I could never use AirPods Pro for serious music listening. They’re fine outside the home but when I’m at home it’s wired cans running through an amplifier.
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Apple Announces AirPods Max Over-Ear Headphones With Noise Cancellation, Priced at $549
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I’m just gonna leave this here for people who think this is too expensive...
And screenshot for people too lazy to open the link
$500-$600 is a very common mid range price for high quality head phones. I have two sets of focal earphones (in ear, not head phones) that are wired, the Spark and the Sphear S models. $75/$140 respectively. They sound 10x better than standard airpods, and even the $75 ones sound just about the same as my GF’s $200 Beats head phones (she didn’t ask for my advice and just bought them).
If this price is too high for you, you are not the person they are marketed for. Though I do think they should’ve called these Pro or Studio instead of Max. That is assuming they support lossless audio.
And screenshot for people too lazy to open the link
$500-$600 is a very common mid range price for high quality head phones. I have two sets of focal earphones (in ear, not head phones) that are wired, the Spark and the Sphear S models. $75/$140 respectively. They sound 10x better than standard airpods, and even the $75 ones sound just about the same as my GF’s $200 Beats head phones (she didn’t ask for my advice and just bought them).
If this price is too high for you, you are not the person they are marketed for. Though I do think they should’ve called these Pro or Studio instead of Max. That is assuming they support lossless audio.
256 kbps AAC over bluetooth is perfectible (that being said Apple's implementation of it seems fairly robust and can send distortion and noise floor to inaudible levels for most people : https://www.soundguys.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-bluetooth-headphones-aac-20296/), but it's quite pointless to nitpick about Apple's implementation of AAC over bluetooth vs. wired if it is to then listen to music on a pair of wired, expensive headphones with a crappy response curve like this one : https://www.rtings.com/headphones/graph#669/3992
I'm eager to test these. Pricy, but so are my Sennheiser HD 800 + Hegel HD12 DAC which is what I use at home and it sound's great.
But with such a high price they will have to provide some really great audio, ANC and whatnot. They are going right into the no-compromise territory in terms of price. My current Bose NC 700 does not sound perfect, but they have good mix of good ANC, decent microphones, decent sound quality, decent battery life, they are lightweight, doesn't look to bad and are decently comfortable.
With this pricing we are moving into B&O BeoPlay H95 territory. H95 and the AirPod Max both feature 40mm drivers so I'm eager to compare their audio quality. I returned the H95 as I found the price to be too high considering they didn't sound that much better compared to the Bose NC 700, they had worse ANC and worse microphones. Costing twich as much and only being slightly better on audio and just on-par or worse in every other respect isn't good enough.
Very eager to see how Apple is doing here. I find their audio performance on the HomePod (the big one) very impressive considering its size, price and everything. It did much better than my Sonos Play 5 and was pretty much on par with my B&W A7 which costs way more when they was sold a few years ago.
There is no doubt Apple is such a huge player in the market. They have so much talent in-house, and they are so attractive for pretty much everyone to partner with as it will ensure a massive amount of steady sale of components so they are in a league of their own when it comes to being able to cherry pick quality components from pretty much anyone.
But with such a high price they will have to provide some really great audio, ANC and whatnot. They are going right into the no-compromise territory in terms of price. My current Bose NC 700 does not sound perfect, but they have good mix of good ANC, decent microphones, decent sound quality, decent battery life, they are lightweight, doesn't look to bad and are decently comfortable.
With this pricing we are moving into B&O BeoPlay H95 territory. H95 and the AirPod Max both feature 40mm drivers so I'm eager to compare their audio quality. I returned the H95 as I found the price to be too high considering they didn't sound that much better compared to the Bose NC 700, they had worse ANC and worse microphones. Costing twich as much and only being slightly better on audio and just on-par or worse in every other respect isn't good enough.
Very eager to see how Apple is doing here. I find their audio performance on the HomePod (the big one) very impressive considering its size, price and everything. It did much better than my Sonos Play 5 and was pretty much on par with my B&W A7 which costs way more when they was sold a few years ago.
There is no doubt Apple is such a huge player in the market. They have so much talent in-house, and they are so attractive for pretty much everyone to partner with as it will ensure a massive amount of steady sale of components so they are in a league of their own when it comes to being able to cherry pick quality components from pretty much anyone.
Seems folks are always complaining about Apple's prices. Do they also complain that they can't afford a BMW or Rolls Royce? Apple has no obligation to make cheap **** for people who have been conditioned to thinking that everything should be free or cheap.
I love these headphones, but won't be buying them because I can't afford them either. That's fine. I look forward to the improvements that are likely to be made in future versions, and maybe they will come down. If not, that's also fine. These aren't wear out-and-about (whatever that is anymore) headphones. These aren't wear-while-you-mow-the-lawn headphones -- which is really the only time I personally wear headphones.
I love these headphones, but won't be buying them because I can't afford them either. That's fine. I look forward to the improvements that are likely to be made in future versions, and maybe they will come down. If not, that's also fine. These aren't wear out-and-about (whatever that is anymore) headphones. These aren't wear-while-you-mow-the-lawn headphones -- which is really the only time I personally wear headphones.
EXACTLY! And if they are able to provide lossless on wireless the comparison needs to be between these and hifi headphones like Sennheiser HD 800 which cost over $1,600, not Bose 700 or Sony 1000-XM4. Not going to lie, I'm having difficulty pulling the trigger with the price though.
According to Prosser, so take this with however many grains of salt you want to, there’s still a cheaper sport model coming next year for around $350.
Do with that information what you will.
Even sadder is the fact that according to Mark, even though these things are priced at $550, they still aren’t as good as they could have been.
Do with that information what you will.
Even sadder is the fact that according to Mark, even though these things are priced at $550, they still aren’t as good as they could have been.
Not for wireless ones. You shouldn't be stuck with 256kps AAC on a $600 headphones. These are going to be like the home pod rather than the Airpods. Also the design is even worse than the price.
Remember, this is MacRumors where everything Apple is substandard and too expensive and there are now almost 400 posts to prove it.
Actually you most likely cannot, as it is only a charging port (same as the Beats Solo Pro's).
You can edit it and just put a period '.' in place of the text.the button is on the top - so my point is irrelevant I can't delete it
This release makes me wonder If we may see HiFi Apple Music in the future. I agree though, if music remains compressed on Apple Music these may not be worth it. Unless of course Apple pulls an Apple and ensures better quality audio to Apple devices only via these headphones.