[HN Gopher] AirPods Max 2
___________________________________________________________________
AirPods Max 2
Author : ssijak
Score : 162 points
Date : 2026-03-16 13:22 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.apple.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.apple.com)
| mhitza wrote:
| To me they look like shit. I'm sure gen Z and Alpha will love it.
|
| I'll be interested in seeing a review on specialized sites. The
| 20 hours of battery life is impressive.
| simonklitj wrote:
| I don't know that it should be a generation specific thing. I'm
| a millennial, and I like their look.
| wincy wrote:
| There's been a lot of grumbling about RTO at my work, and if it
| happens, these will be a day one purchase. I used to have some
| Bowers and Wilkins PX headphones that I liked, and my wife really
| loves her Bose QuietComfort, but the weird thing I detested about
| both of those is how seemingly every headphone manufacturer
| except Apple feels the needs to add voice feedback to your
| device? "Headphones connected" and whatnot. It just really messes
| with my vibes, man.
|
| Also quite frankly I'd rather just not have to buy them and keep
| working from home. Listening to music using good speakers is an
| objectively superior experience.
| goblin89 wrote:
| New AirPods Max finally have lossless wired audio, which is
| pretty nice and makes them finally catch up with the Pros.
|
| Does anyone have experience with obtaining a flatter frequency
| response from any AirPods, though? While maintaining the full
| power of noise cancellation.
|
| My experience with Pros has always been that they exaggerate the
| bass. EQ settings available in Music are coarse, and I don't know
| of any other way to control frequency response independently of
| the app that plays the sound.
|
| I know they are not really best for critical audio work, but they
| are damn convenient.
| smith7018 wrote:
| Apple added wired lossless audio last year when they moved to
| USB-C iirc
| goblin89 wrote:
| I see, I remember checking that they didn't support high
| definition wireless codec but missed the part where they
| could do lossless over the wire last year.
|
| Why can't they squeeze in that codec, considering Pros have
| it for years and are a lot smaller?
|
| Edit: apparently I was confusing AirPods Pros with Sony WH
| models, which have LDAC. I guess there is no chance Apple
| adopts LDAC, even in their large heavy cans.
| steve1977 wrote:
| LDAC is also not lossless btw.
| embedding-shape wrote:
| > My experience with Pros has always been that they exaggerate
| the bass
|
| Based on my experience, almost all consumer-grade headphones
| (in ear and headphones) seem to suffer from this, I'm guessing
| people tend to prefer bass-heavy over "not enough bass". Not
| until you start looking at headphones meant for studio-use does
| it seem to get closer to expected when it comes to the bass.
| hackingonempty wrote:
| Research by Harmon suggests almost everyone, musicians and pros
| included, prefers exaggerated lows and highs over flat
| response. Check the "Harmon Curve"
|
| And there is certainly a way for you to set system wide eq, see
| what AutoEq recommends.
| zamadatix wrote:
| Based on the wording AirPods Max 2 looks to have the same
| limitation as AirPods Max (USB C) where using the wired audio
| means the mic is not usable.
|
| Really quite annoying from the "damn convenient" aspect as
| well.
| alstonite wrote:
| My AirPods Max 1 left a headband dent in my skull from how poor
| the quality of the headband was after more than a year of daily
| use. They also are super heavy and don't travel well at all.
|
| Apple deciding that, on their 2nd refresh of these (after usb-c),
| they still aren't going to fix those fundamental issues is very
| frustrating for what feels like a very disproportionately
| expensive product (even by Apple standards).
|
| I'm now a very happy QC Ultra 2 user. Can't recommend enough.
| gottagocode wrote:
| A literal dent in your skull?
| the-golden-one wrote:
| It's not in the skull, it's in the soft tissue on top of it.
| I've had the same dent after wearing them for a while, it
| comes out after a while.
| secalex wrote:
| Phew, that's a relief. Guess that's a reasonable compromise
| for a $550 product for which there are no other quality
| competitors.
| pointlessone wrote:
| It literally gives me a headache after more than an hour
| of wearing it. This never happens with may AKG that has a
| very utilitarian and simple headband--a flat piece of
| plastic. It's not pretty but I can wear AKG for a whole
| day and enjoy every minute of it while I'm phisically
| sick after an hour of AirPods Pro.
| mrcwinn wrote:
| You're joking, right? There are many high quality
| competitors in that price range. I'm holding a pair
| (Sennheiser HDB 630). They are significantly lighter
| weight, better comfort and sound quality.
| strongpigeon wrote:
| They are indeed being sarcastic/joking.
| davkan wrote:
| My hd660s2 leave an indent in my skull. I don't find them
| uncomfortable though.
| RankingMember wrote:
| I thought this was parody at first- are you guys seriously
| ok with this?
| hyperhello wrote:
| We want evidence.
| jmkni wrote:
| You sure that's not from something else?
| kolinko wrote:
| Another poster here - I can confirm, have the same thing.
| I don't worry too much about it though, I assume it will
| fade if I ever switch to other headphones.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _it's in the soft tissue on top of it_
|
| Can anyone with a medical background confirm if this is a
| thing, or folks are just noticing old undulations in their
| skulls?
| hug wrote:
| You shouldn't need a medical background to know that
| having something press on a spot for a couple of hours
| will leave a depression in your skin.
|
| You have probably fallen asleep on something patterned or
| folded and have it leave an impression on your skin
| before: This is no different.
|
| Other places it happens: Watches that are slightly too
| tight or have ridden up an arm. Glasses arms pressing
| against your temple or behind the ear. Tight socks after
| a day wearing them.
|
| It's not a medical problem. It's just general physics.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _shouldn 't need a medical background to know that
| having something press on a spot for a couple of hours
| will leave a depression in your skin_
|
| I read "soft tissue on top of" the skull to mean more
| than a superficial skin depression.
|
| We have layers of connective tissue between the skin and
| skull [1]. Their damage usually calls for medical
| attention.
|
| [1] https://www.earthslab.com/anatomy/scalp/
| alstonite wrote:
| Yeah. My bone grew around the two plastic pieces of the band
| because the mesh in the middle lost all of its springiness.
|
| One day I felt my head and decided that I was switching as
| soon as a competitor refreshed.
| wavemode wrote:
| That... doesn't happen. More likely it's an indentation in
| your scalp.
| phil21 wrote:
| Hey, OP might be an infant and their skull might still be
| growing!
| quietsegfault wrote:
| Not the skull, but probably the scalp. Our scalp is made up
| of skin, fat, and muscle. When you press a rigid object
| against it for hours every day, that soft tissue temporarily
| compresses. It happens to my kid who wears headphones for
| gaming. It's the same mechanism that leaves red marks on your
| nose after wearing glasses, or grooves on your ankles after
| wearing tight socks. Wash your hair, give up on the
| headphones, and it'll return to normal.
|
| The QC2 are about half the weight of the AirPods Max, and
| apparently the mesh in the AirPods Max band sags, and allows
| the metal bars to "dig in" to your scalp. Enough to cause
| irritation, but 400 or 500 grams resting on your head can't
| mess with an adult, developed skull.
| ModernMech wrote:
| "I found a GAMER DENT in my head..."
| https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rp7emJhjk5g
| thefz wrote:
| You are wearing it wrong?
| SunshineTheCat wrote:
| Yea I ran into the exact same issue. My workaround was buying a
| silicone band that wrapped around the top of the set to help as
| a sort of "2nd layer."
|
| It isn't perfect, but it makes them wearable.
|
| Pretty incredible oversight by a company that focuses so much
| on "design."
|
| The bands sell pretty well on Amazon from what I can see so
| this isn't an isolated issue.
| bookofjoe wrote:
| Interesting. Echoes the failure of the original Vision Pro
| knit headband, Version 2 of which is much better -- but it
| took 2 years to appear!
| asadotzler wrote:
| It took Apple realizing that putting fashion so far out
| ahead of function on Vision Pro was costing it usage to see
| the dual strap. The ergonomics of the first strap were dog
| shit, and everyone, certainly Apple, knew years before
| Vision Pro launched that a dual strap was the only way to
| make longer sessions viable. But a dual strap was also
| uglier, and Vision Pro already had acceptability problems.
|
| Look at the marketing materials for Vision Pro using the
| single strap. Next, look at the marketing materials with
| the dual strap. Which one of those would sell better into
| an office context where at least half the population spends
| considerable time fixing their hair. Which one looks
| slightly futuristic and which looks like a CPAP headset.
|
| "How it looks" led Apple to ship a deficient strap, one
| that made the device actually hurt to use. And how it looks
| is why Apple stuck with that garbage strap for 18 months
| despite knowing from extensive user research that the dual
| strap was superior ergonomically, and despite having
| already done the R&D for the dual strap.
|
| It was only when Apple had mostly given up on Vision Pro,
| understanding that the user base wasn't going to hockey
| stick, that fashion was already a complete failure, that
| they began offering the sillier looking but infinitely more
| functional dual strap. After 18 months, all Apple had was
| its existing user base, selling only a few thousand devices
| a month, so it shifted from growth to sustaining and that's
| what the dual strap and M5 logic board swap was for,
| holding onto the few users it has until it could figure out
| how or if to proceed with the product line.
|
| That's not the case with Apple's headphones. That strap
| could easily be a lot higher quality without being a lot
| less fashionable.
| doug_durham wrote:
| I've traveled extensively with my AirPods Max. I just toss them
| in my backpack with whatever else is there and move on. They
| travel a lot better than my Bose ones did with the bulky case.
| I much prefer Apple's approach here.
| LorenDB wrote:
| I thought that any headphones would leave a dent in your head?
| At least that's been my experience, and I don't think my
| headphones are nearly as heavy as these things.
| chollida1 wrote:
| >My AirPods Max 1 left a headband dent in my skull from how
| poor the quality of the headband was after more than a year of
| daily use.
|
| You should get checked out. No adult should have a dent put in
| their skull by headphones.
| delduca wrote:
| I was about to buy the first one. Is it really worth the price?
| (I have AirPods Pro 2)
| 4dm1r4lg3n3r4l wrote:
| No
| asimovDev wrote:
| try them out , there should be display models in your nearest
| tech store / apple store
| chaosmikey wrote:
| Depends on your use case, I need exceptional noise
| cancellation. These and Sony XM6's are top tier in that
| department. I would wait until they're $100 or more off on
| Amazon.
|
| I had the Sony's but returned them after 3 days. I had this
| issue: https://corychu.medium.com/sony-wh-1000xm6-sound-
| terrible-wi... I went back to Apple.
| owlbynight wrote:
| https://github.com/jstilwell/MacAudioInputLocker
|
| I maintain a fork of this app, which allows you to quickly set
| and lock your audio input device, so that they don't switch your
| audio input device to bluetooth as soon as you turn them on.
| Mostly because of the first gen of these headphones. They LOVED
| to keep the mic on at all times with no way to disable that
| behavior.
|
| I assume it's the same with the second gen.
| dawnerd wrote:
| Oh I wish I knew about this before buying SoundSource.
| SoundSource is a decent app when it works but it causes my mic
| audio goes in an out with it and people complain.
| post_break wrote:
| Oh my god, where has this been. Is there any way you can make
| it work for 14.4? I desperately need this.
| steinvakt2 wrote:
| Still the weird case??
| HumblyTossed wrote:
| I really don't understand how these are $549. As others have
| pointed out, some people say the head band is not great. Others
| say the sound is solid but not exceptional. What makes these
| worth that much when there are so many options?
