One week with AirPods Max and I am still undecided.

[Cashmonee]

Thanks for the initial impressions.

For the B&O hiss situation that I emailed them about, they just asked me to send it in for their engineers to check out. I just decided to return it instead. I also included a recording sample in my message to them. You can hear it 0:00-0:05, but then it stops. Then I quickly play/pause, and you can hear it again at 0:08. You'll need headphones to hear the actual sound as speakers might not play it well. Please ignore the white noise and bump noises since I had to hold the mic (with sensitivity high) to the earcup to capture the sound. In real life, you'd just hear the whirring without that ambient white noise

The cool thing with the H95 is that the details don't come off with much sibilant sound (piercing hsss), which I've def ran into issues with the hifiman he400 at times. Usually when theres high treble or ssss sounds, some headphones play it kind of like peaking off, so it hurts my ears. The h95s didn't really have that issue for me. Or at least not to that degree.

That is exactly the sound I am experiencing. If I turn down transparency one or two levels, it pretty much fades away. I also only detect it in songs that have near silence. If there is any volume to the song, I cannot hear it. It is not present with ANC on (any level) or set to neutral (ANC off). Are you hearing it interfere with music?

 

[hsiunghsiung]

That is exactly the sound I am experiencing. If I turn down transparency one or two levels, it pretty much fades away. I also only detect it in songs that have near silence. If there is any volume to the song, I cannot hear it. It is not present with ANC on (any level) or set to neutral (ANC off). Are you hearing it interfere with music?

I haven't heard it much with music since I've been listening louder than the actual sound. I pause alot, whether it's changing songs/videos or reading/browsing on my computer, so I hear the sound quite often. I noticed it immediately from day one, and it's hard to not hear it now. And yeah I agree, it's pretty much correlated to the volume of transparency mode. The higher the transparency level, the more you will hear it and vice versa. I stop hearing it once it crosses over to ANC mode.

Also side note, I have no idea what Adaptive ANC setting in the app does for the h95. I couldn't hear any difference when I toggled it, but maybe I didn't have the right noisy environment? Not sure

If I really loved the h95s, I would be able to bear the 5-15 seconds of whirring noise after pausing/stopping music from playing, but at this point, idk. Besides that, I really don't like the ANC/Transparency dial since I usually just want either max ANC or max Transparency without any middle ground

 

[turbineseaplane]

delete

 

[Cashmonee]

I haven't heard it much with music since I've been listening louder than the actual sound. I pause alot, whether it's changing songs/videos or reading/browsing on my computer, so I hear the sound quite often. I noticed it immediately from day one, and it's hard to not hear it now. And yeah I agree, it's pretty much correlated to the volume of transparency mode. The higher the transparency level, the more you will hear it and vice versa. I stop hearing it once it crosses over to ANC mode.

Also side note, I have no idea what Adaptive ANC setting in the app does for the h95. I couldn't hear any difference when I toggled it, but maybe I didn't have the right noisy environment? Not sure

If I really loved the h95s, I would be able to bear the 5-15 seconds of whirring noise after pausing/stopping music from playing, but at this point, idk. Besides that, I really don't like the ANC/Transparency dial since I usually just want either max ANC or max Transparency without any middle ground

I have no idea what the Adaptive ANC button does either. As you said, I have not yet had occasion to use them somewhere super noisy, so maybe that is when it would kick in.

The whirring noise is not going to be enough for me to return them at this point. I have it turned down one level and can hear the kid riding his bike outside just fine and do not hear the whirring sound. So I think I can live with that noise, especially because it does not seem to be intrusive into the music. I really do love everything else about them. Great battery life, I like the controls (even the ANC dial, although I would agree that a button would probably be better), they are very comfortable, and the sound is great.

 

[throAU]

Bear in mind you probably want SOME level of noise to get through the noise cancelling, as otherwise real life things you probably want to hear will not be heard. Like smoke alarms for example.

I've scared the hell out of my GF coming home and saying "hey!" and her not hearing me until she spots me walking around the house with the XM4s and the noise cancelling on them is good but doesn't block everything...

 

[turbineseaplane]

So the B&O's are super comfy 'eh?

