AirPods Max is here! First impressions and photos thread

[Brandobean]

I'm noticing no one is talking about "LATENCY" which is a big issue on a lot of Bluetooth headphones. For example, my Samsung Level On Pro headphones have almost 1/2 second latency making them unusable for games, and even tricky for facetime calls. My Sony xm4s are MUCH better in that regard but are still useless for music making apps, and tricky for games (maybe 1/4sec delay?).

Are the APMs better in this regard? With Bluetooth latency so bad, it really limits usage to just playing music.

Also, why didn't apple include a lossless codec!!?

 

[Easttime]

Still waiting to learn about experiences with phone calls and online meetings. I think they look more sleek, professional and less intrusive in videos of people wearing them than some of the other brands.

 

[LongWayHome]

Does spatial audio even work with Big Sur (Mac OS)? Seems Apple TV+ movies are just regular stereo. Only with iOS devices the spatial audio seems to work?

It does not work with Big Sur. I haven't tried it buy my understanding was that it does work with some AppleTv movies and apps like Disney+ on the Apple TV. The audio has to be encoded correctly for the feature to work meaning that not every movie or TV show will be able to take adavantage of it. I would think that a future Big Sur update would enable it.

 

[kazmac]

Have you tried going into Bluetooth and tapping the “i” and under “connect to this iPhone” and select automatically?

I will try this. Thank you Very much.

 

[LongWayHome]

I'm noticing no one is talking about "LATENCY" which is a big issue on a lot of Bluetooth headphones. For example, my Samsung Level On Pro headphones have almost 1/2 second latency making them unusable for games, and even tricky for facetime calls. My Sony xm4s are MUCH better in that regard but are still useless for music making apps, and tricky for games (maybe 1/4sec delay?).

Are the APMs better in this regard? With Bluetooth latency so bad, it really limits usage to just playing music.

Also, why didn't apple include a lossless codec!!?

I'm not a big gamer, but the latency on movies and facetime for me has been nonexistent. I've only watched a little bit of movies to test the spatial audio (which is excellent) and everything was synced perfectly and on facetime calls it was perfect as well.

 

[LongWayHome]

Still waiting to learn about experiences with phone calls and online meetings. I think they look sleek, professional and less intrusive in videos of people wearing them, more so than some of the other brands.

I can tell you that phone calls are excellent. With that being said, the mic do pick up a lot of background noise (or so I'm told). I was typing something at my desk while on a phone call and someone commented that they could hear me typing very clearly. From a clarity standpoint they are absolutely excellent and using them in transparency mode is like no other pair of headphones I've ever used they work so well.

 

[deevey]

Also, why didn't apple include a lossless codec!!?

Because one doesn't exist yet for bluetooth

 

[deevey]

I'm not a big gamer, but the latency on movies and facetime for me has been nonexistent. I've only watched a little bit of movies to test the spatial audio (which is excellent) and everything was synced perfectly and on facetime calls it was perfect as well.

I'd be interested on the numbers too. Apple headphones already have some of the lowest bluetooth latency in the business. But still pretty laggy. Most movies and video streaming services auto compensate for any delays over bluetooth.

Fast realtime FPS games are where you really notice latency e.g. you fire a gun and 1/8 second later you hear the shot.

 

[Dave245]

Does anyone know how the AirPods Max sound compared to the Surface Headphones 2? i currently have the Surface headphones 2 and i might cancel my order of the AirPods Max, don't sound better and have better noise cancelation.

 

[NotTooLate]

Reading the last 5 pages of this thread in head hi fi , looks like they are a BIG winner in the audiophile community , ppl are blown away by them (SQ wise) , go have a read :
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/airpods-max.949152/page-26

 

[AppelGeenyus]

I'm noticing no one is talking about "LATENCY" which is a big issue on a lot of Bluetooth headphones. For example, my Samsung Level On Pro headphones have almost 1/2 second latency making them unusable for games, and even tricky for facetime calls. My Sony xm4s are MUCH better in that regard but are still useless for music making apps, and tricky for games (maybe 1/4sec delay?).

Are the APMs better in this regard? With Bluetooth latency so bad, it really limits usage to just playing music.

Also, why didn't apple include a lossless codec!!?

Feels like the same ~200ms for gaming(FPS). Would recommend using the cable, bluetooth just doesn't cut it.

 

[pbird]

Reading the last 5 pages of this thread in head hi fi , looks like they are a BIG winner in the audiophile community , ppl are blown away by them (SQ wise) , go have a read :
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/airpods-max.949152/page-26

Interesting. I see some of them also mention the slight raised bass and recessed mids that I hear and results in voices and flutes to stand out less in the mix than on more neutral speakers. Its subtile for sure and I guess most will find the result more pleasing. In any case, I am really impressed it can take on decent wired headphones. I think I will keep them.