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| This is Apple, my dude - the company that sells a glorified
| sock to carry your phone in for US $230.
|
| https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/11/introducing-iphone-po...
|
| That's all you have to understand.
| valzam wrote:
| I think people are mainly confused because the AirPod Pros
| are quite competitively priced compared to other higher end
| offerings. The Max are so far off the market that it doesn't
| seem to make any sense and it seems unlikely that apple
| couldn't make up for lost margins with higher volume. Maybe
| they just literally can't/don't want to produce many of the
| Max and price them accordingly.
| atonse wrote:
| I say this as someone who uses many Apple products, but still
| can't justify buying this. (I do have AirPods but have wanted
| headphones so I don't have to stick something into my ears)
|
| If you try to understand this stuff outside the context of
| fashion, you'll go around in circles (as I did).
|
| If you see this through the lens of "people will pay anything
| to signal various things to others" and "you can charge
| whatever the market will bear" then it all adds up.
| p_ing wrote:
| You can buy three socks for the price of one set of casters.
|
| https://www.apple.com/shop/product/mx572zm/a/apple-mac-
| pro-w...
| PaulHoule wrote:
| Reminds me of the casters on the PDP-8 that my high school
| had back when I was in elementary school.
| frantathefranta wrote:
| I assume Apple ecosystem integration and also they give off
| that "I bought an expensive Apple product" vibe that an iPhone
| or Macbook no longer do IMO.
|
| As someone with an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and a Macbook, I
| never got into Apple's headphones. My Sony WH-something-4 that
| I bought refurbished 4 years ago are more than enough for me.
| quietsegfault wrote:
| The AirPods Pro are the best earpods I've ever had for
| everyday use, and I've had a lot. I like some of the old
| beats headphones, but I also haven't had to replace the ones
| I bought ~5 or 10 years ago. The Sony WH-whatever I have are
| probably my favorite and most comfortable.
| mcs5280 wrote:
| Because Apple
| mbb70 wrote:
| They are a luxury item, you are paying for the privilege of
| signaling you can afford $550 headphones. Generic black over-
| ear headphones could be $800, could be $80, useless for
| signaling. Doubly true in the context of a gift.
| joncrane wrote:
| >They are a luxury item, you are paying for the privilege of
| signaling you can afford $550 headphones.
|
| Plus they give juuuust enough features to cover for the true
| purpose and give you plausible deniability. Same as most
| luxury items. None truly give the value of the cost (Is a
| Ferrari 10x as fast as a GR86? Carry 10x as much stuff? Go
| 10x as far on the same gas load? Etc etc etc)
|
| "Oh but there's nothing like the experience of driving a
| Ferrari!"
| dylan604 wrote:
| Is the GR86 hand made?
| Spivak wrote:
| I don't think this is the right analysis, pretty much all
| products follow an ever steepening curve of price to get to
| the highest quality. The general sentiment on HN, of which
| I count myself among, is that you stop before the curve
| gets too steep. You can stop at Oreos you don't have to pay
| Stella Parks to make you hers. You get the highest quality
| thing that isn't commanding crazy premium prices.
|
| But the market for that last 10% 1% 0.1% does exist. Like
| yes it's funny to make fun of middle aged guys who buy
| extremely expensive cars and who if actually tested
| couldn't tell the difference between a $60k sports car and
| a $160k sports car and there are plenty of businesses that
| prey on that lack of discerning taste to take advantage but
| it doesn't mean the difference isn't there at all.
| ryanjshaw wrote:
| Maybe for some people. For me, they work perfectly and
| integrate with all my other Apple stuff (MBP, iphone, TV,
| iPad), everything just works. My stress levels demand it.
| fsloth wrote:
| Well, if you buy only one pair it does work really nicely with
| all Apple kit. So you get really nice cinematic sound from
| Apple TV (for my non-prosumer ears), and effortlessly can
| switch between phone, laptop etc. The sound is really good for
| video calls.
|
| They just work.
|
| I mean there are other pieces of kit that probably just work as
| well but with these you don't need to do market research.
|
| It's surprising how non-trivial even _adequate_ sound is still
| in 2026 and that's what these are guaranteed to give in any
| situation IMHO.
|
| If you have only one Apple device probably no selling point as
| such.
| genthree wrote:
| Yeah I basically don't trust anyone but Apple for wireless
| audio because every time I've tried allegedly-good non-Apple
| Bluetooth audio devices, they've been a _ton_ worse, so bad I
| ended up barely using them.
|
| In this case these are more expensive than I'd pay for
| headphones, but that just means I _won't have any_ Bluetooth
| headphones in this form factor. Been down that road before,
| non-Apple was a frustrating waste of money.
|
| I mean FFS my AirPods are worse on Windows and Linux than in
| the Apple ecosystem, but are _still_ better than the non-
| Apple ones I've tried, even there. It's not even just the
| home-field advantage.
| fsloth wrote:
| FWIW Sony's wh-1000xm3 and later are suberb.
|
| Windows and bluetooth is a really difficult combination.
| The problem is that for some reason if Windows detects a
| microphone on the Bluetooth headphone, it switches to a
| transport mode that a) allows the mic through b) makes the
| sound sound horrible. So disabling mics sometimes helps
| there.
| zamadatix wrote:
| The Apple Beats Studio Pro should meet this reasoning for
| $170 (on Amazon, $350 on apple.com - guess that explains the
| AirPods Max pricing) & the battery lasts twice as long. I
| have 2 near my Apple TV just so everything plays nice
| together.
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| The sound is worse
| Marsymars wrote:
| The Beats Studio Pro doesn't use the H1 (or H2) chip, so is
| notably missing automatic device switching, if that's a
| thing that's important to you.
| 46493168 wrote:
| >I really don't understand how these are $549.
|
| H2 chip enables smart audio switching when paired with Apple
| account + other Apple products. This is a feature that many
| people find valuable.
| dawnerd wrote:
| But not 549 valuable. You get that on their much cheaper
| airpods. Also doesn't need h2 for that, even their older ones
| did it.
| squidsoup wrote:
| Not everyone likes in-ear headphones, so if you want
| something that works seamlessly across multiple devices,
| its the only option.
| AzN1337c0d3r wrote:
| What's new about this with the H2 chip?
|
| My H1-chipped USB-C Airpods Max (OG) seem to switch
| seamlessly between my iphone, ipad, and macbook pro already.
| altairprime wrote:
| If your gen 1 are already excellent for you, there's no
| reason to upgrade, same as there's no reason to get a new
| phone or laptop every year. My wired headphones are ten
| plus years old and will be fine for a couple more decades;
| my gen1 Max, at a fifth the price, are also fine and will
| be fine until their Bluetooth becomes too old (which may be
| ten or twenty years these days). Both benefit from earcup
| swaps occasionally (but gen1 lightning needs them more
| often than usb-c.)
|
| If you're unsatisfied with Transparency mode on your gen1
| then the gen2 will give you Adaptive which is a big
| improvement ( _especially_ so if you wear them outdoors or
| around other people). Same improvement that the AirPods
| had, if you're familiar with that.
|
| If you use them for videoconferencing, the lower latency
| and higher quality headset codec may be worth upgrading.
| They retain value on the used market so long as you unpair
| them from Find My an hour before you sell them and have a
| purchase receipt.
|
| I suspect there might be some slight power savings for your
| transmitting devices if both sides support Bluetooth 5.3,
| but I would not expect that to be significant or
| advertised.
| thefz wrote:
| > What makes these worth that much when there are so many
| options?
|
| You want to be seen in public wearing this object
| paxys wrote:
| There are two kinds of Apple products - those they make for the
| mass market and those that are for Apple "enthusiasts".
|
| Mass market Apple products may be expensive but they are still
| great value. Look at the $499/$599 Macbook Neo for a recent
| example, but this generally covers iPhones and other Macs, as
| well as Airpods, Apple Watch etc.
|
| Then there are the $550 Airpods Max, $3500 Vision Pro, $600
| storage upgrades, $700 CPU wheels, $230 "iPhone Pocket", $20
| polishing cloth...
|
| In the latter category there is no effort to actually compete
| on price or value, because it is made for people who will
| blindly buy anything with an Apple logo on it.
| hrmtst93837 wrote:
| The headphones cost nearly as much as the MacBook (Neo).
| kotaKat wrote:
| More than, considering Apple is willing to openly advertise Neo
| at $499 for education. The minimum-advertised-price on these
| won't ever drop below ~$529 for a hot minute.
| celltalk wrote:
| Get ready for Apple introducing the first Macbook with a
| headphone chip.
| mingus88 wrote:
| Sony HH-1000XM6 are $500
|
| Bose QC Ultra are $450
|
| That is the market for premium BT headphones. There are way
| more expensive headphones out there.
|
| But yeah it is notable that the Neo is cutting the legs out of
| the lower end laptop market to that degree.
| yomismoaqui wrote:
| Nope, right now the price for both of them is around EUR389.
| rsynnott wrote:
| Does anyone ever actually pay that for them, tho? I've got
| the QC Ultras; looks like they cost me 331 euro _with VAT_.
| Apple's RRP is usually the actual sale price, but IME the RRP
| for Bose stuff at least is generally pure fantasy, with
| actual prices being significantly lower.
