2 Months with AirPods Max, final impressions

[iBug2]

1. The comfort is basically the best I've ever owned. It was slightly uncomfortable at first but as with all over ear headphones, eventually the clamping force gets weaker due to the materials relaxing.
Yesterday I had APM on for 6 hours straight outdoors while hiking. At some moment I basically forgot that they were there.

2. The sound quality is pretty much the best at this price point. It takes a while to get used to the sound signature since it's not the most "fun" signature out of the box. At first I played with the headphone accomodations in iOS, but now I simply use it at flat and I really love the sound.

3. Transparency is AMAZING, it just is AMAZING. You never ever have to take these off while talking to people, even if they are under a hoodie and beanie at the same time. I even took them to photographing birds, and I had transparency on to basically hear all the bird sounds without taking them off, they amplified the birds while cutting down other types of noise in the area, so it felt like I was in a jungle. At some point I'm pretty sure we'll be able to tell these gadgets which sounds we want to hear and which to avoid precisely.

4. ANC, best I've used. And no discomfort in ears after 6-7 hours, unlike my B&W PX7 which really made my ears stuffy after 2 hours.

 

[Deliro]

Glad you are enjoying them. I have the beats studio 3 and while I’ve been tempted to buy the Max I’m still on the fence.

 

[terryw1]

I’m at about 2 months and loving them. My much more expensive headphones aren’t getting used all that much. The freedom of the APMs with all my devices and the sound quality have me hooked. they were a little uncomfortable the first few days, but that quickly changed. I can wear them 5-6 hours at a time with no discomfort. And like you transparency mode is spectacular. Mine are keepers.

 

[Fozziebear71]

I'm a couple weeks in on my pair and I love them. I work from home and have them on my head probably 6-7 hours a day. I'm using my Apple Music subscription more now than I ever have.

 

[Tdevilsg]

Question, does the clamp force causing the acoustic seal really ever go away? This is a major problem for me. I find the pressure from the acoustic seal and clamp force to case a fair amount of discomort. Thanks

 

[Bazooka-joe]

Ok so to add to this useful experience. I’ve bought AirPods in space grey and returned them after a few days as I found them too heavy.
I immediately had returners remorse so I ordered them again and they arrived in two days
I’ve had them a week now and I have to say they’re absolutely amazing. I’ve got used to the clamping and the weight, and the sound is just incredible and knock my AirPods pros out of the ball park.
Battery life is astonishing as well. I’m averaging a loss of .25% per hour. I charged them up to 100% yesterday and 24 hours later they were still reading 100%. I used them for half an hour today and they dropped to 99%.
The key to the battery life is to put them back into the case and ensure that they’re not connected to your phone or any other device. As soon as they go back in the case they disconnect from my iPhone when I pull them out of the case they reconnect. I have automatic switching turned off.
All in all, a fabulous set of headphones and I’m definitely keeping them

 

[macnmac]

yup, just about sums it up...

 

[iBug2]

Question, does the clamp force causing the acoustic seal really ever go away? This is a major problem for me. I find the pressure from the acoustic seal and clamp force to case a fair amount of discomort. Thanks

It did for me. The first week it was slightly uncomfortable after couple hours. Now I don't notice it.

 

[UKapple73]

I think the secret to the comfort is the memory foam material they use for the cups, really good even for long sessions
The transparency mode was so good I bought some AirPods Pro’s, so that I could take meetings & calls at work and hear my own voice better. It isn’t quite as good as on the Max’s, but better than my Sony Xm3 earbuds
To be honest I can’t wait until I can fly again, to really test the superb noise cancellation in a real scenario!!

 

[Bazooka-joe]

It did for me. The first week it was slightly uncomfortable after couple hours. Now I don't notice it.

I agree. You have to give it time to bed in

 

[artfossil]

Question, does the clamp force causing the acoustic seal really ever go away? This is a major problem for me. I find the pressure from the acoustic seal and clamp force to case a fair amount of discomort. Thanks

I'm sorry the clamping force is bothering you! Have you tried the advice in this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...do-this-also-a-short-audiophile-take.2276593/

 

[matrix07]

Does it feel heavy?

