AirPods Max sound harsh?

[Seanm87]

So before I start I am by no means an audiophile so not sure how best to describe what I’m hearing but I’ll try my best.

I have come from a pair of sennheiser momentum’s that broke about a month ago so the AirPod Max’s came at a perfect time. When I listen to the AM’s it has, what I can only refer to, as a harshness with the vocals. Specifically anytime the vocals use an emphasised S word (like swing, sing, such etc) or something like a drum symbol it sounds quite strong/harsh and not particularly pleasant. It’s worse the more the volume goes up. To clarify it is not a distortion or hissing it just seems really emphasised in a way I didnt get with the momentum’s.

Is this just something that I need to adjust to coming from the Sennheisers? I know all headphones are different and are tuned differently.

 

[Htsi]

So before I start I am by no means an audiophile so not sure how best to describe what I’m hearing but I’ll try my best.

I have come from a pair of sennheiser momentum’s that broke about a month ago so the AirPod Max’s came at a perfect time. When I listen to the AM’s it has, what I can only refer to, as a harshness with the vocals. Specifically anytime the vocals use an emphasised S word (like swing, sing, such etc) or something like a drum symbol it sounds quite strong/harsh and not particularly pleasant. It’s worse the more the volume goes up. To clarify it is not a distortion or hissing it just seems really emphasised in a way I didnt get with the momentum’s.

Is this just something that I need to adjust to coming from the Sennheisers? I know all headphones are different and are tuned differently.

There are some tone adjustments in accessibility, but to be fair the sound signature will be different. I have Momentum TW & the pros and feel the same.

 

[Seanm87]

There are some tone adjustments in accessibility, but to be fair the sound signature will be different. I have Momentum TW & the pros and feel the same.

Glad to know it’s not just me. That’s why I wanted to post this as I hadn’t seen it mentioned anywhere.

 

[Archie.h_]

Hey did you find a solution, I have the exact same problem. I’ve found that using the Apple Music instead of Spotify helped abit

 

[Seanm87]

Hey did you find a solution, I have the exact same problem. I’ve found that using the Apple Music instead of Spotify helped abit

No I didn’t I just kind of got used to it and didn’t have the volume up too high on particularly sharp songs.

I found the name for it though “Piercing Sibilance” there’s a lot of articles about it on google.

 

[TrueBlou]

Apple Music, as mentioned above, seems to suffer less than some other music services. Playing lossless music files also makes a huge difference to the sound - as one would expect.

You’d think it would be pointless, playing lossless and high resolution files, only to squeeze them over a Bluetooth connection. But I’ve certainly noticed a big difference.

I suppose the old adage, garbage in - garbage out is never more true than when assaulting your ears with high volume music.

 

[UKapple73]

Some are more sensitive to high frequency sounds, and sibilance is just an extreme case. As you get older your sensitivity to high frequency treble sounds gets less, so you’re either very young or have good hearing in that range.
I’ve had my hearing tested and I’m about average but the APM have a good treble response to MY ears, and I guess Apple have tuned them to the average ear. There will be a percentage of the population that are more sensitive to treble and it will verge into the sibilant area for them

 

[CaCohen0509]

I've noticed from about a week of owning that the high end response, over bluetooth is slightly irritable. However, today I just received the 3.5mm adapter. They sound MUCH better over the cable I have to say. Much softer. I do notice still that in the upper end of the frequency spectrum, it can be brittle or maybe just straight up harsh.

 

[Tdevilsg]

This is a factor of the frequency response I believe. Take a look at the sound profile on rtings. It's a u curve sound profile, basically the bass and high end treble is over emphasized which gives it that brightness but is causing some of the shrill in the higher frequency and sibilance that you may be hearing. And the low to mid treble is downward slopping and under emphasized which is why some of the vocals and instruments are veiled. I do hope they tune this a bit especially the low to mid treble which as you can see in the image below kind of just falls off a cliff. I actually prefer the treble of the airpods in comparison. Otherwise I love the sound quality and sound stage in general. The star of the show for the APM is the bass. Also I don't really recommend the accessibility options to me they sound worse and artificial. You can do headset sound profile comparisons one to one on rtings by the way if you wanted to compare your other headsets to them.