|
| EDIT: Currently they seem to be 350EUR inc VAT on Irish
| Amazon; Amazon is making it difficult for me to see the US
| price and I'm not interested enough to fight with it, but I'm
| guessing that there's a similar level of discount.
| mingus88 wrote:
| Amazon US has list price for QC Ultra 2 at $449 and selling
| for 5% off at $425
|
| https://a.co/d/0jlMl9RC
|
| I see the QC Ultra (first edition) for $299 USD
| steve1977 wrote:
| Here in Switzerland, Wh-1000XM6 are 349 CHF vs 499 CHF for
| the APM.
| dewey wrote:
| The first thing I checked was if there's a better case. At this
| point I'm assuming it's a marketing move to have people just
| carry them openly on their neck at all times.
| etothet wrote:
| It's quite telling how dumb even Apple thinks the case is when
| you have to scroll pretty far down on the page and then pretty
| far to the right to see the so-called "Smart Case". It remains
| a pretty horrendous "case".
| 46493168 wrote:
| Waterfield makes a better case, it even has magnets that do
| what the smart case does
| dude250711 wrote:
| I like my wired headphones. Just like tube amps, they will never
| be outdated.
| alsetmusic wrote:
| My AirPods Max headphones are incredible. They sound amazing.
| They also squeeze my head so much that they hurt so I don't use
| them. Kinda sad, really. I'd use them at my desk every day if
| they were comfortable to wear.
| Marsymars wrote:
| I've had some headphones in the past where I stuck them over a
| slightly-bigger-than-my-head object when not wearing them to
| stretch them out over some time to alleviate this problem.
| gabeio wrote:
| Do they brick less? I bought a pair for my husband and after a
| year they were bricked, apple support basically told him to buy a
| new one. I will never waste my money on the max line ever again.
| akmarinov wrote:
| Did you try putting them in the freezer for 20 minutes?
| unreal6 wrote:
| curious: why would this help?
| 46493168 wrote:
| "...the thin wires carrying power can crack over time,
| specifically after hundreds or thousands of swivels of the
| earcups (since they turn 90 degrees to fit flat into their
| case). That microscopic crack can cause issues with the
| connection.
|
| By freezing the AirPods, the cold can cause the lining
| around the wires to contract, temporarily bringing the
| cracked sections together."
|
| https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/airpods-max-freezer-fix/
| neild wrote:
| Sounds ridiculous, but worked on mine! So far, the fix
| has stuck, too.
| comrade1234 wrote:
| The platters come unstuck and can spin again.
| stego-tech wrote:
| No wireless lossless audio means these are a hard pass for me. I
| really expected Apple of all folks to figure that out since they
| engineer their entire stack, hardware to software, but they're
| still just pushing the same bluetooth audio that my Airpods Pro
| 2's consume (which are half the price and incredibly excellent).
| Sony's LDAC is niche, but sounds objectively better to my ears
| than the AAC used on Apple's kit when I opt to use my
| Walkman+XM4s.
|
| As for wired listening? My XM4s sound okay wired in, and at home
| I've got critical-listening kit already. Adding a USB-C cable to
| the Max is not appealing given that 3.5mm already exists, USB-C
| cables are heavier than analog audio wires, and more corps block
| USB ports in general or mess with them in ways that corrupts the
| audio stack.
|
| Give me wireless CD-quality audio and I'll be a happy dinosaur.
| Until then, I have zero reason to upgrade what I currently have.
| F7F7F7 wrote:
| The H2 enables lossless audio over wireless. So this reads like
| a temporary limitation that software might solve down the road.
| But knowing Apple's track record for enabling features in
| partially dormant hardware ... I wouldn't buy these expecting
| that.
| stego-tech wrote:
| Given Apple's very recent track record on promising things
| and then watching them vanish into the ether - not to mention
| a lifetime being burned buying into future promises that
| never materialize ("MCE is the future of the entertainment
| experience!" (RIP in Win7), "CableCARD will free you from the
| tyranny of locked down hardware!" (RIP from the get-go),
| "Unfolded Circle 3 will finally support serial from the
| dock!") - means I don't buy on what it _could_ do _tomorrow_
| , but what's on offer out of the box from day one.
|
| Tired of accumulating scar tissue and burn marks in the name
| of shareholder value.
| steve1977 wrote:
| > The H2 enables lossless audio over wireless
|
| But that's only with the Vision Pro, no?
|
| I.e. very short and more or less consistent distance between
| transmitter and receiver.
| 46493168 wrote:
| Could you point to where Apple claims that H2 enables
| lossless audio over wireless for the AirPods Max 2? I don't
| see that claim on the spec sheet. What I see is this note:
|
| "Ultra-low latency audio and Lossless Audio listening
| requires a wired USB-C connection and compatible content from
| supported apps and services."
|
| So it doesn't appear that lossless wireless is supported at
| all, even with Vision Pro.
| steve1977 wrote:
| So you're one of the few people who actually can consistently
| tell MP3 and lossless apart?
|
| https://abx.digitalfeed.net/
| rokweom wrote:
| but sounds objectively better to my ears
|
| Subjectively. Objectively, there's no audible difference
| between lossy and lossless (at usual bitrates).
| stephc_int13 wrote:
| My experience with headphones:
|
| Passive noise cancellation beats active hands down. (no weird air
| pressure, reliable, no need for batteries, less expensive) Analog
| and wired beats bluetooth if you care for sound quality, portable
| DACs are very good in 2026. Professionals are using BeyerDynamics
| and Sony headphones made for studios and almost unchanged since
| the 90s for good reasons.
|
| The only good reason to opt for wireless is for practical reasons
| when you are running, and you want smaller models.
|
| Also, this design is kind of ugly and dated.
| GaggiX wrote:
| I have used Soundcore q20i for more than a year, and I'm sure the
| AirPods have a better sound and have a better noise cancelling,
| but the difference in price $549 and 30EUR (as I bought them) is
| pretty insane, also my Soundcore q20i last much longer than 20h
| and the noise cancelling is already quite good.
|
| Edit: also has a proper cushion on the headband.
| nielsole wrote:
| Issues with my AirPods Max 1:
|
| * occasional deafening screatch when there's too much moisture.
| I'm surprised they didn't need to recall them over that
|
| * occasional reboots when you move it a bit on your head.
|
| Unfortunately in apple-manner they don't mention if such issues
| were resolved with this v2
| neom wrote:
| The screech is produced by feedback in the noise canceling I
| think, happens if you lay on a pillow at the wrong angle also,
| never had it due to moisture myself.
| zamadatix wrote:
| From the wording it sounds like there will still be the annoyance
| of not having a mic if you're using lossless wired audio.
| BoneShard wrote:
| They're one year old at this point, why is this news?
| windows_hater_7 wrote:
| What was released last year was the same AirPods Max just with
| a USB-C port. This is a new generation.
| BoneShard wrote:
| ah, indeed, thank you.
| dc_ist wrote:
| I owned a pair of the first gen AirPods Max. After a couple of
| months of usage, I began noticing a rattling inside the right
| earcup. I had never dropped them or exposed them to any sort of
| physical damage that could knock something loose. The rattling
| would happen every time I tilted my head in any direction. I had
| taken them to Apple Genius support in store 3 different times and
| 2 of those times the onsite tech agreed that there was a rattling
| sound. All 3 times they were sent to an Apple repair facility and
| they always came back with "cannot reproduce". I sold them on FB
| Marketplace for a deep discount, having alerted the potential
| buyer to the issue before I sold them to him. Never again will I
| purchase a set of AirPods.
| darknavi wrote:
| All three pairs of AirPod Pros I've owned have had rattling
| issues that would reproduce when I physically moved/tilted my
| head. It's really annoying.
| olelele wrote:
| For the price that is insane.
| tchalla wrote:
| This is exactly why I will never buy them at all again.
| sqnfxn wrote:
| Same here. Three pairs and all had this issue after some
| time. One of the pairs was a used one with the same problem.
| Dangeranger wrote:
| Yes, my AirPod Pros do this too, and I've found that the
| issue is due to a problem with the external microphones which
| are involved in active noise cancelling. In order to fix the
| problem I had to disable ANC, and use them like a pair of
| basic wireless headphones, which has been quite
| disappointing. I've found that basically any instance of
| dropping the headphones on a solid floor, even while in the
| case, will result in this rattling sound occurring.
| BlobberSnobber wrote:
| Funny that something similar swore me off another brand's
| headphones. The noise cancelling would amplify mechanical
| vibrations of the headphones, so much so that even eating with
| them on would cause a deafening bass. Walking with them on was
| also incredibly loud.
|
| I sent them to support with a very good description of the
| problem, came back the same, "cannot reproduce".
|
| It seems support workers for both companies just connect them
| to an audio source and check if sound comes out relatively
| alright.
| dc_ist wrote:
| Prior to the third time going to Genius Bar, I was able to
| reach a senior manager for Apple repairs in a phone call to
| Apple Support. And even after asking him to take down a note
| on my incident to have the repair tech physically open the
| right ear can, they still came back with "cannot reproduce".
| There was either a screw loose in my brain or the headphones.
| Guess we'll never know which.
| TrainedMonkey wrote:
| Servicing is not done by Apple, it's 3rd party contractors.
| They have a rubric of possible issues from Apple and their
| profit margins are thin. I suspect contacting Apple support
| about Apple support issues would have resulted in a swift
| replacement of the item.
| proee wrote:
| I bought the AirPods Max 1 but had to return them because they
| felt like a vice and were too heavy. I ended up going with the
| Sony wh-1000xm5, which are much lighter. My only complaint on the
| Sony is the earcups are not deep enough for my big ears.
| rkomorn wrote:
| It's amusing to me how personal all this stuff is.
|
| The XM5s were super uncomfortable to me (to the point I was
| relieved when they got stolen) and I ended up going back to
| Bose even though I liked the sound quality on the Sonys better.
| lurkingllama wrote:
| Same experience. Everyone raved about the Sonys and so when
| my Bose died, I tried them out. I can't stand them! They're
| way less comfortable and have worse noise cancellation. The
| lack of buttons drives me crazy. And worst of all - when on
| flights, the noise cancellation will randomly stop working.
| Despite flights being one of the main reasons I purchase
| noise cancelling headphones.
| yokoprime wrote:
| I had the xm6 but the combination of worse sound (for me at
| least) and shallow earcups which hurt my ears drove me back to
| airpods max
| asmor wrote:
| I have the same issue with the shape of my ears not fitting any
| ANC headphones (and many larger over-ear ones). The only
| alternative to the APM I found that doesn't hurt after a few
| hours was the Sonos Ace. Which also have a price that hurts but
| at least they haven't broken yet while my APM kept breaking
| (and they're one of the few products where you can't infinitely
| renew Apple Care).
