[trellus]

It is difficult to convey the ease of getting connected to AirPods from multiple Apple devices. Once you've experienced it, going to your menu/Bluetooth and connecting manually feels painful enough to warrant a small Apple premium.

+1 on this, my gripes about the AirPods Max's ugly (to me) design notwithstanding -- I do have a few earphones / headphones in the Apple ecosystem (PowerBeats Pro, Beats Flex, Beats Solo3) precisely for this reason: the superb ease of use across all Apple devices (iPad, iPhone, Macs), seamless pairing and connection, which really do make usage easier, legitimately.

 

[plakat]

It is difficult to convey the ease of getting connected to AirPods from multiple Apple devices. Once you've experienced it, going to your menu/Bluetooth and connecting manually feels painful enough to warrant a small Apple premium.

The case seems like the weakest area. Will they go into ultra-low battery mode without it? Otherwise you'll need that case within a tougher case if you really need protection.

Exactly that. That seamless transfer of connections is really valuable once you have more than one Apple device.

The case... that's the one bad spot with this product for me. It looks not very attractive to me (at least on the photos), and I hope for better options later on.

 

[Malevolent]

One of my biggest worries is how the market will react, and, subsequently adapt to the uptick in price, especially once consumers start purchasing the AirPods Pro in droves - and I'm quite certain of this eventuality.

Once contemporaries, such as Sony and Bose, realize that the average tech enthusiast, albeit one that is relatively wealthy, is willing to splash $550 for a top-end wireless headphone, they might start to wonder if an increase of $100 over their existing flagships won't be seen as egregious premium after all. Heck, an elevation in price may even be a good thing - the general market often co-relates price with performance; hence, a $550 Apple headphone has to sound better than a $350 Sony headphone, no?

I greatly enjoy my WH-1000XM4; however, I hope that any subsequent models won't be riding the astronomical price rocket.

 

[ricthaman]

Very excited, as a Head-fi enthusiast, about these headphones by Apple. I will be trying them at some point, but will not be pre-ordering. I have a few issues with these:

- Feature wise they are nice, and probably kick all existing products in the nuts like (arguably) the Airpods pro did on so many fronts. However, the premium they are asking over the established candidates doesn't justify its even if the UX is like a freakin dream.
- Design wise they're probably built like a gem using awesome materials and attention to detail only Apple can pull off (and afford). However, I'm not a big fan of the use of synthetic materials and fabrics nowadays in luxury premium-priced products (I'm looking at you B&W!). The design itself is not for me; it lacks the utter style and je-ne-sais-quoi such a price tag would need to offer in my book. Also; they look like thrift shop earmuffs to me, and the head-band design is waaay to funky imho.
- And then sound wise. I dislike the major players in this space (Sony, Bose etc) because they don't really put any effort into the sound quality as part of the design. DSP and EQ options after the fact don't count. And as they are asking almost twice as much, I'd expected some more focus on the audio components of the product. They only mention the driver briefly and it looks like a fairly standard affair to me. It'll sound decent enough, I'm sure. But when paying 600+ euros, 'decent enough' doesn't cut if for someone like me. I mean, I could have a Drop + THX Panda shipped here and still have spare change to buy Airpods Pro for the features.

I was excited about these, and the buzz surrounding their release, because I was genuinely excited to see what a company with the capacity and means like Apple would be able to pull off when they'd set their minds to creating a headphone. That excitement has morphed into just curiosity.

I think B&O H95 is a better proposition; outlandishly expensive, but material wise a level up. Design wise (personal obviously) more classy and distinguished. And sound wise they've got a proven track record, and put effort in the audio capabilities as well (Titanium drivers, angled positioning). Oh, and you'll spend 800 euros but will have something exclusive which will be a conversation starter, which the Airpods Max will very soon not be anymore.

I'll stick to my trusty P7W's for now. They just don't make 'em like that anymore

Cheers!

 

[plakat]

Very excited, as a Head-fi enthusiast, about these headphones by Apple. I will be trying them at some point, but will not be pre-ordering. I have a few issues with these:

- Feature wise they are nice, and probably kick all existing products in the nuts like (arguably) the Airpods pro did on so many fronts. However, the premium they are asking over the established candidates doesn't justify its even if the UX is like a freakin dream.
- Design wise they're probably built like a gem using awesome materials and attention to detail only Apple can pull off (and afford). However, I'm not a big fan of the use of synthetic materials and fabrics nowadays in luxury premium-priced products (I'm looking at you B&W!). The design itself is not for me; it lacks the utter style and je-ne-sais-quoi such a price tag would need to offer in my book. Also; they look like thrift shop earmuffs to me, and the head-band design is waaay to funky imho.
- And then sound wise. I dislike the major players in this space (Sony, Bose etc) because they don't really put any effort into the sound quality as part of the design. DSP and EQ options after the fact don't count. And as they are asking almost twice as much, I'd expected some more focus on the audio components of the product. They only mention the driver briefly and it looks like a fairly standard affair to me. It'll sound decent enough, I'm sure. But when paying 600+ euros, 'decent enough' doesn't cut if for someone like me. I mean, I could have a Drop + THX Panda shipped here and still have spare change to buy Airpods Pro for the features.