 

[CaCohen0509]

This is a factor of the frequency response I believe. Take a look at the sound profile on rtings. It's a u curve sound profile, basically the bass and high end treble is over emphasized which gives it that brightness but is causing some of the shrill in the higher frequency and sibilance that you may be hearing. And the low to mid treble is downward slopping and under emphasized which is why some of the vocals and instruments are veiled. I do hope they tune this a bit especially the low to mid treble which as you can see in the image below kind of just falls off a cliff. I actually prefer the treble of the airpods in comparison. Otherwise I love the sound quality and sound stage in general. The star of the show for the APM is the bass. Also I don't really recommend the accessibility options to me they sound worse and artificial. You can do headset sound profile comparisons one to one on rtings by the way if you wanted to compare your other headsets to them.

I really hope they re-tune them as well. They basically ruined the mid-range. when I use music app equalizer on my MacBook and boost those frequencies, it sounds like a completely different pair of cans

 

[Tdevilsg]

I really hope they re-tune them as well. They basically ruined the mid-range. when I use music app equalizer on my MacBook and boost those frequencies, it sounds like a completely different pair of cans

Yea, same. I will say for better or worse beyond the bass which the APM definitely outperform, the rest of the sound profile is somewhat similar to airpod pro which is probably what they were going for. Image comparison below with the gray lines being the comparison headset against the airpod max. Generally speaking I like a higher emphasis on low to mid treble and that's mainly cause it fits my preference of music with hard rock and electric guitars.

And in case anyone is curious below that is the comparison against airpods 2nd Gen 2019.

 

[MayaTlab]

I would advise looking at other measurements than Rtings' to get a better picture of the APM's deficiencies. Personally if I use a parametric EQ to fill the 4800hz as Rtings measures it I get a nasty peak, which indicates that on my ears at least my copy doesn't produce a 10dB null in that area (something listening to single tones also indicates to me).
Measuring the APM and APP require quite a rigorous methodology to be followed because of how Adaptive EQ operates (it's a little more sophisticated than your typical feedback ANC mechanism I believe).
Looking at the following links some trends can be derived from the APM's measurements - and I think that, particularly at higher frequencies, it's important for us mere mortals to avoid over-interpreting FR curves and only look at trends.
One of them being that the 2000-4000hz region's response is indeed quite conservatively tuned, perhaps more so than what would be desirable to a majority of the population, and that comparatively to it the region above 5000hz may be a little bit elevated (but it's difficult to be quite sure as the APM's measurements past that frequency show very little consistency across tests). In general the response below 4000hz might not be to everyone's taste but it's exceptionally smooth compared to the competition and should be very, very easy to EQ to taste.

Apple AirPods Max Measurements - Brüel & Kjær 5128

Fig.1 (above): Apple AirPods Max frequency response, average of three seatings. Fig.1 (above): Apple AirPods Max THD (total harmonic distortion) at 90 dBSPL, 100 dBSPL, 110 dBSPL. The measurements in this post were made using: Brüel & Kjær High-frequency Head and Torso Simulator (HATS) Type...

www.head-fi.org

(Jude @ Head-fi's test rig uses a B&K 5128 which is the test rig Apple themselves used to measure the APM's THD in support of their claims in the press release)

Apple Airpods Max Review - Best Sounding ANC Headphones?

The Apple Airpods Max were recently released at $550. How does the Apple Airpods Max fare? Does it continue the high bar set by the Airpods Pro?

www.headphones.com

Apple AirPods Max Review: The Audiophile's Perspective – In-Ear Fidelity

An in-depth, audio-focused review of Apple's newest flagship headphone, the AirPods Max.

crinacle.com

Oratory Grapher Headphones

Plot frequency response measurements from our database using Oratory Grapher Headphones

headphonedatabase.com

https://www.0db.co.kr/REVIEW_0DB/1682002

Personally I think that I'd like them more with a few small tweaks, perhaps at least a couple extra dB somewhere in the 2000-4000hz range to start with, but probably not too much either.

