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Apple Announces AirPods Max Over-Ear Headphones With Noise Cancellation, Priced at $549
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Nothing in the description justifies the price. I've no problem paying $550 for a pair of GOOD headphones but so far Apple has shown it doesn't really get anywhere close to a sound quality that price tag requires.
Yes, they produce nice sounding stuff that blows $20 tin cans out of the water any day of the week and that's more than enough for the average Joe who has only used those tiny plastic speakers so far.
With these features I'd assume it gets somewhere close to it's competition (XM4, Bose, etc) and probably sounds pretty much the same as those do. The problem is, none of those are worth much more than $250. I do use my Airpods pro on a daily basis, but every time I do I feel like I had paid $60k for a base model Toyota Corolla.
Regardless, I think it's going to be a hit. There are plenty of people with too much money and too little common sense. "Shiny! Must have! My precious!"
Yes, they produce nice sounding stuff that blows $20 tin cans out of the water any day of the week and that's more than enough for the average Joe who has only used those tiny plastic speakers so far.
With these features I'd assume it gets somewhere close to it's competition (XM4, Bose, etc) and probably sounds pretty much the same as those do. The problem is, none of those are worth much more than $250. I do use my Airpods pro on a daily basis, but every time I do I feel like I had paid $60k for a base model Toyota Corolla.
Regardless, I think it's going to be a hit. There are plenty of people with too much money and too little common sense. "Shiny! Must have! My precious!"
Again, when the codec used is so close to transparent that thousands of audiophiles spend years arguing whether they can hear a difference or not, it's not the codec that is going to define how these sound. It's the custom audio processing that Apple is doing that will make these wholly unique. I'll be glad to bookmark this comment and come back to it when the actual reviews are in. The focus will be on the audio processing. Not the limitations of AAC.
There is good reason to believe these will sound considerably better than either of those products. I've had the Sony's for years (the previous model - not much change in sound for the new model) and its sound signature is fairly dull and lifeless. I say this as a long-term (20+ years) fan of Sony 'house sound' for their high end headphones - I own/have owned several of Sony's very high end models as well. Frankly, I far prefer the sound of the Airpods Pro - it's much more engaging. However I've been a fan of in-ear monitors for decades - and if you aren't comfortable getting a really good fit to create a solid seal with the APP's, the sound will be middling, at best - and most people I see wearing them out and about have them only about halfway inserted into their ears.
What I find hilarious is the amount of youtubers sticking up for the price tag in a desperate attempt to excuse apple or they’ll not get their early review units.
so sick of this crap, don’t tell us that we don’t have to buy them because the point is Apple raises prices and then everyone else does, happened with Phones, watches and it’ll happen with headphones.
$549 is disgusting and everyone knows it.
no U1 chip either, nice future proofing Tim for a product that will be a thieves dream.
so sick of this crap, don’t tell us that we don’t have to buy them because the point is Apple raises prices and then everyone else does, happened with Phones, watches and it’ll happen with headphones.
$549 is disgusting and everyone knows it.
no U1 chip either, nice future proofing Tim for a product that will be a thieves dream.
Just off the fact that the speakers are 10x the size then whats in the pro's, not just louder but far more accurate sound and true noise cancelation, these are over the ear headphones, no disrespect but if you couldn't figure that out then these just aren't for you, these are for audiophiles which headphones can get up to $2,500 easy so with all that added tech.... $550 is nothing.
I'd have been amazed if they had a jack connector so optionally they could be wired. It's a pity that for such pricy headphones they cannot be used in professional environments with no latency.
$890 AUD.
If I search google for "expensive headphones", out of the 11 top responses visible on my screen, Apple's new device is more expensive than 8 of them.
Out of the top 11 results for simply "bluetooth headphones", Apple's standard AirPods are also in the top 3.
Apple has rarely been a product "for the people" due to its pricing. At least here in Oz, with the typically poor exchange rate, there's only been a slim time period in the past 40 years where buying Apple didn't involve going into debt.
But this product's pricing speaks volumes. It's deafening, in fact.
If I search google for "expensive headphones", out of the 11 top responses visible on my screen, Apple's new device is more expensive than 8 of them.