 

[iBug2]

Does it feel heavy?

No, definitely not. My old PX7's were lighter than these, but much less comfortable and they did hurt my head after a while. These don't.

 

[Herrpod]

The ear fatigue these cause from the way the highs are tuned is just awful for the price imo. And for the price there should be an app that allows the owner to adjust the tuning manually so that no matter what device they're connected to uses those settings. These would be acceptable at 200 dollars, but at their current price it's just ridiculous, and that's not even factoring in the awful battery drain issues and lack of a real case to travel with them in.

 

[Zman5225]

Great summary and I share the same feelings about them. I’ve had them for a bit now and love them. I can easily wear them for 10+ hours a day and have no issues. Being in the Apple ecosystem does add to the joy I’ll admit. Switching between devices is painless for me. Expensive but have no regrets and these are better in every way to the Bose 700s they replaced (for me). Everyone will have their own experience and justifications.

 

[Deliro]

The ear fatigue these cause from the way the highs are tuned is just awful for the price imo. And for the price there should be an app that allows the owner to adjust the tuning manually so that no matter what device they're connected to uses those settings. These would be acceptable at 200 dollars, but at their current price it's just ridiculous, and that's not even factoring in the awful battery drain issues and lack of a real case to travel with them in.

I am slightly tempted to buy a pair but the logical side of me kicks in and thinks exactly this. I will do a fair bit of air travel and it's time to retire my wired Bose (7 years of excellence, I doubt the AirPod Max would last that long on original batteries). While the quality may be excellent, it just lacks so much for being at their price point.

1. I'd have to factor in an additional cost to get suitable traveling case and potentially a charger.
2. No ability to tune, or offer additional codec capability.
3. No passive listening, no way to listen to audio wired unless you pony up another $35 for it. No charging source for a quick charge? SOL. My Bose came with options to connect to different sources, especially for air travel.

There's just so many things left off the table for a premium set of headphones. I know Apple is notorious for their Apple tax, but at least they should have thrown in the passive listening option and a wire to plug in and *gulp* a charger. I know, by asking this I hate the environment (cut away to an Apple environment czar standing near solar panels on top of their HQ glaring at me menacingly).

 

[macsareveryinteresting]

I’m surprised a ton of people like AirPods Max. I’m stuck with AirPods Pro, and I’m considering getting AirPods Max.

 

[artfossil]

I’m surprised a ton of people like AirPods Max. I’m stuck with AirPods Pro, and I’m considering getting AirPods Max.

My APM arrived January 26 and every day since then I’ve had the joy of using them. (I got an open box return from Amazon at over $100 off.)

The design is so smart and sensuous. The materials have a wonderful tactile feel. And I was surprised how comfortable they are! I forget that I’m wearing them.

But what really stands out is the sound. I’m using Headphone Accommodations (Accessibility < Audio/Visual) and a custom profile from an audiogram generated from a hearing test. This adjusts for my mild age/related hearing loss and the difference is astounding! The sound quality is so clear, spacious and detailed.

I’m so glad I bought them.

 

[tenordrum]

I exchanged the Solo Pro's for the APMs. I am happy with the upgrade. The Beats were very uncomfortable (both the vice like grip and then the heat from the ear pads) . The transparency mode is much better than the Solo Pros, the comfort level is acceptable, and the sound is very nice. The open box model at Best Buy was a good price, and apparently was not used much.

I am considering a trying a hard wired connection as well, to use a cheaper DAC to see if the sound can be enhanced. in a noticeable way. My ears are not the best (old drummer, didn't wear earplugs when I marched) so age and that prior damage may mean that my ears won't be able to discern a difference.

 

[artfossil]

I exchanged the Solo Pro's for the APMs. I am happy with the upgrade. The Beats were very uncomfortable (both the vice like grip and then the heat from the ear pads) . The transparency mode is much better than the Solo Pros, the comfort level is acceptable, and the sound is very nice. The open box model at Best Buy was a good price, and apparently was not used much.

