $1 buys you everything above except color.
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Trick is, there were a not-insignificant number of people "salivating" at Apple finally giving them an OEM display after pining for one for upwards of a decade. Especially as their only option before then was the LG UltraFine, which was anything but.
Apple fans love their sloppy seconds! They are eating these things up without blinking.
The lightning versions were down to $379 not too long ago. Much better "value" relatively speaking.
don't forget we got the epic new feature of new colors for the headphones along with the USB-C port
That is an excellent question and I suppose one response is that Apple must be happy with the volumes being sold at the high price point compared to what they feel they would sell at a greatly discounted price. Of course, it is the consumer who happily plays the game.
Especially if you need wired audio which does not work with the USB-C version.
You can buy two Sony WH-1000XM5 or three Sony WH-1000XM4 for the price of one of these.
Utahans love OTE headphones. They wear them while driving. Oddly, and stupidly considering the driver’s test here is open book, it’s legal.
I know it's unpopular, but I personally really enjoy my APMs
Have had them for a couple years and I certainly have my qualms about the older H chip and weight overall, but they sound fantastic to me (my main criteria for this type of product), and they still interact very seamlessly with my Mac, iPad, iPhone and Apple TVs
So... I'm happy with them
(I still have tons of Lightning stuff, so the port stuff doesn't even hit my radar)
Have had them for a couple years and I certainly have my qualms about the older H chip and weight overall, but they sound fantastic to me (my main criteria for this type of product), and they still interact very seamlessly with my Mac, iPad, iPhone and Apple TVs
So... I'm happy with them
(I still have tons of Lightning stuff, so the port stuff doesn't even hit my radar)
I hate myself for buying these not once but twice. First in 2020 and then when the USB-C model hit. If I didn’t spend ~10 hours a day in front of a cadre of Apple devices, where the seamless switching is clutch, I wouldn’t have any way to even start to justify these. And even then, I’d probably be better off using multiple pairs of AirPod Pro 2s and swapping them when the battery dies.
Alas. At $350, fine. But at $500? Insanity. I got them for $450 or something using a friend’s employee discount and even at that price, just utterly terrible when compared to everything else on the market. Like, they sound marginally better than Sony/Bose/Sonos, but certainly not noticeably (you’d have to truly listen side by side), let alone several hundred dollars better.
And they are the very worst travel headphones in their price class. Not just because of the terrible case, bad battery life, and inability to fold up (a feature that sadly most of the flagships now lack), but because the new ones can’t be used wired anymore, even if you buy the $20 adapter. The removal of the wired mode hit me on a recent 16 hour flight when I remembered about that feature regression too late and had to buy a second AirFly Pro (b/c my original was at home) just so I could use my super expensive headphones on the plane instead of having to swap between the Delta One wired headphones and my own personal cans.
When I flew on another transatlantic last week, I took my Sonos and left the APM’s at home. Better comfort and battery life on the plane too. And the Sonos come with the USB-C to 3.5mm cable so at worst you need a 3.5mm to 2-prong adapter for business class — which go for like $5 and can easily be stored in the little pouch Sonos includes for cables in their case. And Sony and Bose both come with those adapters IIRC (as well as 3.5mm cables).
I’m the ideal target audience for the APM and I’m the sucker who bought them twice (the second time was b/c the battery was failing on the first pair and Apple Care expired and Apple didn’t let you extend AC+ on those until I think September) and I can say definitively, I do not recommend them to anyone. Had I known about the lack of a wired mode, I probably wouldn’t have bought them myself tbh.
Four years ago, it was an easier sell. Heck, even two years ago, there was at least a type of person who if price isn’t an issue, would prob prefer APM vs Sony or Bose or Sennheiser. But the old chip, the lack of basic features (power button, a decent case, battery life, the ability to use on an airplane without an accessory that costs between $30 and $60), and the weight/design make these things duds. Even if they do excel at device switching across Apple gear. That feature is great. That feature is not $550 great.
Alas. At $350, fine. But at $500? Insanity. I got them for $450 or something using a friend’s employee discount and even at that price, just utterly terrible when compared to everything else on the market. Like, they sound marginally better than Sony/Bose/Sonos, but certainly not noticeably (you’d have to truly listen side by side), let alone several hundred dollars better.
