Hands-On With the AirPods Max

[1k5]

Oh man, please do keep us up to date. That is quite an important set of remarks.

Will do @amartinez1660.
I'm certainly an Apple user and have been for the past 20 years. I will give these a chance but they are checking a lot of boxes that make them appear to be a silly option. They remind me a bit of the iPod Hi-Fi in their competitor comparisons. I will never be able to judge their professional audio mixing quality but I will put them through the everyday paces. I wanted to believe the Beats acquisition in 14' was to leap forward in product experience by acquiring a company in the space for an over the ear option that would in turn allow them to slap that beloved and implied quality fruit on the outside. This feels like greedy pricing for a 1st gen product with these "issues". I do however believe the market is laughing and smiling at the same time. This will allow the competitors the ability to start raising their prices because they will observe from this gauging that they can. Especially if the specs/comfort/price of their product is above and beyond these colorful ear macaroons.

 

[Rogifan]

MKBHD review. He absolutely hates the case. He says if you’re not wearing them but they’re not in the case they will go into ultra low power mode after 2 hours. He says they will work if the battery is dead but they’re plugged in. He says they do bleed some when at higher volumes.

 

[kirk.vino]

Bose QC35 are amazing and by all means a premium product, they beat the new Apple product in most departments, including cable/jack, case and price.

I'd think hard and long when choosing between the two. Bose does not have transparency mode nor auto-switching, and changing the paddings is rather cumbersome (they do get worn out once in a couple years). But the case is great, and audio jack does come in handy on airplanes (and yes, some of us still fly in 2020).

You know that they can be wired, right? I’ve just picked up a lightning to minijack cable with them as well.

 

[kirk.vino]

I know I can sync these with my iPhone, but what about the sound from a smart TV? My TCL 6-Series set doesn't have bluetooth audio. Sigh.

Lightning to minijack cable.

 

[tigres]

I’m just going to say this. Who the f cares about the case, move on they are headphones first and foremost. I advise you to go look at the B&O offerings before the h95s. A cloth bag POS. Those were similar / close in price. I will grab a pair tomorrow and see how the call quality is for 8 hours of zoom, then I will see if they go back. I am a headphone snob when it comes to comfort, calls and travel (should it come again soon) comfort is key and I despise in ear headphones for any period of time.

 

[The Barron]

Bose Noise Cancelling headphones all the way for the money!

 

[tdbrown75]

Picked some up today (rather had them delivered). Have not tried them yet. Will come back with my impressions after I try them out for a while. Yes, they were expensive.

Tim

 

[MICHAELSD]

Initial impressions make this product seem like a major miss from Apple, yet for some inexplicable reason I still kind of want a pair.

 

[tdbrown75]

Initial impressions make this product seem like a major miss from Apple, yet for some inexplicable reason I still kind of want a pair.

Exactly! I logged in this AM, saw they were available, and grabbed a pair without really thinking about it. I'll hang on to them a few days, and if reviews are good, will open them up.

Tim

 

[Freeangel1]

What I use and Love for remixing, sound restoration and any kind of audio editing.
LOVE DENON. I have been a Denon DJ since the 90's.
$250 vs $550 for Apple

 

[69Mustang]

I wish Apple would drop the audiophile nonsense.

Headphones/Earphones that really concentrate on audio do not have Noise Cancelling Algorithms, Spatial Cinema (Lol) or Bluetooth. All these things hinder, taint and ultimately ruin the source input. They are conveniences where the trade-off is really crappy sound.

If you're fine with that, (and the conveniences out-weigh the audio quality) then this new Apple offering is probably about as good as the Sony XM3 or XM4 - once you stop drooling over the design and actual concentrate on the audio quality.

I have a pair of XM3s. They're okay for watching a film or maybe YouTube but I'm under no illusion that these are what I would choose for actually listening to music. For that, I'd go to the Shure SE846 or something similar.

At no point has Apple claimed anything about "audiophile". What you're experiencing is people incorrectly associating price with "audiophile" These aren't audiophile headphones by any definition. Again, Apple isn't claiming they are either.

Do they offer any water resistance? Can you go swimming with them on?

These are 100% waterproof to 1000m and can function as a SCUBA tank in an emergency. ← That's according to Apple's FAQ. Ymmv.

I think it was the price that implied it. Heavily implied it.

Price isn't an indication of anything but price. It definitely doesn't imply audiophile. The same as a $6000-$10000 Caviar converted iPhone doesn't imply superior technology... or class.

 

[BadBoyXS]

What color did you get?

The colour doesn’t dictate the sound quality.

 

[currentinterest]

So far, most are saying they sound fantastic. Thus, I will be buying a pair as soon as I begin flying again. I like that they sell a cable (or can likely use the $9 adapter and a cable I have lying around) so I can use them with in-flight entertainment. The case is likely to keep the aluminum from being scratched while in a brief case or other carry-on.

 

[BadBoyXS]

It’s a premium headphone. Both it style and performance. Bose would be the Android “cheap plastic” of headphones.

Premium with no power button. 🤣

 

[BadBoyXS]

What color are yours?

The colour does t dictate the sound quality. 🤣

 

[ModusOperandi]

At 629€ (765$) in EU, this is truly a comical product.

 

[gavroche]

The Privileged will enjoy these to help differentiate from those who aren't. The small group with God Ears (who make up less than .001% of the market because they hear things common people cant and then make up a cult called audiophiles) wont be carrying this product for Apple. Its the Privileged....simple. And if you cant afford them but still bought them...don't come here to defend your purchase by saying there are other headphones out there more expensive.

