What should they update the chip for? I don’t even know what chip is inside and what features it doesn’t support, probably precision finding Find My support? Apart from that they should update the case and the price I guess, maybe repairability for battery service.
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AirPods Max Announced Four Years Ago Today
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Still no balanced input/output. Apple isn’t serious about hi-end sound. These are ok to go to the gym, or walk around in your own world but for really critical listening, these can’t cut it.
Really great headphones. I have only one gripe: the mesh wears out over time and loses its function as a cushion. Since it’s not replaceable, the Max are far less comfortable to wear now than they were in the first years.
I honestly don’t care about the codec. I love music, but I can’t easily discern subtle differences in sound quality beyond a certain baseline – and I’m perfectly fine with that. It would honestly be a pain to constantly notice minor imperfections in sound quality.
In fact, it’s one of the very few things in life I have absolutely no interest in learning.
I honestly don’t care about the codec. I love music, but I can’t easily discern subtle differences in sound quality beyond a certain baseline – and I’m perfectly fine with that. It would honestly be a pain to constantly notice minor imperfections in sound quality.
In fact, it’s one of the very few things in life I have absolutely no interest in learning.
That's not the point,..I have a 19 year old Pioneer plasma still going strong. 🤦♂️
Mine had major connection issues around the two-year mark. A battery replacement temporarily fixed the connection issues until it happened again. Then I spent a good couple of months to a year of resetting my headphones every every single time I picked them up until they finally bricked. It’s a shame because I loved the sound quality and the device switching was out-of-this-world. Others have had similar experiences.
I bought it on sale at microcent for 399. Still going strong after 3.5 years. Fantastic headphones.
I recently bought the new USB-C AirPods Max, and I just don’t understand why Apple decided to remove the wired connection option. It’s baffling. I returned them immediately and went for the Lightning version instead.
This is my first pair of APM’s, and I’ve found them to be way more comfortable than most of the other noise cancelling headphones I’ve owned including Beats, Bose, and Sony.
This is my first pair of APM’s, and I’ve found them to be way more comfortable than most of the other noise cancelling headphones I’ve owned including Beats, Bose, and Sony.
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HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
And yet, put an Apple logo on it and the defenders always show up. There's already some in this young thread with- almost certainly- many more to follow today/tomorrow+.
After years around here, I'm convinced that if Apple would can & brand their own air, a number of fans would smother if they ran out vs. opting to breathe inferior, wobbly, plasticy, cheap, regular air. And that's only half joking.
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Agreed. I think it's low sales but that is due to the cost! I guess it's justified with 'there is a particular market for these' high end headphones. The average customer doesn't understand that if they just want the best version of a product.
It needs to be at around £349 or even £399! They will sell them in the millions.
I am laughing at how the AirPods Pro have more features than the AirPods Max, at half the price!
What is the alternative to Apple or Beats headphones if you care for full integration in the Apple ecosystem, built, or design?
You can be economically savvy and still decide to go for it for various reasons.
What a pitiful life would it be to put economic considerations first in every decision you make.
Agreed these are not for critical listening. They don’t have enough detail or soundstage, and their tonal signature is too warm.
Balanced audio is a very minor quality improvement that sits somewhere between a DAC upgrade and a cable upgrade. It maybe only eeks out the last ~2% of performance. AirPods Max users would not benefit from this.
They are too heavy for portable use, the headband mesh is cheap and prone to wearing out in less than a couple hundred hours of use, do not come with a case (don’t get me started on the “Bra” fashion accessory), and would have benefitted from the H2 chip, as the Pros 2 did, but that doesn’t eliminate the remaining issues. The sound quality is just “ok”, ANC is pretty decent, and battery life is tolerable. But these have no place at their price point. Worth maybe $250-299 new, $180-200 used. I only use mine to mow the lawn, but they don’t stay on my head during that activity, so I don’t know how people are supposed to excessive with them. I was tempted to trade mine in the other day for $120. I thought about giving them away to a kid’s friend, but determined I would just be giving them e-waste, as again, they are very heavy and after wearing them for many hours over the course of a week, they can give you neck pain that radiates nerve pain to other parts of the body. They don’t even have value as part of a headphone collection. Also, out of the dozens of pairs of headphones I have used over the years, these are one of the most fragile, and easily the most scratch-able of the “portable” headphones.
I whole-heartedly recommend the Sennheiser Momentum 4’s for ANC headphones if you are looking for sound quality, APP2’s if you’re looking for truly wireless ANC, Bose QC45’s if you’re looking for portability in normal headphones, and Sennheiser 660s if you’re looking for sound quality. In fact, you can find the Momentum 4’s for $180 open-box, APP2’s for $154 on sale, QC45’s for about $180 open-box, and the Sennheiser 6xx’s (still great for the price) for about $160 used on headphone classifieds. If you pick your purchases carefully, you may be able to purchase all of these combined for the price of a new pair of AirPod maxes at MSRP.
There are so many more headphones I would recommend over these at their price point. WH-1000xm3 or xm4’s, Bose QC45 II’s or Ultras, Hyper-X Cloud Alpha Wirelss (300 hours of battery life and still has a better mic and detail retrieval). If you want critical listening, AKG k712, Senn 600/6xx/650/660s, Focal Elex, Superlux HD681’s, Audio-Technical ATH-m50’s, Beyerdynamic DT-770, DT-880, DT-990.
