Earlier quoted context omitted.
I bought a $100 pair of bluetooth Sennheisers that have a battery life that seems to be measured not in hours, but in days. I use them all day every day while working in the office, at home, or coffee shop. Music sounds great and so do movies. Never have to worry about the bluetooth connnection, pairs to my Mac or to my work laptop just fine. And they got to me with Amazon Prime. You do not need to spend $500 if all…
Why would you say something like that when these Apple headphones are not at all aimed at people that want headphones that do the bare minimum job and nothing else? Comparing your $100 Sennheisers to these misses the point completely .
AirPods Max
751–760 of 1001 posts
Re: AirPods Max
#752Earlier quoted context omitted.
I bought a $100 pair of bluetooth Sennheisers that have a battery life that seems to be measured not in hours, but in days. I use them all day every day while working in the office, at home, or coffee shop. Music sounds great and so do movies. Never have to worry about the bluetooth connnection, pairs to my Mac or to my work laptop just fine. And they got to me with Amazon Prime. You do not need to spend $500 if all…
> You do not need to spend $500 if all you need is headphones that do their job. Its amazing to me the number of Apple fanboys in this thread that seem to think that every other pair of headphones out there is completely broken, and nothing will "just work". This has been a solved problem for like a decade.
Re: AirPods Max
#753I'm a sucker. I just bought them. I love being able to switch between my iPhone and my Mac on my AirPods. I have the Sony MX3's, and they are great. I don't like toggling between devices and having it automatically connect to my last used device, have to disconnect it from one, blah, blah. This is what Apple does. They raise prices. People are stunned initially. Others follow, then those prices are the norm. iPhone w…
Happy for you, however my mileage is completely different. Watching Youtube on the iPad having my iPhone lying next to it, pausing the video by taking one Airpod off. Then put it back and iPhone immediately steals AirPods Pro and I have to either connect them back to the iPad in Settings or play/pause/play/pause/... and wait about 20s seconds and they may reconnect. iPhone is lying face down all the time, no music or…
You can turn it off by doing this:
"To turn off automatic switching, go to Settings > Bluetooth, tap the Actions Available button next to the name of your AirPods, tap Connect to This iPhone, then tap When Last Connected to This iPhone."
Re: AirPods Max
#754I think this is actually a fantastic place for Apple. I'm happy to trash Apple where appropriate and I've got plenty of complaints. I think Apple does it's best when the integration of hardware and software is really important and there is a very low tolerance for, I won't say bugs, but issues. They're headphones. I want to put them on and they need to make noise. I'm not dealing with connectivity issues, battery iss…
>I want to put them on and they need to make noise. >I'm not dealing with connectivity issues, battery issues, etc. >Battery, I need to be able to easily and quickly know what the status is and I need to know that if I plugged them in before I go to bed I'll be good to go all day, the next day and I don't have to think about charging. >Connectivity. When I go to use them I need them to connect and work. No fiddling a…
And yes, I get that a lot of people do want to use wireless headphones. I'm not here to argue about that, there are legitimate reasons why people want to get rid of wires. And I also get that these headphones are filled with other features like auto-pausing, noise cancelation. There are reasons someone might look at those features and think they're worth the price. But still -- to see the primary reaction be that the important part is "just working" still feels kind of validating to all of the people who originally called out Bluetooth headphones as a step backwards from where we were.
I remember getting a lot of pushback from people who were all telling me that wireless headphones were going to get really cheap, and most of the growing pains were already over, and we were all just being ludites. But what am I supposed to think when I look at your high-tech future world, and the most popular comment is someone saying that they'll drop 550 dollars on a pair of headphones before they've even heard them, even though they'll only last 3-5 years before the battery dies -- just because it's worth that much money to have a device that reliably plays sound? How am I supposed to look at that and not come to the conclusion that the wireless market is still wildly inferior to the cheap, reliable, high-quality audio devices that came before?