Particularly in comparison to the APM?

I may need to look at those, despite the price

 

[Cashmonee]

Some final thoughts. As always, these are simply my opinion after spending 8 days with the APM. Others certainly have differing opinions and hopefully will offer them up so that those who are trying to decide how to spend their hard earned cash have more material to help in their process.

The sound on the AirPods Max is really good. They are still bluetooth headphones but overall the sound is pleasing and most people will really like it. The transparency mode is fantastic and does not have an equal in this space at the moment, no matter the price tag. The build is good. They definitely feel solid. These seamlessly connect to all of your Apple devices, and what bugs exist for connectivity are minor.

On the downside, the materials, while nice, don't feel $550 nice. The price tag is not due to materials, it is due to the internals. That is fine, just don't expect a luxury feel, but rather a technical powerhouse. They were not comfortable for me. Even with the clamping force improving after stretching them out, the weight was always there. To me they feel heavy. The battery has to be better. When the competition is putting up 1.5-2x the run time, Apple need to do better. No power button also really annoys me. Leaving them out of the case overnight drained 5-8% (1-1.5 hours of battery) of what is already a relatively short battery life. The controls are fine, but not great. They are lagging behind the competition. Better placement, a power button, and touch would go a long to bringing them up to the competition.

What I would hope for in the second iteration is longer battery life, reduced weight, better (or more appropriate) materials, better controls, USB-C, and a case. I think these are pretty good for a Gen 1 and I suspect that Gen 2 will be a rather large leap forward.

I have decided to return the AirPods. The dealbreaker was the comfort. I dislike the clamping force and the weight.

In the end, I would recommend the AirPods Max for an Apple user that has at least 3 Apple devices to switch between and is mostly carrying them between work and home. I would also suggest purchasing from somewhere with a longer return policy to see if they work for you (this really goes for all headphones) due to the potential of comfort issues. Even then I would strongly suggest checking out the Sony or Bose offering first to see if they work for you.

So the B&O's are super comfy 'eh?

Particularly in comparison to the APM?

I may need to look at those, despite the price

They are still breaking in, but as they stand now they're more comfortable than the APM on my head. Note, on my head. Comfort is subjective and something you never really can judge until you try them. B&O does offer a 30 day return. Do know that the total time from requesting a return to receiving a refund is likely to be 2-3 weeks (this does not count as part of the 30 days) so you will be waiting to get your money back. Keep in mind that the H95 still isn't lightweight (they weigh in at 323g) but the weight is more balanced throghout the headphone. The APM's 385g seem heavily focused in the cups.

 

[Cashmonee]

Apparently spoke too soon. I am going to give it one more day. The H95 ran into a showstopper and are likely not going to work out. It turns out the whirring sound that both myself and @hsiunghsiung have experienced is very prevalent during videos. The only solution is to completely turn off transparency. That simply will not work for my use case.

So, tomorrow I will use the APM for a full day's work and see if the comfort is improved enough for them to be keepers.

I am terribly sad. I loved the sound of the H95.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Maybe return them both?

I mean you laid out reasons not to keep the APM, irrespective of other choices on models made or not

 

[Cashmonee]

Maybe return them both?

I mean you laid out reasons not to keep the APM, irrespective of other choices on models made or not

Yeah. I still have some time with the APM. They have been getting better with comfort, so maybe a full day's use will work out. I also have a ticket with B&O to see if this noise is normal or I have a defective unit.

I am not giving up just yet!

 

[dandrewk]

Some final thoughts. As always, these are simply my opinion after spending 8 days with the APM. Others certainly have differing opinions and hopefully will offer them up so that those who are trying to decide how to spend their hard earned cash have more material to help in their process.

The sound on the AirPods Max is really good. They are still bluetooth headphones but overall the sound is pleasing and most people will really like it. The transparency mode is fantastic and does not have an equal in this space at the moment, no matter the price tag. The build is good. They definitely feel solid. These seamlessly connect to all of your Apple devices, and what bugs exist for connectivity are minor.

