Apple won't update the headset because there are low sales. And there are low sales because Apple hasn't made any updates. Seems like we're at a bit of a stalemate here fellas. Every day that goes by it gets harder and harder to justify 5 years old technology at insane markups such as this.
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Apple Has 'No' Plans Yet for AirPods Max 2 With 'Meaningful' Changes
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Here’s a couple simple things Apple could do to improve the APM, without spending a lot of money or redesign effort to do it.
I bought my APM in March 2023, so I’ve had some time to wear them in. Recently I bought a pair of Beats Studio Pros to compare so I could stop wondering about the differences, and see if they’re a good substitute. I haven’t found the Beats to be superior or even equivalent, but like others commenting here, I’ve found some comfort issues with the APM design/materials, and with the Beats too, so for many people considering Beats instead of APM, they might not be a good substitute:
• My APM sounds a little noticeably better than my Beats Studio Pros, even when the Beats are wired directly to my Macbook, but a lot of people might not notice the difference. The Beats still sound good to me, but for audio quality, I prefer the APM.
• The APM ear cushions are more comfortable than the Beats:
- They’re deeper and so the speaker grilles don’t press against my ears. The Beats grilles touch my ears. This isn’t uncomfortable at first, but over extended listening times, it becomes a little annoying. Over time, if the Beats ear cushions even slightly compress and stay that way, this would become even more annoying. My APM ear cushions have compressed a little, and while my ears still don’t touch the grilles, the hard plastic circumference behind the cushions now presses more noticeably against the area around my ears, so that after some hours of wearing them, I feel some pressure sort of like pain, though this disappears shortly after I remove the APM. If you don’t wear APMs as long as I sometimes do (several hours), this might not be an issue, but Apple should still find some kind of foam that doesn’t compress as easily but still feels comfortable, though I think Apple would just prefer that you buy a new pair of ear cushions from them at $69 a pair. Third-party ear cushions are available for around $22-$25, but I don't have any experience with them yet, though I soon will.
- The circumference of the APM ear cushions is large enough so that the only part of my ears they touch is the tip of my earlobes, which is OK. The circumference of the Beats ear cushions is smaller, so they touch most of the circumference of my ears, which is a little uncomfortable. Maybe my ears are bigger than is best for me.
• The APM’s stretching headband material now flattens out when I wear the APM. This causes the headband’s two hard metal tubes to press against my scalp, leaving deep grooves there after a while, and some pain. Luckily I found a cheap ($15, now $18) foam cushion headband that you zipper onto the two metal tubes (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CMRTRMGK?th=1), and that’s done a good job of fixing this problem, but this is something Apple could improve on. The Beats have a built-in foam headband, but it’s thinner and not as soft as the one I found for my APM.
I bought my APM in March 2023, so I’ve had some time to wear them in. Recently I bought a pair of Beats Studio Pros to compare so I could stop wondering about the differences, and see if they’re a good substitute. I haven’t found the Beats to be superior or even equivalent, but like others commenting here, I’ve found some comfort issues with the APM design/materials, and with the Beats too, so for many people considering Beats instead of APM, they might not be a good substitute:
• My APM sounds a little noticeably better than my Beats Studio Pros, even when the Beats are wired directly to my Macbook, but a lot of people might not notice the difference. The Beats still sound good to me, but for audio quality, I prefer the APM.
• The APM ear cushions are more comfortable than the Beats:
- They’re deeper and so the speaker grilles don’t press against my ears. The Beats grilles touch my ears. This isn’t uncomfortable at first, but over extended listening times, it becomes a little annoying. Over time, if the Beats ear cushions even slightly compress and stay that way, this would become even more annoying. My APM ear cushions have compressed a little, and while my ears still don’t touch the grilles, the hard plastic circumference behind the cushions now presses more noticeably against the area around my ears, so that after some hours of wearing them, I feel some pressure sort of like pain, though this disappears shortly after I remove the APM. If you don’t wear APMs as long as I sometimes do (several hours), this might not be an issue, but Apple should still find some kind of foam that doesn’t compress as easily but still feels comfortable, though I think Apple would just prefer that you buy a new pair of ear cushions from them at $69 a pair. Third-party ear cushions are available for around $22-$25, but I don't have any experience with them yet, though I soon will.
