Yawn.... Here we go again! 1) Apple introduces an innovative, wonderful new product 2) Samsung copies it and comes out with equivalent or better hardware 3) Experts and pundits trash Apple.
The truth is: In today's world, somebody is ALWAYS going to catch up to Apple's hardware.
Fortunately, hardware is only the base for Apple. What makes them great is their software and ecosystem and how their products integrate and compliment each other.
With Apple, the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts.
I'm tired of audio reviews that claim the sum total of what makes a particular headphone/speaker better is the relative amount of bass. It's too superficial. For Beats headphones and HomePod, the throwaway criticism is that the bass is too heavy. For the AirPods, CR is claiming that there isn't enough bass. It's just lazy. Also, the line about the $30 Apple EarPods sounding almost identical to AirPods shows the reviewers don't have very good ears at all. I immediately noticed the substantially better quality of the AirPod sound when I first purchased them and had been using the EarPods every day for years.
Years / decades ago I subscribed to Consumer Reports. But, I dropped the subscription as I realized that, although they seemed to provide scientific, impartial, objective reports, the reports were scewed, biased, inaccurate and unreliable. It seemed as if they were selling click-bait headlines aimed at selling their reports rather than providing honest reviews.
I have both and from the perspective of an average user, I personally prefer the Galaxy Buds. The Airpods are okay but when I'm on the subway they let it way too much of the noise around me. The Airpods don't feel anywhere close to secure in the ears the way the Galaxy Buds do - the Buds are also fit more comfortably as well. Again, I would consider myself an average user and far from an audiophile but I don't think anyone that is an audiophile would rave about either one of these products.
I'm tired of audio reviews that claim the sum total of what makes a particular headphone/speaker better is the relative amount of bass. It's too superficial. For Beats headphones and HomePod, the throwaway criticism is that the bass is too heavy. For the AirPods, CR is claiming that there isn't enough bass. It's just lazy.
Is it any lazier than dismissing everything else in their comparison and summing up their conclusion as bass related? They claimed many more things (positive and negative) regarding Beats, HomePod, AirPods, and the Buds. But those other things probably don't fit the narrative you're building do they? AI had an article comparing the Buds and Pods and reached a similar conclusion: Buds were better: https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/03/15/review-galaxy-buds-easily-beat-apples-airpods-but-are-years-late-to-the-game All sound related reviews are subjective. Something that sounds good to me, may sound terrible to you and meh to someone else. We don't have to make up reasons to like what we like.
Right so Apple quick came up with the Airpods design and tech, then mass produced them in 5 months after seeing Samsung's product? Riiiigghht...
You missed the point - a claim was made the the Airpods came out first and implied that Samsung copied Apple which so it was corrected- please un-bunch your fanboy panties, thanks.
I don’t pay much, if any attention to CR. For all of their vaunted expertise their methodologies are often poorly thought out. Worse yet is when they are rating on a subjective quality. Then their internal biases are clear and obvious.
That said while I cannot comment on sound quality, I also cannot recommend AirPods. I just find them physically uncomfortable. They are literally painful and I have to remove them after no more than five minutes.
You've mentioned before living in New Orleans, and that IP address identifying whoever made the very improper change is also located in New Orleans.
See above. The wiki already said “DECEMBER 2016”, but incorrectly said AirPods came out months later. AirPods came out December 2016. My edit only reflects the AirPods release date.
Shame you boys don’t know how to use the change history log.
The IconX was put on the market months earlier AFAICT. "Months later" for the AirPods was correct to begin with wasn't it? It was never "the same month" (Dec/16).
So was your claim that both released the same month right or wrong? You can't blame Wiki. You changed it yesterday, but not correctly based on what you're showing us.
All of the Beats/Apple headphone offerings are relatively low quality from a sound perspective. Beats are for bassheads, Airpods for people who like the functionality and don't care about sound quality. Apple, who claims music is in their DNA, still only offer compressed low-quality audio on Apple Music and at best mediocre audio quality headphones, poor sound capabilities on Macs and iPhones etc. They have never been in the high resolution audio market and prefer to cater to the masses not anyone who is remotely close to being an audiophile. Probably a very accurate analysis by Consumer Reports. Before anyone says I'm an Apple haterl, lets just say I have an iPhone, iPad Pro, 2019 i9 Macbook Pro and the latest Apple watch. Love their products. However when it comes to music streaming/purchase I chose hires music on Quobuz, have Shure KSE 1500 electrostats and use an Astell & Kern SP1000 as the quality from Apple in terms of audio largely sucks.
I think you need to stop and put everything in to context.
The 'non-bias' media and 'educated' people complain about $1,000 iPhones that can do a multitude of amazing things. Heck a pretty good sounding $300 speaker is too much for these same people. And yet you expect Apple to compete against $3,000 dedicated music players?
CloudTalkin said: Is it any lazier than dismissing everything else in their comparison and summing up their conclusion as bass related?
