Apple Announces AirPods Max Over-Ear Headphones With Noise Cancellation, Priced at $549

[OriginalAppleGuy]

Where to even begin with this ?
Perhaps there, where you'll learn that there is no such thing as a "flat at the speaker" (whatever that means to you) FR curve for headphones and that it isn't even desirable to begin with : https://www.headphonesty.com/2020/04/harman-target-curves-part-1/

What I was trying to say is a speaker with flat response. Without adding coloration to the sound it's trying to produce.

Interesting read there in the link you provided. I've been reading and playing - mainly around audio reproduction, home theater type stuff, car audio, etc. as an amateur. Headphones had advantages in my eyes until the advent of 5.1 systems came to fruition. Though, real nice floor standing speakers have been amazing to listen to as well with the right source material and amplifier.

Nothing in what was in that article had anything to say about speaker capabilities and "anything outside of human hearing is BS in a speaker stat". Here's a link to the Sennheiser HD 800S your article provided notice to. It's advantage is seemingly based in how the speakers are angled. Notice the sound capabilities of the speakers. It states 4 Hz to 51,000 Hz (-10 dB). Now, if that's not an important stat, why provide it for a $2,500 set of headphones? Just say - Hey - this conforms to the Hamon curve boys! And BAM - worth every bit of $2,500, right?

Sennheiser HD 800 S

The HD 800 S high-resolution headphones from Sennheiser: Sleek look ✓ Lightweight design ✓ Absorber technology ✓ Discover unrivalled sound now!

en-sg.sennheiser.com

Here's a link to McIntosh MC901. Here, they state the frequency response for both amplifiers. McIntosh is known world-wide as one of, if not the, best amplifier manufacturer in the world. Here, they say the frequency response of their amplifiers in this unit are capable of providing 10 Hz - 100,000 Hz -3 dB and 10 Hz - 70,000 Hz respectively. Why? Why is that important?

MC901 Dual Mono Amplifier

The ultimate solution for bi-amping loudspeakers: 300 Watt vacuum tube amplifier and 600 Watt solid state amplifier on one chassis.

www.mcintoshlabs.com

It's important because it impacts what you can hear. THIS was my argument. You brought in to it a discussion about how the sound waves actually get to your ears, how the ear canal can impact the sound you perceive and how you may feel about what you are hearing. Very interesting stuff. I would argue BOTH are equally important. Perhaps that's why they call it engineering.

 

[clerkpalmer]

Did you get virtual surround sound from Dolby Atmos? No.

And streaming Hi-Res? What's the point? I can stream 24 bit 96 kHz from my iTunes library just fine. In fact I have many such albums. Why would you want to kill your data?
Or are you talking about Tidal Hi-Fi? The last time I checked my CD Rip to Apple Music on my high end speakers it sounds actually the same. 🤷🏻

Enlighten me on how you stream hi Res audio on itunes over bluetooth. I certainly have been wrong before. To my knowledge this is not possible over Bluetooth on any iOS device. What does data have to do with anything? Last I checked the majority of us are on unlimited plans or working from home over wifi and music is hardly a data hog. More apologists defending Apple for not offering the best tech available but charging prices 50 percent higher. It would be acceptable at 300 but not at 550.

 

[matrix07]

Enlighten me on how you stream hi Res audio on itunes over bluetooth.

Why over bluetooth? I listen to it at home so I can easily AirPlay it to my HomePod. 🙄

In a very rare case I want to use headphone I just use my NAD plugged in.

 

[AppelGeenyus]

Trust me I know how to use LDAC in Android. It's not that hard. And the drawbacks you mention - even if correct - are well worth true high res audio. Could LDAC be improved, absolutely. Is LDAC a viable option? Absolutely. Is apple stubborn in not offering it. Absolutely.

Seriously you sound like someone who invested in Enron.

 

[clerkpalmer]

Why over bluetooth? I listen to it at home so I can easily AirPlay it to my HomePod. 🙄

In a very rare case I want to use headphone I just use my NAD plugged in.

Because we talking about Air Pod Max headphones which use bluetooth.

 

[matrix07]

Because we talking about Air Pod Max headphones which use bluetooth.

I know. My point is it's silly to buy bluetooth headphone to listen to Hi-Res audio which you should listen to at home, in a very quiet environment, not noisy outside.
Bluetooth is just for convenience. It's in contrary of absolute quality.

 

[whitby]

I would love to try these out, but by the time I had woken up to the idea that they might be worth trying, delivery was out to March 2021, which means I will not do anything for some considerable time.

I currently have a pair of Bose NC700s and a pair of Sony WH1000 MX4s which are great for traveling and sound reasonable. I then have a pair of Sennheiser HD820 for so called Hi FI listening. Given how much I like the sound from the Apple HomePods, these new headphones from Apple have the potential to make all 3 pairs I have now redundant. I am happy to pay whatever is needed to get the quality I like, so compared to the HD820s, $549 could be a bargain, but I was too slow, so may never find out.

