Very nice setup, never tried the Focal's but have used Sennheiser HD 800 S and they are quite remarkable. Personally the AirPods Max's offer a really compelling package that works brilliantly with the Apple ecosystem, my only gripe is not being able to turn them off with that stupid and useless case. If they just had an auto-off mode after say 10 minutes of inactivity and you just push any button to turn them on again I would purchase them right now.
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AirPods Max too tight on your BIG HEAD? Do this! - also a short audiophile take.
- Thread starter paulchiu
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Without case they enter the same low power mode after five minutes that they enter right away, when you put them inside the case. Ultra low power mode is reached after 18 hours inside the case and after 72 hours without case. So the difference should only be significant, if you leave them idle for more than 18 hours.
How to charge your AirPods Max and learn about battery life - Apple Support
Learn how to charge your AirPods Max and get longer battery life.
On another note: I find the case far less cheap and annoying as reviews had me believe.
good point!
I have not used the case since I had mine. The case is made with good material, if you need to use it. Yes, it will not protect all surfaces. But, we should use this AirPods Max all the time. Enjoy the great sound. Every tech product will wear down and in 2-3 years, replaced with something more exciting.
Without case they enter the same low power mode after five minutes that they enter right away, when you put them inside the case. Ultra low power mode is reached after 18 hours inside the case and after 72 hours without case. So the difference should only be significant, if you leave them idle for more than 18 hours.
How to charge your AirPods Max and learn about battery life - Apple Support
Learn how to charge your AirPods Max and get longer battery life.support.apple.com
On another note: I find the case far less cheap and annoying as reviews had me believe.
My issue is I'll never us it. I want to be able to just take them off and have them go into the ultra low power mode automatically after say 15 minutes and I'm happy to press a button to make them come back on. To me that's a much simpler solution that I couldn't imagine anyone would be unhappy with.
Thanks for the link, I'll definitely read up on it.
First Apple should have used the standard nomenclature:
Low Power=Standby
Ultra Low Power=Off
Find My only works in Standby so if they Power off quickly then there is no Find My offered. Actually for most people the minuscule amount of power drain on Standby is worth it to have the security of Find My feature active that Apple provides.
Apple's logic is probably:
If you put them in the case (another poor nomenclature and should be called a cover at best) you have likely secured them.
If you haven't then you may have taken off and laid them down and may have forgotten them.
Apple could easily add a Power Off to the firmware by a long hold press on the button. Maybe they will do this with the added caveat that you immediately lose Find My. Although this does give a potential theft an EASY way to disable Find My.
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These are my first pair of over the ear headphones. I was having a great time since Christmas with them but now I am looking closely at the fit and my ear lobes are actually peeking out beneath the cups. In the mirror if I open up the headphones, I can see that the canal part of my ear is actually at the bottom 1/3 of the driver area. When I take the cups off the headphones, they do surround my ear if only the headband were longer.
Yes, I have them fully extended. I have tried different head placements.
I guess my head is a big oval. I wear XL sized motorcycle helmets.
another issue, is if I wear a hat, then my ear lobes will likely be showing. This would affect the ANC no?
Question for you audiophile, what is the proper fit of over the ear headphones. Should the driver be entered with my ears? Apple needs to make an extension option available if this is the case. IT seems like a cheap enough part option!
Yes, I have them fully extended. I have tried different head placements.
I guess my head is a big oval. I wear XL sized motorcycle helmets.
another issue, is if I wear a hat, then my ear lobes will likely be showing. This would affect the ANC no?
Question for you audiophile, what is the proper fit of over the ear headphones. Should the driver be entered with my ears? Apple needs to make an extension option available if this is the case. IT seems like a cheap enough part option!
The cup should cover your ear. If pieces of your ear stick out, you will have compromised your acoustic seal, and yes, the driver will be in a suboptimal place in relation to your ear.
Sometimes this can be alleviated by placing the headband so that it doesn't go over the very highest point on your head. This tends to lead to a less secure fit (particularly with a bit heavier phones such as the APM), but it could make for a preferable compromise overall depending on the particulars of the situation.
