[jude]

I logged in for the first time in a decade or so in order to commend jude on his integrity and quality of effort measuring the AirPods Max.
Much appreciated.

Thank you for that. That was very kind of you to log in after so much time just for that. Please don't log out!

...Trivial to say, but I will say it anyway, FR curves will bias many listeners here (already lots of posts in recent posts in this thread suggest just that) and so may prove to be a disservice for better or worse for any buy or sell decisions of any headphone, with or without actual use.

To some extent I agree with you here -- I think many have great difficulty unhearing what they see. It can be hard to spurn (completely or even partially) what one is seeing with one's own eyes, and to trust one's own ears enough to question that -- I mean graphs come from data so they must be the definitive answers, right? Right?!

When I read or see a review in which the subjective impressions contain mentions of hertz and kilohertz -- and/or when the description of sound seems more visual in nature than auditory -- I suspect measurements likely shaped those impressions.

I still trust my ears over any measurements (including those we do here) when it comes to determining whether or not I like how something sounds (and/or what I think it sounds like) -- that seems obvious, but I think it's far less true nowadays than most of us care to admit. That said, the community is interested in measurements [raises hand], so we endeavor to do them here as best we can with the best of what's available.

Based on our experiences with the AirPods Max here at Head-Fi HQ, our measurements best represent what we here are hearing, of the measurements I've seen so far. Of course, you all can decide for yourselves what you think of our measurements (or any others).

 

[SparkOnShore]

I’ll go against the grain and say that I’m actually a fan of the case. It reminds me of the AP & APP in style and use.

I think one of the guiding design principles is probably around reducing user friction points. Assuming that they tested this for rigorous consumer use and that it’s an effective case, it’s indeed very small and portable. I have already integrated it into my daily use while other cases only have been used for backpack transit duties.

The magnetic clamp and form factor are so portable and easy compared to big zipper cases. I’m a fan.

of course you do! You like everything Apple blindly, we said that already! The “rigorous testing” company...Who will remember stuck keys, APP recalls for rattling etc. Let’s hear the objective voice of alwaysforward to become wiser here!

 

[James-uk]

Personally I am enjoying the airpods max more than any of my current headphones which includes the Sony IER-Z1R and the shure KSE1200 as well as the HD660S for home listening. Yes, they all beat the Max in (some) technicalities but as an all rounder the Max are there or there abouts.
Something we should all appreciate is how this hobby is progressing now, think about where the mainstream is now with the AirPod Max, less than 1% THD via 256 aac Bluetooth. now think where we will be in 10-20 years time, we will surpass hi res wireless audio quality into 0.1 THD distortion headphones, not to mention all the other psychoacoustic computational options available.
To have Apple compete In this arena is probably (is)unfair to the rest of the competition but ultimately we should all benefit from the increase competition and end result.

 

[tkddans]

Anyone interested in a comparison of APM with Hifiman Sundara ($350), Harmonicdyne Zeus ($350), and STAX SR-L300 ($430; $800 total for cans, energizer, modded pads, and shipping from Japan)?

I will have all of them by early March.

I fully expect to prefer each one for different reasons across the test tracks, and I expect to prefer them more than APM for most things or possibly all.

Critics will lambast me. But still, I don’t care what critics say, I compare anything I like against anything else I like. We normal consumers do, after all, have to make buying decisions with our limited finances. So narrowing things down, even in ways that sound strange, could be helpful to people out here.

No one wants to mention other wired gear in the same breath as wireless headphones, but I don’t quite like setting those barriers up before even trying to compare.

EDIT: After all, what’s better than seeing what each headphone in a collection offers for each genre or track? Isn’t that why we have multiple headphones in the first place, to see what each different pair offers us?

 

[sebhuber]

now do the audiogram thing, there's a chance you might wanna update the review

I tried getting a custom profile, but luckily I don’t seem to have any significant hearing loss - in the 2-4khz range -4dBs. So maybe also a reason why I prefer Balanced Tone. Then again, I never thought the JH13s needed tweaking.

 

[kazsud]

They actually sound a bit holographic now.

The imaging and Sonics on these two albums are exceptional. Nice depth as well.


Apple Music
https://music.apple.com/us/album/tom-furse-digs/1108023987

https://music.apple.com/us/album/book-of-ryan-bonus-track-edition/1360464920

Bandcamp

 

[rael67]

For those of you who like the surround effect, this is a good Song to hear the space effect.

https://music.apple.com/de/album/bubbles/1222441126?i=1222441146

For those who does not know fong audio, here are some cool demo songs. I recommend Money from Pink Floyd.

https://fongaudio.com/demo/

Enjoy and have fun.

