Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

AirPods Max

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

761–770 of 1001 posts

Re: AirPods Max

#761

Post by oh_sigh »

dahfizz wrote: post #721
low_common wrote: post #717

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…

> 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.

I don't think that's true for wireless. I have a pair of bose qc 35s, but can't actually use them to watch general video content on my computer because of the 1/3rd second latency. If I can watch something on a player that lets me add video delay(like VLC), they work great, but not for youtube or web videos.

Re: AirPods Max

#762

Post by maerF0x0 »

leokennis wrote: post #756
zcw100 wrote: post #240

I 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 agree with the general "it's expensive but for that price it just works" statement. 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 objec…

> I agree with the general "it's expensive but for that price it just works" statement.

One thing a "disparity" (as in variety) of wealth creates is slices of populace where the value of the solution is worth vastly more. Tech that "just works" is one such place. People placing higher value on convenience ...

Another such place that is interesting is healthcare. Some portion of the market places longevity or health optimizations way beyond the traditional insurance models. They're willing to spend far and beyond the marginal savings from prevention to avoid health issues. An example might be taking expensive NMN/NR to potentially avoid future health issues, despite costing 100s per month.

eg: https://www.elysiumhealth.com/en-us/science-101/8-reasons-wh...

Re: AirPods Max

#763

Post by mgraupner »

schappim wrote: post #596
emsy wrote: post #24

These look magnificent. I’m Looking forward to a couple of years when the battery is dead and you can’t change it without breaking the glued case. This is similar to the reaction I have to announcements of new Google services due to notorious discontinuation. Edit: judging from the explosion view, it does look to feature actual screws, so I'm cautiously optimistic they might last longer than 3 years, although you nev…

Apple will service the battery out of warranty for $79USD.

That is not true, you will get a new AirPod, the battery will not be "serviced" and the old ones will be thrown away.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/10/08/everyon...

Re: AirPods Max

#764

Post by donor20 »

dahfizz wrote: post #721
low_common wrote: post #717

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…

> 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.

It's amazing to me how many folks seem to have no clue about what folks value in the apple ecosystem.

Call folks fanboys (I use windows / linux all day for my job by choice).

Do your "solved problem" bluetooth headphones allow EASY audio sharing when the kid is sleeping and you want to watch something with your wife? These are two bluetooth devices on same audio stream.

Does your solved problem bluetooth headphones RELIABLY connect to your current device (without having to unpaid with another device). That is game changing.

The problem is, folks have listened to folks like you so many times and gotten BURNED so many times. Oh, it "should" work you say. Total BS at least 20% of the time.

I won't buy the max'es because I have no need for something that nice. But the $159 for the airpods? Slam dunk.

You should go back and listen to the criticism of the airpods when they came out - overpriced, stupid, whatever. Then check out sales numbers.

Do that again with the apple watch maybe? Started slow, but I'm curious what their top competitor is by $ revenue - they have just improved and improved.

Do that again with the ipod?

Do that again with ballmer and the iphone?

Do that again with the actually pretty cheap M1?

Re: AirPods Max

#765

Post by bayindirh »

dahfizz wrote: post #721
low_common wrote: post #717

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…

> 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.

Actually, as a both an Apple user and high-fidelity music lover, I'd happily pay $549, if and only if they sound comparable to the peers at this price point.

If their fidelity is below its peers, all of the "just works" stuff goes to trash for me. I have a pair of entry level Philips BT headphones (designed by Gibson) and they sound well above its price point. It's no Sennheiser, Grado, RHA or similar but, they're not a pair of cheap cans either.

So, for $549, they should rather sound detailed and balanced. Otherwise, It's meaningless for me.

Re: AirPods Max

#766

Post by dragandj »

_huayra_ wrote: post #759
fbelzile wrote: post #741

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

It's always shocking how Apple folks adopt a reality distortion field when it comes to explaining their reasoning. Whether it's avoiding justifying the things they claim they get from Apple ("seamless device interop") or ignoring the way Apple actively treats their customers like hot garbage (see Louis Rossman's youtube channel, or the asinine arguments companies like Apple lead against right to repair and all the po…

Sometimes I'm even convinced that Apple is absolutely right in squeezing their captive users of every damn penny (or grand) they can squeeze. They should charge even more. (The customer is always right, especially the addicted one).

Re: AirPods Max

#767

Post by diebeforei485 »

jbverschoor wrote: post #729
zcw100 wrote: post #240

I 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 bought the airpods when they came out. After 1.5 years of use, I get 5! minutes of talktime. Apple says "tough luck". No more headphones from Apple for me.

The original AirPods are really bad for speaking. Airpods 2 work much better.

Re: AirPods Max

#768

Post by [deleted] »

low_common wrote: post #717
zcw100 wrote: post #240

I 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 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…

[deleted]

Re: AirPods Max

#769

Post by TheBlerch »

low_common wrote: post #717
zcw100 wrote: post #240

I 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 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…

They sound great - which model did you get?

Re: AirPods Max

#770

Post by geoelectric »

Reason077 wrote: post #563
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…

> "$549!?" Sony WH-1000XM4s will set you back $350 and these are favourite NC headphones for many. The AirPods Max have some clear advantages over those: 9 microphones, huge suite of positioning sensors including gyroscope and accelerometer etc. Presumably the sound quality and NC will be at least as good as Sony's, and the software, UX and "build quality" significantly better.

I'm not sure where you'd get the SQ and NC will presumably be better. If you compare the AirPod Pros and the Sony WF1000s, Sony comes out ahead in most estimations I've seen. Sony has been doing portable personal audio for an awfully long time, given that they basically invented the form factor, so they're not likely to be lagging behind too much.

Don't get me wrong, Apple is OK at consumer audio. The Homepod is nice, so are the APPs. Even Beats aren't too bad nowadays. But they haven't released consistently better audio products than Audeze, Sennheiser, Sony, M&D, or even Bose--their closest comparison, since both Apple and Bose lean hard on DSPs for their SQ.

I suspect the second version of these headphones will be pretty excellent. Apple does learn from its mistakes, whatever they'll end up being. Trick is Bose and Sony will have learned from their mistakes too. It'll be interesting to see if Apple ends up being able to compete on audio, not just style.

Post reply on HN