Has anyone mentioned whether they can be used while being charged yet? I haven't seen any info on that; it would be nice if they could be plugged in for charging but still be used, unlike the current AirPods (obviously).
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AirPods Max Reviews
- Thread starter 3rdiguy
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You can use them with a Lightning to 3.5mm audio cable connected and since they charge by a physical cable connection, there would be no technical reason for them to not be usable while charging.
It's not Apple's standard. All Air Pods are Lightning.
That's kind of what I thought should be the case, but one should never assume when it comes to the arbitrary limits that Apple sometimes puts on their stuff; and that's coming from an admitted junkie.
Apple knows what they’re doing on the technical side. These will excel on Rtings. Will it be enough to place them above more expensive audiophile headphones? We’ll see.
Industry standard. Right now apple is the only one using that old charging method.
So John Gruber got a review unit. Mostly positive (and he’s not afraid to dump on Apple when he doesn’t like something, like iPad OS) but he does point out the weight several times. Makes me wonder if that’s why the case is more of a pouch than a hard case.
https://daringfireball.net/2020/12/heavy_is_the_head_that_wears_the_airpods_max
https://daringfireball.net/2020/12/heavy_is_the_head_that_wears_the_airpods_max
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yeah i was a bit concerned with weight too as its almost double that of my xm4s... if the weight distribution is good, it shouldnt be that big of an issue
Apple's return policy is extended until January at the moment. If you can find them and get them soon enough you'd be able to have a nice period of time to compare all three yourself and return whichever ones you don't like. Might be worth it if you're seriously considering the AirPods Max.
So that people are forced to wear it around their neck. Free advertising and marketing.
Another Chinese video comparing AirPods Max with Bose 700 and Sennheiser Momentum 3. According to him, APM is better than Bose in terms of noise cancellation and better or on par with Momentum 3 in terms of sound quality.
I bought the AirPods Max to see if they're still worth the hype 3 years later
Apple's over-ear headphones have achieved iconic fashion status, but are the AirPods Max still worth the steep price? We took another listen.
I hope the Apple TV 4K (current and future) gets Spatial Audio support because there is so much multi-channel audio content (movies and television series) where it would be beneficial.
John Gruber called out the lack of SA support on the Apple TV in his initial review of the AirPods Max and I 100% agree. My OLED is in my bedroom in an apartment so I can't have a true multi-speaker setup and a soundbar would not really work effectively in my location. But having SA on my AirPods Pro would be great and it might even be a(nother) reason to consider AirPods Max - when they go one sale, of course.
John Gruber called out the lack of SA support on the Apple TV in his initial review of the AirPods Max and I 100% agree. My OLED is in my bedroom in an apartment so I can't have a true multi-speaker setup and a soundbar would not really work effectively in my location. But having SA on my AirPods Pro would be great and it might even be a(nother) reason to consider AirPods Max - when they go one sale, of course.
Apple AirPods Max - recension
AirPods Max är perfekta hörlurar för Apple-fantasten
One of the better early first impressions.
Need to hear more about practical home office use in Zoom meetings and phone calls
Yep.
These early reviews aren’t even really testing them outside of Spacial Audio and barely talking about the noise cancellation.
We need to know how they sound for a phone call, Zoom/Team, latency, etc.
Gruber’s review was very lazy, he said “he’s not an audio expert, but they sound amazing.” - like what did you listen to? How was the bass, the middle, etc. These reviews have been pointless outside the physical description of the headphone.
Well this is an Apple product. And all the iPhones and AirPods use Lightning. So people will already have chargers and cables. Why people expect Apple to cater to people that don’t use their other products is baffling to me. This isn’t new. They’ve pretty much always been this way.
I’m wondering if there is some sort of NDA on discussing sound quality in more specifics. I’m a little surprised how every single first impression/ review out there specifically mentions needing to go more in depth on sound. From my experience of owning tons of high end headphones it’s pretty easy to give good judgement of headphone performance without needing a week to test out.
I would not be surprised. A slower trickle of information keeps the new headphones in the news for longer.