It's been however many years since Apple's removal of the headphone jack and practically every high-end Android manufacturer has since copied them. And what we see is headphones that are specifically designed to work with one brand of phone/computer, that are outrageously expensive, and apparently that expense is justified to some people because the entire rest of the market is filled with options that have minor-to-major irritations during daily use.
Re: AirPods Max
#755I think this is actually a fantastic place for Apple. I'm happy to trash Apple where appropriate and I've got plenty of complaints. I think Apple does it's best when the integration of hardware and software is really important and there is a very low tolerance for, I won't say bugs, but issues. They're headphones. I want to put them on and they need to make noise. I'm not dealing with connectivity issues, battery iss…
You know what doesn't have a battery never had any connectivity issues (before apple) and just works? The 3.5mm jack. I'm all for options though! But apple don't so I guess it doesn't matter.
There are a bunch of really good soft synthesizer apps for iOS that work with a midi keyboard but Bluetooth latency makes them virtually unplayable. With a standard 3.5 mm jack it's not an issue. You can buy a dongle but that's just one more piece of complexity.
Re: AirPods Max
#756I think this is actually a fantastic place for Apple. I'm happy to trash Apple where appropriate and I've got plenty of complaints. I think Apple does it's best when the integration of hardware and software is really important and there is a very low tolerance for, I won't say bugs, but issues. They're headphones. I want to put them on and they need to make noise. I'm not dealing with connectivity issues, battery iss…
For example, with AirPods Pro, you get automatic switching between devices, easy pairing, true wireless earbuds, wireless charging, great ANC and all that in an incredibly tiny package.
But with these AirPods Pro...do you see anything they do that others don't? They are not lighter. Their battery life isn't better. They're not objectively prettier. Their case looks worse. They don't charge wirelessly. There's not a lot of gain to be had in comfort as opposed to earbuds (competing headphones from Bose for example are plenty comfortable).
So...from what we already know, they have one thing others don't and that's the "magical" pairing and switching. And they are $250 more expensive.
This means either they sound incredibly fantastic, or they are way overpriced.
Re: AirPods Max
#757For someone that already has some decent over ear headphones, I read the entire press release thinking that these would be great to get. I was pegging them at $249 to $399 max. $549 shocked the daylights out of me! This is beyond too expensive for me to consider. Maybe it will come down over the years but there must be a very slim market of people who can pay that. I’m not usually shocked by an Apple price but that’s…
Remember when we said $800 for an iPhone is beyond expensive and unreasonable?
It's like student loans, in a way.
Re: AirPods Max
#758Oh, I find it fascinating how the audio gear industry has taught the consumers on how much money you are supposed to spend to have audio experience at certain level. Pay attention on audiophile arguments, they will talk in terms of money(i.e. 150$ 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…
You can’t shit on audiophiles without mentioning overpriced cables
Re: AirPods Max
#759I think this is actually a fantastic place for Apple. I'm happy to trash Apple where appropriate and I've got plenty of complaints. I think Apple does it's best when the integration of hardware and software is really important and there is a very low tolerance for, I won't say bugs, but issues. They're headphones. I want to put them on and they need to make noise. I'm not dealing with connectivity issues, battery iss…
> I'm happy to pay $500 for something that works Sure, if by "works" you mean "only works with other Apple products." The cost isn't just $500, it's also the opportunity cost of going with any other competing (and possibly better) product in the future. Apple's pricing is high, but is even higher if you account for the hidden hand of future buying power you give them. It's a brilliant business strategy as it limits y…
If someone tells me my bargan-tier Samsung phone is slower than molasses, I'm not gonna say "yeah but I like the blue color". I'm gonna agree.
Re: AirPods Max
#760For 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.
Apple's magic is making you pay just that bit more for a "magical" experience. Bluetooth earbuds: $100. AirPods: $159. Clunky smartwatch: $300. Apple Watch: $449.
However the price difference with competing products here is so large I think Apple has priced themselves out of the market here.