Apple’s AirPods Max 2 release with H2 chip, boosted ANC in April for $549
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Ok better I guess, but it feels odd to see it updated with a 3 year old chip when theres likely a new one thats coming fairly soon?
Having the ability to play lossless is nice i suppose, i personally am to old to hear the difference anymore, but that does probably represent a nice feature
Also means listening and charging at the same time, main question is how heavy that cable would feel (as a normal
Audio cable is pretty light and supple)
Having the ability to play lossless is nice i suppose, i personally am to old to hear the difference anymore, but that does probably represent a nice feature
Also means listening and charging at the same time, main question is how heavy that cable would feel (as a normal
Audio cable is pretty light and supple)
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No improvement on the ear design (stiff mesh cups are great for breathability but put cold metal close to warm body = condensation problems) or head design (stiff metal frame with cloth bridge = worn out floppy cloth headband after like 3 months) is pretty wack after 5 years. Still shipping with the Pampers collab "case"?
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Same price as before ... only, that model was introduced so long ago one should probably include the effect of inflation at this point.
edit: Oh wow, inflation calculators say that original 12/2020 price is ~$690 in today's money. I wasn't expecting it to be quite that significant!
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The addition of lossless audio via USB-C is nice but it's hard to overlook the complaints about durability of the AirPod Max. I like my Sony WH-1000XM5s but I find the Sony app to be a little annoying with the settings. That being said, they work pretty well 99% of the time with no tinkering needed. Since the WH-1000XM6 is $100 less than the AirPod Max 2 (and often on sale for $399), it's a hard sale for Apple with the only real advantage being the ecosystem integration.
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And they still sell it with the stupid case. I will keep my first version which is rock solid.
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I’m on my third pair of these, since they keep killing themselves with condensation. I do live in a humid state, but get AppleCare if you want these to last.
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This feels like Apple wanted to stop manufacturing the H1 chip so they made the bare minimum possible update to put the H2 in the AirPods Max. Completely identical to the gen 1 USB-C revision otherwise. Not even new color options!
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I'll be curious to see if the lossless-over-USB-C feature requires Apple devices to be on the other end of the cord, or if it works universally.
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Not necessary as there's absolutely no reason to get these if you're not using them with Apple devices.
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I wonder if the “improved” Conversation Awareness still mistakes “singing along with the chorus” for “having a conversation”.
I’ve had to turn it off in my AirPods because the false triggers exceed real by 100-1 and no one thinks you can hear unless you take one out anyway. I imagine that would be even more true for enormous over-the-ear cans.
I’ve had to turn it off in my AirPods because the false triggers exceed real by 100-1 and no one thinks you can hear unless you take one out anyway. I imagine that would be even more true for enormous over-the-ear cans.
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I mean, it's working as intended, so not really a "false trigger". The microphone detects your voice and attenuates the audio because it thinks you might be talking. Which you are.
I don't think that feature ever claimed to be able to tell the difference between singing and speaking.
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I know you’re only joking, but fwiw their supposed successors, the MDR-M1 have been out for a bit over a year, and they sound really good.
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Did you know there are other great headphones that aren’t chronically suicidal?
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Disappointing. I was hoping they’d use this update to upgrade the onboard DAC to one that can handle HiRes over USB-C. Is that difficult to at least bump it from 48 kHz to 96 kHz?
I find it mind-boggling that despite Apple Music having had HiRes music for years, Apple doesn’t sell much in the way of hardware that supports it. Third party external DACs work, but they are not an elegant solution, especially since a lot of them are USB-A.
I find it mind-boggling that despite Apple Music having had HiRes music for years, Apple doesn’t sell much in the way of hardware that supports it. Third party external DACs work, but they are not an elegant solution, especially since a lot of them are USB-A.
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This. How hard is it to just have a slider to turn off or on?
My guess is that they had the experience of the regular airpods in mind when they designed this, you just pop them out of their housing, put them in your ears and automatically they're on. The problem is that no one uses the case for the maxes so essentially they are just on all the time.
Typical apple, "you're not using them right" I assume.
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I have a pair of the MDR-V6 headphones that came before both. And a pair of the MDR-7506. Didn't know there was an MDR-M1 but that price ... oof.
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With the release of the Neo, you could (almost) get an entire Apple computer for the price of these! Who buys these? I'm no stranger to indulgent tech purchases, but $550 for a pair of wireless headphones in a world where their best-rated competitors go for $400 - $300... well, you'd have to really, really want that Apple connectivity.
