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We'll see. If I manufactured headphones for audiophiles I'd be happy that these are guaranteed to be bluetooth. The highest level headphones are still wired.

There a reason for that. At the end of the day wireless will never match wired for quality connection. Whether it's audio, video, internet connection, etc. wired will always be better than wireless.
 
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Apple killed off their Wi-Fi router and display departments, haven’t updated the Mac Pro in over four years, and haven’t updated the Mac Mini in over three years.

Why they see headphones as a bigger more important than those four things is odd. But then again, watchbands are a bigger priority to Apple than those four things.
Perhaps Apple isn’t in a big hurry to release a computer that costs 1/3 what the rest of their Mac lineup does, or a machine that people will immediately go buy parts from other companies for and not replace for over a decade? Especially when both of these products sell less than basically every other product they make.
 
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Apple, can you focus little bit more back on Macintosh?
They have separate departments for this stuff, you realize. The headphones and sound department’s work isn’t impededing the Mac department’s work. Not how it works.
[doublepost=1519573235][/doublepost]One thing it doesn’t say is whether the headphones will be noise-canceling. I wonder.
 
M50x really isn’t that great. It’s mid-fidelity at best.

If they provide truly high-end sound Apple’s offering will sound way better. I think they have the team established to create the best wireless headphone on the market.

Rtings.com is a website that objectively tests frequency response, soundstage, imaging, and loads of other critical criteria that affect sound quality. Here’s there review of the m50x: https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/audio-technica/ath-m50x-professional-monitor . Now here’s the highest rated headphone on their site: https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/sennheiser/hd-800-s-reference-hd800s . One of those costs $1400 and the other costs $150. According to their review, the sennheisers have worse bass and mid reproduction, and more harmonic distortion than the m50x! Where they win is in soundstage, imaging, and treble. The m50x’s are not just an incredible value, they’re an incredible set of headphones outright.

I can't decide who is more obnoxious on internet forums whenever headphones are discussed. Apple fans, or Audio-Technica fans.

I'll admit most AT headphones sound awesome if you're in a quiet area and aren't moving at all. It's too bad their cheapo squeaky ugly plastic bodies absolutely ruin the experience. I'm not one to put form over function, but c'mon, the look and feel of AT headphones is terrible, and that does matter when choosing headphones.
 
Don’t care how much they cost, with the sound quality of the HomePod and the decently sounding for what they are AirPods and improvements to the studio 3’s, i will be buying no matter what.
 
What the heck, did you just compare some $150 CLOSED cans to HD800's? According to their review, that isn't really a review, but rather a set of numerical scores that are awarded with respect to the price (!), the M50x's have better bass and mids, yet on the same page you can clearly see the frequency response diagram that looks, at first sight, as a diagram for closed headphones with their weird peaks and claustrophobic feel.

The HD800's are audiophile-class headphones. And in the audiophile headphones world, anything that's closed is pretty much irrelevant.

Yes, they’re closed. And that’s precisely why they have a worse soundstage and imaging than the sennheisers! I don’t understand how pointing out that one is a closed set and the other is an open set is some kind of lynchpin that lets you disregard my comment. I mean the fact is that the m50x has a more consistent frequency response for bass and mids than the hd800’s. Also this statement: “but rather a set of numerical scores that are awarded with respect to the price” is wrong. Look at this response they gave to a commenter who was complaining about how they give everything low scores on one of their tv reviews: “We don't factor in the price in our reviews so our score is only representative of the TV performance. This way, the score can be compared to higher end TVs.”
 
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Perhaps Apple isn’t in a big hurry to release a computer that costs 1/3 what the rest of their Mac lineup does, or a machine that people will immediately go buy parts from other companies for and not replace for over a decade? Especially when both of these products sell less than basically every other product they make.

If thinking like Tim, your last statement makes the most sense. The return on profit for updating their Mac lineup from a pipeline POV is much less than selling iPhones annually. You could arguably say iPhones now are Apple's bread & butter.