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Some more on announcement post:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47398462
| PaulHoule wrote:
| ... and a $25 pair of junk earbuds will do better in terms of
| "pairing and staying paired" if you are using iOS, Android,
| MacOS, Windows, Steam Deck, whatever.
| paxys wrote:
| Crazy to think that they are now selling an entire Macbook for
| the price of these headphones.
| embedding-shape wrote:
| Crazy to think Apple is now pricing their consumer headphones
| in the same segment as serious professional gear, they seems to
| cost more or less the same I paid for my "studio-grade" DT 1770
| Pro.
| goblin89 wrote:
| Typical studio grade cans need studio grade equipment to
| drive them. No surprise if decently sounding headphones that
| already ship with tailored DAC, amplifier, ANC cost more than
| decent headphones for which you need to buy all that (and lug
| around if you travel).
|
| Yet, with that taken into account, today the latest DT 1770
| Pro _still_ cost over 20% more than the latest AirPods Max.
|
| Considering Apple markets Max for audio work, they compete on
| the same turf. This makes Apple's offer unusually cost
| effective, not the other way around. I think this can be
| attributed to their fragility and inferior sound quality
| relative to DT 1770 Pro (at the end of a decent signal
| chain).
| embedding-shape wrote:
| > Yet, with that taken into account, today the latest DT
| 1770 Pro still cost over 20% more than the latest AirPods
| Max.
|
| Not sure where you're looking, but seems I paid 535 EUR for
| my beyerdynamics (and that's what Amazon sells them for
| right now too), meanwhile these Apple headphones cost 579
| EUR, so seems it's opposite really, studio-grade headphones
| being cheaper than the consumer-grade hardware Apple sells.
|
| > Considering Apple markets Max for audio work
|
| They might be marketed like that, because it influences
| what wealthy consumers chose to buy, but AFAIK, no one is
| sitting with AirPods Max in their studios for work, at
| least from what I've been able to tell.
| goblin89 wrote:
| > Not sure where you're looking
|
| Both products in US on the site of respective
| manufacturer. Maybe you bought the older model (which by
| the way has higher impedance, so dedicated amplifier is a
| must, take it into account when you calculate the price).
|
| > no one is sitting with AirPods Max in their studios for
| work
|
| People absolutely use them for serious work. They are
| much more of a personal product though, and there are
| other factors that would make an average studio
| disinclined to invest in them, like fragility and cost of
| repair and a whole bunch of unnecessary for a studio
| features.
|
| Of course, when the studio already has all the rest of
| the hardware, soundproofed room, etc., it could actually
| be cheaper to buy cans that do not in fact include ANC,
| DAC, Dolby, amplifier, etc., and maybe even enjoy a bump
| in audio quality while at that. For someone who does not
| have that, it is often simply not a practical choice.
| nomel wrote:
| It would be interesting to see the cost breakdown of the
| BOM for the two headphones.
|
| I wouldn't be surprised if Beyerdynamic has similar, if
| not _more_ , margin.
| bdcravens wrote:
| I have a pair (gen 1). Sound good with my MBP, but with my phone
| (16 Pro Max), I've had intermittent skipping of the audio signal,
| which just shouldn't happen at that premium level.
| altairprime wrote:
| What did Support say when you opened a case?
|
| The Bluetooth chip & version in these won't be the same one you
| have today, so there's no guarantee that present experience
| will inform future experience (better _or_ worse).
| bdcravens wrote:
| I haven't contacted support about it. It's a minor annoyance,
| and my Airpods Pro (both gen 2 and 3) have worked perfect
| with my phone.
| BowBun wrote:
| Truly the Beats of our generation. Buy headphones from audio
| specialists, not Apple.
| piskov wrote:
| Apple hardware sound is the best on the market (macbooks, ipad,
| etc.).
|
| It is unwise to dismiss their prowess
| porphyra wrote:
| Honestly Apple's Airpods Pro and Airpods Max sound pretty great
| though, and I own several pairs of "audiophile" IEMs and
| headphones.
| paxys wrote:
| Will agree about Airpods Pro, but Max are a notch below the
| competition (Bose, Sony, Sennheiser).
| bayindirh wrote:
| Apple knows its cookies when it comes to sound. I can say that
| as someone who uses proper HiFi systems and has played in
| orchestras.
| Angostura wrote:
| Still pretty happy with my Homepods in Stereo
| alt227 wrote:
| These earphones are not for people who appreciate good audio.
| They are for people who want more products in the Apple
| ecosystem and have lots of money to spend.
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| The Apple designer who designed them owns a music label and
| obviously appreciates good audio
| jandrewrogers wrote:
| Apple headphones have better audio fidelity than you are giving
| them credit for. I have several different pairs of high-end
| studio headphones and expensive amps to drive them. The Apple
| Max, which I also own, frankly provides a cleaner reference
| than some of the classics. They are perfectly usable as
| reference headphones.
|
| The built-in Apple audio DSP, amps, etc have surprisingly good
| fidelity. Much higher quality than you would expect from
| consumer hardware. They even provide high-impedance headphone
| jacks on their recent computers.
| squidsoup wrote:
| If you have multiple apple devices, the seamless switching is
| the killer feature, for me anyway. My Bose headphones were
| absolutely abysmal at this, and it drove me mad.
| astrange wrote:
| Apple's R&D budget for a single product is larger than the
| entire audiophile industry, and they also actually know how to
| manufacture things.
| thorncorona wrote:
| 20 hours of listening is surprisingly low --
|
| sony xm6 -- 30h
|
| bose qc ultra -- 24h
|
| would recommend the sony anc headphones, they're quite good.
| 46493168 wrote:
| XM6 does not support audio over USB-C (The USB-C port on the
| XM6 is only for charging) QC Ultra 2 does, but the headphones
| turn off when plugged in and have to be turned back on while
| charging
|
| AirPods Max with USB-C and AirPods Max 2 appear to be the only
| headphones among this group (XM6, QCUltra2, AirPods Max with
| USB-C, AirPods Max 2) that support both Audio over USB-C and
| automatic charging while in use.
| dijit wrote:
| The Max 2 finally arrived and I felt nothing.
|
| That surprised me... I buy every in-ear AirPods Pro without much
| deliberation, even the Pro 3 which measurably regressed on sound.
| The heart rate sensor and ANC bump were enough.
|
| I say that to clarify: I wanted to want these.
|
| But it's death by a thousand cuts. The weight alone I'd live
| with. The case I'd accept. No IP rating on something I'd like to
| wear outside.. fuck.. _fine_ , annoying, moving on. But all of it
| together, at that price, with that much time to fix any of it?
| Hard pass.
|
| I've gone for the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 instead. More
| expensive, noticeably worse ANC. But you can hear where the money
| went. The drivers, the feel, the fact that four hours in you've
| stopped thinking about them. It sounds like it was made by people
| who find audio interesting.
|
| Apple used to feel like that.
|
| Embarrassingly, it also has no IP rating: somewhat hilarious from
| a company in West Sussex, where "unexpected sunshine" makes the
| local news. And the ANC versus Sony is less a gap than a... uh
| "chasm".
|
| The question I'd put to anyone in this thread still weighing it
| up: are you buying the best headphone, or the most convenient
| one? For in-ears those are the same answer. For over-ears, I'm
| not sure they are.
| piskov wrote:
| > even with the Pro 3's having inferior sound quality
|
| Then
|
| > I decided to buy the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2
|
| Have you seen its frequency response?
| dijit wrote:
| Yeah, but isn't that a deliberate tuning thing?
|
| Much further away from Apples marketing as "best airpods yet"
| for an all-rounder product.
| throwaway290 wrote:
| can you use them in wired mode?
| dijit wrote:
| I feel like a salesman now, but yeah you can... they come
| with a straight through USB-C:USB-C cable (though it's super
| thick and seems rated to carry 60w and USB2.0 speeds
| according to my Treedix.. weird choice) and a USB-C to 3.5MM
| jack cable.
| ex-aws-dude wrote:
| I don't understand how a pair of headphones can be $549 meanwhile
| the Macbook Neo is $599
|
| The pricing on these always seemed a bit crazy to me, like the
| value is way off compared to other Apple products
| throwaway290 wrote:
| a lot of non apple headphones cost more... and many don't even
| sound better...
| steve1977 wrote:
| Well, in the market segment of Bluetooth ANC headphones,
| there's not that much. Bowers & Wilkins and Focal come to
| mind, both audiophile luxury brands and similarily
| overpriced.
|
| On the other hand, the flagship Sony is quite a bit less than
| AirPods Max.
| ruszki wrote:
| Doesn't Sony have the best codec on Bluetooth? It
| definitely has worse noise cancellation than my AirPod, but
| afaik it should have better audio quality on paper.
| steve1977 wrote:
| At least the WH-1000XM6 also has better noise
| cancellation (on paper).
| Marsymars wrote:
| Yeah, but if you're using Apple phones/tablet/computers
| they only support AAC Bluetooth anyway unless you add a
| Bluetooth dongle, which kinda defeats the purpose of ever
| using Airpods.
| momoschili wrote:
| Different target markets. Audiophiles and wealth exhibitionists
| are much more willing to pay the large amount
| Paria_Stark wrote:
| Doubt audiophiles are really the target for the AirPods Max.
| bayindirh wrote:
| As a (sane) audiophile, I happily use Apple devices for
| enjoyable listening. Their headphones have amazing clarity
| and soundstage for their size. If you keep in mind that
| AirPods are calibrated to your ears with your iPhone's
| FaceID camera, they provide nice, tailored sound.
|
| I also have nice, but not over the top equipment. Yes, some
| of them sound nicer and more detailed (you can't compare
| large, 100W/channel bookshelf speakers with headphones, can
| you?), but for getting 95% of what they provide without any
| effort is pretty worth it.
|
| Last, but not the least, Apple used Wolfson DACs in their
| iPods for most of their lifetime. Their replacement DACs
| are not worse than the Wolfsons, but probably even better.
