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Comparison: AirPods Max vs Sony XM4, Sennheiser Momentum and Bose NC 700
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I sold home audio in high school, and early college. I was amazed at the people that would swear they could tell the difference between tube and transistor amps. Yeah, bull... And yet they would pay for them, buy them. They also would try to tell me that the new model of the same receiver from last year was so much better than the previous years model. Often they had the same specs! They would just move knobs around, or the big joke was making the volume knob bigger. One year, Nikko I think, brought out a complete white face line. Same insides as the past year, but white.
People will buy anything...
The ones that bothered me were the ones that bought the previous years equipment, and came back and bought the new stuff. On credit...
Yep. So strange.
You know what it reminds me of? So, as it’s the season, I’ve been wrapping presents for the past couple of days. I hate, HATE wrapping gifts. Mostly because I suck at it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ll cut a sheet and start wrapping something, only to find that I was an inch short in my “measurement”, leaving a strip of the gift exposed. And there will sometimes be a little extra, so I’ll flap it over a different section just to use the extra bit of paper. THAT’S what this case reminds me of.
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APM makes the Sony’s even more appealing.
Powerbeats Pro. No power button. They tend to suck. Suck on the battery because they all too often do not turn themselves off in the charging case, so they stay connected, and are dead when you want to use them again. The whole charging case - ear bud interface is a mess. They needed to make the pins longer so that the connection was easier to achieve, and they would then turn off. Heck, even putting a simple power button on them would have been a stellar idea! Not making the system easier to engage in the case did not make it 'easier for people to use'. There are probably quite a few threads here with people complaining about them being dead a significant amount of the time they have had them. So no 'imressive power savings' if the dang things won't drop their connection when placed in the case. They are finicky enough that Apple should have seen those failures in the testing process, and gone back and figured out a better way. *shrug* When they work, they are great. When they work. My left one was at 3% yesterday. Again. Frustrating...
😄Yeah, it's hard sometimes. I had a 'professional gift wrapper' show me how to do it perfect every time. It's an art for sure... I'm waiting to see the 'New OtterBox Air Pods Max Carry Case'.
In all the hullabaloo about the 'case', I haven't taken notice if it also charges them. Should any case provide charging, or incorporate the Apple case?
Actually today, I physcially tried the XM3's, XM4,s, 710's 910's, the Bose 700, Bose 35 ii's, plus a couple of Skull Candy models.[and some Jabra and JBL models I had never heard of] If there is one thing the Airpod Max have done for me, it has rekindled my interest in wireless headphones as apposed to wireless earbuds, I have several of the latter. The post above from richnyc again reminded why I went the buds route, i.e. longhaul flying and sleeping!
However I digress, there was a discernable difference between the 3's and the 4's. To be honest I was a bit disappointed with the XM3's as to listen to the reviews, I was expecting to be blown away; they were ok, but I didn't think they were as good as my wired B&W P5's. I thought the XM4's were much better, but again, a tinge of disappointment [maybe my expectations were just too high?]. I almost hate to concede that both Bose models suited my hearing much better and I really enjoyed them. In all honesty I have always steered awyay from Bose thinking they were always overpriced "low quality" phones purchased on name. [Learned something today, although still would struggle to deal with the Bose name]. If I was going Sony, I would pick the 710's. To my ears, they sounded "as good" as the XM's for a third of the price; clearly not as well made or as many features, but to be honest how they sound to me is 75% of my decision.
I think they would weigh quite a bit with a "real" case, probably more than an 11" iPad Pro and typecover..probably more expensive as well
So these Apple headphones are considerably bigger than most other headphones on the market that come with cases?
Personally, I buy headphones with these priorities: 1. Sound (including noise canceling) 2. Comfort 3. Features 4. Price 5. Looks.
With these things in mind, I would have liked a test with the PSB M4U 8. A bit more expensive then the ones in your test, but still less then the Apple headphones and most audio magazines have rated these sounding better than all those on your list.
With these things in mind, I would have liked a test with the PSB M4U 8. A bit more expensive then the ones in your test, but still less then the Apple headphones and most audio magazines have rated these sounding better than all those on your list.
Not a single dropout on the AirPods Max in 5 days!
I think I like the fit and the sound, but, I have never tried the Sonys. Personally I hate any over the ear headphone that touches my ears whatsoever. My ears fatigue when the cups press my cartilage against my skull after about thirty minutes of listening. So I am biased. I really love the IEM AirPods Pro, to me they are the best choice and value right now if you do not need or want over the ear monitors.
One of the big advantages I've noticed while testing the APM vs the XM4 the last 2 days has been the ease of switching between devices with the APM. With multiple Apple devices around, it's effortless to switch to any of them with the APM. This is a huge practical advantage compared to the Sonys, where you have to do the bluetooth dance to disconnect from a device before switching to other ones. (I know you can connect to 2 devices on the XM4s, but it's much more cumbersome.) The Max also just sound SOOOO good. Trying to find a way to justify keeping both of them...
True. But what did you expect? This is not a hifi or music site, its consumer tech only. Macrumors knows s..t about sound quality and they show it time and time again.
Just look at the final verdict. Its not worth it in the presenters opinion, because he doesn't hear any significant difference. Ask an audiophile and he will hear a difference. I play guitar and I can hear the difference in the cable I am using or the material the strings are made of. Oh well at least I could when I was young and had my full range of hearing, nowadays I just believe I can hear it! LOL! Back on topic. They even picked cheap headphones instead of some in the same price range.
They can be used corded. They don't come with the relevant cord, so add $35 to the price.
If that’s the problem you see, then you need to look again?
The cord is a joke and rip off. Also when your out of battery your done.
Has anyone compared the AirPods Max to Beats Studio? I’m looking for over the ear headphones, and I like the ability to quickly switch between Apple devices due to the H1 and W1 chips respectively.
I never bothered reading the article because as soon as I saw what headphones the APM was being compared against I knew it was pointless going any further because as far as I am concerned, you cannot do a fair comparison of headphones that are not in the same price bracket as the APM.