 

[SparkOnShore]

For those of you who like the spatial audio effect, this is a good Song to hear the space effect.

https://music.apple.com/de/album/bubbles/1222441126?i=1222441146

For those who does not know fong audio, here are some cool demo songs. I recommend Money from Pink Floyd.

https://fongaudio.com/demo/

Enjoy and have fun.

but as far as I know, Apple has confirmed spatial audio to work only with Apple TV, and maybe with some other movie apps, but in any case only in movie environment and for sure not for music. Music is always reproduced as stereo, naturally. How can you hear spatial in music? Or is it just your impression??

 

[rael67]

In these examples it is not the original spatial audio function you can test with the iPhone, these songs and samples of fong audio are only examples how you can reach this effect by software. Test the Pink Floyd Song „Money“, quite impressing.

 

[SparkOnShore]

In these examples it is not the original spatial audio function you can test with the iPhone, these songs and samples of fong audio are only examples how you can reach this effect by software. Test the Pink Floyd Song „Money“, quite impressing.

you cannot use the term spatial audio referring to music, period. It’s present to both APP and APM only for movies. The ‘money’ song is originally produced this way and can be enjoyed this way on any high quality sound system. It’s not recommended to add questionable software gimmicks upon the original masterpiece. In any case let’s not misinform. Apple’s spatial is only for movies. Music has always been stereo.

 

[rael67]

Why not? The sound example on the iPhone where you can choose between stereoaudio and 3D-Audio also refers to music. Further I write „spatial audio effect“. If you feel better I can edit my post and write surround audio effect. Btw English is not my native language, so I don‘t know if the word „spatial“ has any meanings that it cannot used it referring to music.

 

[Author]

Why not? The sound example on the iPhone where you can choose between stereoaudio and 3D-Audio also refers to music. Further I write „spatial audio effect“. If you feel better I can edit my post and write surround audio effect. Btw English is not my native language, so I don‘t know if the word „spatial“ has any meanings that it cannot used it referring to music.

There is no setting on the iPhone called stereoaudio or 3D-Audio.

The wording in post 2331 (holographic) and particularly in your post, 2332, is unfortunate. The ‘spatial audio’ you describe is not unique to the APM. Whatever effect you’re enjoying is a result of the engineering/mastering of the recording and could be heard on other headphones. I recommend an edit that makes this clear. People less well informed could be misled by your wording.

I appreciate your facility with the English language. I’m sure this is just accidental!

 

[SparkOnShore]

Why not? The sound example on the iPhone where you can choose between stereoaudio and 3D-Audio also refers to music. Further I write „spatial audio effect“. If you feel better I can edit my post and write surround audio effect. Btw English is not my native language, so I don‘t know if the word „spatial“ has any meanings that it cannot used it referring to music.

the sound example, is just that, an example. Let’s go again, there is no spatial audio, or 3D audio or whatever else you might call it within music app. It is made only for movies, where also it has some meaning, due to the expanded space feeling movies require to make you feel inside the scene. Music on the other hand is only stereo. English is not my native language as well, but that’s not the point. You need to understand that all 3D gimmicks added to music are degrading the sound quality, even though they seem impressive at first. And finally, since we are in the APM thread, the APM do not add any 3D sense in music, they act exactly as any other headphone in this case, respecting music’s stereo source. Of course you may hear 3D bells and whistles on them, but it is not real. APM and APP will only give you spatial audio when watching movies on Apple TV+ and some other movies apps which i do not remember right now.

 

[tinyman392]

Why not? The sound example on the iPhone where you can choose between stereoaudio and 3D-Audio also refers to music. Further I write „spatial audio effect“. If you feel better I can edit my post and write surround audio effect. Btw English is not my native language, so I don‘t know if the word „spatial“ has any meanings that it cannot used it referring to music.

Spacial audio is a very different effect from a simple 3D audio effect created from something like a binaural recording. Spacial audio makes it sound like it’s coming from a source. For example if you heard a sound to your left, and you turned left, it would sound like it was in front of you now. For the most part, Spacial audio makes it sound like the sound is emanating from your iPad or iPhone.

 

[MayaTlab]

I got them today.
As I wrote in a previous post there are a lot of very peculiar design / engineering decisions with these headphones. One of which Is that the headband joins the earcups at the very top with a single arm. In theory this should be a recipe for disaster as it would exert excessive pressure on top of the temples vs. the bottom of the ear (there's a reason the yoke mechanism was invented, it's to apply pressure from the middle of the earcup naturally). Hence Apple's decision to complicate the joint mechanism with a spring to even the pressure around the listener's ear.
Except that my own head seems to be an edge case. I seem to need the earcups to form a V shape when seen from the front / rear. I already couldn't get a proper seal with the K371 as the headband would get in the way of the cups for them to align properly with the side of my ears. With the APM it seems that the spring in the joint mechanism isn't strong enough to form that V shape and apply even pressure around my ears. There's clearly more pressure around my temples. That being said thanks to the pads' design, very much unlike the K371, seal remains good enough and ANC and adaptive EQ seem to work.