Not all phones fit all heads. For some people that fall a bit to the side of the distribution peak, this actually makes a good case for in-ear phones, just as having a bit unusual outer ear folding makes most in ear monitors sound off as they have to simulate the colouring of your individual ear. Good Luck!
thanks for the confirmation. I spoke w Apple service and they just recommend I send feedback and could choose the option to return. Grrrr, Apple could easily Make an extended stem piece about 1/2” longer and retrofit as necessary if the headphones are easily to take apart. Alot of larger head people would have this same issue .....
I thought Find My for Airpods only worked when they were connected to the phone. Little Airpods, sure, easy to drop behind the sofa or wherever, but Airpods Max? Harder to lose when they're still within bluetooth range I'd've thought.
if you leave them, say, in a cafe and someone moves them from the exact spot you left them then Find My won't help. Plus there's no activation lock so the finder could simply pair them with their phone and they're gone.
There are people rejecting an objective world view that, if accepted, would ruin their placebo of choice. It’s rational, in a sense, but not really.
Anyway, it’s interesting to see local digital audio processing in phones to this extent and quality. I so wish they allowed finegrained (1/3 octave) and/or parametric EQ to be downloaded to their phones and applied to the target response! One can hope. The existance of the accessability settings imply that it should be possible. (As it would mean that the individually adjusted response would be there for any source played on any device, wired or wirelessly.)
I haven’t tried measuring the APMs myself, so I’m quite curious regarding how they do on frequency response, group delays, channel balance and uniformity, THD and IM, et cetera. I guess rtings will come to the rescue. I miss Tyll Hertsens a bit. I have a feeling they will do quite well on the bench, it should be easier digitally correct something that is good quality to start with, without running into second order issues.
FR, THD, and comparisons on a B&K 5128 :
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
AirPods Max
^I'm just watching that video and it hit me: there's a sensor which measures your ear shape etc. and tunes the sound based on those, right? Is this sensor working with ANC off? AND how are measurements done with APM? ANC off or on? How can measuments be accurate if sensors are modifying the...
www.head-fi.org
AirPods Max
You've got to go with what works for you. I'll keep both the APP and APM since they serve slightly different purposes for me, although, commuting which is the main purpose for the APM, is minimal at the moment. The APP are my "go anywhere, have just in case" headphones, they are always in the...
www.head-fi.org
FR on a GRAS :
Crinacle's IEM Graph Comparison Tools | Hangout.Audio
The world's largest public database of IEM measurements.
Thanks! Having read all the graphs and done some back and forth they match my experience, but I’m still surprised at the extremely low levels of THD at high SPLs in the bass region. Remarkable, and implies nice things about the base transducer.FR, THD, and comparisons on a B&K 5128 :
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...AirPods Max
^I'm just watching that video and it hit me: there's a sensor which measures your ear shape etc. and tunes the sound based on those, right? Is this sensor working with ANC off? AND how are measurements done with APM? ANC off or on? How can measuments be accurate if sensors are modifying the...FR, THD, ANC on a GRAS :AirPods Max
You've got to go with what works for you. I'll keep both the APP and APM since they serve slightly different purposes for me, although, commuting which is the main purpose for the APM, is minimal at the moment. The APP are my "go anywhere, have just in case" headphones, they are always in the...
FR on a GRAS :
Crinacle's IEM Graph Comparison Tools | Hangout.Audio
The world's largest public database of IEM measurements.crinacle.com
Some 20 years ago, before Tyll was un-reachable (still is), he sold me the last remaining Sennheiser Orphesus at Headroom for 7500. A trophy find. Yes, many have sounded better than this one since, but as an art piece. It's treasured.
I would agree. None of my wireless headphones has the equivalent performance of my wired ones. I am skeptical that the Airpods Max can overcome the limitations of bluetooth. But all that computational power is doing something, so I'll wait until they go on sale and then evaluate myself.
There are obviously physical differences which would preclude some people hearing the difference. It is true, in a sense, that untrained ears may not notice the difference. One may be happy with the crappy sound of airpods if that is all you have ever heard. But if you really care about your music, get a kick out of hearing an instrument or sound which is missing in airpods, then you will never go back once you have used high quality headphones. Lots of people don't care. There are also lots of people who do care, or would care if they were given the opportunity to hear really good sound (I hope!).
