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AirPods Max

apple.com

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Re: AirPods Max

#471

Post by pbronez »

theNJR wrote: post #369
cactus2093 wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having paid $350 for Bose QC3 headphones 4 years ago, that I use every day but sometimes have to fight with when e.g. my MacBook Pro keeps trying to steal focus even though i shut it and am trying to use the headphones with my phone now, etc. I completely agree. Paying a bit more for something that just works as well as my airpods do, assuming that this delivers, is totally worth it. On top of that, I expect the soun…

I see you’ve never used AirPods between multiple devises. It’s become a lot better in the last year, but that’s only because it started out infuriating. QC3s were much better than AirPods at multi device up until a recent update.

Do you still get the magic if you're moving between iOS devices with different iCloud users? e.g. a personal device and a work device?

Re: AirPods Max

#472

Post by ecf »

eertami wrote: post #113

$549!? That puts it in the same price category as: Sennheiser HD660S, Audeze LCD-1, Beyerdynamic DT1770/1990, Grado RS2e, among many many others. Honestly, I don't understand why you would buy these when there are a lot of established professional audio companies offering better sound at a cheaper price. At least airpods have a unique selling point in their portability and ux but I don't see how this benefits over-ea…

Paying an extra $200 for the H1 chip to be able to avoid professional audio companies and and their absolutely incompetent Bluetooth implementations is money well spent.

Re: AirPods Max

#473

Post by nomeddie »

hajile wrote: post #289
mrtksn wrote: post #162

Oh, I find it fascinating how the audio gear industry has taught the consumers on how much money you are supposed to spend to have audio experience at certain level. Pay attention on audiophile arguments, they will talk in terms of money(i.e. 150$ headphones vs 500$ headphones) when talking about audio quality. I always find the audiophile market to be borderline fraud. They sell CD demagnetisers, ceramic cable lifte…

There's an exponential curve of cost vs quality. Buying in the bend is best. The difference between a $50 and $200 pair of headphones is staggering. From $200 to $500 is still significant. From $500 to $1000 is extremely slight. From $1000 to $5000 is basically unnoticeable. Apple looks to be using plastic driver cones more at home in a $30 pair of headphones while selling something at the inflection point where head…

You are paying more for the design and user experience with Apple. Sure, there is always something better though I doubt many listen to music that is of sufficient enough quality via their devices to hear the difference or had a really good pair to compare it to. Beats headphones proved that audio quality is not always what moves the market.

Re: AirPods Max

#474

Post by dawnerd »

theNJR wrote: post #369
cactus2093 wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having paid $350 for Bose QC3 headphones 4 years ago, that I use every day but sometimes have to fight with when e.g. my MacBook Pro keeps trying to steal focus even though i shut it and am trying to use the headphones with my phone now, etc. I completely agree. Paying a bit more for something that just works as well as my airpods do, assuming that this delivers, is totally worth it. On top of that, I expect the soun…

I see you’ve never used AirPods between multiple devises. It’s become a lot better in the last year, but that’s only because it started out infuriating. QC3s were much better than AirPods at multi device up until a recent update.

My AirPod experience has gotten much worse since they added the auto switching feature. It just keeps jumping between my phone, iPad and MacBook. Ended up just disabling it.

Re: AirPods Max

#476

Post by martinp »

eertami wrote: post #113

$549!? That puts it in the same price category as: Sennheiser HD660S, Audeze LCD-1, Beyerdynamic DT1770/1990, Grado RS2e, among many many others. Honestly, I don't understand why you would buy these when there are a lot of established professional audio companies offering better sound at a cheaper price. At least airpods have a unique selling point in their portability and ux but I don't see how this benefits over-ea…

I would at least consider them at $550, but in the Norwegian Apple Store they are $800. Even including 25% VAT, it's another $130 on top of that. Apple's region-adjusted prices are insane.

Re: AirPods Max

#477

Post by yk »

eertami wrote: post #113

$549!? That puts it in the same price category as: Sennheiser HD660S, Audeze LCD-1, Beyerdynamic DT1770/1990, Grado RS2e, among many many others. Honestly, I don't understand why you would buy these when there are a lot of established professional audio companies offering better sound at a cheaper price. At least airpods have a unique selling point in their portability and ux but I don't see how this benefits over-ea…

Apples customers don't know that. The entire strategy of Apple is, selling to people who compare a EUR 1500 MacBook to a EUR 500 HP laptop. Of course the MacBook is a lot better. Similar, these need to be a lot better than AirPods. They will be, and they will sell.

Re: AirPods Max

#478

Post by satysin »

nikisweeting wrote: post #456
satysin wrote: post #437

The price is high at $549 however given Apple's proven audio engineering I will give them the benefit of the doubt on sound quality on par with similarly priced headphones from Sennheiser, etc. I mean have you heard the speaker quality on the 16" MacBook Pro?! Literally no other laptop sounds as good. My biggest concern is if they are user serviceable. I have a pair of Sennheiser that cost around £700 when I bought t…

Six years in and my BackBeat Pros have over 1000+ cycles and still last 15+ hours out of their original 24hr. I don't notice a functional difference, I still recharge them about every 3 days. It's not 10 years but the experience of owning a lithium-battery powered pair of headphones has not degraded as much as I was expecting. Hopefully the Apple batteries are replaceable though, it would really suck to have a $550 p…

That is a good experience that unfortunately I didn't have with my daughters Beats that lasted ~3 years before the battery was down to around two hours. Granted this was before Apple purchased them so perhaps things have improved since then.

My daughter now has a pair of Sony XM3 that she loves but she will no doubt want these. Lucky for me she is now 18 so can buy her own expensive headphones :D

Re: AirPods Max

#479

Post by jayd16 »

perfectstorm wrote: post #405
blantonl wrote: post #308

For all the complaining about the pricing here, just set a reminder to yourself for 1 year later, when the pandemic has waned and some workplaces begin to return to normal. Then take a visual survey of how many people are wearing these in those hip open office development workspaces. You'll see the pricing didn't matter at all. You'll probably be wearing a pair yourself when you do that visual survey.

I have a feeling that this 'allows' Bose and Sony to raise their prices causing everything to normalize around $500 price range. Remember the original pixel (or nexus)? they were priced around $350-$400 and look where they are now ($700).

So true. The WH-1000MXs are quite nice and at $350 new and $180 for last year's model/refurbs. I expect these numbers to bump up, sadly.

Re: AirPods Max

#480

Post by lotsofpulp »

anonu wrote: post #425
eertami wrote: post #113

$549!? That puts it in the same price category as: Sennheiser HD660S, Audeze LCD-1, Beyerdynamic DT1770/1990, Grado RS2e, among many many others. Honestly, I don't understand why you would buy these when there are a lot of established professional audio companies offering better sound at a cheaper price. At least airpods have a unique selling point in their portability and ux but I don't see how this benefits over-ea…

Pricing a product is always a very hard thing. I speak from experience working at a startup and trying to understand what price the market will bear. The beauty with Apple is they build beautiful products that people covet. They effectively create a new market and force people to re-assess what they would pay for XYZ feature. I am sure the average user would never dream of spending $500+ for a pair of headphones yest…

Brand new iPhone SE is $400. Entry level iPhones have never cost more than ~$650. The entry level specs are good enough for 80% of people’s needs, and an extra $100 or $200 probably satisfies 95% of people’s needs.

I don’t see the purpose of the “$1k iPhone” meme when it’s blatantly false, and competing Android phones have also always cost around the same amount.

And what’s also been blatantly true is the amortized cost of an iPhone over its longer lifespan versus competing products has always been lower.

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