What a nonsense statement. We get that you personally don’t want or like them. But don’t pretend like you don’t own anything that cost $600... removing you from your “privileged” category insult. If you think $600 is out of price range for 99% of the population then you are nuts.

 

[synergize]

The Sony wh-1000xm4 case is nicer than the Apple hamburger tote!

 

[8CoreWhore]

Those cups and headband fabrics seem fragile. So, $550 up front, than $100+ per year to replae the dirty, worn parts, not to mention paying Apple to change the battery. Hard pass. Also, as much as I love the Airpods, I will never buy them again because once the battery is bad, you throw the entire product in the garbage. Insane. It's so insulting for them to preach about the environment, then pull this nonesense.

 

[Soccertess]

Aside from the poorly designed cartoon case, for this kind of money they should have modeled every detail of the speaker response and created a flat tuning feature as an option, for a true audiophile experience, ie. minimal audio colorization added or reduced for critical listening. Then (with a better after-market case) they could be quite useful for both movies and gaming plus 2 channel listening or audio mixing.

good points all around. I think Apple will create a flat tuning option. It makes sense to offer that option. But then again, this is Tim Cook's Apple and it might involve a dongle.

 

[amartinez1660]

It’s a good thing I don’t buy gadgets to “look cool.” The iPhone is a tool, the Apple Watch is a tool, and the AirPods lineup are all tools for most people. Contrary to what Apple haters would you have believe, I have yet to meet someone who buys Apple stuff to “look cool.” It’s only used in a pejorative way from non-Apple users in an effort to feel clever as they cling to their outdated, laggy android phone that haz customz ROMZ! No one noticed or cares what devices/gadgets you’re using, and if you are the 1% that cares, all the Apple gadgets in the world won’t help you.

Indeed, personal experience on this front: I have never had any iPhone device or related gadget just because of thinking ‘it was cool’. On the contrary, most people I know (so granted, not all) choose them because of the convenience, ecosystem, ease of use with any other apple device/gadget, etc. And ALL of them mention how it does sting a bit paying for such product, especially the up-sales like choosing the 128GB instead of the 32GB just to get out of the memory pressure (which has almost disappeared for me, the app offloading when not used enough, iCloud photo-ing, etc makes my 64GB devices feel like a 512GB one... I just add and add and add photos, videos, music, apps, games and it never fills up).

In fact, a pair of Beats Solo2 Wireless I have (my first foray into wireless headphones) did make me a bit self-conscious because at the time they were still a fashion signature, so I thought they would attract some ‘gaze’, lucky me 7 months of the year are VERY VERY cold, so I just hid in hoodies and snow jackets. Why did I buy them? Because to contrary complaints I read in forums they actually sounded amazing to me (I was expecting utter garbage like the forums and internet was claiming them to be) and the no cables, easy pairing and the whole thing just working great was a no-brainer.

I bought some AirPods Pro out of that previous experience. I was mentioning on another thread the following experience -> get out of the computer with the earphones still on, go to the TV, grab the (atrocious) TV Remote and in a few steps: press hold the home/tvicon button, tap on the airplay icon, choose the AirPods Pro as the output sound... done. AirPods paired, selected and ready to give you the sounds from the TV set. I’m genuinely curious, can you do this with a FireStick? Or a SmartTV?... all this makes me put my target on the Airpods Max now.

Also, did I buy the Apple TV ’just because it looks cool”? Heck no, the thing I like the most is that it’s so inconspicuous, I don’t even point at it with the remote, I just point lazily to somewhere in the direction towards the TV. The thing is nice and well built but it’s not shining or grabbing attention like the colorful lights on gamer PCs cases or keyboards, RAZR android phones or laptops crowded with shiny fancy colorful stickers... THATS trying to look and grab attention in my humble opinion.

 

[JosephAW]

I can remember spending over $150 on wired headphones back in the 80s.

 

[Kardinal1911]

I wish Apple would drop the audiophile nonsense.

Headphones/Earphones that really concentrate on audio do not have Noise Cancelling Algorithms, Spatial Cinema (Lol) or Bluetooth. All these things hinder, taint and ultimately ruin the source input. They are conveniences where the trade-off is really crappy sound.

If you're fine with that, (and the conveniences out-weigh the audio quality) then this new Apple offering is probably about as good as the Sony XM3 or XM4 - once you stop drooling over the design and actual concentrate on the audio quality.

I have a pair of XM3s. They're okay for watching a film or maybe YouTube but I'm under no illusion that these are what I would choose for actually listening to music. For that, I'd go to the Shure SE846 or something similar.

Well Apple purchased a headphone and speaker company called BEATS remember them? Would you also like them to Abandon the HomePod and stop putting good sounding speakers in there Macs and IPads? Do you see how foolish you sound here???

 

[44267547]

The only concern I’m reading so far, is that they’re heavier over the competition. Which results in more fatigue and maybe uncomfortability for some. That easily can be a dealbreaker, but I think the only way to really know, is to extensively test them. One thing I really like about the Sony XM‘s, is there extremely lightweight, but they don’t fatigue your ears or become uncomfortable for wearing long periods of time.

If anything, I can pull the trigger on these, and then utilize the extended holiday return.

 

[triton100]

@MacRumours it’s not a case, it’s a sleeve and as such it does it’s job fine. Seriously you’re supposed to be more on it as the premier Apple blog.