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AirPods Max

apple.com

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Re: AirPods Max

#501

Post by kipchak »

thanksforthe42 wrote: post #453
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…

It's a marketing tactic. The goal is to be unaffordable, this way people create goals to buy it and show off to their friends. This has been Apple's marketing since the 2000s. The product quality is secondary to the price. Even the users don't want everyone to afford it. They want to be seen as unique.

The coloration of the iPhones are an impressive example of product differentiation. The lower end phones are distinguishable with a case on from the front and back by the colored bezel on the front, and by the camera arrangement on the back.

Re: AirPods Max

#502

Post by BoorishBears »

bagacrap wrote: post #493
perfectstorm wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Fact check: the cheapest original pixel was $650. The newest iterations, pixel 5 and 4a, are 700 and 350 respectively. A pixel 5 with 128gb storage is 700 whereas the original pixel with 128gb storage was 750. Not bothering to look up nexus phones because they're from a different lineage than pixels, hence the different branding.

> Not bothering to look up nexus phones because they're from a different lineage than pixels, hence the different branding

You're just taking advantage of semantics then.

Anyone who's followed the Nexus line knows exactly what their wording meant, since Nexus devices did give way to the Pixel and did follow the price normalization this person mentions.

Iirc the Nexus 6 Or 6P was the start of rise in prices

They might be misremembering exact prices but I distinctly remember the backlash as Nexus devices went from strong values as dev phones to premium smartphones, then the Pixel dropped and solidified that

Re: AirPods Max

#503

Post by darthrupert »

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…

And significantly cheaper than, say, Sennheiser HD820 or the Focal Stellia.

We cannot know whether the price is crazy before somebody has reviewed them. I'm sure we don't need to wait for long.

If it's an amazing experience, it might be a good deal. I know I would pay huge amounts of money at this stage of my life for a great experience. Like a hundred euros for a single glass of whiskey. Or hundreds of euros for a great meal. And headphones (even battery powered ones) last a whole lot longer than a shot of whiskey or a meal.

But. They're wireless, and Bluetooth 5.0. They will be Bluetooth 5.0 in 5 years, and possibly obsolete because of that. Passive headphones bought today will be just as good in 5 years, unless something weird happens in speaker technology by then.

Re: AirPods Max

#504

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: AirPods Max

#505

Post by kossTKR »

lostgame wrote: post #33

Is there still latency? E.G. when I open GarageBand, and hit a piano key - is there still a bloody whole second delay before I hear it in my ‘AirPods Pro’ with a ‘custom’ W1 chip on a device supposedly made for creatives? No, really. For creators, this might be the worst value proposition I’ve ever seen. $550 USD for headphones that can’t operate without latency. If it wasn’t for the wheels or the stand on the Mac Pr…

I have no idea why people are downvoting you. I think these headphones look awesome but BT latency is beyond ridiculous - i can currently game on a server in 4K 60hz that's a about 600 miles away with 16ms of latency via WIFI from button press to "already decoded 4k video on my screen" on an old laptop (Shadow-PC, stadia like service).

That you can't get low bitrate audio decoded in less than 300ms less than a metre away is absolutely absurd above taken into consideration.

Re: AirPods Max

#506

Post by lostgame »

dbbk wrote: post #216
lostgame wrote: post #33

Is there still latency? E.G. when I open GarageBand, and hit a piano key - is there still a bloody whole second delay before I hear it in my ‘AirPods Pro’ with a ‘custom’ W1 chip on a device supposedly made for creatives? No, really. For creators, this might be the worst value proposition I’ve ever seen. $550 USD for headphones that can’t operate without latency. If it wasn’t for the wheels or the stand on the Mac Pr…

I don't think you are ever going to have zero-latency Bluetooth, whatever brand you buy. Just use a cable.

Sure. Oh, wait. I can't, not with these more than $500 headphones.

It's honestly just embarrassing.

Re: AirPods Max

#507

Post by dep_b »

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…

I don't get replies like this. I tried a bunch of high-end headphones through a switchable amp and I bought the one I thought had the best qualities I was looking for. There was a clear and huge difference in quality and character between each headphone but I didn't need the most expensive one (Sennheiser 650 I believe) because it sounded too nice for my purpose (studio). Went for the BD 990's instead.

Distortion and frequency response graphs are pretty important but not the only important thing in terms of sounds quality. And sometimes you want speakers or cans that simply look cool or have a certain size.

Re: AirPods Max

#508

Post by hindsightbias »

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'll predict AirPods Max will gross more income for Apple in 2021 than all those brands high-end gear combined.

Re: AirPods Max

#509

Post by judge2020 »

jayd16 wrote: post #494
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.

Are you saying they're popular or good? AirPods are popular but I don't think they're very good at all. At least the pros have the rubber tips.

The tech is good on the first one which makes up for the lack of adjustable tips (a few people I know couldn't use them because Apple's design doesn't work for their ears).

Re: AirPods Max

#510

Post by Hamuko »

$549 is way too much to pay for a pair of AirPods Max when you can buy both Sony WH-1000XM4 ($278 on Amazon) and Apple AirPods Pro ($249) for less and still have money left over for a burger. I own a pair of WH-1000XM3s and have thought about the AirPods, since the Sonys are not that portable for all situations. Even if the AirPods Max are really good, I still don't see them being the Sony + AirPods Pro combination.
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