I am considering a trying a hard wired connection as well, to use a cheaper DAC to see if the sound can be enhanced. in a noticeable way. My ears are not the best (old drummer, didn't wear earplugs when I marched) so age and that prior damage may mean that my ears won't be able to discern a difference.

View attachment 1733384

The wired cable may reduce latency and is also designed for when Bluetooth is not available (e.g. on a airplane). It will not improve the sound quality.

What I do recommend is that you explore the Headphone Accommodations under Accessibility<Audio Visual. In addition to presets you can try (Balanced Tone/Vocal Range/Brightness) you can take a hearing test and create a custom Audiogram which then is used to balance/enhance your APM. That's the route I took (see above post).

You'll need AirPods for the hearing test if you go that route and be aware that it will take a little time.

 

[tenordrum]

I believe I have seen online sources that doing a wired connection from a higher res source and DAC may be worth pursuing, and would improve sound quality. I was used to using some wired Grados before purchasing the APMs. The Grados were open back, and while the sound quality was good, the build quality was not good. I realize I would need to use the Apple brand bi-directional cable. I have an Audioqust Dragonfly that had a marginal improvement (as in, I "think" it improved the sound of regular CD quality sources) and I would be willing to try it with the APMs. If it doesn't work, no great loss as I have owned it for a few years.

Thanks for the tip on headphone accommodations. I will look into it. As far as it taking a little time, I am retired, so that isn't an issue ;-)

 

[artfossil]

I believe I have seen online sources that doing a wired connection from a higher res source and DAC may be worth pursuing, and would improve sound quality. I was used to using some wired Grados before purchasing the APMs. The Grados were open back, and while the sound quality was good, the build quality was not good. I realize I would need to use the Apple brand bi-directional cable. I have an Audioqust Dragonfly that had a marginal improvement (as in, I "think" it improved the sound of regular CD quality sources) and I would be willing to try it with the APMs. If it doesn't work, no great loss as I have owned it for a few years.

Thanks for the tip on headphone accommodations. I will look into it. As far as it taking a little time, I am retired, so that isn't an issue ;-)

If you're interested you can read about the wired cable and sound quality at head-fi.org. To sum up, here's post from page 216 of a VERY long APM thread:

I haven’t tried the wired cable for my APM, although from my understanding, it shouldn’t really change anything. It’s got a built in two-way ADC (as opposed to a DAC) because the DAC and amp are built into the headphone, meaning you can’t take advantage of external equipment anyway. Wired mode apparently helps with latency but I don’t believe it does anything with sound quality.

AirPods Max

Did a reboot by pressing the 2 buttons and it is ok now. What can possibly cause it you think? I had this issue several times, when listening to music with ANC on, then answering an incoming call and switch to transparency mode during call. After ending the call and going back to ANC mode only...

www.head-fi.org

 

[tenordrum]

interesting summary. I was watching a different summary from Hi-Fi insider on youtube who had $3K+ source in wired mode, and it apparently was something he felt he could tell a SQ difference.

I can give it a shot, and see if it seems worth it to me. If not, I will just return the wired connection and sell the Dragonfly. I was originally planning on getting the inexpensive Schiit DAC/amp combo but the Grado's went belly up

 

[UKapple73]

using wired is only better if the source music is more than 256kbps AAC, for example FLAC lossless files. In this case, using Bluetooth the iPhone or player will compress the lossless into AAC which the APMs decode in the DAC. But using wired, this compression isn’t needed and so the analogue output will be better
If you’re just playing AAC files, then I can’t see a benefit in wired, unless the DAC in the player is better than in the APMs. I use an iPhone and I can’t see the DAC in that being better than in APMs, likely the same tbh

 

[Jester_A]

3. At some point I'm pretty sure we'll be able to tell these gadgets which sounds we want to hear and which to avoid precisely.

If thats ever going to happen, I am avoiding my wifes voice. ”Hey Siri, turn off sound from wife!”.