So I received the AirPods Max and aside form the fact I had to put it in pairing mode to pair to the iPhone 12 Pro Max nothing to report.
I see the comments on the weight, I didn't even bother to check but they do weight a bit although the headband is comfortable and the pads are breathy the ears don't get warm. This being said the weight is well balanced and confort is good although a bit lighter would have been nicer.
First impressions out of the box, this is over BT (I'll try cable later) Apple managed to pull off a natural sounding headphone, the bottom end has excellent sub bass extension and presence and control is fairly good although nothing to rave about either there is a bit of blooming there. I think Apple went a bit too far in terms of sub presence to add some physicality. Of course drivers are not burnt in so I'll reserve the definitive impression for later. The mid bass slam is quite good but again I wished it was a bit tighter with better control and I hear some blooming as well. This will show on my usual test tracks but not necessarily on less bass heavy tracks so keep in mind you might not hear it at first. Again, drivers OOB so not burnt in. On the flipside the bass has suprisingly good textures, rich detail and percussions sound very good as well as double bass. Mid bass presence is not overdone although there is a bit of emphasis. There is a strong rythmic baseline providing good rythm although pace is not the fastest either at least out of the box.
I don't read the midrange as recessed contrary to some comments, but that might depend on which genres people have tested their APM with. To me Apple has aimed at an articulate, clear and neutral / natural midrange. If anything maybe a little too conservative in the lower mids I woud peg the mids as a bit thin. They probably wanted to avoid the APM to sound congested given the overall bass presence. Upper mids have nice bite to them and that was not expected it's quite a lively and fairly energetic midrange and Jazz works pretty well with the APM. Timbre is fairly accurate which is also a good surprise little to no added warmth. Intruments separation is pretty good. As others have reported, vocals are clear and forwardly positioned. APM seems free of sibilance and remains smooth despite good energy and power in female vocals, APM will convey a lot of emotion on great vocal performances here. Much better than my Sony WH1000. Given the lower mids tuning I mentioned earlier, male vocals lack a bit of power but there is plenty of detail and the APM conveys a lot of nuances.
On to the treble, there is very nice lower treble presence and energy and the APM is quite engaging while remaining smooth I just wished there was a bit more weight to the notes but that's what I prefer especially for piano. I am nitpicking. Upper treble is where I think the APM fall short extension is not bad but I miss some presence here, it's a bit lost in the mix and it would have taken the APM to another level. Again, OOB impressions drivers are not burnt in but still. I might be heavily biased owning quite a few TOTL CIEMs and I know my test tracks to the infinitesimal detail.
If you're not in critical listening mode, there is very little that will bother me (aside maybe for the bass bloom and it might go away with burn in.) we should all remember we're talking BT headphones here and the APM is the best I have heard so far. To me Apple nailed it aside from high pricing for the segment and all the talk about APM beating headphones wired to nice DAPs and amps is probably unreasonable expectations.
I still have to test out the spatial sound, I bought the APM for watching movies and tv shows or conference calls not mainly for music where I have plenty of things handy
I'll give a shot to the APM cabled and plug it to the Hiby R8, I might still have a shocker in store....
