Apple's first high-end headphones

[brandall10]

^ He's wrong about the case. MacRumors spoke to Apple about this and got clarification:

- Off-head and no movement, 5 minutes to sleep mode, immediate inside case. No need to bring a case to the office, it you leave it on your desk, it will go to sleep
- 72 hours to ultra-sleep mode outside of case, 18 hours inside of case

The case is essentially for travel if you want them to go to sleep, otherwise they need to be stationary.

As mentioned above, suggest toggling accessibility mode to get the balanced tuning. It makes a very nice difference and to my ears puts them in audiophile territory as far as tuning goes, closer to the Harman target. Apple should advertise this feature and pull it out of accessibility settings.

I don't hear any noise floor in the ANC at all, but maybe my hearing isn't quite what it used to be.

I highly recommend checking these out, they are game changers IMO. FWIW, I've been a member of Head-fi since 2005, have been to Canjams, hosted local meets, and have owned a considerable amount of nice head-fi stuff over the years.

 

[M00ndancer]

Still some hope then...

 

[wgb113]

I watched a yt video of abyss engineers looking at these APMs and my immediate impression was one of professional embarrassment.

I couldn't help but laugh every time one of them said "I wonder..."

 

[Tks]

I agree with all of the above. Apple is good at industrial design and they rarely rest on their laurels. I think that these headphones must feel like a product breakthrough for them. They are also very good at closed and semi-closed systems. Typical Apple, pretty to look at, well integrated. I think these are going to be big. [full disclosure, i'm a fan boy. every time I use a windows PC, I feel like I have to take a shower].

There's breakthrough days are over. I consider them these days simply well finished, and sevicable, while other companies are just either feast or famine (mostly famine in terms of UX even though they think by feature packing a product, they've solved everything..)

 

[Frank Dernie]

I think the case is daft. It doesn't protect the part of the 'phone most likely to get scuffed and mine is white because I chose the simple ally finish.
Other than that I am delighted, though I am so far from being a headphone expert that opinion is without any value SQ wise.

 

[Tsuchi]

I’m excited to see these catch on. If they do I think it will open up more people to be passionate about audio.

The fact that some can spend thousands of dollars on a TV to improve the visual experience, yet do nothing about the audio one is really peculiar to me.

 

[onion]

What I'd really want before getting these is getting spatial audio to work with Apple TV

 

[nm4711]

What I'd really want before getting these is getting spatial audio to work with Apple TV

I think it will be possible together with the next generation Apple TV. Maybe you have to scan the room with the camera of your phone (or LiDAR, wich would be kinda dump, since you need a Pro phone or tablet), to get the position of your TV screen relative to your Apple TV (and room).
For me this would be the reason to buy a pair of these, if the sound quality is good.

 

[jhaider]

Funny to see Apple threw so much into Spatial Audio, so few cares about that out there

It's not that "nobody cares" about it, its that it doesn't work with anything interesting. It doesn't do anything with 2 channel. Even Tidal's app doesn't have Atmos music on iPhone. Hopefully a future generation will "upmix" 2-channel content, and Tidal will bring their multichannel app to the phone.

I want to buy these, but I can't figure out my use case. Maybe flying, though I like NAD VISO HP70 well enough - I'd never fall asleep on a plane with the AirPods Pro, because I'd expect one to fall out of my ear and get lost. Maybe for short flights they'd be all I take. Until then I fear these will be like HomePod, which I picked up at launch, thought sounded exceptional for what it is...but couldn't figure out a good spot for it so ended up returning it. One thing that would sell me is a simple Bluetooth switch, like on every mouse or keyboard. That way I could use it with both my personal equipment (all Apple) and my work laptop (not Apple, unfortunately) as well.

 

[ReaderZ]

I have very low expectation on this based on my experience with airpods.

