I agree, however it's still somewhat disappointing to not be able (financially speaking for myself) purchase apple headphones, when the rest of my tech 'eco system' is apple. I went with Sony XM4's, which I'm sure will be lovely, but will totally miss some of the apple features.
I think you are framing the question wrong. It's not whether these technologies are offered elsewhere - it's whether they justify the price being asked. All of that technology needs to amount to a substantially better product that for example the Bose, Sony, Shure etc. If they don't advance the ball in a meaningful way it doesn't really matter. For example, the regular Air Pod pros offer many of these technologies and while they are a decent product most would agree they are not better than their competitors and in fact may be worse when price is factored in. Until we hear them, the list of fancy technology is just noise. If they implement this tech in a way that is innovative and creates an excellent set of headphones then maybe the price is justified. However, they are going to be limited to the driver technology and BT codec and we already know that there is nothing new or class leading in those categories.
That's a good point, if they had somehow announced these in combination with a new codec capable of much better audio, THAT would be something. For me, despite the combination of great features as some have mentioned, none of them say 'one more thing', and therefore that price is hard to swallow for technology that's not even matured yet.
BT audio has come a long way. Apple has decided that AAC is good enough for them. By all reasonable accounts AAC is good enough for most applications but if you are going to get into the high end audio game, and 550 suggests that's is Apples intention, then good enough doesn't cut it. At least not for me personally.
Seamless multi-device switching is the main selling point of any airpods. No other bluetooth earbuds/headphones can do this. I'm not saying that totally justifies the price of Max's but if you want a pair of comfortable over-ears with decent sound and effortless device switching then they're the only game in town. Apple knows this hence the price tag.
I mean it's a nice feature but the "main" feature seems like a stretch. It takes
Well, I realize by the attached image, that when you attempted to add them to your cart it wasn’t available anymore, but yesterday after I read the MR posts, I got to find it available in the mexican site even in blue (which I assume will be one of the most picked colors). I didn’t order it because I’m more than fine with my Sennheisers and really don’t feel like need them.
Again I wouldnt rule out an entire world of great products over H1 switching. My Bose can Switch in 2 seconds as well. I get it - the H1 pairing is a nice feature but I really think you're missing out on many alternatives that may perform better for less money. If you heard my Drop Panda BT planar headphones over LDAC you might forget about the H1. Unless sq is not a priority but if you are dropping 550 I think it probably is.
As far as I am aware Bose QC's require either manually disconnecting from the current device, or using the Bose app to switch to another device, awful. Way longer than "2 seconds", and doing this 10 times a day across 2 or 3 devices is a joke.
The residents of the 11 countries with a per capita GDP lower than $550 might disagree....
I cannot even begin to explain how much I disagree with this. Oye vey. Yes there is a gap between wired and bluetooth but to suggest bluetooth and high end audio are not compatible is just false. There are numerous high end audiophile devices that offer bluetooth And your baseless assertions about LDAC are also false. LDAC is in every Android device on the planet. Apple won't license it because they are stubborn and arrogant. Ask Audeze of they think LDAC is a gimmick. I'll bet you a new pair of Air Pod Max's they say it is not.
I'm not denying the technical capability of LDAC, I'm pointing out that near non-existent industry support means almost nobody will ever use it, and that makes it a gimmick. Android 8.0 or later is required for LDAC, and only if the device manufacturer chooses to support it. So no, not "every android device on the planet". Not even remotely close. Also it's only better than other codecs when using the higher bandwidth, which reduces range and connection quality, and interferes with wifi. Suggesting Apple is stubborn/arrogant for not supporting LDAC is loopy.
You said it was a marketing gimmick bit ok. LDAC is a staple of audiophile products. It is not a staple of consumer oriented audio. There are numerous audiophile devices that support LDAC. It's becoming very common. I could find dozens of examples. It's particularly common for portable audiophile gear. Check out the Fiio BTR5 sometime. Awesome device.
Exactly my point. But the Apple apologists are roasting me because I have the audacity to suggest that AAC isn't good enough or that H1 isn't a very good reason to select which headphones to purchase.
Lol. It doesn't have to be LDAC though. LDAC is an off the shelf option that is available. I wish Apple would improve upon LDAC. Then they can take my money. They have the money and know how to make it better. They could have used the Max as an opportunity to do so.