Out of the top 11 results for simply "bluetooth headphones", Apple's standard AirPods are also in the top 3.
Apple has rarely been a product "for the people" due to its pricing. At least here in Oz, with the typically poor exchange rate, there's only been a slim time period in the past 40 years where buying Apple didn't involve going into debt.
But this product's pricing speaks volumes. It's deafening, in fact.
As an audiophile I am prepared to spend a lot on high quality items - probably more than most. i.e in ears are custom fitted etc So this price point can be justified if the sound quality matches. I am looking forward to the reviews, my concerns would be the head band at this weight.
The spatial audio stuff looks interesting for about 10 minutes. I am not a fan of ANC, I much prefer sound isolation.
On a tech side, what I find disappointing is lightning to charge. Why would you do that?!?! You will instantly deter a lot of non Apple users on principle and some people with a MacBook/iPad Pro (and not an iPhone).
The spatial audio stuff looks interesting for about 10 minutes. I am not a fan of ANC, I much prefer sound isolation.
On a tech side, what I find disappointing is lightning to charge. Why would you do that?!?! You will instantly deter a lot of non Apple users on principle and some people with a MacBook/iPad Pro (and not an iPhone).
But then you know the price isn't "ridiculously insane". I mean "audiophile grade" means nothing. But lets assume they sound better than Nuraphones plus they have extra technology built in and they're about right price. ÂŁ550 isn't audiophile priced headphones either, it's like mid-grade.
The lightning port are on the headphones themselves though so it's irrelevant what device you charge from, you can get anything on the other end of a lightning cable.
The only thing close to "objective facts" we have in terms of audio are frequency measurements and spectrums. People tend to prefer different things so having perfectly tuned speakers that matches what is considered a neutral / balanced / correct frequency response doesn't mean that people will consider them sounding good.
But this is pretty much the only objective metrics to go by. How close to being neutral/correct when it comes to frequency response at different volume levels and the amount of distortion at various volume levels pretty much all we can go by when doing heads-to-heads comparison between headphones, iems and speakers when it comes to audio quality.
And if we go by the measurements done by the likes of rtings, innerfidelty etc. The Sony WH-1000XM4 doesn't do that great when it comes to audio performance. Apple has done a really good job as of late as the Apple AirPods Pro, Beats Solo Pro and the latest PowerBeats are all doing a really good job in their respective price ranges when it comes to frequency response and distortion.
What Sony has been able to achieve with the XM3 and XM4 is a really great package. You get decent sound, great ANC and everything in a neat pair of headphones. Audio quality is perhaps the most lacking thing about them overall but it's still very decent.
Bose with the NC 700 is doing a decent job as well. Slightly better when compared to XM4 for audio quality but it has slightly inferior ANC. Apple is doing well on all their newer offerings. And the Apple HomePod (The Big-Boy) is doing great in-terms of audio. It's punching way about it's league in pretty much every aspect from frequency response, distortion especially considering it's size, power efficiency and price. You have to go way beyond the HomePod pricing before you get anything that is providing the audio quality of the HomePod. It's only downside when it comes to audio is the lack of higher maximum volume output for those who like to throw massive parties in big areas.
Apple has shown a lot of prowess when it comes to audio in recent years. And Apple has a lot of weight they can toss around. Pretty much every supplier on Earth would donate their liver to secure a deal with Apple as it will ensure a huge amount of guaranteed cashflow for years to come. So Apple is a unique position in the marked when it comes to be able to mass-produce high quality headphones like no other in the business and they are able to pretty much cherry-pick top components from every supplier available at heavy discounts as every supplier know that stricing a deal with Apple will ensure a steady sale of a massive amount of components so it's better to sell them 80% cheaper to Apple to ensure a huge increase of sales for the next 5 years+ instead of trying to push the components at normal prices to other companies that won't push anything close to the same amount of quantities.