 

[Ilkless]

I find the subjective reviews that are already trickling out from audiophile guru types on this, riddled with backhanded praise, laughable. No Apple fan here, but I bet confirmation bias is overwhelmingly against this, and none of these people even have the integrity to recognise that fact. Massive conglomerate directing limitless resources to headphone R&D and manufacturing with tech years ahead of the "artisanal" cottage industry types (who appear still content with slapping together lathed hardwood cups on OEM drivers) as merely a casual afterthought. Because surely it's impossible that a research budget (as well as massive economies of scale and production capabilities) larger than probably most specialist headphone firms' capitalisation combined can just beat years of feelings, experience and intuition (sarcasm here). The threat posed to the arcane and esoteric gear fetishism in the hobby is real and much more intense than the threat Homepod posed to speakers.

 

[Frank Dernie]

It is the 50 year anniversary of the release of the "Songs of the Humpback whale" LP so I ripped my CD to my phone and have been listening on these 'phones.
The very low frequency stuff can't be heard, of course but the pressure pulses are definitely there, it feels like ear-popping on climbing a mountain.
FWIW.

 

[maverickronin]

The threat posed to the arcane and esoteric gear fetishism in the hobby is real and much more intense than the threat Homepod posed to speakers.

But will these ever stop being loss leaders designed to lock you into someone else's walled garden?

 

[Mashcky]

But will these ever stop being loss leaders designed to lock you into someone else's walled garden?

Probably not, but it’s one beautiful, beautiful garden.

 

[FrantzM]

Mine are at my freight forwarder .. will have them early January...hopefully.. will report.

 

[M00ndancer]

I am for AAC for streaming and such. But for purchased content? I would rarely accept anything less than lossless. For the reasons you mention. Lossless should be the way, so any compression is a single pass.

Same here, CD or lossless codec. Unless I'm having my classical tunes out, even YT Music works fine for everything else.

YouTube Music is a tricky one:

Music video: Opus (251) <=160kbps VBR

Music only: AAC 48/128kbps and 256kbps only for subscribers.

I got curious and did a follow up, and Google sure doesn't make it easy for us Google Music refugees.

Link here: YouTube and YouTube Music, codecs and bit-rates used on Windows 10 and Android 11 Phones

 

[16/44]

To owners of the AirPod Max: would you categorize these as a must buy or would you suggest waiting for the next revision?

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

Absolutely. But even if they aren't everything that has been initially promised at first, the feature set here and the resources of this company to develop these into something that really does work over time means that Apple has a huge advantage over competitors in delivering value. Will they take the capabilities far enough so that discerning listeners also recognize a product that really does work and sound great? That's up to them. But the potential here basically has no parallel in the headphones market. You can b#$%h about Apple's closed ecosystem, fixation on aesthetics and pricing, but I only see one of those as alien to the interests of people here. And the price here is a winner already.

Resources? We will see. I wonder where the location of Apple's sound lab facilities. Bet they follow the Harmon curve. Amir please test.

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

They made a mistake marketing them as part of the airpod line. These headphones are going to be a completely different animal compared to the regular airpods. I don't know if this has damned it, though.

Barring members of ASR, I think the average Apple ecosystem user doesn't have a clue what good sound really is. And on the other hand, you will have your traditional hifi audio crowd scoff at these. The HomePod is an amazing product and when you stack it against the competition from Bose, JBL, Sony, it completely blows those out of the water. I have full confidence that Apple has made something really special with the Airpod Max.

I think the problem with products like this is the market isn't asking for them. The average consumer doesn't care about getting actual good sound. Good on Apple for keeping up the R&D. I wonder if one day they'll release a pair of studio monitors. I think with all the tech crammed into the HomePod and what they've leaned making the Airpod max they could make the best pair of computer speakers on the market.

Revel, Genelac, JVC, Neuman, etc., run for your lives.

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

Two reasons immediately occur to me, the first is preference, whilst there will be an average preference but outliers sufficiently far from it for a substantial proportion of the customer base not to favour the average, recordings vary far, far more than hifi kit, so one curve fits all will never happen.
Second, everybody has different ears, so the effect of the pinna and skull shape on the sound in the volume of air inside the ear pad will vary from person to person, and the frequency of the ear canal resonance will too so a set of headphones which were "perfect" on one individual can have significant shortcomings on another (or even all) individuals.
This is why, IMHO, anybody choosing headphones should do it by listening to see which ones suit their physiology and taste.

Nooo. This is an Apple new invention.