![]() ![]() If you're a card-carrying member of the wider Apple ecosystem, you have a lot of money to spend on headphones, and don't care about Hi-Res Audio, you won't find headphones that sound better or are easier to use. These include immersive Spatial Audio, the ability to automatically switch between iOS devices, one-tap setup, hands-free Siri activation, and Audio Sharing. Post-launch updates include Conversation Boost, the ability to announce notifications with Siri, and integration with Apple's Find My feature.įor Android users, the AirPods Max are simply a high-performance pair of noise-cancelling headphones-and we can't see how the high price is justified. We've decided the AirPods Max are aimed at Apple devotees, as there are many benefits open to Apple users and not Android users. But their price means the Apple AirPods Max are hardly a mass-market product-casual listeners will be unwilling to shell out so much. ![]() Personally, I'd wait for APM 2.0, assuming Apple decides it's worth it to bring to market.So despite their premium price and fantastic sound, they're not marketed towards audiophiles. Just know what you're buying before you take the plunge. If none of the above bothers you, then I can recommend the APM, especially at some of the current discounted prices. But forget about carrying them "naked" - the aluminum ear cups will scratch up easily and the headband mesh fabric is delicate. These aren't 'phones that you readily toss into a backpack or your carry-on bag-they take up quite a bit of room, much more than their premium competitors. A better case, while available through third parties, makes them bulkier still for travel. The "bra" case, as has been covered ad nauseum, is a joke that offers almost no protection. The APM are fairly bulky since they don't fold at all. ![]() (That's right, the APM has no ability to play analog audio even through a wired connection-it has to be converted to a digital signal first.) And hey, I'm not complaining about the need for the special cable, even though my Sony XM4 have no such requirement-but for $549, include the cable in the box!Ĥ) It's not really great as a "travel" headphone. You need Apple's special $35 cable that converts the analog audio from the airline system into digital audio that the APM can process. And no, you can't just pick up some cheap third-party cable with Lightning on one end and the airline adapter on the other. It's just despicable that a $549 headphone doesn't come with the cable you need to connect to an airline's entertainment system. The quality of audio in a playback system is always defined by its weakest link, and in this case, the weak link is the lossy, compressed, AAC codec, which is the best you'll do through a wireless or wired connection to the APM.ģ) Oh, you plan to use APM on an airplane? That will cost you $35 more! This is a case of Apple at its greediest, most consumer-abusing worst. I could excuse this massive shortcoming in one of the most expensive bluetooth headphones if it just applied to wireless listening, but it doesn't-the APM doesn't support lossless listening even through a wired connection. Yes, Apple Music is now filled with lossless audio files, Apple Digital Masters, etc - you just can't listen to any of them through Apple's $549 headphones. I can go long periods of time without using my XM4 and they still maintain a charge-no such luck with the APM unless I keep them charging all the time.Ģ) No ability to listen to lossless audio. I don't care what Apple says about powering off automatically-they don't, at least not completely. The main reason I continue to use my Sony XM4 MUCH more often than my APM-even though I think the APM sounds better and has better ANC-is that my APM are usually dead when I pick them up. As an owner of the Airpods Max since they debuted, I found this to be a "glass half-full" summary-not wrong, per se, but it glosses over some significant faults:ġ) No "off" button. ![]()
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