Apple's Upcoming Over-Ear Wireless Headphones to Target High-End Noise-Canceling Market

[497902]

I hope you meant $6,000 not $60,000.

Edit: You were $30,000 off but that is just outrageous for a pair of damn headphones. I would rather by another car for $30,000 than a pair of headphones. These are just for the the outrageously wealthy...obviously.

https://www.wired.com/2014/05/most-expensive-headphones/

From the article:

"What we've collected here is by no means the definitive list of world-class headphones. There are omissions like the legendary Sennheiser Orpheus, which comes with its own dedicated tube amplifier, and today can go for as much as $30,000. We also left out acclaimed "earspeakers" from Stax–like the $4,450 SR-009, also widely considered to be one of the world's best."

Those are the original ones, here are the new ones:

 

[sirozha]

The one to beat is Bose QuietComfort 35! They are fantastic!

I don't know what's so fantastic about Bose QC35.

They cause sonic pressure on my ears when are turned on without any music playing. There's no way to switch Bluetooth off so that they could be used solely for noise cancelation. The headphones pick up sound with the external microphones and amplify the sound into the ears. The only way to stop this is to plug in the supplied cable into them, which switches off Bluetooth. I had to cut off the 2.5 mm plug off a cheap audio cable that I bought and use the plug for turning off Bluetooth because Bose failed to have a button that can do this.

Additionally, if you do use QC35 for listening to music, the quality is underwhelming - not any better than Airpods. Finally, when using QC35 for phone conversations, the headphones don't provide proper feedback for your own voice, so it feels weird to carry out a phone conversation, using QC35.

The only reason I didn't return QC35 was their noise canceling qualities (with a phone cable plug) but the sonic pressure makes wearing QC35 for prolonged periods of time uncomfortable.

Apple can improve greatly on QC35 if they make ANC headphones that solve all the issues I named above.

 

[ipponrg]

There's higher margin, less work and more time for partying with champagne when you appeal to the Kardashian crowd as opposed to design and media professionals, developers, etc... those folks are so like yesterday's market
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Interesting you'd say Bose is all bass, since they're known for being quite neutral... indeed not the best sound, but I've always had the issue they're not bass-y enough.

Beats on the other hand is all base (and some lead weighting :/)

BOSE is actually known for artificially tweaking their sound which many audio people dislike. I suppose you could call it the "BOSE" sound. Regarding their wireless lineup, I heard the QC35s, and I am convinced my ears are unlike most QC35 lovers. The Sonys imo are far better when it comes to sound than the QC35s.

 

[kyjaotkb]

I am pretty sure that the Apple branded headphones will only sound good with Apple Music. Currently, on an iPhone, Spotify sounds noticeably less good than Apple Music when using Bluetooth headphones. This is due to Apple Music's AAC being natively piped towards the Bluetooth headsets, whereas Spotify's OGG has to be re-compressed (possibly in AAC with compatible headphones but on my MDR-1000x and WH-1000X M2, the difference between Spotify "extreme" and Apple Music in "High" is so blatant - and so is the difference between wired vs Bluetooth on Spotify - that I suppose Spotify is being recompressed into SBC).
It'd be great if they offered Apt-X but that's extremely unlikely to happen... a shame!

 

[0924487]

This is something I can’t wait to see, but probably will wait for their second generation Overear NC headphones. I currently have the Sony one, top of the line.