- The circumference of the APM ear cushions is large enough so that the only part of my ears they touch is the tip of my earlobes, which is OK. The circumference of the Beats ear cushions is smaller, so they touch most of the circumference of my ears, which is a little uncomfortable. Maybe my ears are bigger than is best for me.
• The APM’s stretching headband material now flattens out when I wear the APM. This causes the headband’s two hard metal tubes to press against my scalp, leaving deep grooves there after a while, and some pain. Luckily I found a cheap ($15, now $18) foam cushion headband that you zipper onto the two metal tubes (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CMRTRMGK?th=1), and that’s done a good job of fixing this problem, but this is something Apple could improve on. The Beats have a built-in foam headband, but it’s thinner and not as soft as the one I found for my APM.
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This decision just doesn't make ANY SENSE.
Yes, you can argue it maximizes Apple's profit in the short term.
But in the long term, this hurts the company and their brand.
I mean, look at all the comments here - they're brutal, and rightly so.
Ah to be a fly on the wall in Cupertino and hear the discussions that went into this decision...
Yes, you can argue it maximizes Apple's profit in the short term.
But in the long term, this hurts the company and their brand.
I mean, look at all the comments here - they're brutal, and rightly so.
Ah to be a fly on the wall in Cupertino and hear the discussions that went into this decision...
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I think they should make a plastic version or cancel them. They have a winning formula with the small Airpods. But the heavy-weight metal construction is not ideal and they need to allow people to choose sound profiles. There is always the Beats brand to try new things.
Parity comes down list of priorities, apparently. Profits at the top. Most people don’t care for the single assumed benefit of big Apple headphones (sound quality) when they can get the same features.(. no wait… BETTER!) for less than half the price. APP2 currently £180. I’m getting some today and trading in my APP1.
APM are niche. £500. That’s niche. Incredibly, Apple have made £100-200 earphones almost ubiquitous. In London on the tube, every other person has AirPods of some variation. Except Max. Almost zero. I see them, but hardly ever. People get the Max ones stolen off their heads too! Easy targets. Even if they did update at the same time for parity’s sake, 95% are still choosing regular Airpods. Updating the Max later on (if ever) is really all they have going for them, in terms of providing a sales bump.
I mean, maybe that’s why. What do I know?!
APM are niche. £500. That’s niche. Incredibly, Apple have made £100-200 earphones almost ubiquitous. In London on the tube, every other person has AirPods of some variation. Except Max. Almost zero. I see them, but hardly ever. People get the Max ones stolen off their heads too! Easy targets. Even if they did update at the same time for parity’s sake, 95% are still choosing regular Airpods. Updating the Max later on (if ever) is really all they have going for them, in terms of providing a sales bump.
I mean, maybe that’s why. What do I know?!
If it ain't broke...
While this should come as no surprise given that Apple just updated the AirPods Max in September, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said that Apple currently has "no concrete plans" to update the headphones again "in a meaningful way."
"I expect the company to keep the Max headphones around for the foreseeable future in their current form," he added.
AirPods Max received only two changes in September, including a USB-C charging port instead of Lightning, and new color options. The headphones did not receive Apple's H2 chip that debuted in the AirPods Pro 2 a few years ago, so they continue to miss out on Adaptive Audio features, and there were no improvements to active noise cancellation either.
This means the AirPods Max continue to have the H1 chip that Apple introduced in 2019, yet the $549 headphones did not receive a price cut.
Gurman believes that AirPods Max sales are too low for Apple to justify allocating more development resources to the headphones. So, if you are hoping for AirPods Max 2 with more significant improvements, keep your expectations low for now.
Article Link: Apple Has 'No' Plans Yet for AirPods Max 2 With 'Meaningful' Changes
Don't own a pair myself, but if there's nothing wrong with them why try to "reinvent" them? Just because they're from Apple I think people are getting too obsessed with "disposable technology", a good pair of headphones should last years and years and years.
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I have had these since day 1, and really the only thing I would change is the case.
I really don’t understand the “out of date” comments.
I also bought the SONY XM5s, which are less out of date, but they don’t do anything more modern or better than the Max, in my humble opinion. Also their case is a step back from the
The XM4.