On the downside, the materials, while nice, don't feel $550 nice. The price tag is not due to materials, it is due to the internals. That is fine, just don't expect a luxury feel, but rather a technical powerhouse. They were not comfortable for me. Even with the clamping force improving after stretching them out, the weight was always there. To me they feel heavy. The battery has to be better. When the competition is putting up 1.5-2x the run time, Apple need to do better. No power button also really annoys me. Leaving them out of the case overnight drained 5-8% (1-1.5 hours of battery) of what is already a relatively short battery life. The controls are fine, but not great. They are lagging behind the competition. Better placement, a power button, and touch would go a long to bringing them up to the competition.

What I would hope for in the second iteration is longer battery life, reduced weight, better (or more appropriate) materials, better controls, USB-C, and a case. I think these are pretty good for a Gen 1 and I suspect that Gen 2 will be a rather large leap forward.

I have decided to return the AirPods. The dealbreaker was the comfort. I dislike the clamping force and the weight.

In the end, I would recommend the AirPods Max for an Apple user that has at least 3 Apple devices to switch between and is mostly carrying them between work and home. I would also suggest purchasing from somewhere with a longer return policy to see if they work for you (this really goes for all headphones) due to the potential of comfort issues. Even then I would strongly suggest checking out the Sony or Bose offering first to see if they work for you.



They are still breaking in, but as they stand now they're more comfortable than the APM on my head. Note, on my head. Comfort is subjective and something you never really can judge until you try them. B&O does offer a 30 day return. Do know that the total time from requesting a return to receiving a refund is likely to be 2-3 weeks (this does not count as part of the 30 days) so you will be waiting to get your money back. Keep in mind that the H95 still isn't lightweight (they weigh in at 323g) but the weight is more balanced throghout the headphone. The APM's 385g seem heavily focused in the cups.

Do you own an Apple Watch? The little wheel button on the APMs seem very natural and intuitive to me, but then I am already used to the concept.

I already own the Sony XM3 and love them. However, the touchpad controls is (IMO) the worst possible headphone interface on the market. I only ever used the pause/unpause function.

 

[Cashmonee]

Do you own an Apple Watch? The little wheel button on the APMs seem very natural and intuitive to me, but then I am already used to the concept.

I already own the Sony XM3 and love them. However, the touchpad controls is (IMO) the worst possible headphone interface on the market. I only ever used the pause/unpause function.

I have owned an Apple Watch. The rotation of the crown for volume is great. But the button presses are not natural to me. The springing effect makes it difficult to hit the correct number of depressions. The touch controls I have encountered have been mostly good for skip forward, back, and play/pause. The crown itself isn't terrible. I would like it for volume and then touch for the rest. And it would be good if it were moved somewhere else because there are a lot of accidental presses with the current placement.

 

[Cashmonee]

Just to put a bow on this, I have finally decided that I will keep the AirPods Max. They are comfortable enough and the odd sound in the H95 was a dealbreaker.

The APM are great for moving between all of my devices, sound great, and so far have been reliable. They are not super comfortable but also not uncomfortable and hopefully with time they will break in further.

I said in another thread that I would only recommend these to someone who is all in on Apple, likes the sound, and wasn’t budget conscious. I fit all of those and so I will keep them.

I do still think they have some major flaws and hope the second gen addresses them. For now though, they are the best fit for my needs.

 

[KennyJr]

Just to put a bow on this, I have finally decided that I will keep the AirPods Max. They are comfortable enough and the odd sound in the H95 was a dealbreaker.

The APM are great for moving between all of my devices, sound great, and so far have been reliable. They are not super comfortable but also not uncomfortable and hopefully with time they will break in further.

I said in another thread that I would only recommend these to someone who is all in on Apple, likes the sound, and wasn’t budget conscious. I fit all of those and so I will keep them.

I do still think they have some major flaws and hope the second gen addresses them. For now though, they are the best fit for my needs.

Smart! With these, you have minimal hassle .. Good full bodied audio .. Excellent noise cancelling / transparency .. and drop out is rarely an issue. They're not the be-all and end-all of headphones - there's no such thing, but they do come close in many respects. Most of all, they sound really good.

