[gooeyrich]

well duh, of course, I do believe Apple coming here is a good injection in competition, as honestly many of the current offerings are just doing "barely good" attempt at Wireless ANC offerings, both on ease of use and sound performance, only one or two brand is out there setting the standard. now with such a prominent big name on the market, they had to start changing things up, Sony and Sennheiser would probably be fine but Bose just changed their design a couple short years ago, and with mediocre reception as well on top of them crippling the ANC of their QC35.... yeah, they dont look so good r/n IMO.

Mike's view on it.

Can't wait for his full review.

 

[Sp12er3]

more of a layperson impression.
the more i see the more it seems to mirror majority of how Apple vs Android phone does.
"Good Android Phone is great and at 1/2 the price, it does 95% of what a top of the line iPhone does, so really going with the Airpod is a choice for each people"
Really Sony should just make their Z7 wireless, the shell is actually lighter than the airpods max already, (despite the lavish amount of metal and PU Leather) so with all the anc and wireless gizmos, closing up the port more, and tune the difference with DSP they should have something good..

 

[Monstieur]

Just got my AirPods Max. The tuning is close to my preference, but has a little too much bass. The distortion and overall sound is vastly superior to the Sony and Bose offerings - I regretted buying those immediately.

The sub-bass is present and you can feel it, but not quite enough. The bass is slightly boomy but not terrible like the Sonys which are just distorted garbage with no perception of sub-bass though you can see it on a graph. The QC35 has superior sub-bass and bass, while the NC700 has no sub-bass. The Mobius is superior across the board, especially in the sub-bass. The SE846 has superior sub-bass and bass. Without EQ, the sub-bass and bass are superior to all my hi-fi headphones.

The treble doesn't hurt my ears like most other headphones. Something is lacking compared to the Mobius, LCD, and Aeon - it doesn't have the same detail. It sounds warm like the SE846, but with less detail.

They're somewhat uncomfortable. There's pressure around my ears and no sensation of weight on the top of my head. I would rather have weight on my head. My 750+ g LCD-XC is more comfortable. The Bose and Sony models are vastly more comfortable. The ear cups barely fit, and one side does not seal properly for me - it feels like there's air flowing over one ear, and it's distracting when there's no audio playing.

The ANC is the best of the lot. When I turn my head, the seal breaks and I lose sub-bass for a split second, but it recovers without me turning my head back - it's probably Adaptive EQ at work. There's mild cabin pressure, and after wearing it for an hour my ears started to hurt. I prefer to switch both noise cancellation and transparency off unless required.

The sound stage is smaller than the LCD-XC, Aeon 2 Closed, and Mobius, but not as small as other portables.

When you plug in the Lightning to 3.5 mm cable, Bluetooth switches off. You can't receive calls or switch sources. You must unplug the Lightning end to restore Bluetooth. It's a thin cable like on an IEM, and introduces significant self-noise in the right ear cup even with ANC enabled. Even holding the cable firmly in place at the middle and tapping the far end sends noise to the ear cup.

It wins hands down in UX, latency (by AAC standards), and build quality.

I'm keeping it and giving away my LCDi3 and Mobius, even though the LCDi3 sounds superior across the board like the Mobius. I got the LCDi3 for an open-back experience while travelling, but the UX, ANC, and spatial sound on the AirPods Max make up for the difference in sound quality.

Is it worth $550? The $250 Audeze Penrose will sound better across the board. You're paying for the UX and reduced latency on iOS. There isn't and never will be any competition in the foreseeable future that has both good UX and reduced latency on iOS.

 

[angelom]

Once we get them out of their cases you immediately notice something striking: Apple's fit and finish is absolutely on par with Bang & Olufsen, and that's no small feat. The H95s are not entry level B&O headphones (I've owned H6s in the past, so I know the difference), this is the most expensive can B&O has ever made and it shows. But Apple is in the same quality ballpark, and honestly for $550 they shouldn't be.

Finally we get to the biggest win for Apple - the headband. They flat out nailed this. It's the best headband I've ever used on a pair of headphones, ever. I have nothing bad to say about it at all. I love the material - the rubberish/plastic whatever it is feels amazing. It's super soft to the touch, smooth without being slick, and just a bit tacky without being sticky or catching lint. Honestly, this headband is perfect. I want it on every pair of headphones I own for the rest of my life.

B&O meanwhile really doesn't know how to make a headband. My H6 headband sucked, and this is barely, just barely better. The material on the top is leatherish - nowhere near as premium as the ear pads. The material that rests on your head is soft, but not soft enough. If these headphones were any heavier the headband would ruin the comfort, but they're just light enough to make it passable. Bang & Olufsen, if you're reading head-fi, make a better headband. $800 headphones deserve better execution than this.

In the USA the difference in price between the H95 and AMP is $250 ($800 vs $550); in Europe is €170 (€800 vs €630). When you looking at the very premium h95 case and cables that is including in the h95 the price difference is much more small, or nothing. Remember the 3.5mm/lighting cable for AMP costing $35 in USA, €40 in Europe. B&O including airline adaptor too. Imagine if the B&O case is the same for the AMP, Apple charging minimum €100 or more probably €150 or more even, (the leather wallet case for iPhone 11 Pro costing €130 for reference). The charging cable is premium in h95, isn't premium in AMP. If you adding all this things together, the AMP very possibly costing even more than the h95.