| skeeter2020 wrote:
| >> As a (sane) audiophile
|
| this is something you believe about yourself, but an
| oxymoron for everyone else.
| bayindirh wrote:
| I love this "oxymoron" label slapped on me, without
| knowing what audiophile actually means.
|
| Its meaning has distorted as much as how the word hacker
| is distorted.
|
| Yes, I love listening to music and quality audio, but
| don't have a soundtrack to benchmark systems. My bar is
| simple: Do I enjoy what I hear? It doesn't have to fit
| into a recipe. It should be enjoyable, period.
|
| A pair of Apple AirPods can be as enjoyable as two $10K
| speakers powered by a separate stack costing $20K. It's
| akin to loving that hole in the wall restaurant as well
| as that Michelin rated one. Both are enjoyable in its own
| sense.
|
| Well, I use the same amp, turntable and tuner for the
| last 30 years, and the same CD player and speakers for
| the last 10 years.
|
| Changed the speakers since I had no space for the older
| Akai set, and replaced the CD player since the older one
| was acting up.
|
| Replaced the Logitech Bluetooth receiver for a Fiio DAC
| last week since I found one for a bargain.
|
| Everything is connected with high quality yet 30 year old
| cables.
|
| I believe that's a pretty sane evolution for someone who
| grown up with music, and performed some.
| astrange wrote:
| > If you keep in mind that AirPods are calibrated to your
| ears with your iPhone's FaceID camera, they provide nice,
| tailored sound.
|
| That's only for spatial audio.
| bayindirh wrote:
| That's what Apple states, yes, but I suspect that it's
| also used for calibrating the inner microphones of newer
| AirPods which is used for the "live eq" which works by
| listening the feedback inside the ear.
|
| From my experience, Apple can sometimes "forget" to tell
| things.
| zamalek wrote:
| I'm a slight audiophile, enough to own a Schitt stack and
| lower-end planar magnetics, overall cost would be slightly
| more than the AirPods Max 2. I did try the previous
| generation and walked away with no emotional response
| either way to the quality of the sound.
|
| The Apple tax makes me extremely skeptical that I would get
| $500+ worth of sound quality, however ANC upsets that
| equation quite a bit. For around the same cost I could get
| a _much_ better set of DAC+Amp+Headphones _but_ it would
| sound objectively worse in a noisy environment.
|
| You also can't experience true lossless on any bluetooth
| audio output device, for what that's worth (many "true"
| audiophiles would fail an A/B test for AAC).
|
| The previous generation were also REALLY bassy, _and there
| 's nothing wrong with that,_ bassy headphones are how to
| make things sound "fun" and that's why the likes of Beats
| make so much money. That categorically makes it not
| audiophile, though, because it just takes an EQ/pre-amp to
| achieve the same effect (which can be toggled on and off).
|
| Ultimately, my most basic issue with these is that if
| you're willing to blow 500 bucks on headphones, then going
| modular (DAC+Amp+Headphones) will give you more room to
| explore something that you apparently really enjoy.
| bayindirh wrote:
| As said, different markets. If you look from the same
| perspective, the last iPhone I ordered is 3x the price of a
| last generation MacBook Air.
|
| $549 is pretty reasonable if the headphone has the sound detail
| it's advertising. Given how AirPods Gen 3 sounds, I'm sure that
| thing sounds pretty amazing.
| porphyra wrote:
| Isn't this pricing pretty in line with other high end ANC
| headphones?
|
| e.g. Bowers & Wilkins PX8 ($699), Focal Bathys ($849), Sony
| WH-1000XM6 ($399), Kef Mu7 ($399), Bose QC Ultra ($449)
| kakacik wrote:
| Or Sennheiser momentum 4, 150 bucks and sound at least as
| good if not better, have absolutely huge battery compared to
| tiny apple one, more comfortable and generally work much
| better with non-apple ecosystem (also apparently they support
| multi-device pairing but I haven't used that one).
|
| Don't pay the novelty price shortly after release, these go
| down quite a bit after introduction, ie last year Sony are
| basically the same device.
| arccy wrote:
| Sony actually listened and made the cups foldable again
| though
| margalabargala wrote:
| > Sennheiser momentum 4, 150 bucks
|
| Where do you see these at 150? Lowest I see is 250.
| elicash wrote:
| Amazon price history: ranges between $187 and $430, with
| average $277. $250 now. (So I agree with your take.)
|
| https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B0B6GHW1SX
| mvdtnz wrote:
| Weird response. He said "I don't understand how a pair of
| headphones can be $549" and you responded "here are some
| headphones that are priced at $549".
|
| Yeah. We know. It's just hard to understand how anyone can
| value headphones at this price. It's lunacy.
| bombcar wrote:
| Sennheiser HD 800 S is $1700 and has been around for years. Or
| the Meze Elite Tungsten at $4,000 - if Apple can get 80/90% of
| the way there at $549, they'd be a steal _for the right
| customer_.
| Shebanator wrote:
| The quality x price curve is not linear. Expensive materials
| and engineering often produce only incremental quality
| improvements, if any. Sometimes the improvements are only
| cosmetic. So Apple's headphones would need to be a lot closer
| to the best of the best than 80-90% in order to justify their
| price.
| Kon5ole wrote:
| The feature that applies a hearing test as an equalizer
| setting make the APM sound pretty damn good, so much so it
| ended my 20 year long headphone-collecting hobby.
|
| Before hearing-tuned EQ became a thing, trying headphones
| was like trying food. No matter what someone else said it
| was no guarantee you'd like the sound. Conversely, you
| might find a cheap pair that sounded spectacular to you.
| The APM will sound very good to just about anyone, with the
| hearing test EQ applied.
|
| I think every headphone maker (or better yet, DAC maker)
| should have this feature. Audiophiles are often old, a
| hearing test EQ can make them hear music like they're 20
| again, and they'll pay for it.
| hackingonempty wrote:
| Just buy the good ol' HD-600, or some sealed cans, or
| whatever fits your head the best and use an eq profile from
| AutoEq.
| j3k3 wrote:
| Price and quantity go in pairs.
|
| As long as a pair exists on the demand curve, Apple can charge
| that price.
| Computer0 wrote:
| Same could be said about the Vision Pro, much pricier than
| their mass market alternatives, while being in-line with high
| end professional gear.
| butlike wrote:
| And _STILL_ the Sony MDR's are still ~$100.
| asdff wrote:
| Peripheral tech must have absurdly lucrative margins. I see it
| in my niche interests too. Cycling or golf gps are like
| hundreds of dollars. They are the same products they were 15
| years ago: cheap lcd screen with a cheap gps radio and some
| severely underpowered cpu with noticable input lag. Designed to
| fall apart in a few years. Still same prices they always were,
| maybe they get away adding another $50 a year to the price on
| occasion. It is like they hit their price point and margin
| number and are perfectly happy making probably >60% markup on
| us who have no option otherwise. Yes we could potentially order
| prototypes trivially for cents a unit from same places in china
| the first party manufacturers go to, but minimum order is
| probably 1000 units.
|
| That is literally the sole moat of these companies: minimum
| orders from china and the fact we can't spend the ad money they
| can to move that volume quickly. Not tech or offering a good
| deal. Just being there already with money and doing the
| inevitable. Being the more productive drug dealer quicker to
| move the kilo to the captured audience and bankrolled to get
| the next several and scale.
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| Inflation calculator site says 45% inflation since 2011, USD.
| asdff wrote:
| How about moores law?
| interludead wrote:
| It does look strange when you compare it directly to a MacBook,
| but headphones are a weird category
| ActorNightly wrote:
| You do, you just don't want to admit it because you think it
| may make you look ridiculous, but your intuition is correct -
| Apple sells tech jewelry.
|
| Every single one of their products is overpriced to appear
| premium.
| vrosas wrote:
| I've struggled to understand how Loop earplugs cost $25+ when
| you can get actual music-playing earphones for less than $10.
| gehsty wrote:
| One is a fashion item, another is an education focussed laptop.
| People will pay a lot of money for how things look.
| dav43 wrote:
| The mesh in version one lasted just over 12 months.
|
| Repair bill at Apple was 90% of the cost of a new pair.
|
| Truly the worst built product I've bought from Apple.
|
| Never again.
| abtinf wrote:
| The worst built apple product is the HomePod.
|
| It just sits there, with no one touching it. Suddenly, music
| randomly starts and stops playing. Take it into the Apple
| Store, they acknowledge it's a known hardware defect to start
| registering non-existent touches, and they refuse to fix it.
| Offer to replace it with a refurb unit for like ~$20 less than
| a brand new unit.
|
| Edit to add: the unit is less than 2 years old.
| bombcar wrote:
| I got sick of it, unplugged it, and left it for a few months,
| and ... apparently it fixed itself? Now it's working fine, as
| fine as any HomePod does.
| thoughtpalette wrote:
| FWIW we use the minis all over our place and love'em. But we
| pretty much only ask basic questions or use them for airplay.
| Sounds quality is impressive imo.
| forthwall wrote:
| I can't believe they finally refreshed this after I just churned
| (after owning the v1 since launch), always happens! The old
| Airpods Max had an issue of these giant booms when it was going
| low power that just wrecked my eardrums - I feel like the apple
| ecosystem pull is pretty compelling, but I think torturing your
| users for enough time will get even the most loyal customers
| churn.
|
| I've been enjoying the nothing headphones, I enjoy having an off
| button and ability to connect via wire to the device.
| gnarlouse wrote:
| i'm sort of done with apple products for awhile. aside from apple
| silicon, the quality of hardware and software decisions seems to
| have been consistently dropping for quite some time. i regret
| buying the new iphone. i regret buying the new air pods. i don't
| regret buying a mac mini recently, but only because it's got an
| apple silicon processor.
| roughly wrote:
| Guess I'll be the contrarian on this one - I've got a pair of the
| Max's and love them. I use them primarily for watching movies and
| TV (I live in an apartment and am not a sociopath), and the
| "spatial audio" is incredibly good. Apple's got a "Sound" to
| their products that isn't neutral, but is very detailed and tends
| to disappear pretty quickly. Both the noise cancellation and the
| "transparent" mode are phenomenal. They're a bit buggy, yes, but
| not tangibly worse than any other bluetooth headphones I've
| owned. They're heavy, but I don't wear them outside - they're
| solely for home use. I'm personally excited to see these get a
| refresh.