And they are the very worst travel headphones in their price class. Not just because of the terrible case, bad battery life, and inability to fold up (a feature that sadly most of the flagships now lack), but because the new ones can’t be used wired anymore, even if you buy the $20 adapter. The removal of the wired mode hit me on a recent 16 hour flight when I remembered about that feature regression too late and had to buy a second AirFly Pro (b/c my original was at home) just so I could use my super expensive headphones on the plane instead of having to swap between the Delta One wired headphones and my own personal cans.
When I flew on another transatlantic last week, I took my Sonos and left the APM’s at home. Better comfort and battery life on the plane too. And the Sonos come with the USB-C to 3.5mm cable so at worst you need a 3.5mm to 2-prong adapter for business class — which go for like $5 and can easily be stored in the little pouch Sonos includes for cables in their case. And Sony and Bose both come with those adapters IIRC (as well as 3.5mm cables).
I’m the ideal target audience for the APM and I’m the sucker who bought them twice (the second time was b/c the battery was failing on the first pair and Apple Care expired and Apple didn’t let you extend AC+ on those until I think September) and I can say definitively, I do not recommend them to anyone. Had I known about the lack of a wired mode, I probably wouldn’t have bought them myself tbh.
Four years ago, it was an easier sell. Heck, even two years ago, there was at least a type of person who if price isn’t an issue, would prob prefer APM vs Sony or Bose or Sennheiser. But the old chip, the lack of basic features (power button, a decent case, battery life, the ability to use on an airplane without an accessory that costs between $30 and $60), and the weight/design make these things duds. Even if they do excel at device switching across Apple gear. That feature is great. That feature is not $550 great.
I don’t disagree, but did Apple really ever advertise them this way?
To me the case they designed for it should’ve told us right away that these were not supposed to be a travel companion
Admittedly, I’m WAY into the sunk cost category at this point, but they are just phenomenal for around the house Usage, but of course totally overpriced … totally agree there
I love the comfort, especially on the top of my head and of course the device switching
Not to mention countless cases of condensation issues that Apple won't admit exist and a lot of complaints they're too heavy.
I think by price, noise canceling acumen (which definitely was primed around scenarios where you want to block out all noise, like an airplane), the touted battery life, and the fact that it comes with a case, any reasonable person could infer that these would be appropriate to use on a plane. I agree it’s a poorly designed case, but I just attribute that to Apple being Apple and putting form above function.
There are certainly expensive headphones that are more obviously not intended for travel (any open back headphones, as an example), but when you make Bluetooth over ear headphones and you stress the quality of the ANC (and that quality is quite good. Definitely no longer best-in-class like it was four years ago, but quite good), you brag about battery life (even tho everyone else has better battery), and there is a focus on comfort (even if the comfort is actually debatable), you can expect people will use them on airplanes or when traveling.
I'll agree these were never positioned as gym headphones — and that’s why I will never criticize them for not being sweat proof and why I wasn’t even that worried about the condensation issues that plagued them early on (even if you wore them indoors during winter, as I did in early 2021) — but these are absolutely something you should be able to wear on a plane. And I think it's an expected use case.
The primary market for headphones that cost over $400 is travel/business travel. Beats was sort of a revelation in that they made over ear headphones fashionable in a way they hadn’t been in a long, long time - and you started to see people wear them out and about more. And you’ll find plenty of people with APM on the Subway too — but the Venn diagram between people willing to spend over $400 on Bluetooth headphones and people who want a good noise canceling experience during travel is basically a perfect circle. Interestingly, Beats has never had as strong of a hold in that price segment, even with the Studios and Studio Pros. The Solos have always been the best sellers, and Bose, Sennheiser, and for the last 8 years or so, Sony, have dominated the higher-end noise canceling pick, especially for business travelers.
Apple is a company that actually expects people to fly with the Apple Vision Pro — an absolutely insane and inane concept; I can’t fathom that siphoning off part of the business traveler market wasn’t part of the ploy for AirPods Max, no matter how poorly they may have designed them for people who actually travel.