And the rest. I’ve got close to 50 with them. The battery life is crazy good.
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Apple Announces AirPods Max Over-Ear Headphones With Noise Cancellation, Priced at $549
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Literally the first two words of the third heading on the Apple.com page for this product are “Spatial” and, wait for it... “Pie”. Wait no sorry my bad. “Audio”. The second word is “audio”.
But that's just it, these aren't audiophile headphones, they are just apple's bluetooth headphones.
[Canada]
Apple AirPods Max $779.00
Sony WH-1000XM4 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones (aka King of NC headphones) $350
I don't think the choice is hard to make here... I really like the AirPods Max but $780 (not including tax) is a lot of money.
Apple AirPods Max $779.00
Sony WH-1000XM4 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones (aka King of NC headphones) $350
I don't think the choice is hard to make here... I really like the AirPods Max but $780 (not including tax) is a lot of money.
I don’t count myself as an audiophile, and I do prefer digital sources. The problem with the AirPods Max is that if you want to avoid Bluetooth (e.g. because of latency or because of recompression) and use the cable, then this will add an unnecessary DA-AD (double) conversion to the signal path. In principle it would be possible for Apple to provide a digital (e.g. SPDIF or USB audio) to lightning cable to avoid that extra conversion for digital sources, but it seems unlikely that they will, because you’re supposed to use Bluetooth for digital sources.
There has been a significant increase of people working at home due to the pandemic so I think the release of these headphones are coming at a good time for Apple. In my opinion, the detractors are all focusing on the wrong things (e.g. HiFi audio & price). As a remote worker, I can see the value in a comfortable set of headphones with excellent audio call quality and the ease of pairing and switching between my Apple devices. If HiFi audio was my concern I would not be purchasing headphones from Apple.
I may be off base but I think there is a decent segment of people looking for an item like this (esp. those with multiple Apple devices). I would use this device like my Airpods to take conference calls and to easily switch between my Apple devices when necessary. With these headphones I would have much longer talk time (20 hours) and get better audio quality when listening to music. Plus, I've read rave reviews from people regarding the spatial audio feature that is currently available in the AirPods Pro. Yes, the $549 price can be very off-putting to many people. However, I doubt that Apple cares if that is the case. Their main revenue comes from iPhones and services. All of these ancillary devices they create are to offer more products for people to try out their brand or to address a need they feel their user base may have.
I may be off base but I think there is a decent segment of people looking for an item like this (esp. those with multiple Apple devices). I would use this device like my Airpods to take conference calls and to easily switch between my Apple devices when necessary. With these headphones I would have much longer talk time (20 hours) and get better audio quality when listening to music. Plus, I've read rave reviews from people regarding the spatial audio feature that is currently available in the AirPods Pro. Yes, the $549 price can be very off-putting to many people. However, I doubt that Apple cares if that is the case. Their main revenue comes from iPhones and services. All of these ancillary devices they create are to offer more products for people to try out their brand or to address a need they feel their user base may have.
But that’s not surprising considering it’s the AirPods product line and has never been useful for recording engineers. They probably share that with almost all wireless headphones.
Define audiophile though - its highly subjective.
I’d strongly suspect given the time these have taken to develop and the caliber of the audio specialists they’ve assembled at Apple, that these will in fact be rather good. Make no mistake, Apple are taking entering the audio market seriously, and have demonstrated this with the HomePod range which focuses solely on audio quality.
They don't mention any USB audio support anywhere, so don't count on it. The only known wired input is through the cable as you mention.
Would you recommend them ? I need a good pair of cans for both wireless and wired use. I love the B&O aesthetic as well.
Well if you can not get a Xbox series X you can get a pair of headphones 
People like “mass market sound tuning”. Nobody buys headphones with a clinical sounding flat frequency response unless they are recording engineers - who aren’t the target market for this product.
I'd be amazed if they didnt when you look at the trend of other wireless devices they have that can be used wired. Both Apple's current BT keyboards and BT trackpads work over USB in addition to adding themselves to the BT list when plugged into a mac (on the other hand the less said about how they added the lightning plug to the regular mouse however the better), it would be a logical continuation of that trend for these to work over USB when plugged into a Mac.
How do you place value on something when you have no reference for how it performs the task it’s designed for?
You’re not only turning up to the auction to claim you won’t buy the house, you’re doing it from inside your car behind the crowd of people who are bidding.
All the claims of worth are based on a press release and a product page, and assumptions.
Regardless of whether they’re objectively priced above or below the closest performing competitors, 44 pages of “nope” is a tad ridiculous, no?
Get a pair of Grados. Superior sounds and half the price.
"how would you know....no one has the max's yet. your just guessing. with zero experience"
I was merely stating that Grados have superior sound in the market not comparing them to the Apple headphones. Calm down.
"how would you know....no one has the max's yet. your just guessing. with zero experience"
I was merely stating that Grados have superior sound in the market not comparing them to the Apple headphones. Calm down.
$C779 (that’s $C880 with tax). Whew! For that kind of money I could have some serious audiophile ‘phones. And, believe it or not, some uses still require a wired connection - like music production. I don’t see a socket on these things. Is there one?
Pass.
Pass.
The Apple nerd in me is saying buy, buy, buy, but this is one I'd want to try out first before dropping £550. They may sound amazing or not it's all subjective to the listener, guess I'll stick with my AirPods Pro & Beats Solo Pros until lockdowns over 🤗
Also don't think Apple are expecting to sell tones of them the lead time on delivery on these has drifted into Jan already.
Also don't think Apple are expecting to sell tones of them the lead time on delivery on these has drifted into Jan already.
I get your point on the sharing capability being great. But you must be lucky, my 3-year old would shred these in no time.
If you don't need ANC, Drop Panda is the best option and they are $399. My money says the Apple will not sound better than the Panda. If looking at open back, the Hifiman Deva at $299 is a wonderful sounding headphone with a very impressive BT implementation that let's you listen wired or wireless.