mike_galloway

About

Username
mike_galloway
Joined
Visits
33
Last Active
Roles
member
Points
260
Badges
0
Posts
106
  • Apple debuts $549 AirPods Max over-ear headphones

    macgui said:
    Clearly most of you aren't familiar with high-end headphones. They can range from 2-10x the cost of these Apple headphones, easy.

    It's comical the way some idiots pick one feature of these headphones then compare their little POS headsets and claim some kind of victory.

    And suggesting that these have to be binned when the battery dies? Idiocy. Replacing batteries in AirPods isn't really very practical, and comparing that to replacing the batteries in the Max is again another exercise in stupidity.

    These are pricey for the casual listener. Not all that pricey when compared to a litany of high-end headphones, if these live up to the claims. 
    Clearly you are not familiar with Apple's marketing.  These are a far cry from being high-end headphones.  They are just excessively overpriced cans.  You don't have to be so insulting to people in your comment.  No professional recording studio or person would buy these.  They will buy the high-end headphones from reputable companies in the industry that know audio very well.  Apple is not that company.  Apple is known for mediocre audio quality in their products.  Apple does not even allow you to adjust tone quality in any of their speaker products.  These are heavily marketed as BLUETOOTH headphones to use with your iPhone for playing back heavily compressed audio files.  Something a professional audio person would never listen to.  Yes, Apple charges an extra $35 for an audio cable, but again, that is not what Apple wants you to do.  These are just overpriced ugly headphones that no one will be buying, except for a few fools that think anything with an Apple logo is somehow magical.
    I’m familiar with Apple’s marketing - I bought the original Macintosh at release and have spent plenty on their products over the years and currently have 4 of their products.

    I wasn’t trying to insult anyone, I was just surprised that people were so surprised at the price. I agree, no professional studio or audio engineer would buy these and Apple is clearly not aiming their marketing for these headphones at those people as can be seen from their web site.

    You will find that Naim Audio’s NAC 552 pre-amplifier, costing £21,000 doesn’t allow you to adjust the “tone quality” either and such controls are very rare to find on a loudspeaker anyway. As for the mention of Bluetooth, again, Apple are not aiming these are audio engineers, they are being aimed at Apple’s usual audience (Pro Apps notwithstanding).

    I think they look very attractive, much more so than the endless lumps of unimaginative black plastic that pass for the design of most headphones. To say they are overpriced is unwise when you have not even heard them; you may be right, but they combine a number of features which for a lot of people will be very appealing. If no one is buying them then I’m not sure why the shipping times are already lengthening unless it’s all the fools, in which case Apple will happily take their money!
    The audiophile market is certainly in a world of it’s own. As a designer for 15 years for a small Britsh company I designed some pretty mad products; like the Titan" power amplifier, 1000 Watts per channel into 8 ohms and 2000 Watts into 4 ohms, at the bargin price of $30,000 and a 14 tube pri-amp (no tone controls of course), the Primo for $7900. I suspect Apple's headphones are going to be very good but not suitable for the professionals, The 1% distortion figure is epecially good for headphones and may put them in the same class as electrostatic types.
    watto_cobraspherickiltedgreen