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Sony Pro MDR 7506 are great headphones and can take a beating - in my experience. They are also much cheaper than these headphones too. Of course, these are wired headphones
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Apple's braided USB cables are nice and light. A wee bit less flexible than my favorite headphone cables, but not so much that they'd be a pain to wear. The only question is the length of the included cable, which Apple doesn't specify. They only say "USB-C Charge Cable", which has me thinking it's only 1 meter.
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Depends on what you're listening to, and how trained your ears are. Lossy audio compression algorithms muck up certain instruments/timbres a lot. My favorite demo is what MP3 does to a reedy and buzzy texture namely bassoon, makes it sound like a clarinet.
Of course...most people usually aren't listening to acoustic instrumentals where such a case matters.
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1) What was the point of the Airpods Max 1.2 launch with the same colors as the 2 now
2) Seems like an odd launch, if I read into it it felt like no press were briefed and the only articles when it hit the newsroom were translated, i.e no prewritten scheduled articles. A launch this imminent wasn't in the rumors at all.
Did they change anything but the H2 chip and the accompanying features allowing live translation and all that? No mention of the new low noise mics that allowed the Pro 3's better ANC without a chip change, is the chassis 1:1 the same other than the chip swap?
Smells of chip and ship with all of the new features coming from the new chip, that one day in Tim Apple's office he was like "Good mornang! We sell over the ear headphones? And we're out of 6 year old chips for it you say?"
2) Seems like an odd launch, if I read into it it felt like no press were briefed and the only articles when it hit the newsroom were translated, i.e no prewritten scheduled articles. A launch this imminent wasn't in the rumors at all.
Did they change anything but the H2 chip and the accompanying features allowing live translation and all that? No mention of the new low noise mics that allowed the Pro 3's better ANC without a chip change, is the chassis 1:1 the same other than the chip swap?
Smells of chip and ship with all of the new features coming from the new chip, that one day in Tim Apple's office he was like "Good mornang! We sell over the ear headphones? And we're out of 6 year old chips for it you say?"
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This isn’t new, is it? I was hoping for lossless over Bluetooth supported for devices other than Apple Vision, but alas.
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For most users, these are very different products. The Airpods Max 2 are wireless and they have noise cancelling, spatial audio, and microphones for use in phone calls/meetings.
These Sony headphones are for listening to music, at home, connected to a good sound source.
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You do, though. If I were in the market for closed-back over-the-ear wireless headphones I wouldn't hesitate to pay a bit extra for the convenience. It's absolutely worth it in my opinion. But then, I thought I was throwing away $250 buying a pair of AirPods Pro, and they've become indispensable to me. The ease with which they jump from device to device cannot really be overstated.
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I have the original version, and it seems this is the exact same design, which means they are still too heavy. I must have used them 2 or 3 times at most, they are very uncomfortable to me. Maybe I'll try the Sony WH-1000XM6.
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That's not a problem with "lossy codecs." That's a problem with MP3.
And yeah, it was a real problem, and still is a real problem...with MP3. Because that came out in 1991.
It's not a problem with AAC or Opus or any of the later-generation psychoacoustic codecs. (And AAC came out in 1997!)
I swear, half the golden-eared audiophiles on the Internet heard a 128kbps MP3 their kid got off of Napster back in 1998, chuckled, shook their heads, went back to their softly-lit, carpeted, wood-paneled basement listening dens, and haven't paid any attention to anything since.
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It's in his name: BATmanuel. Some bats can go way over 100kHz, so it would be a sacrifice to have to listen to at the ~20kHz cutoff you get from 48kHz audio!
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The Airpods Pro were the first ear buds I could even tolerate, and they are quite indispensable to me as well.
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People love to shit on that case but I like that it protects what needs to be protected without taking up half my backpack.
I don’t know about other people’s bags, but I’m usually “protecting" my AirPods Max from a paperback, a notebook, a sweater, an e-reader and maybe an energy bar. ¯\ _ (ツ) _ /¯
(It does look corny, I’ll grant that, especially with the weird exposed seams all over the back. But I honestly couldn’t care less)
I don’t know about other people’s bags, but I’m usually “protecting" my AirPods Max from a paperback, a notebook, a sweater, an e-reader and maybe an energy bar. ¯\ _ (ツ) _ /¯
(It does look corny, I’ll grant that, especially with the weird exposed seams all over the back. But I honestly couldn’t care less)
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Can I have them?
I had exactly the same complaint as you when I first got mine. Not just the weight, but also the clamping force that keeps that weight in place. Over time, I honestly just got used to it. Not saying everyone does, but I barely notice anymore after wearing them at least 2000 hours since early 2021. Will not deny they’re heavy, tho!
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I got my original APMs on sale and they were great, but they were not repairable when they did break. Disappointing but at least mine lasted for 4 years. $550 is steep but v1 was occasionally discounted $80ish and that was when I bit.
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