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Wireless headphones are so easy to just grab off someone's head and run. Thieves are going to have a field day with these due to them being so expensive and easy to fence.

Apple really should implement Activation Lock for these headphones. Hell, the AirPods Max are more expensive than the cheapest iPhone, which obviously has Activation Lock! Going purely on price alone the headphones should have that feature too!
 
My XM3's are boss right now. If they ever crap out I might look at these, but oh Lordy $550 MSRP is bonkers. I love my HomePods but the $349 retail on those was also bonkers. I picked them up for $199 during one of Best Buy's many sales.
 
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Wireless headphones are so easy to just grab off someone's head and run. Thieves are going to have a field day with these due to them being so expensive and easy to fence.
Find My Headphones? Find My AirPods and AirPod Pros is a thing so I would expect that to work with AirPods Max, too, and help with the theft issue.

Remote deactivation is an interesting idea.
 
I don't believe that's correct. The chipset needs to support it.
I think LDAC requires the chipset to support EDR which as far as I know has been included in iOS for many years now.

regardless, keen to hear how these sound although I’ll be sticking with my XM4’s for the time being.
 
These aren't for audiophiles. Audiophiles don't listen to music over bluetooth.

These are for rich, white men looking for a status symbol.
Nonsense. Are HDTV screens or CD players for rich white men as well ?
They actually aren't bluetooth only, i thought that too. There is an audio jack adapter sold seperately.
 
Find My Headphones? Find My AirPods and AirPod Pros is a thing so I would expect that to work with AirPods Max, too, and help with the theft issue.

Remote deactivation is an interesting idea.
I don't think you can activation lock them, though, can you? The idea is to make it so a stolen set of headphones is a paperweight, much like what happens with stolen iPhones.
 
Its like Apple are not allowed to build products that cost more then the mass produced median cost product , it happened with the 6K monitor , same kind of reactions for folks who NEVER bought a monitor that costs even close to that price point to really evaluate the monitor on its merits (or lack of).

For the folks who dont have the money to spare , its a natural reaction but still annoying , i dont go to a Ferrai release thread and just tell everyone that the prices are way too high and they are suckers and what not , but the worst kind are the folks that goes "its not that i dont have the money but i wont spend it on this headphones!! , you are a sucker for buying it" , they are the worst ones , because they try to downplay other ppl intelligence to understand the value of things that they buy , adding nothing to the discussion other then poison , why do they feel the need to berate folks who want to buy what is probably a very nice set of headphones ?

In the end of the day , its 550$ for a pair of headphones , i.e luxury item for some and chump change for others , not everyone should buy them , they are not a must accessory , ppl need to chill and let the folks who want to enjoy them do it without going crazy with the negativity posts.
The problem here is it's another in a long line of departures from Apple's historical philosophy: finding sweet spots of the market to make excellent products that are more expensive, but still attainable. This isn't it. That's why people are complaining about this. It doesn't really matter how good the headphones are. It's not consistent with what the brand has been about.
 
There's also a noise control button for switching between Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency mode, which lets some outside sound in so you can interact naturally with your surroundings.
This was the clincher for me. I currently cycle between noise-cancelling and open-backed headphones throughout the day as my needs change. I also truly, truly hate not being able to hear my own voice when talking on the phone. So these should let me replace two sets of headphones with one and get a more fluid device-switching experience to boot. It's a splurge but given that I'm probably spending half the day with headphones on lately, worth it.
 
I'm guessing they'll do what they did with the HomePod and do a permanent price drop after a year or so. But even if they drop it by $50 or even $100 I just don't see these being very competitive and selling well unless they can get them down below $400 at the very least, but I think it would have to be $300 to have a real shot.
 
Nonsense. Are HDTV screens or CD players for rich white men as well ?
They actually aren't bluetooth only, i thought that too. There is an audio jack adapter sold seperately.
Audiophiles who buy expensive headphones use their own DACs and headphone amps. This headphone prevents that due to lack of an analog connection. That $35 jack converts the analog back to digital as Lightning is a digital only interface. Then from there it’s converted back to analog before being sent to the headphone’s built in amp.

So it’s bad As you’re going from Digital source—->DAC——>Analog amp—->3.5mm to lightning analog to digital—->AirPods Max DAC—->> Amp—->speakers

That’s less than ideal....
 
AirPods Pro sound good to me, what would be so good to make this worth £550
Each product is aimed at a different audience. The AirPods Max is aimed at the ultra-end high creator, audiophile, target audience
 
How are these any different from other neodymium mid-market over-ear headphones? Are the drivers in these larger/better? The design looks great and I like how comfortable they look. The magnetic ear cups are a little over the top however because people don’t normally need to change ear cups very often. It’s like the stainless steel Apple Watch band with the clickable links. I also like that they have better chips and computational audio in the AirPod Max. The use of the smart crown was a nice touch too. I just really question if the sound out of these is really that good to justify the large price gap.
 
But Max is a stupid name. And Apple really doesn’t know how to read a room. Who’s gonna spend $550 on headphones in 2020? Unless you’re able to pay for these in installments like the iPhone?
So you expect Apple to blindly hold on to them till the pandemic is over? If they're ready to ship, ship them. Whoever wants to buy it will buy it. Whoever doesn't, won't.
 
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