Some people feel that these are heavier than they like. I don't remember how mine seemed when I first bought them, but now, even when I'm through listening, I forget I even have them on.

P.S. After reading your posts then looking at the H95 reviews on Amazon, it looks like there are some other issues with the H95s that you'll be glad you missed. But being an audio enthusiast myself, I know just what you mean when you think you've found the perfect audio for your ears then discover that there's some niggling thing that forces you to buy 'second best'.

 

[matyst]

Just to put a bow on this, I have finally decided that I will keep the AirPods Max. They are comfortable enough and the odd sound in the H95 was a dealbreaker.

The APM are great for moving between all of my devices, sound great, and so far have been reliable. They are not super comfortable but also not uncomfortable and hopefully with time they will break in further.

I said in another thread that I would only recommend these to someone who is all in on Apple, likes the sound, and wasn’t budget conscious. I fit all of those and so I will keep them.

I do still think they have some major flaws and hope the second gen addresses them. For now though, they are the best fit for my needs.

I have been exactly through the same journey (APM vs H95 vs HX) and came to the same conclusion keeping APM.

I thought that the whirring sound in transparency and cheap feeling of the plasticky control rings on H95 are unacceptable at its price tag of £700 / $849 (price bump!). They do have slightly better sound than APM with more forward midrange, better clarity and soundstage but APM with Headphone Accommodations set to Balanced Tone/Slight sound very similar (although still slightly worse). Compared to APM, although H95 has less bass, I thought the bass control was worse (sub bass especially) and bass tended to get muddy on bass-heavy tracks. I also had occasional problems with H95 switching between Mac Mini M1 and iPhone with the headphones dropping Mac Mini connection - APM connection is steady and switching between sources is seamless. They are of course lighter than APM but I felt a strange pressure point on top of the head.

I did not really like HX due to the round earpads - even though I do not have particularly large ears they do not fit over the pinna. The sound is worse than APM or H95.

Overall none of these headphones is ideal but in my opinion APM offers the best balance of sound quality, features and price at the moment. Let's hope the next iteration will have better battery, off button and perhaps shed a few grams.

 

[Robbosan]

Just spent a good 25 min with APM's at the Apple Store

I don't know how you guys do it -- way too heavy and clampy (needed - related to weight).
Apple screwed this up by not controlling the weight a bit more.

Very high quality plastics would have done the trick here.

Enjoyable sound and cool spatial audio stuff, but it's all totally moot for me if the comfort isn't a lot better than this.

25 mins lol

 

[nrvna76]

Sooo.. the takeaway from all of the APM threads is that you can ‘beat’ the APM for the price, but most people (on this board) choose to buy APM against competitors anyway.. ?‍♂️

 

[Cashmonee]

Sooo.. the takeaway from all of the APM threads is that you can ‘beat’ the APM for the price, but most people (on this board) choose to buy APM against competitors anyway.. ?‍♂️

Yeah. If you want to twist my words as you seem so intent on doing. Look I truly apologize for saying anything negative about anything apple. I do hope you and Tim can forgive my transgressions. In fact, as I look at it now, that case is truly magical. They should have called it the Magic Case! Thank you so much for leading me to the light! I really appreciate it!

 

[hsiunghsiung]

I just sent back the h95s through UPS, so my decision can no longer be changed.

Overall, I chose the APMs for the convenient bluetooth function, acceptable sound, solid ANC/transparency mode, subjectively good fit/comfort on my small head with glasses, and slick/clean look it has that I like. I am going to just tolerate the lack of power button, shorter battery life, potential condensation (happened to me once so far, but thats like 1 out of 10 times wearing it over 2-3 hours each session without even taking it off), not portable size (I plan on using at home either way since ill prob only take airpods pro out of the house due to portability), and somewhat dislike of the placement of the buttons (since I usually accidentally press them when putting the headphones on or adjusting them).

While the h95s were nice sounding, compact, and comfortable, I just couldnt take the H95s faint electric whirring sound during transparency, the hollow-ish feeling dials, the inconvenience of rotating the dials end to end to get full ANC/transparency, and the volume feeling like it's limited when settings are high.