In regards to the headphones, I'm already expecting them to plant in a W1 like chip in it to keep it wireless. This could be a nice competitor to the other headphones out there that are platform agnostic, but I suspect Apple will make this proprietary again exclusive to Apple things.
 
If thinking like Tim, your last statement makes the most sense. The return on profit for updating their Mac lineup from a pipeline POV is much less than selling iPhones annually. You could arguably say iPhones now are Apple's bread & butter.

In regards to the headphones, I'm already expecting them to plant in a W1 like chip in it to keep it wireless. This could be a nice competitor to the other headphones out there that are platform agnostic, but I suspect Apple will make this proprietary again exclusive to Apple things.
W2 chip. Maybe even a W3 by the time this hits shores.
 
If thinking like Tim, your last statement makes the most sense. The return on profit for updating their Mac lineup from a pipeline POV is much less than selling iPhones annually. You could arguably say iPhones now are Apple's bread & butter.

In regards to the headphones, I'm already expecting them to plant in a W1 like chip in it to keep it wireless. This could be a nice competitor to the other headphones out there that are platform agnostic, but I suspect Apple will make this proprietary again exclusive to Apple things.
Your statement doesn't make sense. Yes, it will be nice competitor, and there is no but. It will work on all bluetooth devices. Yes, it will work better with Apple devices, but that in no way makes it any less of a competitor to standard Bluetooth headphones. Do standard headphones have anything these lack?
 
Rtings.com is a website that objectively tests frequency response, soundstage, imaging, and loads of other critical criteria that affect sound quality. Here’s there review of the m50x: https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/audio-technica/ath-m50x-professional-monitor . Now here’s the highest rated headphone on their site: https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/sennheiser/hd-800-s-reference-hd800s . One of those costs $1400 and the other costs $150. According to their review, the sennheisers have worse bass and mid reproduction, and more harmonic distortion than the m50x! Where they win is in soundstage, imaging, and treble. The m50x’s are not just an incredible value, they’re an incredible set of headphones outright.

I have both. The m50x are very nice , but they are absolutely not comparable to the HD800. That site is probably the only one in the world that finds the HD800 to have more harmonic distortion than the m50. Their methodology is weird. In fact, the distortion on the HD800 is so low, you can keep increasing the volume to almost dangerous levels without noticing that you’ve been monitoring to very high levels.
I use them frequently in mixing/mastering situations ( I’m a musician), for checking fine details in the mix that monitors may have missed. The resolution and level of detail on the HD800 is just amazing. I would even say that their price is actually cheap for what they can achieve. It’s some of the best money I’ve spent on my studio equipment
 
I don’t see a lot of adults wanting to walk around in public / workout with such big headphones all the time, if there is some credence to the rumor. Maybe this would be for home use?
Maybe it will be for the same usage as over-the-ear headphones have been since they were introduced to the market: wherever you want. Sure, you see less and less these days, but I think you'll see more once/if Apple launches this product.
 
W2 chip. Maybe even a W3 by the time this hits shores.
The W2 chip has practically no benefit for headphones.

I’m not really sure what’s up with the naming of these chips since they don’t do the same thing and are not interchangeable - the W1 is for class 1 Bluetooth connections and audio decoding. The W2 is for switching between WiFi and Bluetooth connections quickly while using less power.

It’s similar to the T1 and T2 chips, they don’t do the same thing at all. Each chip is purpose built for whatever product they’re putting it in.
 
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The new headphones will likely work with other Bluetooth sources, just as the AirPods do, but like the AirPods not as seamlessly as they will with Apple sources and Siri. They may even work with HomePod, or have their own WiFi and LTE chips so they would not require connection to any other source, like the currrent LTE Apple Watch. Put them on and it’s “Hey Siri play...”
 
So now Apple is either going to kill of Beats or fragment their brand even more by creating Apple branded headphones.

My guess, however, is they will keep beats as the "cheaper" option and the Apple branded over-ear headphones will be the high end, super expensive option.

I have Beats Studio 2's and AirPods, and am pretty damn happy with both of them. Time will tell what is going to happen...
They're probably developing these for customers who are uncomfortable with an """urban""" brand.
 
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