I must admit to getting a little tired, probably like a lot of people, where new quite exciting products are announced with very low or zero launch stock and then months of delay (Canon R6, R5, almost all Nikon lenses etc.). You can blame the pandemic for some of this, but maybe if they waited until they could meet demand before they announced the product I would not have such a sour taste in my mouth. Anyway enough of the griping. They look interesting on the face of it and, if they have abandoned the Beats sound and the HomePod is anything to go by, these have great potential.

 

[clerkpalmer]

Seriously you sound like someone who invested in Enron.

And you sound like someone invested in Apple.

 

[clerkpalmer]

I know. My point is it's silly to buy bluetooth headphone to listen to Hi-Res audio which you should listen to at home, in a very quiet environment, not noisy outside.
Bluetooth is just for convenience. It's in contrary of absolute quality.

I don't agree with this at all. Why can't I have the convenience of BT and High Res at the same time? On Android I can. There is an entire world of audiophile equipment dedicated to offering a high res audio experience over bluetooth.

 

[matrix07]

I don't agree with this at all. Why can't I have the convenience of BT and High Res at the same time? On Android I can. There is an entire world of audiophile equipment dedicated to offering a high res audio experience over bluetooth.

It's along the line of "use the right tools for the job, not Swiss Army knife kind of tool" but of course we can have different opinion. 🙂

 

[clerkpalmer]

I would love to try these out, but by the time I had woken up to the idea that they might be worth trying, delivery was out to March 2021, which means I will not do anything for some considerable time.

I currently have a pair of Bose NC700s and a pair of Sony WH1000 MX4s which are great for traveling and sound reasonable. I then have a pair of Sennheiser HD820 for so called Hi FI listening. Given how much I like the sound from the Apple HomePods, these new headphones from Apple have the potential to make all 3 pairs I have now redundant. I am happy to pay whatever is needed to get the quality I like, so compared to the HD820s, $549 could be a bargain, but I was too slow, so may never find out.

I must admit to getting a little tired, probably like a lot of people, where new quite exciting products are announced with very low or zero launch stock and then months of delay (Canon R6, R5, almost all Nikon lenses etc.). You can blame the pandemic for some of this, but maybe if they waited until they could meet demand before they announced the product I would not have such a sour taste in my mouth. Anyway enough of the griping. They look interesting on the face of it and, if they have abandoned the Beats sound and the HomePod is anything to go by, these have great potential.

I don't think there is any chance these are going to make your HD820s redundant. These will at best be a marginal upgrade on the Sony\Bose. They are still closed back dynamic drivers and will be forever limited by AAC. Your senns are literally some of the finest headphones on the planet.

I completely agree with you about mega companies launching new products with no stock. It's a very annoying trend. Just wait until you have enough inventory to fill the orders.

 

[cardfan]

I’ll probably keep one that I bought and resell the others to pay for it. But wow. That case. Guess these will stay home. Hopefully apple gets a clue with 2nd gen.

 

[AppelGeenyus]

And you sound like someone invested in Apple.

By not endorsing your deeply flawed, proprietary gimmick tech? Good one.

I totally agree LDAC users will be angry Apple didn’t include LDAC support....all seven of them.

 

[bobob]

I'm bookmarking this thread for revisiting 4 years from now, to see how the comments age compared to those in the initial MacRumors' AirPods thread.

 

[clerkpalmer]

By not endorsing your deeply flawed, proprietary gimmick tech? Good one.

I totally agree LDAC users will be angry Apple didn’t include LDAC support....all seven of them.

Terribly ignorant comment. And you have the audacity to mention "proprietary" in a discussion about Apple products? What a joke. No one does proprietary better than Apple.

 

[Phil77354]

. . . wait until you have enough inventory to fill the orders. . .

Uh, not sure how that is supposed to work, exactly.

You are suggesting that Apple should ask for orders then launch the product after they've built enough to satisfy those orders.

So in this case, they would have announced the product earlier this week, then wait for orders to accumulate (how long should they wait, by the way?), and then at that point decide that they can't fill all of the orders until - in this case, it would be sometime in January/February/March - and that would be the launch date? 3 or 4 months after the announcement?

 

[bobob]

how long should they wait, by the way?

Until the warehouse is full of course!

 

[clerkpalmer]

Uh, not sure how that is supposed to work, exactly.

You are suggesting that Apple should ask for orders then launch the product after they've built enough to satisfy those orders.

So in this case, they would have announced the product earlier this week, then wait for orders to accumulate (how long should they wait, by the way?), and then at that point decide that they can't fill all of the orders until - in this case, it would be sometime in January/February/March - and that would be the launch date? 3 or 4 months after the announcement?

I am suggesting that a mega company build up some inventory before launching a product yes. Pretty sure Apple has the logistics to do so but chose to launch these without a sufficient level of inventory to create hype. A 3 month delay is absurd. Even iphones don't get that level of delays.

 

[Nimoy]

I am suggesting that a mega company build up some inventory before launching a product yes. Pretty sure Apple has the logistics to do so but chose to launch these without a sufficient level of inventory to create hype. A 3 month delay is absurd. Even iphones don't get that level of delays.