 

[UBS28]

Does anyone have experienced bugs with these headphones? I have had to do 4 factory resets already to get them working normally again.

 

[Henk Poley]

Does spatial audio even work with Big Sur (Mac OS)? Seems Apple TV+ movies are just regular stereo. Only with iOS devices the spatial audio seems to work?

Edit: This is wrong:
AFAIK there is only spatial audio on iOS & iPadOS.

Big Sur 11.1 changelog:
AirPods Max:

• Spatial audio with dynamic head tracking for a theater-like listening experience

 

[Henk Poley]

Are the APMs better in this regard? With Bluetooth latency so bad, it really limits usage to just playing music.

It is fairly simple, to be sure there are (almost) no interruptions due to noise on the 2.4GHz band that bluetooth uses, you need to collect data for about 200ms to paper over all the interruptions.

What iOS does (can do) with some headphones is delay video by the amount of transmission latency. Then you won't notice when playing video itself. But when you play/pause or press buttons in games, there still that 200+ millisecond delay. When video/audio conferencing you'll notice the 200ms latency both ways.

It's just the physics of it.

There's also aptX Low Latency (aptX-LL), which is just stock aptX HD with less buffers (less than 200ms). There they just wing it, and assume there will be no interruptions.

In principle a whole different protocol than bluetooth could do forward error correction (FEC), while encoding some low bitrate fallback audio with a lot of correction, and layering better audio on top as the difference to the fallback stream. But this kind of error correction needs multiple packets to works, so back to buffers with latency again.

 

[NotTooLate]

Interesting. I see some of them also mention the slight raised bass and recessed mids that I hear and results in voices and flutes to stand out less in the mix than on more neutral speakers. Its subtile for sure and I guess most will find the result more pleasing. In any case, I am really impressed it can take on decent wired headphones. I think I will keep them.

Some mentioned that using them wired helped with your recessed lids "issue" , should be interesting to know what the difference might be with using them wired.

 

[Henk Poley]

Because one doesn't exist yet for bluetooth

Advanced Audio Coding Scalable To Lossless (AAC SLS) technically exists for Bluetooth, but is implemented nowhere: Audio over Bluetooth: most detailed information about profiles, codecs, and devices / Habr

It ought to also give even higher latency, more bits, longer transfer.

 

[UBS28]

AFAIK there is only spatial audio on iOS & iPadOS.

I see. Thanks for confirming as that is also what was my conclusion based on testing this morning.

 

[ninethirty]

AFAIK there is only spatial audio on iOS & iPadOS.

Big Sur was updated yesterday to includes upport for APM and Spatial Audio. That said, I can't seem to figure out how to turn it on, and didn't notice it when watching movies I've purchased through Apple.

 

[ninethirty]

I see. Thanks for confirming as that is also what was my conclusion based on testing this morning.

See my post ^

 

[pbird]

Some mentioned that using them wired helped with your recessed lids "issue" , should be interesting to know what the difference might be with using them wired.

Ok, I tried that and I have to agree you can hear voices a bit better and also the bass seems to be tighter wired. Or I am imagining things...ab comparisons are difficult.
I also compared the akg k701 with the max wired on our yamaha p-515 digital piano and I still think it misses some sparkle in the higher notes. Also the binaural sound of the Yamaha, which gives the impression that the sound comes from the instrument, is much more convincing on the AKG's. For relaxed listening though, I really like the max. It has a very pleasant sound.

 

[yegon]

Does anyone have experienced bugs with these headphones? I have had to do 4 factory resets already to get them working normally again.

Sorry to hear that.

Mine have been rock solid, connecting, switching, all of it.

Which is a relief as my past experience with multiple sets of AirPods Pro has been flakey to say the least. Great when then work....but buggy often enough to be noticeable and annoying.

 

[AppleUser2]

I just got my APM now - so i'm still setting up. I will say, transparency mode seems weird on the APM. I like it better on the airpods pro where i don't even notice. But in APM, i can subtly notice audio piped. It's better than Sonys but the gain is slightly higher than i would like.

I will say the build quality is really nice - you can notice it.

I have HD650 - Focal Elear, Airpod pros, Sony XM3, Shure SE846s. So can do some A/B comparisons.

Wow - that's an amazing list of ear/headphones. Be really keen to hear how the APM's compare to all of them.

 

[profmjh]

Could somebody tell me how “thick” the APMs are when in their case. Apple gives height and width but not thickness. I have a case in mind for them and am interested to know if they will fit.

 

[ianbeerent1]

Does the volume go up fairly high? Could a person with hearing impairment get enjoyment from these?

One very notable thing: the volume is not higher than competitors. However, when plugged in to my headphone amplifier, HOLY GEE WILLIKERS, does it get loud with zero distortion. Absolutely crushes my Sony XM3s in this regard