I really don’t understand the “out of date” comments.
I also bought the SONY XM5s, which are less out of date, but they don’t do anything more modern or better than the Max, in my humble opinion. Also their case is a step back from the
The XM4.
Shareholders are lovin' all the juice Tim is squeezing from the lemons 😂No plans to drop the price either.
They don’t really need updating. They’re headphones not iPhones or MacBooks. I’m glad mine will last me a long time. Makes the cost of it on release day worth it. I like my tech to have longevity.
I’m also not a huge fan of in-ear headphones. I love my AirPods 2 and my AirPods Max.
But what keeps me in this AirPods ecosystem is the seamless switching of devices. Being able to go from my iPhone to my iPad to my Mac to my watch without having to re-pair headphones over and over again makes the extra cost worth it to me. I know people love some of the Bose and Sony headphones and I’m sure they probably sound better but that convenience is worth hundreds of dollars to me apparently.
But what keeps me in this AirPods ecosystem is the seamless switching of devices. Being able to go from my iPhone to my iPad to my Mac to my watch without having to re-pair headphones over and over again makes the extra cost worth it to me. I know people love some of the Bose and Sony headphones and I’m sure they probably sound better but that convenience is worth hundreds of dollars to me apparently.
Absolutely, and cutting edge quality in general is supposed to be part of Apple's ethos. We see that with Apple constantly striving for the best possible flagship iPhone camera quality year on year but its efforts regarding high quality audio seem pretty much non existent.
There’s more to headphones than sound quality (see beats) … again, they’re clearly not in the target market.
used them a lot on travel - but now with VisionPro I am back to AirPods Pro 
.
.
I bought the prior generation before traveling to California a few months back. I solved the Lighting port issue with a magsafe like adapter that I use on a few of my devices, so that’s not a big deal. I pretty much only use them for dedicated music listening where I’m not doing anything else, or when watching certain movies with big cinematic sound. I honestly don’t think they could be improved all that much, and I got them on a discount, so price wasn’t really a huge concern.
They’re perfectly comfortable, have the best noise canceling system I’ve yet used, and offer great sound.
Still, throw an H2 in there guys, geez 🙄
They’re perfectly comfortable, have the best noise canceling system I’ve yet used, and offer great sound.
Still, throw an H2 in there guys, geez 🙄
This one was weird. I'll say that about the Apple Watch Ultra 2 as well, S10 gets the new chip, Ultra didn't get it. But keeping the H1 in the Max was kind of bewildering.
Yes, let’s discontinue them even though they’re still selling. I’m not sure that’s how multi trillion dollar companies become multi trillion dollar companies but everyone has their business strategies
Sure they’re not for everyone, but if Apple creates a product that sells, they’re going to keep selling it. Once sales drop to a point where they feel it needs an update then they will update it.
They probably do not see very many of them, but there are more than enough to keep it alive, especially with the obscene margins due to the price and lack of development costs.
Obviously, enough people are buying it just because it is an Apple Product.
I tried them, couldn’t take the pressure. Was hoping they would updated them with something to relieve it so I can get the new pair.
What a shame. If they fixed the mesh headband, made it lighter, sweatproofed it, put in latest chip, remove the stupid bra case and drop price to 399 or 449 it would sell like crazy.
Its already a big status symbol headphone in gyms, offices and airports in LA/NYC so putting effort in an update is justified, shareholders be damned
Its already a big status symbol headphone in gyms, offices and airports in LA/NYC so putting effort in an update is justified, shareholders be damned
As for me...I think Apple is missing a real opportunity to lead the market...
Ditch the heavy aluminum, use lighter materials for the cups.
Go to planar magnetic for better sound.
Charge less than people expect, and delight in how many will be seen wearing them on the streets. Make them, of course, able to play the highest quality files.
www.howtogeek.com
Ditch the heavy aluminum, use lighter materials for the cups.
Go to planar magnetic for better sound.
Charge less than people expect, and delight in how many will be seen wearing them on the streets. Make them, of course, able to play the highest quality files.
What Are Planar Magnetic Headphones?
The world of audiophile hardware is dense and hard to parse.
www.howtogeek.com
Why do I get the feeling that Apple planted this story? They do not want consumers waiting for a better headphone this holiday shopping season.