The best way to create hype is to get these things on as many heads as possible, as fast as possible. Don’t underestimate the complexities that go into manufacturing, especially when it comes to a product that Apple has never manufactured before. And even estimating demand for a new product can be tricky.

That said, the 3-month ship time is pretty nuts!

 

[AppelGeenyus]

Terribly ignorant comment. And you have the audacity to mention "proprietary" in a discussion about Apple products? What a joke. No one does proprietary better than Apple.

Sorry but Sony is the king of proprietary, I'm guessing you are quite young. LDAC just another part of Sony's long obsession with proprietary formats; Betamax, DAT, Minidiscs, ATRAC, MemorySticks, Digital8, UMD, Super Audio CD's, Bluray. That's just off the top of my head.....and now, LDAC. Yes bluray was a success but literally only because of Playstations.

Airpods use AAC, compatible with basically everything. LDAC is compatible with almost nothing. It was you who suggested Apple take LDAC and make a better version of it which would be compatible with less than nothing.

It was also you who admitted to not being aware of the drawbacks of LDAC, despite claiming to use it.

Sure, I'm the ignorant one.

I am suggesting that a mega company build up some inventory before launching a product yes. Pretty sure Apple has the logistics to do so but chose to launch these without a sufficient level of inventory to create hype. A 3 month delay is absurd. Even iphones don't get that level of delays.

This is as nonsensical as everything else you've said. If their intention was to drum up hype they would simply announce the product 2 months before xmas, take as many orders as possible, and max out profit. Artificially limiting stocks 2 weeks before xmas to be more profitable is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

 

[clerkpalmer]

Sorry but Sony is the king of proprietary, I'm guessing you are quite young. LDAC just another part of Sony's long obsession with proprietary formats; Betamax, DAT, Minidiscs, ATRAC, MemorySticks, Digital8, UMD, Super Audio CD's, Bluray. That's just off the top of my head.....and now, LDAC. Yes bluray was a success but literally only because of Playstations.

Airpods use AAC, compatible with basically everything. LDAC is compatible with almost nothing. It was you who suggested Apple take LDAC and make a better version of it which would be compatible with less than nothing.

It was also you who admitted to not being aware of the drawbacks of LDAC, despite claiming to use it.

Sure, I'm the ignorant one.


This is as nonsensical as everything else you've said. If their intention was to drum up hype they would simply announce the product 2 months before xmas, take as many orders as possible, and max out profit. Artificially limiting stocks 2 weeks before xmas to be more profitable is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Whatever you say man. Enjoy your overpriced cans and that sweet case that goes with them. To each their own. I wouldn't be caught dead in public with that ridiculous carrying case.

I didn't say more profitable. I said hype. They aren't the same thing. The right thing to do would have been to just wait to release them until they had some decent level of inventory to cover demand. It was in response to the growing trend of tech companies announcing products and then being out of stock immediately. Apple isn't the only offender.

This forum is toxic. Anyone who dares question Apple's status as the king of all tech is immediately attacked as lacking knowledge. I happen to like Apple and own many products but I have every right to criticize them if I think they are offering poor value to the consumer.

I was around for betamax and Apple is the new sony when it comes to proprietary. You keep saying LDAC isn't compatible with anything which cements your ignorance. It's in every modern android phone which represents more than half the market and it's in every audiophile grade BT component. Just because you keep saying LDAC isn't compatible with anything doesn't make it true. Even if you use ALL CAPS next time you say it it still won't be true.

I'm going fire up my Pandas using my LDAC enabled Samsung phone and think about how I'm going to spend the 150 I saved while steaming Tidal hifi. This is something you will never be able to do on ios. Enjoy.

 

[Phil77354]

I am suggesting that a mega company build up some inventory before launching a product yes.

They obviously did build up some inventory. Just not enough to satisfy you and others who are quick to criticize that it was insufficient.

 

[clerkpalmer]

They obviously did build up some inventory. Just not enough to satisfy you and others who are quick to criticize that it was insufficient.

And what information do you have to support that it was sufficient?

 

[clerkpalmer]

Here's my guess - despite not being fully ready to launch Apple announced the product with very little supply to take away sales from competitors during the holiday season. The timing of it smells of this.

If it steals sales from sony and bose and anyone else or causes anyone to hold off on purchasing then it worked from Apples perspective. I'm sure Apple would never do such a mean thing to it's competition. ....

 

[Abazigal]

Here's my guess - despite not being fully ready to launch Apple announced the product with very little supply to take away sales from competitors during the holiday season. The timing of it smells of this.

The limit in supply is likely due to manufacturing challenges, especially since the AirPods max includes a number of new industrial design breakthroughs.

It’s no different from the AirPods in Dec 2016, which was almost immediately backordered, and it would take more than a year to stabilise supply. I was one of those who ordered AirPods the moment it came out, and it still took two weeks to get to me.

There’s no conspiracy theory here. Apple simply believes it is better to begin selling the AirPods Max when it is ready (ie: right now) versus waiting for the manufacturing process to improve or until supply meets some arbitrary level.