Apple’s sound engineers have made generational leaps in improvements for their laptops, phones, and headphones, but the AirPods Max seem stagnant in comparison. Not only are they aging and no longer worth their asking price (if they ever where to begin with), but Apple needs more than one over-ear solution to remain competitive in the space. They need something lightweight at $150-200, something like the Maxes but at $200-300 (and hopefully 100+grams lighter), and something truly fantastic at $500-1000.
I don’t know who the target audience for these were when Apple released them, and I haven’t the foggiest idea why anyone would buy them today apart from a gift to a wealthy friend that doesn’t already have headphones but are ingrained in the Apple ecosystem. Other headphones give you a reason to keep putting them on and listen, these don’t.
Obligatory thank you for coming to my ted talk/rant.
I love Apple. I’m an artist and the iPad Pro is my all time favorite device. Paired with the Apple Pencil Pro, it’s the single best digital sketchbook I have ever owned. I know it’s expensive, but I gladly paid the price. There are some Apple products however that I won’t pay up for. Cases. I never buy Apple cases. Always get my iPad & iPhone cases on Amazon for a tenth the price for basically the same cases. 😆 I love listening to music, but the AirPod Max is another Apple product I can’t bring myself to pay up for. I would like to own a pair, but $549? Maybe for some it’s worth it, but me? Nah. I just can’t. Perhaps if they were priced at $249 or $299 max. Maybe. There are just too many alternatives out there that sound just as good to me for half the price. Sorry Apple.
The only premium thing about these headphones is the price (and, maybe, possibly, the overall build quality, although reading about quickly deteriorating pads, im not so sure).
Sound-wise these are average - and they cannot be anything above that if they only support compressed streaming audio. You might scream that it's good enough for many people, but hey - it's either premium audio device or it isn't. 256kbps AAC is far from the premium audio quality apple loves make you think it is.
PS: the ~$500 asking price totally opens you up for some true studio quality headphones from reputable brands...
Sound-wise these are average - and they cannot be anything above that if they only support compressed streaming audio. You might scream that it's good enough for many people, but hey - it's either premium audio device or it isn't. 256kbps AAC is far from the premium audio quality apple loves make you think it is.
PS: the ~$500 asking price totally opens you up for some true studio quality headphones from reputable brands...
People don’t buy anything based on quantifiable value. We buy based on emotion, period. Even analyticals do. Have I researched this enough to make me feel like I’m making the right decision? Is this the lowest cost thing I can find? It’s all based on perceived value to ourselves. 1/3 of people are economical buyers, 1/3 need to be convinced, and 1/3 just want what they perceive as the best. This is basic sales psychology 101. 1/3 of people will never buy Apple products. Still means Apple can get 2/3rds of the market, give or take.
Case in point.
I think the price point is the main thing that gets me caught up in all the problems with them. If these were considerably cheaper I would overlook many of their issues. For what it’s worth, I paid $350 for one HomePod, and $50 for the second. In a stereo pair, they are pretty good for music and movies. Unfortunately, they do not support Bluetooth and cannot be used with non-apple devices, short of using the latest Apple TV paired with them and using eARC from the TV to redirect the sound to them, but then I would be buying another product to fix a lack of features that the other product has. Make then $250 with Bluetooth support and they would be in more homes than Sonos.
Exactly my sentiments. No one has yet been able to articulate what a "new" chip could do that the current chip is not able to do.
Jeeeez... it's just audio. Would a chip in the latest geometry/node make AirPods Pro run twice as fast and thus enable new features? Perhaps the current 9 billion operations per second the current chip offers needs to be doubled to 18 billion operations per second for some purpose? What would those features be that aren't available now?
Or maybe some people need bragging rights about having the fastest chip on the block? They're already excellent (and very comfortable) headphones. It's great they're now USB-C.
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You don’t have to look hard to find the benefits of the H2 chip. Check out https://www.soundguys.com/how-does-apple-h1-chip-work-21049/. They explain that the H2 chip is responsible for better ANC and transparency mode, along with other tangible benefits.
I’m in the, I’m a trained audio engineer and I can’t tell the difference between 256kbps AAC and lossless FLAC, ALAC, WAV camp, and even I think they need to add lossless to these just to increase perceived value to audiophiles. Doesn’t matter that I don’t think it matters one bit, others obviously do. It’s perplexing that they didn’t update them to have, at the very least, the H2 chip while going to all the trouble of re-engineering them to have just USB-C and file a new model in all countries they sell in. Why not add a new H3 for lossless? AM supports lossless to iPhones and yet, lets just not support it on our highest end audio device. Just baffling.
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I see people with AirPods all the time. Often even the Pro models.
Never seen anyone wear this model out in person.
Once I saw an interviewer on an Apple broadcast MLB game interviewing a coach while wearing these. Looked absolutely ridiculous.
These are good points and I’m betting this is pure MBA math at work here.
They set sales and profitability targets. Those targets were low, but are being met. In a product like this for Apple right now, that seems to be all that matters.
We will probably see this and the HomePods refreshed in a couple years when they are “done” with new Siri.
I can kind of understand it actually. Until they get better Siri done, there’s not much point in improving either one. They can’t fit it on the existing hardware anyway.
Exactly - I'm not as young as I'd like to be anymore, so for my hearing that AAC codec is good enough either (on other headphones). But if I'm supposed to pay $500 I want a worthy product, simple as that.
I feel like we are - as a tech society - getting consequently dumbed down devices because of that "good enough" engineering that seems to be not trying at all to be any better...
What is the alternative to Apple or Beats headphones if you care for full integration in the Apple ecosystem, built, or design?
You can be economically savvy and still decide to go for it for various reasons.
What a pitiful life would it be to put economic considerations first in every decision you make.