781–790 of 1001 posts
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've spent a lot of money on earphones over the last 10 years in order to try to find a pair that doesn't suck. Audio quality is perhaps fourth on the list of deciding factors. It doesn't matter how good headphones sound if they are painful to wear, have impractical misfeatures or are too expensive. If these fit my head and I can wear them for 12 hours straight, they may be worth the money. I'd pay $550 for that. How…
> However, this is Apple. Which means it is likely they will find some clever way of making these headphones obsolete. Or they will break in some unfixable, or expensive to repair, way. It's Apple -- they'll keep iterating on it, come out with a better model at the same price at right around the same time the battery wear in your current model will make you choose between an expensive battery replacement or just gett…
For all the complaining about the pricing here, just set a reminder to yourself for 1 year later, when the pandemic has waned and some workplaces begin to return to normal. Then take a visual survey of how many people are wearing these in those hip open office development workspaces. You'll see the pricing didn't matter at all. You'll probably be wearing a pair yourself when you do that visual survey.
I think spatial audio might be the killer feature. They just added an update for the Airpods Pro, and some of the comments/reactions to it sound promising. Homepods sound amazing in a stereo pair, and Apple just released an update for Dolby Atmos support.
If you ignore the above then the only trick that’s left is the fake 3D effect; which isn’t novel or even desirable for someone who cares about authentic sound.
Oh, I find it fascinating how the audio gear industry has taught the consumers on how much money you are supposed to spend to have audio experience at certain level. Pay attention on audiophile arguments, they will talk in terms of money(i.e. 150$ 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…
> Apple is my hero in that regard, where you actually pay for the product experience instead for being part of some deeply troubling subculture where passionately debating about very expensive cables and gadgets without ever being able to pass a blind test on the claims is the norm, almost like cargo cult. I give you the $539 leather watch band: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MTQG2AM/A/apple-watch-her... . The $6…
The wheels are wild, but the watch band is Hermès. Their watches start at 3k. What would you have expected?
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Pricing is rarely an issue. People spend stupid amount of money to show their status, if anything it's a feature
I think that's a big part of what Apple sells. And I think it also helps explain how pretty much any Apple product announcement is contentious on here. Most people buying status goods won't say, "I buy it so people think I'm more interesting and important." They instead justify purchases in conventional terms like quality. That makes objective discussion of quality fraught because they create feelings of status threa…
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'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…
Calling an English expert. Is “AirPods Max” singular or plural? Help. The AirPods Max is a headphone. AirPods Max are headphones. I saw two AirPods Maxes.
AirPods Max are headphones.
$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…
If Apple's new thing was wired only, I wouldn't even consider them. I already have my custom balanced-XLR Beyerdynamics on a pile of Schiit on my office desk. They serve that purpose beautifully, and I see no reason to change that.
The DT1770s that you compare them to are not wireless. They're not in the same market at all as Apple's wireless products. Of the manufacturers you list, I trust none of them to meet wireless needs. I trust Apple to meet wireless needs as much as I trust Beyerdynamic to meet wired needs.
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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.
Unfortunately your average consumer is not going to miss the inclusion of a 3.5 mm audio jack, but it really sucks if you're a musician. 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.
Almost all bluetooth headphones on the market have a 3.5mm jack on them at least currently and every device that dropped the jack works with one of those very cheap usb c to 3.5mm adapters.
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'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…