Do share your thoughts on the differences between them when you can!
that’s too bad. I guess the Airpods Max doesn’t have a vanilla sound without the extra coloring that Computational audio can do.
Headphones became fashion statement long before Beats and AirPods. The need for headphone’s to correspond to one’s fashion sensibility arrived when iPods came out and that headphone market blew up. From sugary-colored headphones to plastic molded headphones to create new design form. Beats was able to exemplify this selling feature by having celebrity wear them all the time. It was a great case study in guerilla marketing that everyone is doing now by hiring “social media influencers.”
If you look at the headphone’s market, it now caters to fashion except for the audiophile-quality headphones which still touts sound quality over look and comfort. Average consumers main requirement is the design of the headphone, if it will look good on them, and if the music they listen to sounds nice.
I am a fan of the sound of the Sennheiser’s sound in general. As mentioned above, I spend a lot of time on airplanes, so I do need some semblance of noise reduction, but also wanted good sound. While both the Sony and Bose offer better noise cancelation than the Sennheiser’s, the Sennheiser’s sound better to me. I opted for better sound overall and slightly reduced noise reduction. With the max, I am hopeful that they take the sound signature of the HomePods and expand on the fantastic noise reduction of the AirPods Pro. The latter is staggeringly good for in ear bud.
From what I have read so far, and I take ALL of it with a pinch of salt until they are in my grubby hands, I see the pro/con situation (so far) between the Sennheiser’s and the max as follows:
Pro
HomePod Sound Signature
Awesome Noise Reduction
Con
Does not work without power
Does not pass audio through USB (The Sennheiser’s have a built in DAC, so you can go USB-C out from an iPad Pro right into the USB-C input on the headphone. This allowed for Hi-Res files to be played at 24bit-192khz etc, the Max will not allow any of this. The option to be wired with the Max is limited to the 3.5inch standard headphone jack.
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I see that as a con to be honest. HomePod sounds like it has a blanket over it. To my ears the AirPods Pro sound way better. I always hope for an EQ feature in an update for HomePod or a at least a way to tweak the sound like the AirPods Pro. I guess that the Max will have that too, though. So maybe I should not worry, haha.
I can’t wait to see people on campus getting their eardrums blasted as a friend sneaks up behind them and cranks the volume crown 
In all seriousness though, I think the appeal with all Apple products is that there’s a TON of features and little niceties that they leave up to consumers to discover. So I’m willing to bet that there will be some other Max-specific features that will truly set them apart from other can-type headphones.
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I agree absolutely. The question I’m wondering is if Beats and AirPods (in any incarnation) hit substantially different market segments.
I think of the people I know that wear AirPods, and I’m wondering if they’d even buy Beats. And vice-versa. I.e. if Apple discontinued Beats and replaced them with AirPods as suggested above, would a portion of their current market just evaporate? Or would all the people who wear Beats just find different headphones?
I feel like at a minimum there’d have to be a full-sized headphone in the $200-$300 range for them to not lose significant market share.
What do you think?
I have to think from Apple’s perspective that this where the Beats line of products fits. People want something that sounds better than standard off the shelf headphones, but not ready to fork over Max-level dollars (at least not yet).
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Hard to predict.
There are different segments:
- “fashion”: People who willingly pay several hundret $/€ to have the newest/coolest. Beats was very strong here
- “tech geeks”: like great gear (techwise)
- “audiophiles” like great gear (soundwise)
- “the other audiophiles”: believe in miracles, oxygen-free copper, sound-improving USB cables and astrology
Is Apple reaching the same “fashion” people as Beats? No idea. Beats came out out hip-hop, every NBA player was waring them, etc. Personally, the place I saw most Beats was in the Gym, often just worn around the neck. Is Apple a strong brand for the same people?
As for tech geeks, I guess they didn’t care much about Beats, they care more about Apple.
In both audio communities, Beats never was strong. And I don’t think Apple will be strong, unless they sound unbelieveably good.
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In-ear audio is always going to have some advantages over speakers for individual listening. I wouldn’t describe HomePod audio that way, though. Is the space around it clear and not overly reflective (e.g. glass nearby?) You can give them a good shake to make them recalibrate their sound, too. We’ve had some troubleshooting threads about placement somewhere here.
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Nilay Patel of The Verge has just written about his initial impressions of the AirPods Max.