Bass was their lead criticism with the track 'So What' by Miles Davis. Then they go on to make claims about the midrange and instruments "blurring together" on that song that has no basis in reality. 'So What' is a fairly quiet song with a limited number of instruments. I can clearly make out every instrument with AirPods and there's plenty of definition of the subtle tones and details in Miles Davis' trumpet, the drums, and the saxophones. There's no 'blurring' at all. To make the problems with their assessment even more clear, if you listen to this song on HomePod, the bass is still fairly subtle in the mix compared to the other instruments...and that's with hardware that supposedly over emphasizes the bass response. It's a flawed review.
I noticed they also used the dubious 'ear seal' angle, which ignores the fact that high-end studio headphones don't 'seal' your ear canal either.
All of the Beats/Apple headphone offerings are relatively low quality from a sound perspective. Beats are for bassheads, Airpods for people who like the functionality and don't care about sound quality. Apple, who claims music is in their DNA, still only offer compressed low-quality audio on Apple Music and at best mediocre audio quality headphones, poor sound capabilities on Macs and iPhones etc. They have never been in the high resolution audio market and prefer to cater to the masses not anyone who is remotely close to being an audiophile. Probably a very accurate analysis by Consumer Reports. Before anyone says I'm an Apple haterl, lets just say I have an iPhone, iPad Pro, 2019 i9 Macbook Pro and the latest Apple watch. Love their products. However when it comes to music streaming/purchase I chose hires music on Quobuz, have Shure KSE 1500 electrostats and use an Astell & Kern SP1000 as the quality from Apple in terms of audio largely sucks.
Oh you forgot to mentioned your Lambo
Haha, nice comeback. Unfortunately don't have a Lambo. Couldn't even afford a Ford after buying the headphones and audio player. Cycle to and from work instead. Just love music.
All of the Beats/Apple headphone offerings are relatively low quality from a sound perspective. Beats are for bassheads, Airpods for people who like the functionality and don't care about sound quality. Apple, who claims music is in their DNA, still only offer compressed low-quality audio on Apple Music and at best mediocre audio quality headphones, poor sound capabilities on Macs and iPhones etc. They have never been in the high resolution audio market and prefer to cater to the masses not anyone who is remotely close to being an audiophile. Probably a very accurate analysis by Consumer Reports. Before anyone says I'm an Apple haterl, lets just say I have an iPhone, iPad Pro, 2019 i9 Macbook Pro and the latest Apple watch. Love their products. However when it comes to music streaming/purchase I chose hires music on Quobuz, have Shure KSE 1500 electrostats and use an Astell & Kern SP1000 as the quality from Apple in terms of audio largely sucks.
You mention nearly $7000.00 in gear for super high resolution playback ? That is game Apple and Beats products have never attempted to play in. It's also not the norm when it comes to the average consumer that is looking for headphones or a good mobile music service for playback on the go that doesn't require a an additional device. I agree with you on Airpods quality. I can only use IEM's that have different sized tips to get a good seal. I have different sized ear canals and a good fit and seal is impossible for me with Airpods.
You've mentioned before living in New Orleans, and that IP address identifying whoever made the very improper change is also located in New Orleans.
See above. The wiki already said “DECEMBER 2016”, but incorrectly said AirPods came out months later. AirPods came out December 2016. My edit only reflects the AirPods release date.
Shame you boys don’t know how to use the change history log.
The IconX was put on the market months earlier AFAICT. "Months later" for the AirPods was correct to begin with wasn't it? It was never "the same month" (Dec/16).
So was your claim that both released the same month right or wrong? You can't blame Wiki. You changed it yesterday, but not correctly based on what you're showing us.
You’re reading it wrong.
Look carefully at the two versions. Aug 25, written days before this post, said they were released DECEMBER 2016. It also said AirPods were announced months later. I’m not a Samsung historian so I can’t say whether DECEMBER 2016 is correct or not. But I can say APs were not announced months later than DECEMBER 2016. And that’s exactly what I said, in the edit on August 28. Note that the DECEMBER 2016 is not highlighted as a change, because I never changed it. It was already there. (It has since been edited to July by someone else. Again, review the history.)
Even my change summary explains this, highlighted.
This isn’t that hard. If you can’t understand it that’s not my problem.
You've mentioned before living in New Orleans, and that IP address identifying whoever made the very improper change is also located in New Orleans.
See above. The wiki already said “DECEMBER 2016”, but incorrectly said AirPods came out months later. AirPods came out December 2016. My edit only reflects the AirPods release date.
Shame you boys don’t know how to use the change history log.
The IconX was put on the market months earlier AFAICT. "Months later" for the AirPods was correct to begin with wasn't it? It was never "the same month" (Dec/16).
So was your claim that both released the same month right or wrong? You can't blame Wiki. You changed it yesterday, but not correctly based on what you're showing us.
You’re reading it wrong. This isn’t that hard. If you can’t understand it that’s not my problem.
You've mentioned before living in New Orleans, and that IP address identifying whoever made the very improper change is also located in New Orleans.
See above. The wiki already said “DECEMBER 2016”, but incorrectly said AirPods came out months later. AirPods came out December 2016. My edit only reflects the AirPods release date.
Shame you boys don’t know how to use the change history log.
The IconX was put on the market months earlier AFAICT. "Months later" for the AirPods was correct to begin with wasn't it? It was never "the same month" (Dec/16).