I was excited about these, and the buzz surrounding their release, because I was genuinely excited to see what a company with the capacity and means like Apple would be able to pull off when they'd set their minds to creating a headphone. That excitement has morphed into just curiosity.

I think B&O H95 is a better proposition; outlandishly expensive, but material wise a level up. Design wise (personal obviously) more classy and distinguished. And sound wise they've got a proven track record, and put effort in the audio capabilities as well (Titanium drivers, angled positioning). Oh, and you'll spend 800 euros but will have something exclusive which will be a conversation starter, which the Airpods Max will very soon not be anymore.

I'll stick to my trusty P7W's for now. They just don't make 'em like that anymore

Cheers!

Several valid points. Designwise its a draw, I don't like the H95, maybe the Max a bit better (though the design of the cups doesn't appeal much to me) and I don't condone the ever increasing prices, especially at the high end. On the other hand I really expect some advances...

Regarding a track record... that doesn't guarantee anything unfortunately (see Sony). Plus I think the Apple audio products so far (just don't cont the non-pro AirPods) give some hope.

 

[MayaTlab]

I'd expected some more focus on the audio components of the product. They only mention the driver briefly and it looks like a fairly standard affair to me. It'll sound decent enough, I'm sure. But when paying 600+ euros, 'decent enough' doesn't cut if for someone like me.

I think B&O H95 is a better proposition [...] And sound wise they've got a proven track record, and put effort in the audio capabilities as well (Titanium drivers, angled positioning). Oh, and you'll spend 800 euros but will have something exclusive which will be a conversation starter, which the Airpods Max will very soon not be anymore.

They don't talk about the driver because it itself is far from being the only thing that matters. Angled positioning, driver material, etc... this is all marketing fluff - well I mean unless you're part of the actual engineering team making these headphones and have to arbiter design choices.
The only thing that should matter to us is what FR curve do they achieve at the eardrum of a particular listener (and for a mass market device such as these Apple must have spent a lot of time caring about them adapting themselves quite well to a lot of varied morphologies and ear shapes) and what's the distortion figures. You can achieve that with a lot of different driver designs. I quite like that post from Oratory1990 about the various different ways headphones manufacturers addressed the same conflicting driver design goals with dynamic drivers : https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/bacd37/duck_duck_goose/ekaxsri/
I'm pretty certain he's posted similarly about differences between dynamic vs. other drivers types.

B&O's track record so far as far as HPs are concerned is... mmm well they've made quite a few POS :
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/graph#813/4011/569
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lzsi2xf1rup5tpb/B&O H9.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ofurxzzmwnsi8l8/B&O H9i.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wh6e3irhku2hk83/B&O H95.pdf?dl=0
With the H95 possibly being their first decent pair of HPs where they really put some effort into it... but it isn't because they used titanium on their driver, but because they hired a more competent acoustics engineering partner or actually gave them the mandate to make something that sounds decent.

I'll stick to my trusty P7W's for now. They just don't make 'em like that anymore

I too am quite struggling to replace them.

 

[angelom]

Very excited, as a Head-fi enthusiast, about these headphones by Apple. I will be trying them at some point, but will not be pre-ordering. I have a few issues with these:

- Feature wise they are nice, and probably kick all existing products in the nuts like (arguably) the Airpods pro did on so many fronts. However, the premium they are asking over the established candidates doesn't justify its even if the UX is like a freakin dream.
- Design wise they're probably built like a gem using awesome materials and attention to detail only Apple can pull off (and afford). However, I'm not a big fan of the use of synthetic materials and fabrics nowadays in luxury premium-priced products (I'm looking at you B&W!). The design itself is not for me; it lacks the utter style and je-ne-sais-quoi such a price tag would need to offer in my book. Also; they look like thrift shop earmuffs to me, and the head-band design is waaay to funky imho.
- And then sound wise. I dislike the major players in this space (Sony, Bose etc) because they don't really put any effort into the sound quality as part of the design. DSP and EQ options after the fact don't count. And as they are asking almost twice as much, I'd expected some more focus on the audio components of the product. They only mention the driver briefly and it looks like a fairly standard affair to me. It'll sound decent enough, I'm sure. But when paying 600+ euros, 'decent enough' doesn't cut if for someone like me. I mean, I could have a Drop + THX Panda shipped here and still have spare change to buy Airpods Pro for the features.

