They are more or less comfortable. The only comparison I can take is B&W PX7 which I sold because the clamping force was too much for me. APM is easier on my head than PX7. I'm not going to say they are weightless, because they are not. But after couple hours with them, I don't have comfort issues.
The sound quality is good but uninteresting. Some headphone manufacturers go for more warm/bassy/cold/harsh sound signatures to sound better in certain genres. So far APM seems to offer a decent soundstage, good detail in both low and high frequencies, with some sibilance especially at pop recordings. The sound signature does not have any kind of "omg this is so awesome" wow factor which draws you into the music with certain recordings, but sound like **** in others.
With pop recordings, I actually preferred the sound of PX7. However with orchestral recordings, APM so far sounds better than PX7. I cannot A/B test though, since I sold the PX7.
I haven't had a chance to test the noise cancellation though, since I'm always in my home anyway.
But without the NC, once you put them on, your own heartbeat is really distracting. The soft earpad material creates a vacuum and immediately your own heartbeat becomes audible, quite loudly actually. So unless something is playing, it's distacting.
To get around it, you need to enable NC. So that actually tells me how important the microphones which are "inside" the headphone are. Outside mics have nothing to do with eliminating heartbeat sounds. I remember something similar with PX7 as well but my own heartbeat was not this distracting with those ones. Probably APM has a more passive noise isolation due to the materials.
The sound volume is not too loud. Even at max it's about 100dB, which is a lot for many recordings, but for old recordings which are not compressed, sometimes they can be a bit on the quiet side.
Spatial audio is really fun, and I always enable it if I'm watching some Dolby feature from my iPad. But it's mostly a gimmick for the moment.
The battery life is good. It has been one week and today is the first time I'm charging them since the purchase. I sometimes leave them out, other times in the case.
So compared to PX7, which I had paid 400$ retail for, these cost more. But they have more features. They are more comfortable, and as far as SQ goes, they are comparable. So 550$ retail vs 400$ retail seems about OK.
But the best differentiator for these is automatic switching. So far the H1 chip seems to immediately understand which device I'm on. My Powerbeats Pro also has the same chip but I don't have this level of success with those ones. Probably some firmware tweaks have happened.
The sound quality is good but uninteresting. Some headphone manufacturers go for more warm/bassy/cold/harsh sound signatures to sound better in certain genres. So far APM seems to offer a decent soundstage, good detail in both low and high frequencies, with some sibilance especially at pop recordings. The sound signature does not have any kind of "omg this is so awesome" wow factor which draws you into the music with certain recordings, but sound like **** in others.
With pop recordings, I actually preferred the sound of PX7. However with orchestral recordings, APM so far sounds better than PX7. I cannot A/B test though, since I sold the PX7.
I haven't had a chance to test the noise cancellation though, since I'm always in my home anyway.
But without the NC, once you put them on, your own heartbeat is really distracting. The soft earpad material creates a vacuum and immediately your own heartbeat becomes audible, quite loudly actually. So unless something is playing, it's distacting.
To get around it, you need to enable NC. So that actually tells me how important the microphones which are "inside" the headphone are. Outside mics have nothing to do with eliminating heartbeat sounds. I remember something similar with PX7 as well but my own heartbeat was not this distracting with those ones. Probably APM has a more passive noise isolation due to the materials.
The sound volume is not too loud. Even at max it's about 100dB, which is a lot for many recordings, but for old recordings which are not compressed, sometimes they can be a bit on the quiet side.
Spatial audio is really fun, and I always enable it if I'm watching some Dolby feature from my iPad. But it's mostly a gimmick for the moment.
The battery life is good. It has been one week and today is the first time I'm charging them since the purchase. I sometimes leave them out, other times in the case.
So compared to PX7, which I had paid 400$ retail for, these cost more. But they have more features. They are more comfortable, and as far as SQ goes, they are comparable. So 550$ retail vs 400$ retail seems about OK.
But the best differentiator for these is automatic switching. So far the H1 chip seems to immediately understand which device I'm on. My Powerbeats Pro also has the same chip but I don't have this level of success with those ones. Probably some firmware tweaks have happened.