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Not sure why everyone kvetches about the price. Considering that Apple is trying to recoup the (4-year apparently) development cost, and the fact that these headphones have a long list of technology built in, the price actually seems reasonable. Lest anyone forget, these headphones include (from MacStories):
- Apple’s proprietary H1 SoC (one in each ear cup), which provides a stack of features on top of Bluetooth 5.0 that enables wireless connectivity features like fast device switching across multiple devices
- Active noise cancellation
- Transparency mode
- Nine microphones for noise cancellation and other features
- Adaptive EQ
- A Digital Crown that controls volume, play/pause, skipping tracks, and Siri functionality
- Optical and position sensors in the ear cups
- A case detection sensor
- An accelerometer
- A gyroscope in the left ear cup
- Ear cushions attach magnetically and can be replaced for $69
- Lightning connectivity for charging and wired listening with Apple’s optional 3.5mm to Lightning cable
- 20 hours of battery life and 1.5 hours of charge in just 5 minutes of charging
- A Smart Case that puts the AirPods Max into an ultra-low power state
I’m no headphones expert, but seems to me that’s a lot of tech. If the sound is good (no reason to expect otherwise for the vast majority of users), these will be a big hit. Can’t wait to see some folks wearing them on Zoom calls! 
My guess is that after 6 months or so, Apple may reduce the price to $499. They did something similar with the HomePod, reducing its initial price of $349 to $299.
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I ordered a pair, and assuming that the sound quality justifies the price, I’ll be happy to keep them and use them every day, so I’m not kvetching about them (yet 
) but some of those things you listed aren’t exactly making the case for the price: 20 hours of battery life is well below the 30+ hours that “lesser” sets get, and that Smart Case is no substitute for a power button. A lot of the other stuff is table stakes for the segment of headphones that is priced considerably lower.
If the price will be justified (and I really hope that it will be), then it’ll be on the sound quality, build quality, and (as always) the Apple premium. My fingers are crossed 
This is my one design “kvetch”: why, of all things, the Digital Crown? Surely they could’ve stolen the Side Button from Apple Watch for these functions. It could’ve been two slim buttons on the side of the device, easily at the back of the ear cup near the bottom, where a person could adjust volume with a thumb press, skip tracks etc.
I also sort of expected they would’ve added tapping functions that are so useful in regular Airpods and AirPods Pro for activating Siri, stopping / starting playback, etc.
Market for Beats and the AirPods is different but somewhat they overlap. The market for Beats buys it for its signature look. The Beats has also cemented its sound to be a better headphones for modern music like pop and hiphop. Their bass is really colored. On the other hand, AirPods market is people who are looking for a no-nonsense wireless earbuds that just works. They are not primarily interested with the look of Beats. Look at how much people have ridiculed the AirPods market but they don’t care. They just like the AirPods because it works. Somewhat, there is overlap between the two, but it’s for the “status” it brings.
There are tons of headphone’s brand trying to compete with Beats and its widely different from what Apple targets with their AirPods. I don’t think the Beats market will just flock to AirPods as they don’t like how it looks. There are numerous choices now. I can see the same Beats market are flocking to Senheisser, Sony or Bose. These market find AirPods to be hideous and unfashionable. The AirPods became accepted for what it looks like because it became ubiquitous. There is no escaping the white earbuds.
This difference between the two is apparent with their sound quality. Beats is designed for modern music with heavy bass and electronic music. The AirPods on the other hand just wants to sound just as good as any other headphones. With the AirPods Max, with its HomePod signature sound—it wants to recreate the original sound as much as possible which can be translated to “just as good” for the $500 market.
I definitely see this perspective, although I would say that the development cost doesn’t feel like a justifying factor to me as it doesn’t provide an end-user benefit.
The technology list is impressive. The question to me is one of whether or not this is overbuilt for what their users likely want.
If the users said, “I love Airpods - I just wish there was an over-the-ear version”, is this the product they were looking for? And if not, is it something that they’ll accept as an alternative to that product?
Personally, I might be inclined to give them a shot if they were $299. For $549, I’m out of the game. Partially because $549 is very, very expensive, and partially because Apple’s track record for me with Airpods is very poor.
For $549, I’d have to have a reasonable belief that these might last me 5+ years - and I don’t have that confidence given my previous experience, which has indicated that Apple’s Airpods last just long enough to not be covered by the factory warranty anymore. All those “automatic detection” electronics are just one more thing that can go wrong, and when it does your headphones are an expensive paperweight.
I’ll be interested in the reviews of sound quality though. 
Not sure why everyone kvetches about the price.
In the headphones market, the $500 range is considered mid-range.
The wireless headphones that are within the Airpod Max price range would find it difficult to compete with the technology that it comes with.
I don’t quite understand the Smart Case for these headphones. Very different than cases for other headphones like the Bose. I wonder how practical it would be for travel / commutes, and how easy for it to be crushed in a travel bag or backpack (especially the headphone arm)? Or is it meant to be carried around by itself?
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I feel like the idea is to look fashionable (kind of like a purse?) and to take up minimum extra space. Some of those other headphone cases are very bulky / chunky, and this is very sleek by comparison.
I’m not a fan of the look, but it kind of makes sense to me.
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I don’t know if the “I like AirPods but want an over-ear version” people are the market Apple is aiming for with these. To me, they seem aimed at people who were already buying premium headphones and want something that looks better and is better integrated into the Apple ecosystem.
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