NOT TESTED, but I think when the h95s weren't connected through bluetooth, but just through usbc to computer, the electric whirring wasn't there at times. It seemed like once bluetooth was on and it was connected, the whirring comes back. I didn't fully test it, but it seemed like that last time I tried? Either way, defeats the purpose of having bluetooth.

 

[Cashmonee]

I just sent back the h95s through UPS, so my decision can no longer be changed.

Overall, I chose the APMs for the convenient bluetooth function, acceptable sound, solid ANC/transparency mode, subjectively good fit/comfort on my small head with glasses, and slick/clean look it has that I like. I am going to just tolerate the lack of power button, shorter battery life, potential condensation (happened to me once so far, but thats like 1 out of 10 times wearing it over 2-3 hours each session without even taking it off), not portable size (I plan on using at home either way since ill prob only take airpods pro out of the house due to portability), and somewhat dislike of the placement of the buttons (since I usually accidentally press them when putting the headphones on or adjusting them).

While the h95s were nice sounding, compact, and comfortable, I just couldnt take the H95s faint electric whirring sound during transparency, the hollow-ish feeling dials, the inconvenience of rotating the dials end to end to get full ANC/transparency, and the volume feeling like it's limited when settings are high.

NOT TESTED, but I think when the h95s weren't connected through bluetooth, but just through usbc to computer, the electric whirring wasn't there at times. It seemed like once bluetooth was on and it was connected, the whirring comes back. I didn't fully test it, but it seemed like that last time I tried? Either way, defeats the purpose of having bluetooth.

This mirrors my assessment exactly. My H95s will be on their way back this afternoon. Side note, B&O sent the return label within 24 hours this time.

I do believe they switched parts or are having a bad run. Those that purchased the H95 several months ago do not seem to have the issue we do. However, I am seeing online many who have purchased in the last couple of months so have the issue. It really is a shame. That one issue takes down what is otherwise a top notch headphone.

 

[hsiunghsiung]

Ah pity. If the whirring wasn't there, I might have liked them more and tolerate more of the other stuff. If they did make changes, I wonder what they did and if it was supposed to be an improvement somewhere. Either way, the APMs are nicer to use.

I really really HOPE they can add like a power on/off software feature to the APMs, or at least some way to trigger super low power mode. Maybe like long press the crown button. Shouldn't be hard to add a statement like that in the code right?

I'll probably still keep it on all the time and depend on the low power algorithms, but it'd be nice to turn off completely every once in awhile.

 

[nrvna76]

Yeah. If you want to twist my words as you seem so intent on doing. Look I truly apologize for saying anything negative about anything apple. I do hope you and Tim can forgive my transgressions. In fact, as I look at it now, that case is truly magical. They should have called it the Magic Case! Thank you so much for leading me to the light! I really appreciate it!

Haha. I wasn’t twisting anything. In fact, my post was trying to joke, but sure you can get upset if you like. Have a great day.

 

[turbineseaplane]

25 mins lol

Yes -- They were heavy and uncomfortable to me within my demo period.
That doesn't get "better the longer you wear them"

Great sound, but ultimately uncomfortable for me.
Must every opinion around here only be "Apple product = AMAZING in ALL WAYS!"

 

[Robbosan]

Yes -- They were heavy and uncomfortable to me within my demo period.
That doesn't get "better the longer you wear them"

Great sound, but ultimately uncomfortable for me.
Must every opinion around here only be "Apple product = AMAZING in ALL WAYS!"?

yes they do

 

[Cashmonee]

Yes -- They were heavy and uncomfortable to me within my demo period.
That doesn't get "better the longer you wear them"

Great sound, but ultimately uncomfortable for me.
Must every opinion around here only be "Apple product = AMAZING in ALL WAYS!"?

To be fair, pretty much all headphones have a break-in period for comfort. That does not mean that you are incorrect, but it also means that 25 minutes in the store is not really enough to know whether they will work for you. When I first got the Bose NC700, I thought they were a torture device. After about 2 weeks, they became one of the most comfortable headphones I have owned. In the almost 2 weeks I have had the APM, they certainly have become far more comfortable that the initial few days.