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AirPods Pro vs AirPods Max sound quality only

Kylo83

Kylo83

macrumors 601
Original poster
Apr 2, 2020
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I have both and have been testing them and I find the sound on AirPods Pro is louder and clearer as it goes into the ear drum, the max does sound amazing and the bass is better and its loud enough but listening to the same song I keep enjoying the pro's better, what are all your thoughts?
 
Owner of Airpods Pro and now Max, and initially I would agree with you. First 5 mins of using the Max I thought that the sound wasn't as good as the Pro. I couldn't quite put my finger on why, but after spending longer with the Max, different songs, genres etc, the sound is... fuller. That is the best description I can muster. With the max i feel like I can hear instruments more clearly, more pronounced than the Pro.

With the Pro it feels like there was a bias towards vocals than there is towards instruments, but the Max feels like it is nicely balanced and a lot of the songs I listened to religiously this year, I've picked up on sounds I never had before.
 
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GreenLightLuke said:
Owner of Airpods Pro and now Max, and initially I would agree with you. First 5 mins of using the Max I thought that the sound wasn't as good as the Pro. I couldn't quite put my finger on why, but after spending longer with the Max, different songs, genres etc, the sound is... fuller. That is the best description I can muster. With the max i feel like I can hear instruments more clearly, more pronounced than the Pro.

With the Pro it feels like there was a bias towards vocals than there is towards instruments, but the Max feels like it is nicely balanced and a lot of the songs I listened to religiously this year, I've picked up on sounds I never had before.
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Yeah I know what you mean, I think for me I thought the pro sounded better because the vocals were stronger and louder but the max does have a wider sound I’ll need to do more testing :)
 
Is this for real?

Apple made an over ear set of cans for half a grand and they don't immediately and noticeably BLOW AWAY the APP's?

The APP's are "ok" on sound quality, but honestly, something is wrong if a HQ set of over ear cans aren't smoking them.
APP's are no high quality IEM or anything.
 
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The people that will know best that are the people that currently have both the AirPods pros and AirPods Max. Reviews by those that have both do seem to prefer the pros in many cases
 
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I sort of felt the same way in the first couple of minutes with the AirPods Max. Not sure how Adaptive EQ works but wouldn't the headphones need to listen to audio samples in order to adjust itself? I was thinking this is what was happening and as I've been using them more and more, they seem to have improved.
 
I find this to be amazing..

I know that if the comparison were even remotely close between small, tiny, light in-ear APP and 2x the price big huge heavy APM cans....I'd be promptly returning the latter.
 
turbineseaplane said:
I find this to be amazing..

I know that if the comparison were even remotely close between small, tiny, light in-ear APP and 2x the price big huge heavy APM cans....I'd be promptly returning the latter.
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There has been a ton of hyperbole re: AirPods Pro performance. I have them and I like them, but they're nothing compared to the Bose NC 700, which aren't as good as the AirPods Max based on my short testing.

At one point, John Gruber said he would use the APP instead of noise canceling over ear models. Turns out he's actually using the Bose QC35 II.
 
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AustinIllini said:
At one point, John Gruber said he would use the APP instead of noise canceling over ear models. Turns out he's actually using the Bose QC35 II.
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That's a great point...

I heard him mention those and I do think he already had them and has just kept them (he doesn't really sell stuff, ever). It's unclear to me what he would use on a transatlantic flight, but I suspect he'd use the Bose and just not tell us that.

I can't really blame the guy. He's made a lucrative career out of being mostly "pro-Apple" and talking about it (print, voice and video) from home.

I'm sure we'd all do the same.
Praise the pros, stay mostly quiet about the negatives and "profit while wearing our underwear".
 
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turbineseaplane said:
That's a great point...

I heard him mention those and I do think he already had them and has just kept them (he doesn't really sell stuff, ever). It's unclear to me what he would use on a transatlantic flight, but I suspect he'd use the Bose and just not tell us that.

I can't really blame the guy. He's made a lucrative career out of being mostly "pro-Apple" and talking about it (print, voice and video) from home.

I'm sure we'd all do the same.
Praise the pros, stay mostly quiet about the negatives and "profit while wearing our underwear".
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Yeah, the airplane for APP thing is silly. They only last 3 hours.
 
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