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Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

In my household, they're a split decision: 3/5 in favor of Beats and Sony design over these.

I happen to be in the minority and love the techno-industrial elegant look, even if the green ones remind me of my Air Force-issue Dave Clarks.
Hey! Like you said, everybody sees things differently, so I respect your viewpoint! Enjoy your Sony if that’s what you prefer!
 
So are they tearing them down because they are curious or only because they are made by Apple? I don’t think they tore the XM4 apart- and that is the headphones that everyone is comparing the Max to
Because it’s Apple and Apple gets clicks. Heck they fly people to Australia just to get new Apple devices to tear down.
 
AirPods Max - 549$
Iphone se 256gb - 549$

find the error...
One uses a manufacturing process that's already been around for 4 years. The R&D and equipment costs have more than been recouped by now.

Another sports a brand new industrial design that took 4 years to conceptualise, and will likely be exceedingly tricky to assemble for the next year of the year. It's not like Apple is simply screwing together a few dollars' worth of parts and proceeding to sell it for pure profit.

The iPhone SE likely has higher profit margins than the AirPods Max at this point.

What's the issue again?
 
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It all boils down to whether or not the battery is replaceable and if so, how difficult it is to replace it.

That’s it. That’s 95% of the repairability factor in regards to how long the product can last. The main issue with regular AirPods is that the battery can’t practically be replaced, so the entire headphones die. That’s what I’m hoping to see avoided here.
There is a Battery Replacement program providing a replacement battery for a $69 charge.
 
I was unaware that these $600+ post-tax headphones were fan dependent. Does the need for a cooling fan emanate from being hot-headed over a 6 C-note purchase?
 
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still not worth $550. cheap plastic JUNK.
No sound pro would use something like that.
You are correct, no "pro" would use any thing bluetooth and most people...especially the ones that claim to be audiophiles would not be happy with the headphones most of the pros use as they usually have a very flat response curve and that tends to sound bright to most people. All of the pro audio (ENG, film sound, TV studio) people that I know and work with use Sony MDR-7506's
 
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You might see these x-rays: with identified chip layouts for consumer products as useless. But, they serve an important purpose.

First, it keeps manufacturers honest: It‘s a lot harder to change out components without telling people; if you know what was in it previous and what is now in it, this happens a lot. At press conferences: Manufactures will make promises(4K@23.97fps for instance on a media streamer), hardware gets changed mid-cycle, and the “new” hardware no longer supports the promised feature; finding this out before you purchase a product is a nice save.

Second, it lets us better understand how these systems work: In headphones for example, different types of sounds are created from internal acoustical choices and driver placement. It makes sense to than map these locations, and understand the components creating these vibrations; so the experience created and cost associated can be justified or at least explained to the consumer.

Third, it helps with future repairs: Even if these devices are becoming less and less serviceable; it doesn’t mean these guides still aren’t helpful. At the very least, it might help someone decide if the repair makes sense to do before starting. Ex. —> My dad tried to fix the antenna on a working iPad Pro(turned out to be a firmware issue): He watched some youtube video, and decided the repair wasn’t so hard; by the end, the screen was broken(instead of a heat gun, he soaked guitar picks in rubbing alcohol and tried tapping them in behind the screen with a rubber mallet while the iPad was vice-gripped on his workbench), and the board with the SOC had cracked(he missed a screw, tried to wedge the board aggressively out with a screwdriver, and it snapped). Had he seen the iFixit guide, maybe he would have called me.

Fourth, there just fun to see: if you can’t find enjoyment out of seeing how modern technology works, your most likely in the minority. There cool, and if you order blown-up prints of them, they make amazing posters on your wall.
 
You might see these x-rays: with identified chip layouts for consumer products as useless. But, they serve an important purpose.

First, it keeps manufacturers honest: It‘s a lot harder to change out components without telling people; if you know what was in it previous and what is now in it, this happens a lot. At press conferences: Manufactures will make promises(4K@23.97fps for instance on a media streamer), hardware gets changed mid-cycle, and the “new” hardware no longer supports the promised feature; finding this out before you purchase a product is a nice save.

Second, it lets us better understand how these systems work: In headphones for example, different types of sounds are created from internal acoustical choices and driver placement. It makes sense to than map these locations, and understand the components creating these vibrations; so the experience created and cost associated can be justified or at least explained to the consumer.

Third, it helps with future repairs: Even if these devices are becoming less and less serviceable; it doesn’t mean these guides still aren’t helpful. At the very least, it might help someone decide if the repair makes sense to do before starting. Ex. —> My dad tried to fix the antenna on a working iPad Pro(turned out to be a firmware issue): He watched some youtube video, and decided the repair wasn’t so hard; by the end, the screen was broken(instead of a heat gun, he soaked guitar picks in rubbing alcohol and tried tapping them in behind the screen with a rubber mallet while the iPad was vice-gripped on his workbench), and the board with the SOC had cracked(he missed a screw, tried to wedge the board aggressively out with a screwdriver, and it snapped). Had he seen the iFixit guide, maybe he would have called me.

Fourth, there just fun to see: if you can’t find enjoyment out of seeing how modern technology works, your most likely in the minority. There cool, and if you order blown-up prints of them, they make amazing posters on your wall.
Fifth, so terrible Chinese "clones" can get on the market as soon as possible ;)
 
I agree, and at the same time, I'm not sure there is any over the ears headphone that would get a high score, and, would be interested if fixit has ever done a teardown on any over the ear headphone
I'm sure if you compared them to Beats or Sony products the scores would be low, but at this price point, there are repairable alternatives.

Once you get into high-end and handmade products by companies like Grado, Master & Dynamics, AKG, Audio-Technica, etc you'll see more traditional manufacturing techniques, i.e. screws over glues.

But they don't have microprocessors and multidirectional microphones either, so there's that.
 
All I can say is that for $550 they better have more than the typical ****** plastic drivers that they showed in the ad.
Please don’t tell, like me, you’re expecting something like titanium drives...I guess they would charge 1000$ for those?!
 
You can’t just include “storage”, if you do you also need to add dedicated chip, memory and so on, basically you are building the device that will stream to the headphones inside the headphones...

There is no plastic in this product and I am sure I can safely beat you are no “sound pro”.
10 days later - sound pros need to reset and update it. so he wasn't that far with "junk"...
 
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