I'm agree that the headbands of previous b&o headphones are uncomfortable, but in my case the h95 headband is absolutely perfect, I have zero discomfort after 8+ hours of listening, and for me is probably the best headband of many headphones I trying in the past, a great combination of excellent quality materials and comfort. For me the headband of AMP is fine but I don't know why only after 30 minutes I feeling little discomfort in the top of my head and specially outside my ears. The problem with the mesh, for me, is that is looking a little "tacky", but important too is that you must being careful that you don't damaging with other objects. In the silver colour the mesh is white and is probably getting dirty soon. I ordering the silver colour only because delivery in my case is for 15 December. I ordering the space grey, that I liking more, with delivery 10 days later. I'm returning the silver today and canceling already the space grey.

 

[clerkpalmer]

Yeah, it would be analog in the cable converted to digital for lightning and converted back to analog to for the drivers.

Unless I'm grossly misunderstanding something.

You aren't. Unless I'm misunderstanding something, It's double DACd and double Ampd. That can't be good for sound quality.

True. Does the headhone work passively, without any power applied to the headphone, and analog cable connected from a sound source? Wait, you'd have to shut it off first..? Does it even stay shut off without the case? lol

If it's taking in analog via the cable, hopefully, it's not doing A/D and then D/A to the drivers. It would be better if internal DAC is bypassed and the signal is fed directly to the amp. which I have doubts about.

It does not work passively so the amp and dac cannot be bypassed. Also no usb audio. Strange choices. As mentioned below, Apple wants these to be used wirelessly.

 

[Ilomaenkimi]

Some measurements here of the AirPods Max.

I looked this guys measurements of Airpods pro and Focal Stellia. His measurements are not accurate on bass. Lows are elevated.
Airpods pro doesn't have elevated bass. Neither does Focal Stellia that much what his measurements shows?
I think that MAX bass could be almost flat, when someone else does the measurements. Let's wait and see.

I know this could be taboo here but:

You guys are aware that you can tweak the sound in iOS Accessibility Settings, right? That could compensate for some of the shortcomings based on individual preference.

Can be found in Settings > Accessibility > AirPods > (Select AirPods Model) > Audio Accessibility Settings > Headphone Accommodations (On) then go from from there, you can do custom audio setup which has you A/B test a sound clip or you can select your own tuning preferences (fine print explains what you're modifying).

With those settings Airpods Pros sounds terrific. Ruins totally sound. Not good.

 

[Monstieur]

You aren't. Unless I'm misunderstanding something, It's double DACd and double Ampd. That can't be good for sound quality.

It clips with my RME BabyFace Pro FS's 3.5 mm output set to 0 dB (2.4 V according to the manual). I reduced it to -3.0 dB to eliminate the audible distortion with some headroom.

I think that MAX bass could be almost flat, when someone else does the measurements. Let's wait and see.

Flat compared to what? An uncompensated LCD-2 measurement?

The AirPods Max bass is audibly not flat by any standard. It's easily +6 dB at some point in the bass.

It is also quite interesting that he thinks the LCD-2 Classic are far better than the APM while on head-fi, the APM is considered better than the LCD2-C.

Just shows how reviews are meaningless in the end as they are all over the place.

As someone who's owned both, the LCD-2 Classic needs a +10 dB low-shelf and correction in the treble to sound good. Though the LCD-2 Classic has more detail even without EQ, its frequency response is unlistenable so the AirPods Max automatically wins.

Blind test the two frequency responses and people will pick the AirPods Max over the LCD every time. Blind test with a Mobius, and I think the Mobius will win.

 

[MayaTlab]

I looked this guys measurements of Airpods pro and Focal Stellia. His measurements are not accurate on bass. Lows are elevated.
Airpods pro doesn't have elevated bass. Neither does Focal Stellia that much what his measurements shows?
I think that MAX bass could be almost flat, when someone else does the measurements. Let's wait and see.

It's mainly about the Harman target curve, but I think that it's a good primer as well on how to interpret FR curves :
https://www.headphonesty.com/2020/04/harman-target-curves-part-1/
And that is Crinacle's own article on "how to read graphs" : https://crinacle.com/2020/04/08/graphs-101-how-to-read-headphone-measurements/

It's a good thing to wait for additional measurements to get a clearer picture of the APM's characteristics that will be found in all measurements vs. the ones that will only show on Crinacle's test rig, but Crinacle's methodology seems pretty well detailed and has frequently found some decent correlation with others'. It's unlikely that other measurements will show a significant departure from Crinacle's results below 1000hz.

 

[filmgeek47]

So a buddy of mine was asking the same question, and he badgered me until I pulled out my PM-3 and did a brief comparison. Now, I wasn’t using the HA-2 amp (which really brings the bass out of the PM-3 and makes everything more dynamic) and I was using the typical lightning to 3.5mm adapter straight out of my iPhone. Playlist was on TIDAL, a mix of hifi and MQA tracks. I’m not going to go through a track by track compare because I want to do more listening with the APMs (and I do think there may be some burn-in, or at least ear-adjustment).