I was excited about these, and the buzz surrounding their release, because I was genuinely excited to see what a company with the capacity and means like Apple would be able to pull off when they'd set their minds to creating a headphone. That excitement has morphed into just curiosity.

I think B&O H95 is a better proposition; outlandishly expensive, but material wise a level up. Design wise (personal obviously) more classy and distinguished. And sound wise they've got a proven track record, and put effort in the audio capabilities as well (Titanium drivers, angled positioning). Oh, and you'll spend 800 euros but will have something exclusive which will be a conversation starter, which the Airpods Max will very soon not be anymore.

I'll stick to my trusty P7W's for now. They just don't make 'em like that anymore

Cheers!

I still love my p7 Wireless after almost 4 years and I don't want selling it. The b&o h95 I owning for 3 months now is my favourite wireless (anc) headphone (after owning more than 30 different wireless [anc] headphones and earphones).
Only today I posting this in the h95 thread after someone is very happy (too happy, I think!) about the release of AirPods Pro Max (apm) and he returning yesterday his h95 and is saying the h95 is too expensive and must having same price of apm:

"For you the h95 isn't worth the price; for many owners in this thread yes. For your information, here in Europe the AirPods Max (apm) costing 629 euros, that is $761 USD today. The h95 costing $800 USD in USA. Here is some differences, before comparing the sound, of new Apple apm and the h95:

h95 having double battery life of apm.
h95 having leather earpads, apm don't.
h95 coming with high quality 3.5mm cable, usb-c cable and solid carry case. With apm you needing buying the 3.5mm cable and probably a solid case because the case Apple showing isn't looking like is giving good protection.
The volume dial (like Apple Watch) of the apm is very good feature, but I think in real life use isn't so nice like the h95 big dial for the quick adjustment of (small) volume (steps).
If you aren't in Apple ecosystem, isn't looking like apm is offering more codecs than aac (and sbc).

Of course maybe some benefits that apm having than the h95 (we don't know yet). I'm curious too about the new apm, of course, specially because I have MacBook Pro, iPhone and iPad."

I must adding too that you can folding he h95, which is very good for portability; you can't folding the apm apparently.

 

[HiFiHawaii808]

Well it was bound to happen audiophiles are skeptic when it comes down to mainstream consumer products... my own experience with AirPod Pro tell me Apple might do something pretty great actually so hold off on dismissing it altogether. AirPods Pro are much better than my Sony WF-1000XM3.

So AirPods Max might be better than Sony WH-1000XM4... I'll know more when I get those

I love my Airpod Pros. I use them all the time, but only for talking on the phone and listening to TV or streaming services on my iPad. I also own Sony WF-1000XMS and the Sony's have much better sound quality than the Airpod Pros. Some argue it has better noise cancellation technology as well. The fit and size and overall usability is better with the Airpod Pros and transparency mode is far better than ambient mode with the Sony's, but to say they are much better than the Sony's is in my opinion not factually correct. I don't even consider the Airpod Pros as having minimum quality I require for listening to music whereas the Sony's do.

That said, my wife's only interest in the audiophile world is listening to music with her Airpod pros and asking me why I keep buying new products. She came to me and asked me if I saw the announcement of the Airpods Max and said they were gorgeous. I will defintely listen to them. Hopefully they sound better than either the Sony or Bose noise cancellation headphones. I doubt I will buy them, though as I usually use my IEMs on a plane now since they provide sufficient noise isolation and great sound quality for music.

One of my biggest worries is how the market will react, and, subsequently adapt to the uptick in price, especially once consumers start purchasing the AirPods Pro in droves - and I'm quite certain of this eventuality.

Once contemporaries, such as Sony and Bose, realize that the average tech enthusiast, albeit one that is relatively wealthy, is willing to splash $550 for a top-end wireless headphone, they might start to wonder if an increase of $100 over their existing flagships won't be seen as egregious premium after all. Heck, an elevation in price may even be a good thing - the general market often co-relates price with performance; hence, a $550 Apple headphone has to sound better than a $350 Sony headphone, no?

I greatly enjoy my WH-1000XM4; however, I hope that any subsequent models won't be riding the astronomical price rocket.

Those people are falling for the marketing hype rather than the objective quality metrics of these products. The price of an HD6XX headphone at $220 will most likely sound far better than these Airpods Max headphones and they aren't going to go up much in price because of it. I purchased my Sony WF-1000XM3's for $99 on the refurb market to try it out. You can get the WH-1000XM3's for $179. Those prices aren't going away.