| StefanKarpinski wrote:
| Wild. I have been eagerly awaiting this refresh, but this doesn't
| address either of the main issues with the original AirPods Max:
|
| 1. Still just as heavy. The AirPods Max sound quite good, but
| they are _very_ heavy, to the point of being fairly uncomfortable
| after listening for any longer amount of time. This release as
| the exact same weight as the originals (13.6 oz).
|
| 2. Still no off button/position. They stay partially on unless
| you put them in the awkward and useless "case", which means
| they're constantly out of power when you want to use them.
| There's even an obvious fix: the ear cups swivel flat, they could
| just make this the "power off" position. Solved. But they didn't,
| so presumably these still have the same problem. There's also no
| mention of magnetic charging via stand, which would be another
| way to help alleviate this problem.
|
| If these were even a few ounces lighter and powered off properly,
| I would buy them for sure. Given this announcement, I guess I
| will look for something else to replace the old AirPods Max.
| infocollector wrote:
| I've been using AirPods Max since they first launched, and over
| the years I've tried several times to switch to Bose.
|
| However, the Bose headphones just haven't worked as smoothly
| for me from a software and integration standpoint. I tend to
| run into more glitches and small issues compared to the AirPods
| Max. I'm not sure whether that's primarily a Bose issue or
| something related to Apple's ecosystem, but my guess is that
| other high-end headphones probably face similar integration
| challenges when paired with an iPhone.
|
| On the bright side, Max is very reliable.
| microtonal wrote:
| I also have the AirPods Max and had the Bose QuietComfort
| Ultra, and it is hard to convey how effortless the Max are in
| comparison. The switching between devices is so seamless (if
| you are in the Apple ecosystem). The controls are also much
| easier to find and use.
|
| The weight hasn't been an issue for me.
| 46493168 wrote:
| Are you sure your AirPods Max have the latest firmware? This
| issue was addressed in an update right after the first version
| came out and people reported the issue you're describing:
|
| If you set your AirPods Max down and leave them stationary for
| 5 minutes, they go into a low power mode to preserve battery
| charge. After 72 stationary hours out of the Smart Case, your
| AirPods Max go into a lower power mode that turns off Bluetooth
| and Find My to preserve battery charge further
|
| [Archive link, as the latest Support doc doesn't have this
| wording any longer]
|
| [0]https://web.archive.org/web/20210315052229/https://support.a
| ...
| femiagbabiaka wrote:
| It's still extremely odd that they don't just... turn off..
| ever? Even the case marketing copy notes this:
|
| > When stored in the soft, slim Smart Case, AirPods Max enter
| an ultra-low-power state.
| xxpor wrote:
| Perhaps for Find My/UWB support?
| iAMkenough wrote:
| Funny enough, the original and the new AirPods Max don't
| have UWB. That won't help me find my headphones in my
| house.
|
| If for Find My, why stay in "low power" mode for days
| before moving to "ultralow power" mode? Is silly.
| tombot wrote:
| Find my works fine on a coin cell battery on AirTag, hard
| to imagine they need to power up the headphones to do the
| same.
| ruszki wrote:
| What does "down" and "stationary" mean? I put my Sony to
| random paces, mainly just throwing it into my backpack. Would
| that be considered as down and stationary? Would it be turned
| off if I'm on the move? In a car? On a bus?
| StefanKarpinski wrote:
| I mean, I regularly leave them on a shelf in my apartment
| and they apparently do not consider that "down" or
| "stationary" enough to not just drain the battery
| completely. Truly a bafflingly bad design from the company
| that is (was) known for great hardware design.
| StefanKarpinski wrote:
| I got excited there for a second -- free fix for the most
| annoying problem with my headphones! But no, my AirPods Max
| have the latest firmware and still have this issue. Any time
| I leave them for more than a day, the battery is drained.
| frizlab wrote:
| Try hard reset (long press (~15s) both buttons).
|
| I know I have had this issue and did not have it after
| reset. Though I do have _another_ annoying, and seemingly
| unique issue: sometimes, when adjusting the position of the
| headphone, they do a "click" (and a loud one), and just
| shut down. After a few seconds, they boot up again.
|
| The farthest from the last reset, the more often it
| happens. I have no idea why.
| LoganDark wrote:
| I noticed that behavior as well, but whenever I speak
| loudly with the headphones on. One remark to myself
| that's too loud, and suddenly _pop_ and the noise
| cancellation is gone for like 10 seconds. Super annoying.
| Hippocrates wrote:
| That doesn't sound right. I have them on my desk. Don't
| even know where the bra case is. I use and charge them only
| once in a blue moon, perhaps every 2 months, and the
| battery does not die. I don't lay them flat or anything
| either.
| nebula8804 wrote:
| Have you reset your AirPods Max by holding down the non
| circular button until it starts blinking white and then
| reconnecting?
|
| There have been times where the AirPods Max have sort of
| crashed, and I cannot get them to connect properly. I find
| that forgetting the AirPods in the phone/computer and then
| resetting them by holding down the button allows them to
| start fresh with a new state. Maybe that can help resolve
| the issue for you. But Im constantly switching them between
| three nearby devices so maybe thats why I have this
| problem. Just throwing it out there in case you haven't
| tried a reset.
| avalys wrote:
| Like others here, I don't have this problem. I often leave
| them in my backpack for weeks between airplane flights,
| etc.
| phil21 wrote:
| They must have been utterly unusable on release then.
|
| I have latest firmware and if I forget to place my Max's in
| their case they are at half power or less within a few days.
|
| As such they get used a lot less than I would otherwise. One
| of my more wasteful purchases in the past few years.
|
| That and the super annoying behavior where two floors away
| they decide to randomly pair with my Mac Studio when someone
| Slack Huddles me or whatever, then I need to fiddle with
| settings to get my airpods pro to connect instead.
|
| This is coming from someone who thinks the Airpods Pro are
| downright magical in how well they work.
|
| Could be because I also pair them with regular old Bluetooth
| from a PC in addition to the Apple ecosystem. The earbuds
| likely don't have the same issue because they inside a case
| and are fully turned off when not in use.
|
| Sound quality honestly isn't that great either, but I suppose
| that's more inherent in headphones in general vs. speakers
| than anything to do with them specifically.
| drcongo wrote:
| I held off buying the first version for exactly these two
| reasons. Will also "hold off" on buying these.
| santiagobasulto wrote:
| I've been using my AirPod Max for hours for the past 2 years
| and never noticed they were "heavy". I'm wondering now as I've
| never researched on headphones (I just buy simplicity from
| Apple, I'm not an audio sophisticated costumer) that was never
| brought out to me, so I haven't even noticed.
| frizlab wrote:
| The AirPods Max are excessively comfortable, even though they
| are heavy. Some (most?) lighter headphones are actually less
| comfortable because they do not "fit the head" so well (at
| least for me).
|
| Caveat: after a while the mesh at the top starts to stretch,
| and then you get the two metal bands going straight into the
| head, and _that_ hurts. And the worst part is: this mesh is
| not replaceable :( There are silicone band-aids that can be
| bought, but I would have very much preferred for a
| possibility of repair to exist...
| QuiEgo wrote:
| I feel that fit and comfort is an incredibly personal thing,
| but the weight was always fine for me - their design spreads it
| out pretty well.
|
| The killer feature for me is the deep ear cups. All the Sony
| headphones touch my Dumbo-sized ears and get crazy warm, the
| APMs don't.
| krferriter wrote:
| Yeah despite being heavier I find the Airpods Max more
| comfortable to wear than my Sonys. Sony has shockingly
| shallow ear cups and do get much warmer and the headband is
| very narrow and barely padded. The Airpods Max ear cups are
| better and the headband is wide and mesh so spreads out the
| weight and it breathes too.
|
| The one major downside to the Airpods Max is that they do not
| have an off button and the case is useless for throwing them
| in a duffel / backpack, as it doesn't protect the headband
| mesh at all. I have a 3rd party hardshell case for them but
| it is very unreliable in actually putting them in "ultralow
| power mode", so the battery drains.
| larrik wrote:
| As someone who has never seen these or paid attention to them I
| was thinking "how heavy could they possibly be?" Then I saw
| 13.6 oz and I was blown away. That's actually really heavy for
| headphones!
| jerlam wrote:
| Lots of people equate weight with quality. Good for selling
| them in store, bad for actual use.
| killingtime74 wrote:
| I remember a teardown where weights were taped inside. I
| think it was a beats headphone.
| chihuahua wrote:
| It was Beats. At first it was found in counterfeit Beats,
| but later the same was found in genuine Beats. And then
| guess who bought Beats for their exquisite metal weight
| technology? That's right, it was Apple.
| whynotminot wrote:
| They bought them for the streaming service that came with
| it. Not for fake weights in headphones.
| georgespencer wrote:
| > And then guess who bought Beats for their exquisite
| metal weight technology? That's right, it was Apple.
|
| It's self-evidently extremely disingenuous to claim that
| Apple bought Beats for their "exquisite metal weight
| technology", so I thought I'd double check your claim
| that there are "metal weights" inside Beats headphones.
|
| All of this appears to stem from two blog posts, written
| by the same VC.[^1] The first time they accidentally tore
| down counterfeit Beats, and when they managed to repeat
| the process, they "stuck by [their] claim" that:
|
| > "...these metal parts are there to add a bit of weight
| and increase perceived quality with a nice look."
|
| The BOM estimate they provide lists the following metal
| parts:
|
| * Inner cast metal separator
|
| * Springs
|
| * Torx screw
|
| * Self tapping screw
|
| * Cast metal supports
|
| * Stamped metal ear cup
|
| None of these are extraneous weights not serving a
| purpose. The claim of the author might be better
| presented as:
|
| "Beats headphones use heavier metal components instead of
| plastic ones, and I think it's because they add weight."
|
| There are a lot of very good reasons to use materials
| that dampen unwanted interference like parasitic
| vibrations. Stiffer materials such as metal parts
| typically flex less, and have fewer (but usually more
| pronounced) resonances than plastic parts, which have
| intrinsic damping but might distort.
|
| A good example of this is that the driver in your
| headphones is _moving_. Therefore the housing it is
| placed in must consider sprung /unsprung mass. Adding
| metal components increases the mechanical impedance.
