[Duncan]

Sometimes I feel the urge to be a bit dirty and head into SBC territory - playing YouTube on my TV and I hear no issue with the APM...

Comparing to the Ananda BT is interesting - Closed back, ANC and adaptive EQ on the APM versus fully open and stock tuning on the Ananda BT - the tuning is ultimately better on the Ananda, richer, more coherent, the adaptive EQ on the APM tends to go for more of a fun listen - but - the ANC kills it for me, having occlusion from outside noises for me is a winner.

Bass is very obviously boosted on the APM, and the midrange is slightly hollow in comparison to the Ananda - I have the luxury of having both, but if I could only have one, it would be the APM, yes - the Ananda has far better codec support and does sound the better of the two, but that open backed nature doesn’t lend itself well to me and my listening area - not to mention the LED that you can probably see from space - takes away from the immersion slightly.

what I personally want to see (apologies if this has already happened) is a comparison between the APM and the NuraPhone.

 

[tkddans]

what I personally want to see (apologies if this has already happened) is a comparison between the APM and the NuraPhone.

I have the nura and tried it again after not listening with it for a very very long time. Updated firmware, created a new listening profile, and...

The nura listening profiles just sound so different. The system doesn’t do as good a job of the APM in detecting or computing EQ. My older profile I had sounded wildly different than the new one. This makes it very hard to compare the nura with the APM.

That being said, my impression was that the bass produced by the nura wasn’t as articulate/clean, and the overall response everywhere was similarly not as resolved as the APM.

Tonally: nura is different for every person; though not as enjoyable on any frequency range for me except maybe more forward mids on my profile. The sub bass, even when boosted using nura’s “immersion” mode, is just not as clear and enjoyable as the APM (it’s just a bass boost for the larger dedicated bass driver on the ear). Even though you can boost the nura to shake your ears, it feels like a cheap trick after trying the APM.

Technically: impressions are that the nura is inferior in clarity, soundstage, “air” or separation of instruments.

 

[Gamerlingual]

I returned the AirPods Max due to the condensation. Just bad QC on the part of Apple and the battery continued to drain overnight. In 20 hours, it looks 32% in the case. Lots of potential, but not worth the trouble. Now I need to see what the best wireless cans are out there. Possibly the THX Panda, but the adjustable EQ on my Sony XM3 cans sounded better than the APM, so I’m not sure if it’s just best to stay there. B&O H95 didn’t sound like $800 cans. Probably hard to find cans that sound better than wired on my WM1Z and MDR-Z1R

It was a Christmas gift from my wife, but it made me sad on one hand to send it back. At the same time, she recommended to do it as she said it was inexcusable for what Apple did.

 

[Author]

I returned the AirPods Max due to the condensation. Just bad QC on the part of Apple and the battery continued to drain overnight. In 20 hours, it looks 32% in the case. Lots of potential, but not worth the trouble. Now I need to see what the best wireless cans are out there. Possibly the THX Panda, but the adjustable EQ on my Sony XM3 cans sounded better than the APM, so I’m not sure if it’s just best to stay there. B&O H95 didn’t sound like $800 cans. Probably hard to find cans that sound better than wired on my WM1Z and MDR-Z1R

It was a Christmas gift from my wife, but it made me sad on one hand to send it back. At the same time, she recommended to do it as she said it was inexcusable for what Apple did.

Condensation or sweat? It could be either, depending on the person or the conditions in which they are listening. Definitely, there is less material to absorb the wetness compared to most other headphones. Has there been any indication yet (online) that the wetness compromises the performance of the headphones? Does anyone know?

 

[tinyman392]

I returned the AirPods Max due to the condensation. Just bad QC on the part of Apple and the battery continued to drain overnight. In 20 hours, it looks 32% in the case. Lots of potential, but not worth the trouble. Now I need to see what the best wireless cans are out there. Possibly the THX Panda, but the adjustable EQ on my Sony XM3 cans sounded better than the APM, so I’m not sure if it’s just best to stay there. B&O H95 didn’t sound like $800 cans. Probably hard to find cans that sound better than wired on my WM1Z and MDR-Z1R

It was a Christmas gift from my wife, but it made me sad on one hand to send it back. At the same time, she recommended to do it as she said it was inexcusable for what Apple did.
<snip picture of condensation>

The Panda sounded better to my ears than the APM. The Ananda BT is probably the best I have but it's a completely different signature. Even something like the Mobius could be an improvement but it also has a totally different sound signature.

Regarding condensation, I wiped it down, blew off all the water that was sitting on/around the driver with one of these, and let it dry with the pad removed for about 4 hours and it never came back. You definitely have to take the pad off if you want the water to go away otherwise the pad essentially acts as a mask and water droplets/vapor will have trouble penetrating it to get out. I think the condensation is from the APM being delivered in cold weather then being temperature shocked into warmer temps.

Edit: you'd have to look through the circular black meshes to make sure there was no water in the driver enclosure. If there was, you'd need to blow that around to move it. I have a feeling that condensation built up in this area and maybe by the housings and moved its way towards the driver and out the front (as there was no where else for it to go).

