AirPods Max • Hacker News Board

Re: AirPods Max

#581

Post by fastball » Tue, Dec 08, 2020, 5:04 PM UTC

mgraupner wrote: post #207

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…

One of the things I criticise the most of Apple, the whole AirPod line is a disposable product. If the battery dies you can throw it away. I like Apple products but I will never own any pair of AirPods or any other product where you can dispose of it when the battery is done. This is a shareholders dream, but an environmental nightmare.

I don't know of a single wireless earbud that has a replaceable battery.

Re: AirPods Max

#582

Post by jacquesm » Tue, Dec 08, 2020, 5:04 PM UTC

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…

You can leave out the 'borderline'. Oh, and 'gold plated' is a synonym for 'you are being ripped off' as well as 'you are clueless'.

Re: AirPods Max

#583

Post by fastball » Tue, Dec 08, 2020, 5:05 PM UTC

clamprecht wrote: post #580

What is a "beam-forming" microphone??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beamforming

tl;dr – you have multiple mics which allow you to improve sound quality (via a stronger signal from where you want it) + filter out frequencies that you don't want (i.e. background noise), without needing to do audio processing at a software level (though I'm sure Apple does that too).

Re: AirPods Max

#584

Post by rectang » Tue, Dec 08, 2020, 5:08 PM UTC

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…

Former mastering engineer here. Discussing audio gear in any open online forum is pretty hopeless. Any conversation will eventually be dominated by people who misunderstand (often willfully) the human perceptual mechanism and its propensity for illusion.

It's possible to talk about effects on the edge of perception: the protocols for the tests by which perceptual codecs are assessed and incrementally improved had to be designed somehow. But you basically cannot have such conversations unless every participant accepts their own fallibility and blind testing as the price of admission, which is only going to happen with a closed group.

Re: AirPods Max

#585

Post by TimTheTinker » Tue, Dec 08, 2020, 5:09 PM UTC

elicash wrote: post #439

buildbuildbuild wrote: post #410

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.

Best question in this thread. With regular AirPods, they work individually. You don't have to use both. So it's helpful to think in terms of each one being its own thing, even though they're paired. Not the case here. I'd imagine Schiller would say that AirPods Max is both singular and plural, given this tweet on iPad Pro: https://twitter.com/pschiller/status/725791354769399808 I'd add that over-the-ear (so, one item…

I think “two sets of AirPods Max” communicates clearly without tongue-twisting.

I know naming things is hard, but I think they’ve really painted themselves into a corner here, so to speak.

Re: AirPods Max

#586

Post by ptasci67 » Tue, Dec 08, 2020, 5:09 PM UTC

Every comment I have seen is flabbergasted by the price but I think there is a lot more interesting about these headphones. For example, they're clearly being marketed as "premium" over-the-ear headphones but they get the Airpods branding and not Beats? What does that mean for Beats? A 20 hour battery life beats my Bose 700s so it will be interesting to see if that holds up. Perhaps more jarring is the high price tag for what amounts to a cloth cover for a case but I suppose they are making the claim that you don't need to power it off?

Re: AirPods Max

#587

Post by jacquesm » Tue, Dec 08, 2020, 5:10 PM UTC

0x008 wrote: post #527

ryeguy_24 wrote: post #158

For 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 is. That you've adjusted doesn't change the fact that it still is.

Re: AirPods Max

#588

Post by wetpaws » Tue, Dec 08, 2020, 5:12 PM UTC

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…

Pretty sure quite a lot of people will buy it _because_ of the price, not despite it.

Re: AirPods Max

#589

Post by ouid » Tue, Dec 08, 2020, 5:13 PM UTC

>"When stored in the soft, slim Smart Case, AirPods Max enter an ultralow power state that preserves charge."

Oh man, wait til they hear about "off", it's gonna revolutionize the industry

Re: AirPods Max

#590

Post by chad_strategic » Tue, Dec 08, 2020, 5:13 PM UTC

As a retired Punk Rocker/EMO/Heavy Metal etc...

$500 is just silly... I just need noise, anger, maybe little a music.

"Give me convenience or give me death" once said a wise man...