|
| So:
|
| 1. It is entirely possible that your claim about the
| weights is correct, and Beats chose to use metal
| components rather than plastic purely to add weight to
| the product.
|
| 2. There are a great many other possible explanations for
| using metal rather than plastic, and I don't think that
| you're likely to be party to them. For example: maybe
| they had the parts in-chain already and didn't want to
| have to tie up hardware engineering or supplier quality
| engineering for a new plastic part.
|
| [1]: https://beneinstein.com/how-it-s-made-series-yup-
| our-beats-w... (the one where they tear down real Beats)
| nickpeterson wrote:
| The weight is sign of reliability
|
| -Boris the bullet dodger
| wil421 wrote:
| People wear them at work daily and it doesn't seem to be a
| problem. One guy looks likes he's Tier 3 support and uses
| them 8 hours a day 5 days a week for years.
|
| People compliment my Jabra's voice quality otherwise I
| would've switched already.
| dandelany wrote:
| Sure, plenty of people also wear a 14 oz hard hat strapped
| to their head all day with no negative health impacts.
| Doesn't mean it's enjoyable or comfortable for everyone.
| interludead wrote:
| Apple clearly optimized for the "always ready" experience, but
| it does feel awkward that the intended workflow involves
| putting them in the case
| 0x457 wrote:
| Putting it in or out of the case is not that big of deal (for
| me). However, once you take them out of the case you need to
| put that case somewhere, and you can't use headphone stand
| that was just holding them. So now I need a space for them
| when I don't use them and when I do use them, and it can't be
| the same space (in my scenario).
| crimsontech wrote:
| Does it? I haven't used the case since I bought them and
| don't feel like I'm missing anything.
| doug_durham wrote:
| I leave my AirPods Max sitting on my desk for weeks at a time
| outside of the case and the battery never drains. I just put
| mine on today after sitting on my desk for a week and they
| still had 99% charge.
| StefanKarpinski wrote:
| Strange. Are they first gen or later? I did get the absolute
| first gen of these, so maybe it's a problem they couldn't fix
| in firmware? Or I just have a defective pair?
| lanza wrote:
| Same. I rarely use mine and find that they just about always
| still have battery. And even when they don't I'll just plug
| them in and go find something else to do for a few minutes
| and by the time I come back they are usable for hours. The
| talk about the power button is super strange to me.
| foxwell_1959 wrote:
| Thats 386,2 gram for the rest of the world.
| s1mon wrote:
| Might as well be 3862 grams considering how much they hurt to
| wear for any length of time. I was also hoping this update
| would improve the ergonomics, but no. Still too heavy and no
| mention of any improvements to the headband.
| rpgbr wrote:
| 3,86 kilograms, as the rest of the world says.
| htk wrote:
| Absolutely! I have both the AirPods Max and the Bose QC Ultra
| and even though my whole ecosystem is Apple, the QC Ultra is a
| lot more comfortable reliable on day to day usage. Comfort is
| due to weight, and reliability is the batter is predictably on
| the QC Ultra, but on the Max I never know if the battery went
| all down because I can't turn it off.
| pradn wrote:
| They have direct feedback that many people return them bc
| they're too heavy, and yet... It's just Apple being stubborn. I
| guess it's not a big enough problem for them, and they don't
| care about losing the market. One must laugh.
| pwatsonwailes wrote:
| 1. They have steel weights in them to make them that heavy so
| they feel more premium.
| mikestew wrote:
| You're thinking of Beats. And you're still wrong because the
| Beats were knock-offs.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47403183
| pwatsonwailes wrote:
| My mistake. Nice catch.
|
| That being said, AirPods use a steel frame construction to
| get the weight up for the same reason. There's a whole
| thing with weight in neuromarketing for luxury and luxury-
| adjacent products. There's fringe benefits acoustically to
| using it, around resonance mainly, but mostly it's to get
| weight and influence perception. Same reason as the knock-
| offs, different mechanism.
| reaperducer wrote:
| They're not out of power. They're just in some weird deep
| hibernation mode. Mine do this, too.
|
| The work-around I use is to plug them in to the charging cable
| for a couple of seconds. They wake up, the green light comes on
| and everything is fine.
|
| It's a strange problem, but it's not the specific problem you
| think it is.
| infecto wrote:
| Reading #2 makes me sad. I had a pair of Bose for probably a
| decade and tried out Sony and the biggest complaint I have is
| the lack of a physical off button. The Sony have a known issue
| where it don't detect that it's off of your head and it's not
| that obvious that the headphones are on or off. At least a few
| times a week I put them on in the morning and they have been on
| all night.
| krferriter wrote:
| Sony WH 1000 XM4 and WH 1000 XM6 both have physical off
| buttons and I've also never had a problem with them not
| turning off due to inactivity. If I take my XM6 off and put
| them on the desk, they pause music/podcasts and will fully
| turn off after some minutes (like 15 minutes? not sure, but
| it's short enough that if I go eat lunch and come back, they
| turned off automatically).
| butterlesstoast wrote:
| You don't like using the Apple Bra to put your headphones into
| a sleep mode?!
| vinay_ys wrote:
| I'm not buying another expensive AirPods from Apple until they
| have their story straight w.r.t battery health and battery repair
| that is cost-effective. I'm done wasting money on these only to
| have battery issues, clicking noises etc in less than 2 years of
| continuous use.
|
| Irritating thing is how Apple hides bluetooth headphones pairing
| 2-3 clicks deeper than AirPods pairing - on iPhones and Apple TV.
| _ks3e wrote:
| Replacing the batteries on the Maxes is actually a fairly
| straightforward process (no adhesive melting required, just a
| screwdriver and a pry bar), and spare batteries can be
| purchased on Amazon or Ebay for around 50 USD. It's one of the
| better Apple products in that regard, very unlike the in-ear
| models.
| nozzlegear wrote:
| > _Irritating thing is how Apple hides bluetooth headphones
| pairing 2-3 clicks deeper than AirPods pairing - on iPhones and
| Apple TV._
|
| Can't you just create a Shortcut on the iPhone to pair with
| whatever you want via bluetooth in a single tap? Or just edit
| the control center menu itself and add the Bluetooth button
| directly to the control center?
| timothyduong wrote:
| 4 clicks from control centre on stock settings. Two if you add
| the Bluetooth widget into control centre. Swipe down control
| centre > Bluetooth > hey presto
|
| As for ATV, yeah that thing is deep
| gib444 wrote:
| Apple TV Bluetooth drives me insane. Congratulations to the
| psychologists and engineers at Apple who worked on making it so
| bad..
|
| My (non apple) Bluetooth devices almost always need a manual
| connect step
| next_xibalba wrote:
| Never buying these again. Bought the 1st generation and they died
| just after the warranty expired.
| ModernMech wrote:
| I see they didn't fix the annoying design flaw where the ear cups
| click together and deface one another when you take them out of
| the case.
| seizethecheese wrote:
| I'll briefly join the chorus: AirPods Max were the worst value
| for money I've ever spent on a tech product.
|
| But more interestingly: what happens at a company like Apple that
| leads them to not cancel this product and come up with something
| totally new? Is it that the success of their other products pulls
| this along so well that they are numb to this product being a
| dog? AirPods Pro (the earbuds) are a great product, so perhaps
| the headphones org just doesn't have to face the music?
| nomel wrote:
| > so perhaps the headphones org just doesn't have to face the
| music?
|
| Some people don't like anything in their ears. Some people have
| ear canals that don't work/aren't comfortable with "standard"
| tips. This is why headphones will always exist.
| Gigachad wrote:
| I agree it seems terrible value, but I see plenty of people
| wearing them on the street so it's probably a commercial
| success just as a luxury product for people to flex with. While
| everyone else gets the AirPod pros.
| oliyoung wrote:
| > what happens at a company like Apple that leads them to not
| cancel this product and come up with something totally new
|
| I'm in the suburbs of a middling Australian city, nothing
| special and not in particularly high socioeconomic areas
|
| There is at least two people per bus wearing them (or at least
| very good comps), they're as common as Sony XM5 or XM6's and
| while they're not Airpods penetration, they're wildly popular
| for their pricepoint
| flakiness wrote:
| A tangential question: What are the best bang per buck headphones
| these days (preferably wireless)? Not earbuds, but over-the-head
| headphones. Tell me your favorites.
|
| (The internet is so polluted that I cannot find any reliable
| recommendation today so I'm doing a mini "ask HN" here.)
| ohmahjong wrote:
| I don't know exactly how to measure bang for buck, but my Sony
| XM4s have been holding up well, sound good, are decently
| comfortable for a day's work, the battery life is good, etc.
|
| They do have some annoyances like not always sleeping correctly
| when left connected to my laptop, but overall they are easy to
| recommend
| vorpalhex wrote:
| What is your main use case?
|
| Conference calls? Get soundcores.
|
| Actual music? Buy proper open backs and a DAC.
| adolph wrote:
| Any thoughts on the Ploopy?
|
| https://ploopy.co/headphones/
| drcongo wrote:
| Those are definitely not what you want for anything other
| than actual music production - they're designed for a flat
| frequency response which is really useful when mixing
| music, but awful for anything else.
| bloggie wrote:
| I found this forum last year
| https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php which opens
| the door up to a high number of lower cost manufacturers making
| very high quality products. although the forum audience
| (audiophiles) generally eschew wireless products and prefer
| open backed (loud for everyone else and no noise cancelling)
| headphones, there are all kinds of products discussed.
| drcongo wrote:
| The two sibling comments were good suggestions. I have Sony
| XM3s that have been going strong for 6 years, sound superb, and
| have IMHO better noise cancellation than Bose.
|
| For my kids I got Anker Soundcores, and for the price they are
| astonishingly good.
|
| Ignore the thing about open-backs though, I have some extremely
| high end Grado open-backs and barely use them. My primary hobby
| outside of work is making music and I have a dedicated studio
| at home with expensive sound damping / proofing - the only
| reason to ever wear the Grados is if I'm going to be wearing
| them for hours on end. Even then, the Sonys are comfortable
| enough that I've never reached a fatigue point in them.
| bigyabai wrote:
| If you want to go cheap and don't want ANC (eg. open back
| headphones) then there's a lot of good reference/studio
| headphones around. I have a wired Audio Technica M40X for home
| use and a wireless pair of M20X for travel; both are great in a
| quieter environment.
