Apple AirPods Max Review (Noise Cancelling Headphone)

[GaryH]

On iOS, using “Headphone Accommodations” can fairly dramatically improve the sound quality of AirPods Max. The “Balanced Tone” setting at the “Slight” level boosts levels above 2 kHz and really wakes up the headphones. More here: https://9to5mac.com/2021/01/28/how-to-customize-iphone-headphone-audio/

Any chance you can re-run just the frequency response, with noise cancelling and transparency modes OFF?

Already measured by Oratory:

Looks like 'Vocal Range - moderate' is the best (still not great), and ANC off is the worst.

 

[PeteL]

Doubt it. Likely they were following the "more bass the better" crowd....

If it's the case it appears to be quite a considerable crowd tough. I wish I had the market studies available, but someone brought it up in a meeting I was attending. I may be a point or two off, it's from memory, he was saying that apples has in 2021 like 75% of the global headphones market, followed by beats with like 12%, both apple companies, that is just crazy, then there was Bose and Sony. Major Brands like AKG, Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, dont get near 1% each, and we are talking the big guys. They got to do something right altough we all agree it's mainly successful marketing.

 

[MayaTlab]

I've seen drastically different measurements from this headphones. I have not tried one yet.
Crinacle with GRAS measured identical response. On B&K 4128c it's a different story.
So this time it's not only the test equipment itself is different but also the headphones are dynamically eqing on the fly according to the pinna.

I don't think so. It uses only a single microphone in front of the driver like most other ANC headphones and the optical sensor is your typical basic one, and besides it sits behind the ear lobe (https://www.52audio.com/archives/67123.html). So it has no way of knowing whatsoever what is the shape of your pinna .
I think that if it were able to compensate for pinna variation it would also compensate for positional variation during spatial averaging which isn't the case :

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1343323936801644544

Adaptive EQ seems to only work up to 800Hz or so, like most ANC headphones with a feedback mechanism.

While I can't talk about others' experience, my own experience with them does not match most measurements I've seen online. If I were to apply Amir's recommended EQ, they'd sound definitely very wrong to me.
The limited measurements I can make of them on my own head, comparing them in relative terms with other headphones, makes it plainly apparent why : I just don't get anywhere near the amount of ear canal gain deficiency as what can be seen in most measurements of the APM online - all of which show some degree of deficiency in that area, but are also all over the place in terms of its magnitude - and I can only notice that sometimes even simply changing the pinna (ceteris paribus ? I'm not sure) seemed to result in quite a big difference :

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1368458551618805760

Using this little guy, calibrated "flat" against a UMIK-1 with a speaker in near filed conditions :

And comparing my APMs with the HD650 (fresh but broken in pads), HD560S, and K371, I get this :

Traces obtained during the same session (the microphone wasn't moved), APM in orange, HD650 in red, HD560S in blue, K371 in turquoise.
A legitimate question would be : how confident can I be that these traces are providing decent information ? The long boring answer would compare all of these :

and involve nebulous graphs like these :

But the TLDR is that in the ear canal gain region (1-4kHz) I'm tempted to think that, for relative evaluations only, a 1dB inexactitude is a decent allowance for the APM, HD650, HD560S (less so for the K371 which has more seatings to seatings variation).
Please don't look at the absolute values, they're inaccurate - only the relative values between HPs. And don't over-interpret them (it depends on both the specific headphones and for which specific part of the FR spectrum, and is influenced by numerous factors).

So in general, for me, the APM tends to track somewhat well the HD650 up to around 2.5-3kHz, and then veers off a little lower around 3.5kHz. I also find it deficient, but rather specifically at around 4kHz, and certainly not by the tune of 8-10dB.

The only hypothesis I could draw is that the acoustic design may be a little bit more sensitive to pad compression / front volume "volume" than others. The way the APM (or most other headphones for that matter) sit on my head and relative to my ears has little in common with how it sits on a GRAS hammerhead style fixture and while that may not cause a problem with other designs perhaps it might with the APM.

During another session I tried to compare it as it sits naturally on my head with how it performs with a little bit of extra force at the bottom rear of my ears to more evenly balance out how the pads are compressed, as its headband to cup pivot design doesn't work well on my head to naturally evenly compress the pads. I noticed that it changed the response in the 1-3kHz area independently of what happens below 1kHz and between 3-5kHz :

Compressing it a little bit and making the pad's compression a bit more even around the ears seemed to improve the response a little bit between 1 and 3kHz and eliminated a null that occurred at around 5700Hz.

So I'm not certain what to make of it to be honest, other than being quite certain that my own experience of them, while not being particularly enjoyable (I don't particularly care for the response above 3kHz), isn't well aligned with how some (most) measurements I've seen online portray them. And I wouldn't be surprised to learn that individual experiences may vary quite a lot more than with some other HPs.