If you don't care about sound quality then it wouldn't mean anything. If you do, someone who calls themself an audiophile is saying that they really care about the quality of music that they hear. There are a ton of audio options out there. If you are interested in figuring out which ones might work for you their experiences can guide you. Of course this depends on the individual.
A movie, music, play, or other critic watches/listens/watches to earn a living. To get paid that means that they have things to say that some people, maybe not you, might be interested in - if you happen to like that particular critic. They evaluate hundreds/thousands (over a lifetime) of pieces 8 hours a day which is impossible for someone who has to work in some other field to make a living. If you find a reviewer you like you can find things which otherwise you would have missed. It is like having a good work mentor who points you in the right direction.
Yep. But they have massive historical experience, can do comparisons to pull the wheat from the chaff. Their opinion may not match your interests. I see a lot of critics who recommend jazz recordings. Since that's not my musical style I pretty much ignore them. I pay a lot of attention to critics who recommend the best sounding recordings. A lot of my music library is based on their recommendations. Without them I wouldn't have found these recordings, some of which are absolutely awesome.
You do not get a good sound stage, one with width, height, and delineation of instruments simply using any top-end headphone with a Macbook, portable, iPhone, or dedicated amp. Very few HP sounds great with poor amps. The Airpods Max gives you a wide clear sound stage without the setup. For starters, it sounds as good as a Focal Clear driven by a Moon amp or equivalent. That's a terrific result. The imaging matches those from the Sony, but not as wide as the Abyss (ofc) and Utopia.
I got this at the Louvre museum store. About 15" tall.
it's a copy of this at the Louvre:
404
Send pics of ears and head.
Apple can do anything - will they make a custom fitting headset just for you? Unlikely.
Did you try the suggestion provided? Push the top part towards the back of your head so the cups can move down?
I'm in the same boat. My wife surprised me with them for my birthday yesterday (I never would've let her spend that much on a pair of headphones while I've still got my Bose QC ones). I was beyond excited and then after about 30 minutes, I had a throbbing headache. After wasting more than an hour getting bounced around Apples "support" line, they told me the same thing. Just return them and leave feedback. I wear an XL hat and when I measured yesterday, I'm just below 23 7/8" which isn't even remotely outside the realm of normal head sizes.
I tried stretching them out on a box for a couple hours yesterday and then a couple hours today, but they just keep going back to their original tightness.
As many have pointed out, the headband is the cheapest part and so easy to remove, I can't understand why they wouldn't offer a larger option.
Oh well, if they get enough complaints maybe they'll eventually introduce the option.
Thanks for the suggestion! Was a bit shocked by the clamping force from day one.
Have the AirPods Max for one month now and they really dig into my temples and it just starts to hurt too much. Wearing them almost the entire day.
I was afraid to ruin them by putting them over a wide object like a box or a basketball.
Because this is a first generation product I also wondered if the clamping force on mine was out of spec.
I contacted Apple Support through chat, they suggested mail in. After being sent to the local Apple Store they did not think anything was wrong with them but after a brief discussion we agreed to have them sent to the depot for inspection.
They checked hardware and software and sound quality. Everything was like it should be.
I did not expect anything from the investigation other than giving Apple a feedback signal that me and others experience pain when wearing these. (Never had similar issues with any other on-ear or over-ear headphones).
Guess I’ll have to stretch them out as well.
Will start with 1 hour at first and then increasing if it doesn’t give the results I want.
Have the AirPods Max for one month now and they really dig into my temples and it just starts to hurt too much. Wearing them almost the entire day.
I was afraid to ruin them by putting them over a wide object like a box or a basketball.
Because this is a first generation product I also wondered if the clamping force on mine was out of spec.
I contacted Apple Support through chat, they suggested mail in. After being sent to the local Apple Store they did not think anything was wrong with them but after a brief discussion we agreed to have them sent to the depot for inspection.
They checked hardware and software and sound quality. Everything was like it should be.
I did not expect anything from the investigation other than giving Apple a feedback signal that me and others experience pain when wearing these. (Never had similar issues with any other on-ear or over-ear headphones).
Guess I’ll have to stretch them out as well.
Will start with 1 hour at first and then increasing if it doesn’t give the results I want.