So was your claim that both released the same month right or wrong? You can't blame Wiki. You changed it yesterday, but not correctly based on what you're showing us.
You’re reading it wrong. This isn’t that hard. If you can’t understand it that’s not my problem.
Not that hard to say you were wrong either.
I wasn’t. You still don’t get it. The IconX wiki, at the time of my post, very clearly, cited their release date as “DECEMBER 2016”. It has since been changed to July, after my post. I’m not a Samsung historian, so I can’t say which is correct. But the wiki said DECEMBER 2016 at the time of my post.
How about you admit you and the other fellow were wrong and completely fabricated that I had anything to do with the dates of when IconX was released, as clearly evidenced by the change history screenshot? My lane is Apple history, and I corrected only the erroneous claim that the APs were announced months after DECEMBER 2016. They weren’t, they were announced in Sept. and released in December, which per the edit state when I read the wiki, was the same month as IconX. (Which has since been edited to July by someone else)
People still give a shit about consumer reports? Really? Not a single human being I know consults them for anything. Not even "recommended"? Fucking laughable. They're an insanely well designed product and work incredibly well.
I see a few hundred people wearing Airpods a day. Insanely popular. Galaxy Buds? Pretty much zero.
I don't usually examine people's choice of earphones, but Consumer Reports has more than 6 million subscribers. That's quite substantial for a publication nowadays. The New Yorks Times has about 4 million.
How many of them are Apple target audience.
And dogs are barking and caravan is going further. And customers do not care :-)
I see so many AirPods here as well and we are not that rich country. Of course many have them as status symbol as it is visible all the time.
I wasn’t. You still don’t get it. The IconX wiki, at the time of my post, very clearly, cited their release date as “DECEMBER 2016”. It has since been changed to July, after my post. I’m not a Samsung historian, so I can’t say which is correct. But the wiki said DECEMBER 2016 at the time of my post.
How about you admit you and the other fellow were wrong and completely fabricated that I had anything to do with the dates of when IconX was released, as clearly evidenced by the change history screenshot? My lane is Apple history, and I corrected only the erroneous claim that the APs were announced months after DECEMBER 2016. They weren’t, they were announced in Sept. and released in December, which per the edit state when I read the wiki, was the same month as IconX. (Which has since been edited to July by someone else)
Why are you editing it if you have no knowledge of Samsung's release date? The first edit was correct sans the date. What you did was make it seem that they were released simultaneously, which is not true. This is why we are not allowed to cite Wiki in our company.
I switched to Apple AirPods, people could not hear me well with the Samsung earbuds, especially in noisy environments ... sound quality is better in AirPods, did not like the bass heavy Samsung's ... Why CR left out the call quality is beyond me ...
Comments
Here we go again!
1) Apple introduces an innovative, wonderful new product
2) Samsung copies it and comes out with equivalent or better hardware
3) Experts and pundits trash Apple.
The truth is: In today's world, somebody is ALWAYS going to catch up to Apple's hardware.
Fortunately, hardware is only the base for Apple. What makes them great is their software and ecosystem and how their products integrate and compliment each other.
With Apple, the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts.
I don’t pay much, if any attention to CR. For all of their vaunted expertise their methodologies are often poorly thought out. Worse yet is when they are rating on a subjective quality. Then their internal biases are clear and obvious.
That said while I cannot comment on sound quality, I also cannot recommend AirPods. I just find them physically uncomfortable. They are literally painful and I have to remove them after no more than five minutes.
So was your claim that both released the same month right or wrong? You can't blame Wiki. You changed it yesterday, but not correctly based on what you're showing us.
The 'non-bias' media and 'educated' people complain about $1,000 iPhones that can do a multitude of amazing things. Heck a pretty good sounding $300 speaker is too much for these same people. And yet you expect Apple to compete against $3,000 dedicated music players?
I noticed they also used the dubious 'ear seal' angle, which ignores the fact that high-end studio headphones don't 'seal' your ear canal either.
Look carefully at the two versions. Aug 25, written days before this post, said they were released DECEMBER 2016. It also said AirPods were announced months later. I’m not a Samsung historian so I can’t say whether DECEMBER 2016 is correct or not. But I can say APs were not announced months later than DECEMBER 2016. And that’s exactly what I said, in the edit on August 28. Note that the DECEMBER 2016 is not highlighted as a change, because I never changed it. It was already there. (It has since been edited to July by someone else. Again, review the history.)
Even my change summary explains this, highlighted.
This isn’t that hard. If you can’t understand it that’s not my problem.
How about you admit you and the other fellow were wrong and completely fabricated that I had anything to do with the dates of when IconX was released, as clearly evidenced by the change history screenshot? My lane is Apple history, and I corrected only the erroneous claim that the APs were announced months after DECEMBER 2016. They weren’t, they were announced in Sept. and released in December, which per the edit state when I read the wiki, was the same month as IconX. (Which has since been edited to July by someone else)
And dogs are barking and caravan is going further. And customers do not care :-)
I see so many AirPods here as well and we are not that rich country. Of course many have them as status symbol as it is visible all the time.
Why CR left out the call quality is beyond me ...