The conclusion I came to, though, was that the APMs and PM-3s are definitely on par in the sound department. They have different strengths — that APM soundstage is something else, even if it’s not 100% accurate; the bass on the APMs goes a lot deeper than unamped PM-3s and has more slam and presence; the PM-3 vocals are cleaner and more energetic; PM-3 is more consistent and natural across the spectrum. To my mind, though, just being able to say that they’re close in terms of overall sound quality is quite a compliment to the APMs. For the most part, the test tracks where I had some concerns with the APM were the ones that I loved the PM-3s on, and the ones where the PM-3s were a little lacking were ones that impressed me with the APMs.

Thanks for the post. I was almost hoping you‘d say the oppo’s trashed ‘em just to stop me from putting another pair of cans on the wish list. I’ve got a pair of He560’s at my desk, but the Oppo headband is wearing out, so I may get these as my new travel/sound isolating pair...

 

[Trager]

Thanks for the post. I was almost hoping you‘d say the oppo’s trashed ‘em just to stop me from putting another pair of cans on the wish list. I’ve got a pair of He560’s at my desk, but the Oppo headband is wearing out, so I may get these as my new travel/sound isolating pair...

I kinda wish I could say the same. As it is, the wireless convenience and relatively decent sound has me wondering whether I might end up using this as my go-to desk headphones, especially when there’s other stuff going on around me. I’ll always want my Audeze i3 for when it’s quiet and I want to get deep into music, but their mic isn’t great and there are days when I have a bunch of calls and don’t want to keep switching headphones. I’ll be posting up a more detailed review sometime in the next day or two, but I can already say I like these a lot more than I had expected to.

 

[Monstieur]

I kinda wish I could say the same. As it is, the wireless convenience and relatively decent sound has me wondering whether I might end up using this as my go-to desk headphones, especially when there’s other stuff going on around me. I’ll always want my Audeze i3 for when it’s quiet and I want to get deep into music, but their mic isn’t great and there are days when I have a bunch of calls and don’t want to keep switching headphones. I’ll be posting up a more detailed review sometime in the next day or two, but I can already say I like these a lot more than I had expected to.

The Bluetooth switches off when you plug in the Lightning to 3.5 mm cable, so you can't use it to seamlessly take calls. You have to unplug the Lightning end to get it to reconnect.

I connected my LCD-XC simultaneously to my PC, iPhone, and TV, using an RME BabyFace Pro FS as a mixer. This way I need only one pair of reference headphones while sitting at my desk. I can take calls using just the microphone on the iPhone, or using the LCD Boom Microphone Cable routed back to the iPhone through the mixer.

 

[LoyK]

I must say that I would love to try these out but at the same time I don´t see any usecase for me:

• At home I rather use a good open-back or my Audeze Mobius (which I really love and use for surround/gaming/voicechat)
• When travelling I think that these are missing a good case or folding mechanism. I have the WH-1000XM2 and the WF-1000XM3 which both are good enough for me when travelling and fold down/pack to small size. Also they are much cheaper and not as flashy in public "hey look at my expensive Apple headphones"

But I must give props to Apple for giving them a good sound signature it seems - not as bassheavy as Sony or Sennheiser are going for with their consumer NC-phones... (WF-1000XM3 is also quite balanced I think.)

 

[angelom]

This review describing almost 100% how I hearing the AMP. SQ impressions starting at 6:20:

I know this could be taboo here but:

You guys are aware that you can tweak the sound in iOS Accessibility Settings, right? That could compensate for some of the shortcomings based on individual preference.

Can be found in Settings > Accessibility > AirPods > (Select AirPods Model) > Audio Accessibility Settings > Headphone Accommodations (On) then go from from there, you can do custom audio setup which has you A/B test a sound clip or you can select your own tuning preferences (fine print explains what you're modifying).

I finding that "balanced tone" + "slight" is giving better SQ than the factory SQ. Unfortunately, this sound profiles isn't available in the Accessibility settings in my 16-inch MacBook Pro where I doing 95% of my listening.

 

[davidmolliere]

Well well well... now we know the potential of the APM driver... plugged them wired to a top end DAP (in my case Hiby R8) and... they are much much improved even if you're limited to 3.5 single ended. The overall signature is more balanced. The bass is much tighter and controlled and is pretty impressive, the mids are still smooth but fuller sounding the upper mids tilt is gone in favor of a reference midrange that is very articulate, the upper treble has more presence which brings more air as well as significantly improved resolution. It's a very natural sounding heaphone, colored me impressed.

Note that they are power hungry High gain and Turbo mode on R8 volume at 50/60 out of a 100 no less and it delivers over 500mW at 32ohms.

I hope third parties will manufacture a proper lightning to 4.4 cable down the line

 

[lowrider007]

Has the hype started to die down a little or are these really LCD2 beaters? Because TBH I found these early claims very dubious.