I am a sucker for new products, so we will see if I fall for the marketing hype of the Airpods Max. I doubt it. I'd rather purchase a Thieaudio Monarch or Hifiman Ananda both of which I am quite sure will sound better than the Airpods Max.

 

[SilverEars]

As someone who was reluctant to switch to iPhone a few years ago because of aptX... If you're using any AirPods you're probably going to be using an iPhone and Apple Music or Spotify, so aptX really doesn't matter. It becomes your standard. We continue to dream of lossless Apple Music and Spotify.

It is difficult to convey the ease of getting connected to AirPods from multiple Apple devices. Once you've experienced it, going to your menu/Bluetooth and connecting manually feels painful enough to warrant a small Apple premium.

The case seems like the weakest area. Will they go into ultra-low battery mode without it? Otherwise you'll need that case within a tougher case if you really need protection.

Apple AAC was proven to be better quality than AptX. Apple implementation of AAC is quite good. They do not however have 990kbps LDAC. It sounds like to me it's in the same class of headphones as Sony XM3, but excessively expensive without LDAC due to build? No idea. XM3 usually go down in price to 200 or 250 so 549 is pretty excessive.

 

[plakat]

Apple AAC was proven to be better quality than AptX. Apple implementation of AAC is quite good. They do not however have 990kbps LDAC. It sounds like to me it's in the same class of headphones as Sony XM3, but excessively expensive without LDAC due to build? No idea. XM3 usually go down in price to 200 or 250 so 549 is pretty excessive.

The XM3 sounds bad even at 200,- so that would be quite a disappointment if the Max were not much better...

 

[HiFiHawaii808]

Apple AAC was proven to be better quality than AptX. Apple implementation of AAC is quite good. They do not however have 990kbps LDAC. It sounds like to me it's in the same class of headphones as Sony XM3, but excessively expensive without LDAC due to build? No idea. XM3 usually go down in price to 200 or 250 so 549 is pretty excessive.

Yeah, my guess is it's a combination of the Sony XM4 which has great sound (for noise cancellation headphones) and noise cancellation technology and the Bose 700 which is good for phone calls.

You can get Airpod Pros on sale at $169. So, these will go on sale in less than a year after the hype is over and the early adopters have their units.

 

[SamS]

Those people are falling for the marketing hype rather than the objective quality metrics of these products. The price of an HD6XX headphone at $220 will most likely sound far better than these Airpods Max headphones and they aren't going to go up much in price because of it. I purchased my Sony WF-1000XM3's for $99 on the refurb market to try it out. You can get the WH-1000XM3's for $179. Those prices aren't going away.

I am a sucker for new products, so we will see if I fall for the marketing hype of the Airpods Max. I doubt it. I'd rather purchase a Thieaudio Monarch or Hifiman Ananda both of which I am quite sure will sound better than the Airpods Max.

I have lots of $100-$250 headphones (and nicer ones, too). The AirPods Max don't compete with those. I plan on using them for extended sessions on my Mac, as well as watching content on my iPads, and even AppleTV.

Spatial audio from Apple is mind-blowing.

 

[MayaTlab]

to say they are much better than the Sony's is in my opinion not factually correct.

Given that both headphones' measured FR curves nearly entirely land within the area where personal preferences and HRTF variations take over, and that both have very low distortion figures, both of you probably are factually correct... as far as you are yourself concerned only.

 

[ubs28]

The XM3 sounds bad even at 200,- so that would be quite a disappointment if the Max were not much better...

Considering that Apple killed Sony their WF-1000XM3 wireless IEM’s with the AirPods Pro, I expect that these headphones are much better than the XM3 and XM4 too.

These headphones will also have superior computational power onboard as Apple is the best chip maker in the world. So I think we can expect much from the computational audio part.

 

[HiFiHawaii808]

I have lots of $100-$250 headphones (and nicer ones, too). The AirPods Max don't compete with those. I plan on using them for extended sessions on my Mac, as well as watching content on my iPads, and even AppleTV.

Spatial audio from Apple is mind-blowing.

Have you heard the Airpods Max? I just learned about them today. How do you know that Spatial audio is mind blowing? What is great about it?

I have restricted my plunge into the Apple universe to my iPhone, Airpod Pros, iPad and Apple Watch. I don't want to pay the premium for Apple products that are inferior. I use Roku instead of AppleTV. Tidal and Spotify vs. Apple Music. Streamers instead of Apple CCK dongles and/or Airplay. Sonus speakers instead of Homepods. Dell Laptops with Google Drive and Chrome vs Mac. Probably will purchase an Android DAP.