 

[Tdevilsg]

I would advise looking at other measurements than Rtings' to get a better picture of the APM's deficiencies. Personally if I use a parametric EQ to fill the 4800hz as Rtings measures it I get a nasty peak, which indicates that on my ears at least my copy doesn't produce a 10dB null in that area (something listening to single tones also indicates to me).
Measuring the APM and APP require quite a rigorous methodology to be followed because of how Adaptive EQ operates (it's a little more sophisticated than your typical feedback ANC mechanism I believe).
Looking at the following links some trends can be derived from the APM's measurements - and I think that, particularly at higher frequencies, it's important for us mere mortals to avoid over-interpreting FR curves and only look at trends.
One of them being that the 2000-4000hz region's response is indeed quite conservatively tuned, perhaps more so than what would be desirable to a majority of the population, and that comparatively to it the region above 5000hz may be a little bit elevated (but it's difficult to be quite sure as the APM's measurements past that frequency show very little consistency across tests). In general the response below 4000hz might not be to everyone's taste but it's exceptionally smooth compared to the competition and should be very, very easy to EQ to taste.

Apple AirPods Max Measurements - Brüel & Kjær 5128

Fig.1 (above): Apple AirPods Max frequency response, average of three seatings. Fig.1 (above): Apple AirPods Max THD (total harmonic distortion) at 90 dBSPL, 100 dBSPL, 110 dBSPL. The measurements in this post were made using: Brüel & Kjær High-frequency Head and Torso Simulator (HATS) Type...

www.head-fi.org

(Jude @ Head-fi's test rig uses a B&K 5128 which is the test rig Apple themselves used to measure the APM's THD in support of their claims in the press release)

Apple Airpods Max Review - Best Sounding ANC Headphones?

The Apple Airpods Max were recently released at $550. How does the Apple Airpods Max fare? Does it continue the high bar set by the Airpods Pro?

www.headphones.com

Apple AirPods Max Review: The Audiophile's Perspective – In-Ear Fidelity

An in-depth, audio-focused review of Apple's newest flagship headphone, the AirPods Max.

crinacle.com

Oratory Grapher Headphones

Plot frequency response measurements from our database using Oratory Grapher Headphones

headphonedatabase.com

https://www.0db.co.kr/REVIEW_0DB/1682002

Personally I think that I'd like them more with a few small tweaks, perhaps at least a couple extra dB somewhere in the 2000-4000hz range to start with, but probably not too much either.

Agreed on that 2-4k range. I wish the iPhone x had the option of tuning that area a bit. The accessibility option just doesn't do it for me, it makes the treble more unpleasant. Probably because the accessibility feature wasn't really intended for eq to begin with more so for hearing impediments I believe. I can only really speak to my personal preference and the type of music I enjoy listening to but would prefer it to be closer to flat than as under emphasized as it is.

That headphones review that you posted, that was a good one, and something I've seen a weeks back. What they wrote I agree with and at least noticed when I first heard them and was wondering what was going on.

"For the Airpods Max, this region - the upper mids in general - is notably subdued, and the slight bloom around 1khz is exacerbated as a result. The overall effect is a slightly muffled and muted presentation for the mids that can come across as a bit veiled or congested at times. But, I should also stress that the upper midrange recession isn’t that bad, and I’ve certainly seen worse."

"At first listen, the treble didn’t sound all that bad to me. It has this kind of shimmery effect that’s typically the result of a boosted upper treble or ‘air’ region of the frequency response above 11khz. This on its own isn’t all that bad, but given the somewhat uneven lower and mid treble response, it ultimately sounds disjointed, bordering on unpleasant when the recordings being listened to rely on an even balance for this region - generally percussive instruments require this in order to sound natural. On the APM, they simply don’t."

 

[Herrpod]

No I didn’t I just kind of got used to it and didn’t have the volume up too high on particularly sharp songs.

I found the name for it though “Piercing Sibilance” there’s a lot of articles about it on google.

For what it's worth, you'll never get used to it and it will always cause ear fatigue unfortunately. The only way around is with an EQ. Unfortunately Apple released a 500+ dollar pair of bluetooth headphones without an app to adjust EQ so you'll need to do it app by app, and if the source you're listening to has no EQ options, you're out of luck.