All this is before we take into consideration how much in-house talent Apple has. We know already how the Apple H1 is much more capable when compared to QN1 chip from Sony. Apple has the advantage in terms of compute performance and capabilities so all things are in place for the Apple AirPod Max to be a great product. It just remains to be seen how much time and effort Apple has put into this product and considering it's price it won't be enough to just be better compared to the likes of Bose and Sony, it has to be noticeably better to justify the jump in price.
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Thanks! Good to know! I've searched and it looks like they can be used with a lightning to jack converter too. I don't know why this is not clear in the tech specs (they just say lightning is used for charging).
I think you misunderstand what he is saying. If you are a Apple customer for everything Apple besides the iPhone. Let's say you own a MacBook Pro/Air, a iPad Pro and a HomePod. You aren't using Lightning for anything.
So instead of being able to simply use one of your existing cables that you have connected already around your house you will have to find that one USB-C to Lightning cable each and every time you are going to charge the AirPods Max. He's not saying the existing chargers won't work with the USB-C to Lightning cable, he is just saying it's annoying to not be able to simply connect his existing USB-C cables to the headphones. Instead of simply being able to unplug his iPad Pro and connect it to the AirPod Max he will have to disconnect the cable from the charger, find and the connect the USB-C to Lightning cable.
I have to agree with this being utterly stupid by Apple. Lightning isn't going anywhere on the iPhone until it goes portless. We know Apple won't ever use USB-C on the iPhone and that's okay.
But why use Lightning on devices such as the AirPod Max? There is no benefit. These won't do anything other than charge and Lightning has no real benefit over USB-C for this purpose other than being slightly smaller.
I do find this really annoying. I'm deep into the Apple Ecosystem but even I have so many things that use USB-C and I have nothing I use Lightning for anymore. The only things I have that use Lighting are our iPhones and those are charged wirelessly. We have plenty of cables all over already, having to shug along the USB-C to Lightning cable feels stupid at this point. Even all our Xbox Series, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch controllers charge using USB-C...
It would be easier to accept this if Apple as all about Lightning and Lightning-only. But seeing as they have moved to USB-C and/or wireless charging on pretty much all devices at this point having this product that is Lightning-only for charging feels out of place.
Yup. Me too. In the audiophile world this is dirt cheap but sadly for the reasons you mention these headphones, however good the drivers and other hardware is, simply don't play in that world.
Assuming the actual audio hardware is good then to me Apple has really missed a trick here. It could have made these headphones pretty much unique in the wireless headphone world if it had also offered at least Airplay 2 WiFi connectivity which could have given uncompressed 44.1/16 CD quality and ideally it could have used this opportunity to launch an Airplay 3 to go up to at least 96/24. Subject to the quality of the actual hardware being able to do high bit rates justice I would have bought them in a heartbeat had they offered that.
Apple likely opted for Lightning over USB-C because the connection is more reliable over time.
I’ve had a problem with USB-C cables becoming loose and simply falling out, and that isn’t going to be ideal for a product where the cable will hang down.
You’ve clearly not ever looked into high-end headphones.
Anyone complaining about pricing needs to do some research.
Indeed, they don't play at all. You don't get to 'audiophile', however loose that definition is, through headphones alone, but also through accompanying gear (Dac, amps, so forth). The Airpod Max doesn't even have an option for a clean connection to any existing audiophone gear, other than this frankly ludicrous digital to analogue conversion and back. You are stuck with the headphones' amplification, for better or worse, and I can't see that taking over any serious audiophile setup.
It depends on which headphones this competes with. This same reply has been posted here 50 times. If these compete with the Bose 700 and Sony XM4, they are overpriced. If they compete with higher end audiophile headphones, they are not overpriced. Odds are they compete more closely with the Bose 700 and Sony XM4 however.
Sure, but you can only go as far as the B&O H95, which admittedly is 150 pounds more expensive, when comparing things. Its completely out of scope to compare the Airpod Max to a 1000 pound, open headphone like the Sennheiser HD800 series, Beyer T1, or similar. Their connectivity is completely different, not to mention their drivers, earpads and everything else. And frankly it would be unfair on the Airpod Max, as their end use is completely different too. You would never use the HD800 outdoors, while the Airpod Max wastes a lot of its talents when used indoors in an environment suited for open backs.