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Apple Announces AirPods Max Over-Ear Headphones With Noise Cancellation, Priced at $549
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My most expensive pair is about $2100, and I get that some people don't want to spend $550 for a pair of headphones. But at the same time I don't understand why so many would be happy to get them if they were 200 dollar less. If you don't really care about premium headphones, why still get headphones that costs several hundreds dollars acting as that is cheap/affordable/worth the price headphones?
They look great - not a product I need or want - but that price... ouch.
It's the HomePod scenario all over again.
It's the HomePod scenario all over again.
So I understand you can connect lightning to 3.5mm audio cable to use wired with headphone jack on say MacBook Pro but can you also use wired audio over the in box USC-C to lightning cable ? I want to connect these to my USB-C iPad Pro for Garageband use where bluetooth latency is non starter for composing.
I thought that too! They just threw every marketing term they have at it. Smart case, Digital Crown, and calling them ‘Max’, honestly can’t stop laughing at the sheer audacity. I love Apple but holy crap.Why on earth did they put a digital crown in there?It looks so misplaced and hard to use.
Now when I see someone say an headphone is expensive THIS is what I think about. Then i'll consider the £2000-£3000 cans too.
It's also laughable people saying the codec doesn't make it audiophile quality - honey, £549 doesn't make it audiophile price either!
Comes with USB-C to lightning, so a 2020 iPad Pro will charge them, but good question about whether that hard wires them to GarageBand, dk
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Oh yes, $2 trillion market capitalization. Such a sad company.
I care about audio quality but there is that thing called Perceived Value. Apple is selling the HomePod for 299$ and it sounds great, why should I pay almost "double" for a headset to sound great? I'm not complaining, I am genuinely trying to figure out why they priced it out of the market for most of their target audience.
These same people seem to think Bose are the pinnacle of audio quality as well though. This is the problem when a non computer nerd product is launched on a computer nerd forum where no one knows a thing about that industry.
The same thing happened with the Apple watch fashion editions - and the Apple book which are priced the same as all other design books.
True, but this is an Apple to Oranges comparison. I have both HD800s and HD800 too, but they are entirely different beasts and of course are used in very different circumstances.
On the audio connectivity and sound quality alone, there is no way the Airpod Max can even sound half as good as an HD800 setup. The HD800s have detachable cables and you can feed them pristine audio which as we know can scale up considerably - I have spent far more on sources for them!
You can't do that with the Airpod Max no matter how you set them up. You can't even really feed Flac files properly to them - playing back a 24/96 Flac file will certainly lose quality by the time it comes out of the Airpod Max's drivers. So you need to compare the Max to its brethren - the Sony bluetooth headphones, Bose 700, Momentum Wireless 3 and so forth. All of these hover around the 300 pound mark, making the Airpod Max a solid 200+ pound more expensive. I am sure it will be more comfortable than many of these and more transparent sounding, but really worth it? You can buy a Beyer T1.2 for that money nowadays if pure sound is what you are after...
That's exactly what these should cost.
They are explicably $200 more than that.
I mean FFS, they are just consumer grade mass market headphones.
It will be interesting to see the reviews. Who knows maybe they all say it justifies the price tag. I ordered a pair because I need to know if they’re good 😀. And it’s a ton of money for headphones when I could get awesome Grados and a decent DAC for the same cash or less.
If the technology and sound quality challenges other professional-grade standard headphones (you see them reach £1000s sometimes), then I guess £550 might be justifiable. If so, my mistake for expecting them to be more mainstream and accessible. Maybe an AirPods Max SE model will compete against the Sony WH-1000XM range and Bose?
Sure they do. They know what mass market consumer products cost, which is exactly what these are.
I have wished for an implementation of touch controls for volume (swiping up and down), prev/next tracks etc. Or am I overseeing smth?
I am a huge fan of the original AirPod controls rather than the haptic controls of the AirPods Pro.
I am a huge fan of the original AirPod controls rather than the haptic controls of the AirPods Pro.
EXACTLY! The reality is most TV providers still don't broadcast in full 4K, let alone full 1080HD. The only benefit is movies and gaming, which the 4K AppleTV can do. Now a faster processor would be nice, but not necessary right now. I'd guess a new AppleTV comes in 2021.
but will it play audio through through the wired connection instead of bluetooth?
These will flop. They are $250 or more out of range for literally anyone. Even "audiophiles".
If they made only 20 pairs then they might do well.
If they made only 20 pairs then they might do well.
This is exactly what I was thinking. High price? Compared to what?