Apple's first high-end headphones

[KeithPhantom]

Got them, I’m just trying them right now.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Maybe if they ever become "user friendly" enough that I don't actually need to support them at work any longer because the users can do everything themselves I'd change my mind...

Interesting.
I used Mac and PCs when I was working, from the mid-80s. Generally we only needed IT department support for PCs, so much so that when one of the IT guys' girlfriend bought a Mac for herself he panicked and asked me to help him get her started.
I told him to switch it on and follow the on screen guidance and come to me with any questions the next day. He said it was fine and easy and everything worked first time.
Macs are certainly not as intuitive and good as they used to be though, neither the hardware nor software are as good as they were.
PCs in the 80s were shite.

 

[KeithPhantom]

First impressions, Adaptive EQ messes up with some songs, especially vocal ones. It happens to do fine with hard rock and alternative but it really doesn’t like acoustic music.

 

[maverickronin]

Interesting.
I used Mac and PCs when I was working, from the mid-80s. Generally we only needed IT department support for PCs, so much so that when one of the IT guys' girlfriend bought a Mac for herself he panicked and asked me to help him get her started.
I told him to switch it on and follow the on screen guidance and come to me with any questions the next day. He said it was fine and easy and everything worked first time.
Macs are certainly not as intuitive and good as they used to be though, neither the hardware nor software are as good as they were.
PCs in the 80s were shite.

It's not like they especially bad or anything but IME (working at a small managed service provider) Apple devices still need nearly as much support as W10 machines or Android phones.

The kicker is that Macs are harder to manage in a business environment. Iphones are terrible in this respect too, but Android devices are very nearly as bad so it's a wash there.

 

[Mashcky]

I can't help but think of Apple diehards as almost sheep like who love to follow the cult of Apple

This is the kind of rhetoric I was trying to dissuade because such classifications tend to make objective evaluation of new products more challenging.

For instance, when I bought my Mac I’d only owned a PC running Arch Linux and Windows but needed a laptop. Apple’s first rMBP provided the best balance of battery life, weight and performance of any laptop in the market in 2013. The Mac came with a couple hundred dollar premium over a Dell but with the benefit of better construction, track pad, and screen.

I weighed the cost of losing some of my favorite software for the benefits above, went with a Mac and haven’t once regretted it. In an instant I would switch back to any other system after rationally weighing the options.

I hope this demonstrates how some happy Mac users are far from “sheep like” and that each Apple product can be evaluated on its merits instead of hastily viewed as repugnant.

However, every time I close my laptop lid I do feel an inexplicable urge to bow in respect to my own personal shrine to Steve Jobs...

 

[KeithPhantom]

I weighed the cost of losing some of my favorite software for the benefits above, went with a Mac and haven’t once regretted it.

I would go with them (and actually give them a long-term use chance to see if they actually don’t break) if I didn’t depend on the Office suite, especially the advanced Excel things you can’t just due in a Mac do to feature disparity between the Mac and Windows versions.

 

[direstraitsfan98]

I’m confused why people aren’t getting excited. Apple merely provides a tool, it’s down to the people to make the most use out of it. I struggle to understand why it suddenly becomes so “uninterested” or uninspired when it comes to sound. Coz we’ve developed our visual world more than it should be?

I’m not confused. I think it’s safe to say that an overwhelmingly large number of people, probably more than 95%, who buy apple products don’t know and don’t care about good audio. I’ve been keeping an eye on YouTube influencers like unbox therapy and Linus tech tips and these clowns have no fucking idea what they are even holding in their hands. Then again, both of these guys consistently reccomend sound bars for movie enthusiasts so I’d never take anything they say about sound seriously anyway. But hundreds of millions of people who watch their videos and base their buying decisions do take them seriously. Sorry for the rant about influencers... not sure who I should be more frustrated at, the sheeple consumer price or the influencers...

 

[KeithPhantom]

First update: these headphones are growing on me. The ANC is pretty good to say the least. Sound wise, my brain seems to start adapting to them, nothing sounds egregious anymore. Nice bass extension and has good impact. It seems that Adaptive EQ is messing up less and less, maybe something related with some kind of machine learning (?). They give me vibes of the HD 650 but with the bass bump in the sub-bass instead of around 100-300 Hz. They don’t sound muddy. Detail retrieval isn’t the best, but it isn’t seriously lacking like stock Audeze headphones. Pretty good so far.

 

[bt3]

That price. That's Apple. Lots will pay the Apple premium. Rubs me the wrong way that sprawling Cupertino shrine in state with enormous financial problems (affordable housing and homelessness being glaring ones), but I'll get dinged for not being cuddly with cut-throat capitalism. Would be interesting to see the circuitous paths taken by big tech companies to lessen the impact of taxes. Shell companies anyone?

 

[Frank Dernie]

That price.

There are plenty of very much more expensive headphones, haven't you seen?
Most have far less in them too, headband, cups, drivers, wire.
Yes there are cheaper ones too

 

[direstraitsfan98]

Another person who doesn’t get it. And at 65? He probably never will. You have to be willing to learn...

 

[MayaTlab]

Jude at Head-fi has measured the APM's THD, which seems to confirm's 0dB's measurements :
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/airpods-max.949152/post-16058062

 

[wgb113]

Seems like no one is quite sure how to measure them properly...guess they'll have to rely on that thing called listening...THE HORROR!!!

 

[KeithPhantom]

Second update: after messing around with the Headphone Acomodation settings and creating a custom setting, they are really similar to the HD 600 I own, maybe with a tad less realism, but they are way better than stock. Pretty much all the problems with the treble and upper midrange energy disappear. This is something every single owner of these headphones have to try.

 

[hyperplanar]

Disappointing to hear about the recession in the lower treble, but for what it’s worth the tuning of the AirPods Pro improved considerably with firmware updates over time. Perhaps it’ll get dialed in with a few updates.

 

[Feelas]

I know it is a little harsh but I can't help but think of Apple diehards as almost sheep like who love to follow the cult of Apple so not really an approach I can identify with or understand.

Well, not entirely unlike the die-hard Diffused Field audiophiles convinced that thin is justice.

 

[A Surfer]

Well, not entirely unlike the die-hard Diffused Field audiophiles convinced that thin is justice.

I am afraid that I am unfamiliar with the reference.

 

[Ilkless]

I am afraid that I am unfamiliar with the reference.

Diffuse-field refers to one of the "canonical" headphone tuning curves that predate Harman (and the various dark bassy riffs on it like we see with Apple here). For various reasons it tends to be perceived as thin and strident despite a pretty solid theoretical grounding.

See section "Experiment vs Ideal" in this article I wrote (and Sean Olive subsequently endorsed).

 

[A Surfer]

Diffuse-field refers to one of the "canonical" headphone tuning curves that predate Harman (and the various dark bassy riffs on it like we see with Apple here). For various reasons it tends to be perceived as thin and strident despite a pretty solid theoretical grounding.

See section "Experiment vs Ideal" in this article I wrote (and Sean Olive subsequently endorsed).

That was an excellent read. I will have to read it a few times to really integrate the information. Thanks for the link.

 

[bt3]

There are plenty of very much more expensive headphones, haven't you seen?
Most have far less in them too, headband, cups, drivers, wire.
Yes there are cheaper ones too

Indeed. My post here was not helpful. I tried to edit/remove post, but time had expired for doing so. Complaining about a manufacturers pricing rather a waste of time, but more unhelpful still, speculating about corporation(s) illegally avoiding taxes leans toward conspiracy thinking, a place I darn for sure want nothing to do with.