[fabripav]

the audiogram done through the mimi app is very close to a hearing test i did 7-8 months ago, for what it's worth!

 

[angelom]

... In other words, your impressions are actually *more* objective and *more* useful to others precisely because the frequency is modified to represent what the engineers intended.

I'm sorry but I think this is incorrect.

Everybody that trying the headphone accommodations of APM (without the audiogram) and only using "Balance + slight" or "vocal + slight" saying this settings are very different from the factory sound (more saying is better with "balance + slight" and some preferring this from factory sound). In my care my personal audiogram is giving me a sound more or less between "Balance + slight" and "vocal + slight". All this 3 setting are very different from factory sound.

I imagine if the same/similar sound modifications are the same for my other headphones like hd800, hd600, h95, UERM or etymotic ER4S, all this sounding really terrible and hurting my ears A LOT. I really think that the headphone modifications and audiogram settings are offering a different sound from the APM factory sound, meaning this modifications aren't for making people with hearing problems hearing very close to what others people with normal hearing are hearing in the factory sound of the APM.

 

[fabripav]

"normal hearing" isn't a thing anyway. The baseline standard that hearing loss is compared to is very very rare, if not theoretical. Even without exposure to loud sounds everyone has even slightly different listening capabilities.

 

[angelom]

"normal hearing" isn't a thing anyway. The baseline standard that hearing loss is compared to is very very rare, if not theoretical. Even without exposure to loud sounds everyone has even slightly different listening capabilities.

Yes, but the point is that this modifications aren't making the APM sound the same/similar than factory sound. Is more/similar like what you having in normal EQ presets in many equalisers.

 

[Author]

I'm sorry but I think this is incorrect.

Everybody that trying the headphone accommodations of APM (without the audiogram) and only using "Balance + slight" or "vocal + slight" saying this settings are very different from the factory sound (more saying is better with "balance + slight"). In my care my personal audiogram is giving me a sound more or less between "Balance + slight" and "vocal + slight". All this 3 setting are very different from factory sound.

Hi Angelom. I’m only talking about the audiogram. Not the other settings. I agree that the other settings, which are not personalized, could skew the sound (for that listener) so that it is not representative of what the engineers intended.

 

[angelom]

Hi Angelom. I’m only talking about the audiogram. Not the other settings. I agree that the other settings, which are not personalized, could skew the sound so that it is not representative of what the engineers intended.

Yes, I imagine that if your audiogram graph is showing big dips and spikes, the modifications will sounding very different from the other 2 I mentioning before. My point is that I really think that in all cases Apple isn't trying giving you a similar experience with the factory sound.

 

[Author]

"normal hearing" isn't a thing anyway. The baseline standard that hearing loss is compared to is very very rare, if not theoretical. Even without exposure to loud sounds everyone has even slightly different listening capabilities.

Agreed. But it’s nice that the test and resultant audiogram is an option. To the degree that it may approach the “classic” tuning of the APM, I think that’s better than nothing. But hardly foolproof.

 

[fabripav]

I really think Apple should let users have an option to do an audiogram when first pairing the headphones. Th perceived quality improves a lot. This is what computational audio can add to the listening experience

 

[Whitigir]

Honestly, I like it how the graph is portraying the normal human hearing range from 20-10Khz. Was this the reason why MP3 dominated the market for so long ? Is anyone glad that High Resolution or at least Scarlet Book standards is coming back ?

 

[tom2517]

When Spatial Audio comes to AppleTV then these become a must have. I previously tried Audeze Mobius which had poorly implemented unreliable 3D type sound. Returned them twice as thought i had a defective pair.

Seriously, spatial audio is fantastic but right now only works on tiny iOS devices is a bummer.

 

[AlwaysForward]

Seriously, spatial audio is fantastic but right now only works on tiny iOS devices is a bummer.

The living room needs additional localization infrastructure to interact with the headphones, probably in future product iterations. My guess is it will be cameras. I know about a camera company they quietly acquired which helps with living room depth perception, ~10M range. VR/AR and Autonomy share a lot of localization principles. The current apple TV has no inertial sensor or ability to assume it's at the end of your arm, which is about what the iPhone is doing to complement the sensor/compute packages in the H1.

 

[rbmusicman]

I got my Drop THX Pandas today. I’m on the fence about the sound signature. It definitely has a smooth high quality, but I’m a little disappointed. I had the Audeze Mobius headphones and they had more details and bass extension. I‘m receiving my APM in a day or two and I am looking forward to comparing them and deciding which one to keep. One thing that is a plus for the Panda is that they are IPX6. I’m a little nervous living in a humid environment with the APM. But on the other hand I am fully in the Apple ecosystem. Also if I plug my iPad pro into my tv using an usb-c to hdmi I could use spatial audio!

 

[tinyman392]

I got my Drop THX Pandas today. I’m on the fence about the sound signature. It definitely has a smooth high quality, but I’m a little disappointed. I had the Audeze Mobius headphones and they had more details and bass extension. I‘m receiving my APM in a day or two and I am looking forward to comparing them and deciding which one to keep. One thing that is a plus for the Panda is that they are IPX6. I’m a little nervous living in a humid environment with the APM. But on the other hand I am fully in the Apple ecosystem. Also if I plug my iPad pro into my tv using an usb-c to hdmi I could use spatial audio!

The Mobius sounds almost DF neutral to my ears to be honest, which is very peculiar for Audeze to do normally as they tend to have warmer sound signatures. The Drop Panda is a very warm headphone. I do personally feel that the AirPods Max is warmer than the Drop with respect to the upper midrange (the APM has a very strong sloping midrange) while they do have a subtly larger bass body. I feel like you kind of prefer a signature that is closer to DF neutral, but I could be wrong. I was personally hoping the APM would be closer to that, though it kind of isn’t.

Note that if you connect your iPad Pro to your Apple TV, the Spacial audio will be set up such that it sounds like it’s emanating from your iPad Pro. So keep in mind that you’ll probably want your iPad either in front or behind your television with it facing you.

As far as water resistance. There have been claims of condensation, but I’ve also taken them out and even shoveled my driveway with them on. So there is a mixed bag there. When the APM were originally announced I would have said that Apple has a tendency to understate the water resistance of their products (in some cases giving no rating when they probably could in fact get a rating), but with condensation happening, I’m not so sure regarding the APM.

 

[Ilomaenkimi]

This is wrong. Search in the thread and look for audiogram. This is personal for every person if you use a special app with iOS and adding this to Health app, then...

There is no app which has calibration for Max, or Pro. Only for Airpods 2. Everyone knows what happens if you use Mimi for Audiogram, results are based on Airpods 2 FR. So, with Pro or Max you get random results. But if it sounds okay to you, then it's okay.
For me with Airpods Pro it sounds terrible.

 

[tinyman392]

There is no app which has calibration for Max, or Pro. Only for Airpods 2. Everyone knows what happens if you use Mimi for Audiogram, results are based on Airpods 2 FR. So, with Pro or Max you get random results. But if it sounds okay to you, then it's okay.
For me with Airpods Pro it sounds terrible.

The APP is kind of between Harman and DF neutral already, which would explain why it sounds bad, I’d expect to get some midrange boost... Which doesn’t mix well with the APP. That might actually help the APM though. Note I haven’t actually tried this since I don’t think I could have separate accommodations for the APP and APM; ideally I’d prefer to have APP with no accommodations while the APM having some. It would be stellar if Apple could have those settings be linked to the headphone itself.