https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MJ0E3ZM/A/airpods-max-ear-cushions-silver
$70 Ear Cushions...WTF?!
$70 Ear Cushions...WTF?!
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Apple's first high-end headphones
- Thread starter mi-fu
- Start date
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MJ0E3ZM/A/airpods-max-ear-cushions-silver
$70 Ear Cushions...WTF?!
They are not unusually high. Expensive, yes. But not unexpectedly so.
https://dekoniaudio.com/product-category/elite-fenestrated-sheepskin/
hyperplanar
Senior Member
Heck, even the stock HD600 pads are already 50 bucks.
https://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Replacement-Cushions-SENNHEISER-Headphones/dp/B002B4OKYU
Makes 70 bucks for the memory foam AirPods Max cushions seem pretty reasonable to me.
Your argument being that if one company is bad then that makes it ok for another company to be worse.
Doesn't work for me.
hyperplanar
Senior Member
That would be fair, if I saw people complaining about the HD600/650/etc's replacement pad cost in their respective threads. The HD600 pads are cheaply made with foam that breaks down easily. How come nobody complained about those but once the AirPods Max came out those were worth complaining about? Oh right, because people love to bag on Apple.
The foam on my hd600s has not broken down.
I do not love to bag on Apple. Why do Apple lovers have such thin skins?
hyperplanar
Senior Member
Neither has mine yet, but it's general consensus that the foam does easily break down. And I would love to wash them but that prevents me from doing so.
Never said you're doing so in particular, but people seem to put Apple in particular against double standards for some reason. It would be nice to simply evaluate a product on its own merits and how it objectively compares to its competition. My point being that the pads are priced in line with market norms and I don't recall anybody balking at the pad cost of the HD600 here. It's nothing like the $700 Mac Pro wheels.
hyperplanar
Senior Member
Well, there ya go... Yes, Apple makes stupid decisions all the time and some of them piss me off. But the $700 wheels have no bearing (ha) on the price of the replacement pads, so if you objectively evaluate the headphones for what they are, it's a non-issue.
May I refer you to the objective review by Amirm at the top of this thread which you seem to have missed?
And what, in this context, could be more objective than price?
The pads' manufacturing tolerances are better than any other headphones I have (and better than the HD6something series). Given how crucial pads are to sound quality that's welcome to see.
I tried two copies of the Momentum 3 and was quite astonished at how ridiculously bad the manufacturing tolerances of the pads were. Between the four pads all had an internal volume with different widths, depths and height. Which may (or may not, it's very difficult to test if you're a human being) explain the pretty significant channel imbalances I noticed with them.
What?? Where? There is no review at the start of this thread. Seriously, you can't convince us you aren't biased if you can't even be bothered to get this right. You are implicitly claiming that there is a review that your have read, but the rest have not, and this fictitious review supports your viewpoint, even though you could not have possibly read any such review.
Given you don't know what the context is, the answer is "everything".
Seriously, it is a $500 product, and the market expectations for pads for $500 headphones is in line with what Apple charges.
hyperplanar
Senior Member
Hephaestus
Active Member
Decided to get these just out of curiosity.
First impressions:
-Very heavy
-Initial clamping force pretty strong
-Very good noise cancellation performance
Responded pretty well to EQ. Apple should have tuned these neutral in the first place.
Only recommended to be used with Macs where you can apply EQ with Rogue Amoeba´s SoundSource or something similar.
EDIT:
And that case really sucks.
First impressions:
-Very heavy
-Initial clamping force pretty strong
-Very good noise cancellation performance
Responded pretty well to EQ. Apple should have tuned these neutral in the first place.
Only recommended to be used with Macs where you can apply EQ with Rogue Amoeba´s SoundSource or something similar.
EDIT:
And that case really sucks.
Interesting you have that feeling. I didn't notice it so was surprised by your comment and weighed the 'phones I had to hand. They are lighter than AKG N90Q and K 812 (which has no electronics inside) and a tiny bit more than the B&W PX and Audeze gaming 'phones, so mine aren't unusually heavy.
The case is daft though, leaving the parts most likely to be scuffed unprotected
Hephaestus
Active Member
Interesting you have that feeling. I didn't notice it so was surprised by your comment and weighed the 'phones I had to hand. They are lighter than AKG N90Q and K 812 (which has no electronics inside) and a tiny bit more than the B&W PX and Audeze gaming 'phones, so mine aren't unusually heavy.
The case is daft though, leaving the parts most likely to be scuffed unprotected
Coming from plastic Bose & Logitech headphones they feel heavy indeed.
I agree, but the most annoying thing is that Apple always makes comfortable devices and thinks over to the smallest detail, and "this" cannot even fit into a backpack normally...
I'm hate Airpods Max
The Sonys have a terrible sound signature out of the box but after using the eq that comes with their app, you can make it sound somewhat neutral. I have no doubt that AirPods max blow them away completely though. I have AirPods Pro and I prefer it to Sony in pretty much every way (sound wise). Sony's have a bit more bass but it's not really the best bass quality. The AirPods immediately felt more balanced and more melodic. So, I'm actually looking to demo the AirPods max.
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