 

[PeteL]

Already measured by Oratory:

View attachment 146207

Looks like 'Vocal Range - moderate' is the best (still not great), and ANC off is the worst.

But it doesn't look at all like what we see here, how could that be?

 

[the_brunx]

Video review of this would be a good idea I think.

 

[MayaTlab]

But it doesn't look at all like what we see here, how could that be?

Depends on how you interpret measurements I think given on how confident you can be in each part of the spectrum.

 

[abdo123]

It's very bold of Amir to give the only headphone with no fixture variation using Adaptive EQ a headless panther.

I mean it has very similar measurements to his daily headphones the Aeon RT

 

[PeteL]

For those using the headphone on an iPhone, I would try the 'Treble Booster' Setting, if that didn't sound great then try the 'Spoken words' setting.

these settings are available in Settings -> Music -> EQ.

For more information on what EQ settings do, check this.

I think those are only for the apple music app tough, mot convenient if like me you use other streaming services, but I've read somewhere that when you purchase apples headphones, there are specific EQ settings for them, that's a better option. You wouldn't see this if you don't have one.

 

[Merkurio]

I don’t remember the sound as bad (in stock form) the last time I tried them to deserve a headless panther, quite the opposite (they lack proper energy at the pinna region, that’s for sure, but nothing that EQ doesn’t fix).

Aside from that, they sound pretty damn clean and the bass is perfect in my book, both quality and quantity wise.

 

[FeddyLost]

I think it's definitely deliberate design.
Company like Apple can do any FR with such price range. Ultra low distortion is a confirmation of their abilities.
In my opinion it's kind of main goal "not to push away newcomers".
For example, i find AKG too harsh for me and if company have headphones "one size fits all", they can't allow any distortion or brightness "by default".

 

[Yevhen]

Already measured by Oratory:

View attachment 146207

Looks like 'Vocal Range - moderate' is the best (still not great), and ANC off is the worst.

Also measured at Rtings.com.
Same result up to 3kHz, so, probably, something went wrong with that dip measured here at ARS. I wonder if that possible EQ overcompensation at 2-3kHz from Amir is audible.
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/apple/airpods-max-wireless

 

[mononoaware]

For anyone wondering, crinacle confirmed the tonality of APM does not change depending on player used (iPhone/Windows PC/etc).
Results were all identical within margin of error expected of measurement methodology.
(Just in case someone complains APM was not measured with iPhone listening to Apple Music with AAC codec)

 

[Vini darko]

Better than I expected thanks for the review Amir.

 

[Deleted member 22141]

For anyone wondering, crinacle confirmed the tonality of APM does not change depending on player used (iPhone/Windows PC/etc).
Results were all identical within margin of error expected of measurement methodology.
(Just in case someone complains APM was not measured with iPhone listening to Apple Music with AAC codec)

I was going to complain about exactly that. I don't think any sane person would use these except in a full Apple ecosystem with all the Apple digital processing.

I am not a fan of Apple, and I would never even consider buying these for myself, but my daughters like iPhones and I would consider these as a present for them if they wanted them.

I do wonder whether the base driver config is poor because it was designed to be easier to digitally alter it, or because they just didn't care because it was never going to be used without digital processing.

 

[amirm]

It's very bold of Amir to give the only headphone with no fixture variation using Adaptive EQ a headless panther.

??? I had fixture variations. I noted that in the review. I spent at least 15 minutes trying to get smooth bass response.

 

[mononoaware]

it was never going to be used without digital processing.

This is very common nowadays, especially in Wireless headphones.
Driver is most likely something OEM, but there are good OEM drivers as well.
Apple being Apple with R&D etc I would expect they chose a good driver.

 

[filo97s]

would be interesting also to measure how effective the noise cancelling is, tracing a graph of attenuation of external sound vs frequency, and compare it to other products such as Bose or Sony ANC headphones.

 

[Frank Dernie]

would be interesting also to measure how effective the noise cancelling is, tracing a graph of attenuation of external sound vs frequency, and compare it to other products such as Bose or Sony ANC headphones.

Since lockdown has kept me off buses, trains and 'planes the only time I use headphones is noise cancelling ones when mowing my lawn so this would be interesting to me too.
Mind you I am not sure the last nuance in SQ is noticed when the principle concentration is skirting my wife's flower beds neatly!

 

[Palex]

t doesn't make sense to test Apple products using Android and Windows. Sea fish will not swim in fresh water

 

[tecnogadget]

I did and noted in the review that it makes no difference. This was noise cancelling on and off. Did not play with transparency mode. I just packed the thing so I prefer to not dig it back up. Measurements are also a pain due to streaming bluetooth method.

Dear @amirm with this kind of gear that involves too much digital wizardry... Wouldn’t be better to not rush the reviews until everything is polished ?
This aint the first time an item has been measured and shipped back, and the the members then start asking for interesting change of settings, or explaining the different possibilities that may or not change the measures data. In this particular case, transparency mode.