Edit 2: battery issue seems like it's a software glitch as it can be fixed with factory resets (took me 3 resets, it was weird but I had other bugs too).

 

[tinyman392]

Condensation or sweat? It could be either, depending on the person or the conditions in which they are listening. Definitely, there is less material to absorb the wetness compared to most other headphones. Has there been any indication yet (online) that the wetness compromises the performance of the headphones? Does anyone know?

If water (droplets) hits the driver, it will stick to it and cause the ANC/transparency modes to create a wind noise. It's audible and very annoying. If you turn off ANC/transparency then the wind noise goes away. I believe this wind noise is due to the adaptive EQ trying to EQ for the weirdness in response due to water sitting on the driver but it can't do it.

 

[Author]

If water (droplets) hits the driver, it will stick to it and cause the ANC/transparency modes to create a wind noise. It's audible and very annoying. If you turn off ANC/transparency then the wind noise goes away. I believe this wind noise is due to the adaptive EQ trying to EQ for the weirdness in response due to water sitting on the driver but it can't do it.

Thank you! I believe you mentioned this before and it slipped my mind. Unfortunate. Hopefully this will be uncommon. But definitely not a good thing.

 

[MayaTlab]

If water (droplets) hits the driver, it will stick to it and cause the ANC/transparency modes to create a wind noise. It's audible and very annoying. If you turn off ANC/transparency then the wind noise goes away. I believe this wind noise is due to the adaptive EQ trying to EQ for the weirdness in response due to water sitting on the driver but it can't do it.

I can hear a sort of white noise in ANC or transparency mode regardless of the amount of condensation droplets on the drivers, just like any other ANC headphones - albeit at a lower volume than the others I’ve tried.
When ANC is disabled the APM is one of the few BT HPs I’ve tried which noise floor I can’t hear.

 

[tinyman392]

I can hear a sort of white noise in ANC or transparency mode regardless of the amount of condensation droplets on the drivers, just like any other ANC headphones - albeit at a lower volume than the others I’ve tried.
When ANC is disabled the APM is one of the few BT HPs I’ve tried which noise floor I can’t hear.

It's not white noise, it's wind noise. Turn on ANC and stand in front of a running fan. It sounds like that, but only from the side that has water droplets on the driver. The noise floor on these headphones is actually pretty low. In transparency mode the background noise is louder than any white noise that I can hear.

 

[MayaTlab]

It's not white noise, it's wind noise. Turn on ANC and stand in front of a running fan. It sounds like that, but only from the side that has water droplets on the driver. The noise floor on these headphones is actually pretty low. In transparency mode the background noise is louder than any white noise that I can hear.

Sorry, noted. I’ll see if I experience the same.

 

[tinyman392]

Sorry, noted. I’ll see if I experience the same.

Note that condensation itself doesn't cause this. The condensation/water droplets has to actually be touching the driver. So I could blow all the water off the driver and listen for 15-60 minutes without issue, but eventually the water would reappear on the driver. I eventually got sick and tired of it, so I blew the water off once more and left the pad off the headphones for a few hours to let everything dry. Haven't had the issue since.

Edit: looking at the photos @Gamerlingual provided, I don't see any droplets of water physically on his driver, so you wouldn't hear the issue on that pair of headphones.

 

[Bytor123]

I returned the AirPods Max due to the condensation. Just bad QC on the part of Apple and the battery continued to drain overnight. In 20 hours, it looks 32% in the case. Lots of potential, but not worth the trouble. Now I need to see what the best wireless cans are out there. Possibly the THX Panda, but the adjustable EQ on my Sony XM3 cans sounded better than the APM, so I’m not sure if it’s just best to stay there. B&O H95 didn’t sound like $800 cans. Probably hard to find cans that sound better than wired on my WM1Z and MDR-Z1R

It was a Christmas gift from my wife, but it made me sad on one hand to send it back. At the same time, she recommended to do it as she said it was inexcusable for what Apple did.

What were the specific circumstances when this occurred - indoors, outdoors, cold environment, warm environment...activity, length of time wearing them...? I'm looking at these but this looks worrying

 

[tinyman392]

What were the specific circumstances when this occurred - indoors, outdoors, cold environment, warm environment...activity, length of time wearing them...? I'm looking at these but this looks worrying

Most people online have had it happen to them with long listening sessions. Mine happened during a long, indoor listening session while inactive (coding on my computer). It only happened once (within 24 hours of receiving the headphone) and never repeated itself in the 3+ weeks I've had the headphone. I even brought it outside to shovel snow twice in two days to try to force the issue (long, outdoor, cold listening session while being active).

 

[AlwaysForward]

Speaking of using these with TV, I have connected them to my AppleTV for late night entertainment and they’re amazing.

While it’s still only stereo, the audio is great but the real kicker is the controls. The Digital Crown allows for full volume control and play/pause direct from the headphones.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Speaking of using these with TV, I have connected them to my AppleTV for late night entertainment and they’re amazing.

While it’s still only stereo, the audio is great but the real kicker is the controls. The Digital Crown allows for full volume control and play/pause direct from the headphones.

It’s surprising they didn’t enable spatial audio on Apple TV at launch.