AirPods Max Sound Quality Meh or is it great! New owners read this!!!

[ZeChild]

Finally pulled the trigger on APM's and had mine delivered today, when I got them unpacked and on the ol coconut the first thing that struck me was the weight and why it wasn't uncomfortable, after a few hours I don't even notice them and I'm not getting any clamping issues or the dreaded spike being driven through the top of my head like every other pair of headphones I've ever owned.

Also being a glasses wearer of many years I found out something astounding there's no difference between having the ol goggles on or off usually with my glasses on the headphones seal but drive the legs of my glasses into my head until it's too uncomfortable to wear them any more, or the seal of the ear cup is opened up so much by the glasses any sound cancellation becomes worthless, not with these?

Second was noise cancellation, it's truly next level, everything just disappears, NC & transparency is amazing compared to my AirPods Pro or Beats Solo Pro's.

All good so far next up sound quality... Tried one of my favourite tracks using my Beats Solo Pro's for reference and then switched to the AirPods Max to experience the massive improvement annnnnd no difference !?! sure my head wasn't in a vice like it was with the Beats and the NC took away all the background noise but nada difference in actual sound quality!

At this point I was a little put out but after some digging around in settings I tried turning the baked in EQ presets off in music settings and OHHHHH MY GOD!!!! the whole sound field opened right up, it's like it was muffled before, that and a tweak through accessibility cos my ears ain't what they were and I'm amazed.

Don't know if this'll help any new owners but get that EQ turned off straight away and enjoy the audible goodness?

 

[terryw1]

How exactly did you turn off the eq settings?

 

[ZeChild]

How exactly did you turn off the eq settings?

Go to settings, scroll down to Music, scroll down again to EQ select that and turn it off ?

 

[terryw1]

Thanks! It does make a difference.

 

[ZeChild]

Yeah that EQ's been in there since the first iPhone surprised Apple didn't think about that when they worked on any of the AirPods.

 

[ericwn]

Yeah that EQ's been in there since the first iPhone surprised Apple didn't think about that when they worked on any of the AirPods.

I think, if I recall correctly, that this is a setting that was introduced along with the iPods back in the day. iTunes and devices have it disabled by default but you can flick it on on both sides. iTunes also lets you pre-define an EQ in a song’s info window - if you sync these files the setting is retained on the iOS device for that song.

 

[ZeChild]

I think, if I recall correctly, that this is a setting that was introduced along with the iPods back in the day. iTunes and devices have it disabled by default but you can flick it on on both sides. iTunes also lets you pre-define an EQ in a song’s info window - if you sync these files the setting is retained on the iOS device for that song.

My problem was I had that on from a long time ago due to the crappy EarPods Apple used to supply and the settings just carry over every time you upgrade unless it's a fresh install?

 

[dandrewk]

EQ will only work with Apple Music and your library. Won‘t make a difference with Spotify, etc.

For a crude EQ adjustment, go to settings/accessibility/audio & visual/headphone accommodations. Works with all sources.

 

[Beligerent]

EQ will only work with Apple Music and your library. Won‘t make a difference with Spotify, etc.

For a crude EQ adjustment, go to settings/accessibility/audio & visual/headphone accommodations. Works with all sources.

One of the reasons I think Spotify is better than Apple Music is that Spotify has crude but usable multi band EQ somewhere in the settings.

 

[dandrewk]

One of the reasons I think Spotify is better than Apple Music is that Spotify has crude but usable multi band EQ somewhere in the settings.

Agreed, but Apple Music does have an EQ. It's in the phone's setting, not integrated in the app. Everything that plays through the IOS Music App is filtered through that setting.

AFAIK, no other popular music streaming service has options besides Spotify, unless you listen via a Mac and filter output through Audio Hijack app.