I don’t think Apple would have priced them at $549 unless they had both the best sound quality and the best ANC of all Bluetooth headphones, and I trust Apple to deliver on that.
Sorry I disagree with your last statement. Their product pricing is based on component costs, r and d, competition in the field, and probably many other things we don’t know about.
I expect sound quality and anc to be very good based on the tech, not the price.
Nilay Patel was one who said he needed to do more extensive testing. I don’t totally trust Verge reviews though. I think in the back of their mind is always whether they seem too pro-Apple or not. Don’t want a comments section full of people calling them iVerge.
Here's another Chinese review. Basically it sounds really good, but it's so subjective I don't think you will see many YouTuber/reviewers going out of their way to proclaim APX is better or worse than any of the high-end headphones. That would just be basically inviting trouble and flamewars to their channels. However for something more measurable, like ANC and mic sound quality, they all give it a pretty high remarks.
For ANC, comparing to Bose 700, at office setting with noise level ~45 dB, both perform very well as expected. Once it's moved to outside busy street with noise level ~ 60 - 70 dB, APX clearly pulls ahead in that situation. You can take a listen from the clip below. It was pretty clear.
Another thing they are all amazed with is the built-in 18 sensors on APX. Using built-in H1 chips on each side, Apple is able to do real-time computation with all these sensors to produce near-perfect acoustic sound based on continuous sensor readings. So for example you can have one side of ear with not-so-great fit, wearing a glasses, a hat...etc but APX will take those into consideration and produce balance sound on both sides. Similar to AirPods Pro but APX takes that to another level due to the additional sensors.
Anyway I don't know much about audio or headphones but seems like Apple is doing its software/machine learning magic again to achieve something that was for a long time thought to have physical limit, almost like the portrait mode on the iPhone when it first came out. As for the price, everyone agrees that $550 is expensive, but again Apple sells a $489 Hermes watch band is $550 APX really that expensive? Obviously Apple understands the market better than anyone and knows the segment they are targeting. If you want the latest and the greatest it's not going to be cheap, but you do get something that's truly cutting edge. Maybe that's worth the ticket of admission. Who knows?
Here's another Chinese review. Basically it sounds really good, but it's so subjective I don't think you will see many YouTuber/reviewers going out of their way to proclaim APX is better or worse than any of the high-end headphones. That would just be basically inviting trouble and flamewars to their channels. However for something more measurable, like ANC and mic sound quality, they all give it a pretty high remarks.
For ANC, comparing to Bose 700, at office setting with noise level ~45 dB, both perform very well as expected. Once it's moved to outside busy street with noise level ~ 60 - 70 dB, APX clearly pulls ahead in that situation. You can take a listen from the clip below. It was pretty clear.
Another thing they are all amazed with is the built-in 18 sensors on APX. Using built-in H1 chips on each side, Apple is able to do real-time computation with all these sensors to produce near-perfect acoustic sound based on continuous sensor readings. So for example you can have one side of ear with not-so-great fit, wearing a glasses, a hat...etc but APX will take those into consideration and produce balance sound on both sides. Similar to AirPods Pro but APX takes that to another level due to the additional sensors.
Anyway I don't know much about audio or headphones but seems like Apple is doing its software/machine learning magic again to achieve something that was for a long time thought to have physical limit, almost like the portrait mode on the iPhone when it first came out. As for the price, everyone agrees that $550 is expensive, but again Apple sells a $489 Hermes watch band is $550 APX really that expensive? Obviously Apple understands the market better than anyone and knows the segment they are targeting. If you want the latest and the greatest it's not going to be cheap, but you do get something that's truly cutting edge. Maybe that's worth the ticket of admission. Who knows?
Thank you! I was trying to watch the other Chinese reviewer but there were no subtitles on YouTube. I will watch this now.
Do they mention about the material of the earcups?
The lightening to 3.5mm cable could be one reason, since that's basically a converter and DAC in one. For audiophiles, having a 3.5mm option is a must-have for audio applications. USB-C to 3.5mm exists but I don't recall Apple selling one, and producing a new product line of cables increases cost.