The crown and the general style of the outer case.
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They don’t have to. The people in peoples’ peer groups that they are signaling to know what they are. They are “quiet” luxury goods.
From here:
Wealthy consumers low in need for status want to associate with their own kind and pay a premium for quiet goods only they can recognize. Wealthy consumers high in need for status use loud luxury goods to signal to the less affluent that they are not one of them. Those who are high in need for status but cannot afford true luxury use loud counterfeits to emulate those they recognize to be wealthy.
Putting a logo on them would make them “loud”, and would be the equivalent of wearing a Supreme t-shirt.
Since they’re on my ears, I won’t see them and am more concerned with their function.
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Theoretically you are right but Apple is so well known that all their products are “loud” luxury goods.
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Exactly …people are confusing the issues here.
Lossy Codecs
They sound good because they use well understood perceptual coding to strip what is going to be inaudible to human ears. For music playback this is just fine. For music production/mixing this would be a problem between you’d end up EQ or mixing frequencies missing vital components.
Today’s music isn’t generally poor because of lossy codecs it’s poor because dynamics have been compressed out and tempo changes are non-existent.
AirPods Max
Non Negotiable stuff
- Sound Quality
- Build Quality
The rest of the stuff is the nice to have creature comforts.
I’m curious to know how the Lighting Port will work with Headphone Pre-Amps.
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Codecs per se are not the problem. In blind testing professional musicians often weren’t able to differentiate. Only “audiophiles” (which also claim to hear differences in USB cables) can do that.
The problems are:
- Source: there are people out there who grab music from YouTube!
That certainy sounds worse than ripped from CD. - Bitrate: a lot of MP3s from the Napster era (128kbps) out there…
- encoder/decoder: yes, the software makes a difference…
A high-bitrate, high bit-width compression is a different animal than super-compressed music.
As for “lightning port”: I guess it’s just for charging.
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Not according to 9to5mac. " Apple has updated its 1.2 meter Lightning to 3.5mm audio cable product listing to include the AirPods Max, it sells for $35." Following that link there is an interesting bit on the Apple page " System Requirements: The latest version of iOS, iPadOS, or macOS." for an audio cable.
https://9to5mac.com/2020/12/08/airpods-max-details-no-charger-battery-life-applecare/
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So it seems they can also be driven by cable. Any hint on the impedance?
Not that I could find. I initially thought this was going to be Bluetooth only because Apple’s “Tech Specs” page only lists “Bluetooth 5.0” under “Connectivity”.
That’s why I thought the cable is just for charging.
I’m sure we’ll find out next week when the initial shipments start arriving.
I much prefer the Digital Crown over wonky touch controls and swipe gestures. I wonder if the Digital Crown has a function by clicking it. 
Apple is willing to put a logo on tiny AirTag. 
No Bluetooth 5.2?
Yes, initial… not March… 
From the Tech Specs page:
Digital Crown
- Turn for volume control
- Press once to play, pause, or answer a phone call
- Press twice to skip forward
- Press three times to skip back
- Press and hold for Siri
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I think they made some good design decisions with these.
I have the first gen Sony 1000 series ANC. The fragile plastic cracked in less than a year (a common problem in the first Gen …not sure if the current 4th Gen is better )
I LOVE the ability to mix in the outside by cupping the right can. I found that I did not like the gestures. I’d inadvertently pause or skip tracks by grazing the cup.
Even my Beats Solo button is on the lower part of the can, I have to hunt for it. I think the best spot for buttons is above the ear just like they’ve done here.
The “L” and “R” woven into the fabric is nice.
At this price the essentials are sound quality and durability.
At CES I got a chance to hear the Sennheiser 800 on display. Some idiot cranked the volume before me so when I put them all and hit play it felt like my ear drums almost went. Cans above $1k typically have ridiculous volume and dynamics.
Listened to the Sony M2 ($600) at the Tulsa Magnolia Design Center. They sounded better than my 1000s.
Judging from the “insane pricing” I don’t think a lot of people understand the headphone market. High End cans will always exist because audiophiles that know the SQ they desire would cost them $20k and up in floor standing speakers, amplification and source components. Many choose high end cans. Hifiman, Audeze, Sennheiser, Focal, Grado, have plenty of options. Mate to a rather inexpensive preamp and you’ve got high end sound for under a couple grand to start.
I have no idea why people think $400 headphones represent the high end of the market.
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Well, I would be interested but my main use case is sitting in my home office alone. Where I have two HomePods that I paid less for than these. If I were out and about more, perhaps.
Not sure why everyone gets so hung up on the cost, though. As others have said, these aren’t competing against headphones you buy at Walgreens. Pretty sure Apple does its research on what the target market will bear. Pink headphones with cartoon characters on them are not part of the target market.
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Same fiasco as AirPods in 2016. People go crazy about how they’re expensive, but immediately forget about that and the product becomes a huge success due to the price tag. Flex on others and tell them how broke they are? 
The cable not being included would be one source of impedance 
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I sold my Sennheiser Momentum 3 and bought the max. I have owned many pairs of $1000+ headphones, but price does not always equate a sound that I like. There is a warmth to HomePod’s sound that I really like, and I am hopeful that the max will replicate that.
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I wonder if the Airpod Max can work as a dumb headphone (No ANC, Spatial Audio or Computational Audio). Some wireless headphones can still work even without a battery when it’s connected with a 3.5mm cable.
I would say that they’re both fashion statements, but for significantly different market segments. You could easily have two headphone options to hit two different clienteles. Whether they do that is a whole different question. 
Apparently they do not work without charge. They also do not pass audio through USB.
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