| timothyduong wrote:
| Wireless:
|
| - Top tier general: sennheiser Hbd 630
|
| - good enough: sennheiser momentum 4 (affordable)
|
| - good ANC and "bassy": Sony xm5/xm6 ('muddy' for some)
|
| - I like the Bose ANC profile: Bose QC2
|
| All of them have bad microphones (worse than wired ear pods)
|
| All of them have good to great ANC
|
| All of them are wireless
|
| If you need a good mic then get dedicated headset for calls.
| Otherwise settle for "ok"
|
| I didn't include bathys/marklevin cause the new senn 630
| outplay them on all fronts.
| outlore wrote:
| Bose Quietcomfort (i have the 2nd gen ultra now but I've owned
| other models too) live up to their name for comfort. Very
| lightweight and the earcups are large enough that they don't
| pinch. They may not have the best ANC or featureset, but I
| enjoy mine immensely
| bwv848 wrote:
| Best bang for the buck in terms of sound quality is probably
| the Hifiman HE400SE, which is less than $100, the AKG K701 and
| Sennheiser HD6XX, which are about $200. The catch is that you
| need a proper setup to drive them. But to be honest, getting
| the tuning you like that suits the music is more important.
| robotswantdata wrote:
| any ANC soundcore (anker) headphones or TEMU if you fancy
| rolling the dice. A colleague got a clone of the Sony 1000xm4,
| they sounded and look very similar.
|
| For all day online calls, Jabra evolve2 65 are hard to beat for
| the price.
| LorenDB wrote:
| I have had a pair of the Tozo HT3 for a few months now. Not the
| most comfortable cans ever, but as low as $30 for wireless +
| low latency mode + decent ANC is a pretty good deal IMO.
| janfoeh wrote:
| Another vote for the HT3. My wife and I have one each, and we
| are perfectly content with them -- nice battery life, decent
| build quality, good connection to multiple (two?) sources.
|
| The ANC is not in the same league as a $300 pair, but one
| certainly would not expect them to.
| nagisa wrote:
| Senn HD 490 PRO is an amazing and extremely comfortable
| headphone that has very affordable 1st party replacement parts
| (pads, cables) to boot. These are the first ones I've been
| happy with from day one. But they are wired & open back.
| papa0101 wrote:
| I'm still a big fan of my Bowers & Wilkins px7.
| panda888888 wrote:
| The problem I have with these headphones (at least V1) is that
| the ear cups don't tilt horizontally. Maybe my ears are more
| angled backwards that most people's ears, but with theses
| headphones, the headband part sits really far back on my head.
| This creates a lot of pressure on only the back edge of headband.
|
| Until they make the ear cups tilt horizontally, these will be a
| no-go for me. My ancient 10+ year old Bose QCs 35s can pivot and
| are a million times more comfortable.
| oidar wrote:
| What's the latency on these like for music production?
| drnick1 wrote:
| $549 for consumer grade headphones, really?
| theYipster wrote:
| I'm looking to replace my worn-out Sony XM-3s and am wondering if
| the AirPods Max 2 could be a better option than the XM-6s. I've
| always liked Sony's audio quality and ANC, but felt the
| headphones were not as comfortable to wear while sleeping on
| airplanes than older Bose models I had prior (like the QC-2s and
| QC-3s.)
|
| Can anyone with experience with either the AirPods Max 1s or
| XM-6s tell me what they feel like to sleep with on an airplane
| (business class with a lie flat bed?) Plane travel is my primary
| use-case for these type of headphones.
| Dangeranger wrote:
| I've been using the AirPods Max 1s for the last five years and
| you should get the Sony XM-6s. The Apple AirPod Max sound
| great, bur are heavy and fairly uncomfortable on the head when
| worn for more than an hour or two. Furthermore, I experienced
| persistent wireless connectivity problems and eventually sent
| them back to Apple under warranty. They were replaced
| successfully, but with a different pair of the same model which
| had a worn out headband. Overall it's been a bad experience and
| I wish that I purchased the Sony XM-6s insead.
| sashank_1509 wrote:
| I absolutely hate noise. And so I loved AirPods Max. It was, I
| think the best noise cancelling money could buy and I've tried
| several of the Sony and Bose Headphones. Then funnily enough my
| AirPods Pro 3 completely smokes my AirPods Max. There are times
| when I literally can't notice someone calling out my name, when I
| wear my pro 3 with ambient sounds, this never happened even with
| over the ear noise cancelling phones in the past. I have no idea
| what magic Apple used to pull this off and so my usage of AirPods
| Max has fallen to nil.
|
| Now I wonder if AirPods Max 2 is even better than AirPods Pro 3
| but we are soon reaching the point of diminishing returns. So to
| all kindred souls who hate noise, Pro 3 is probably good enough
| for your use cases!
| mrcwinn wrote:
| Between this and the Apple Vision Pro, does Apple just have one
| dude in their testing labs with a really really powerful neck?
| What is Neck Guy's name and when did he join? Does Neck Guy work
| in Cupertino or is he contracted?
| nebula8804 wrote:
| Does anyone have experience with the Fairbuds and Fairbuds XL? I
| am DESPERATE to get off this Apple headphone bandwagon but need
| something reliable that will work with Apple devices. I'm
| generally extremely happy with Apple products but the headphones
| have been a money sink.
|
| I'm someone who bought three generations of AirPods Pro, as well
| as an AirPods Max. All four devices have been absolute headaches.
|
| The first AirPods Pro had the rattle-gate issue. I was able to
| get it replaced under warranty, but it was a pain to deal with
| until the recall program came out.
|
| Ok I chalked it up to a first gen product and I generally liked
| it when it worked so I decided to upgrade to the second
| generation because it offered more features and I hoped that it
| improved reliability.
|
| I upgraded, and I immediately got the rattle-gate problem again,
| this time right past the warranty period. There was no recall
| program for second gens, and when I went to the store they told
| me the headphones were damaged and I was out of luck.
|
| I try to maintain these devices extremely carefully, but I guess
| my use of isopropyl alcohol to disinfect and clean them damaged
| the ANC microphone. I've never dropped the AirPods, yet they
| still failed.
|
| While being super frustrated with the Pro 2 I ended up buying the
| pro 3 but reconsidered after what I was told about the status of
| the Pro 2 but I missed the return window by a few days. After
| these Pro 3 fail, I just don't want to give them any more money
| for headphones.
|
| I saw the Airpods Max on sale for Black friday a while back so I
| gave them a try as I was getting ear issues wearing in ear
| devices for so long each day. While they are very comfortable,
| the ear caps are a pain to clean.
|
| They absorb sweat and oils over time and do not make it easy for
| them to get released when cleaning with detergent and water. it's
| a massive effort. Im scrubbing with a toothbrush to clean,
| disinfect and then extensively drying them with a heater. All of
| this is taking 1+ hour each 1-2 weeks.
|
| I am someone who is trying to maintain all my equipment as much
| as possible and this "woven texture" feels great but is not great
| for maintenance lifestyle.
|
| Luckily ive accepted that the cheapo 20$ ear caps on Amazon are
| good enough and I just toss old ear caps after they become too
| hard to clean and buy another replacement set. I also have to
| disassemble the headband and use a special cleaning solution I
| found on Amazon, which smells like its just laundry detergent to
| prevent the headband from darkening from regular skin oils.
|
| Now I'm starting to get very occasional "tinny" type of rattling
| with ANC enabled, as other people have indicated here as well.
|
| These damn things are too expensive to have all these stupid
| issues. I'm really desperate for something more repairable and
| maintainable than this junk.
|
| I had a sennheiser wired unit before this and those things lasted
| years with the only replacement being the ear caps like once a
| year.
|
| As it stands, I may have spent close to $1,000 on this over the
| years, and I am just sick and tired of it. They're not bad
| products when they work, they're absolutely GREAT when they work.
| But man, all this headache when they dont work is just ridiculous
| at this point.
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| Surprised to not see others comment on the terrible durability of
| these. Condensation (from normal use, not outdoor or gym) easily
| breaks these after a year or two. If not that, the twisting
| ribbon cable eventually breaks. Repairs are difficult and
| expensive and uncertain.
| theonemind wrote:
| I bought two pairs that each lasted one year. I think this
| explains it.
| iwontberude wrote:
| Hopefully they have fixed the issue with the silicone/elastic
| breaking down in the head band fabric.
| shell0x wrote:
| Noise canceling headphones are absolutely a game changer. I work
| from home in a very noisy downtown apartment with poor
| soundproofing and I'd never get anything done without ANC. I
| haven't had the chance to try the AirPods Max yet, but I do
| wonder how it compares to the Sony headphones.
| astrange wrote:
| Unfortunately ANC only works on some sounds. In the suburbs you
| have leafblowers and cars driving past you on the sidewalk, and
| ANC removes everything /else/ which makes them stand out even
| more.
| jaybyrd wrote:
| excited to buy the first gen second hand
| Gigachad wrote:
| Is there any info on what codecs these support? They mention
| "lossless audio" without any extra detail, is this the new
| Bluetooth LE audio or something proprietary?
| tempaccount420 wrote:
| What I'd like to know is if there's still a bandwidth issue,
| where if you use the microphone, the audio quality downgrades
| severely.
| amelius wrote:
| Looking at this design, I'm getting strong vibes of:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_Multipla#/media/File:Fiat...
| mlmonkey wrote:
| Not to threadjack, but this is a question that I've had for a
| while and I've been looking for the right forum to ask: are there
| any "open source" earbuds? I would like to take a pair of earbuds
| and invert the noise-cancellation curve: basically, amplify any
| ambient noise (with filtering of course). My grandma (not in the
| US or EU) is hard of hearing, and the only options available to
| her are random Chinese junk. I would like to try this experiment,
| where I just invert the noise cancellation curve and make the
| ambient noise louder.
| KeplerBoy wrote:
| Pixel buds have this feature, it's called transparency mode. I
| use it for cycling so I'm still aware of my surroundings in
| traffic.
| smusamashah wrote:
| Lots of earbuds have transparency mode. I have Earfun Air Pro
| 4+ (which were big too big for my ears). They sound very good
| and have really good transparency mode. The company keeps
| releasing firmware updates every now and then.
|
| Also got a nothing Ear. They are very comfy, and have very
| good sound. But transparency mode in those is awful. Other
| things are bad too.
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