Apple AirPods Max
No company takes as much flack for even the merest misstep as Apple. It’s like the social media universe is poised for another ‘battery-gate’, ‘keyboard-gate’, or ‘bend-gate’ (not forgetting brand new ‘condensation-gate’ attached to these headphones). I guess a two and a quarter trillion dollar company will have its trolls and haters. As you read on, beware, I’m a fanboy. Also, an audiophile. Yet, rarely do the two universes intersect.
In the latest ‘faux outrage’, Apple has produced an over the ear headphone, the AirPods Max, utilizing its array of computational audio and assembled with premium parts for $549. Of course, other fine manufacturers such as B&O, M&D and B&W produce quality built, great sounding wireless Bluetooth headphones for the same price and above.
We won’t get into comparisons with open back, planar magnetic beauties meant for use with high end headphone amplifiers from manufacturers such as Abyss (the finest headphones I’ve heard; remarkable in every headphone way for $5000), T+A Solitaire P (review forthcoming—$6400) Audeze, Focal and HIFIMAN (review of the HE-R10s coming Feb—$5500). They’re for a different purpose, a different market.
No, the Twitterverse was pissed because they were expecting the new Apple cans to be priced the same as other popular consumer Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) Bluetooth headphones from Sony (WH-1000XM4 @ $349.99) and Bose (700 @ $449.95). Both can be found discounted online.
Since the ballyhoo at the time of shipping last month, there have been numerous website and video ‘reviews’ where pundits bandy the term ‘audiophile’ and rage about price, weight, the case, etc. Not here. That said, there is a well-filmed YouTube video review by the irrepressible Brian Tong (bring your headphones/earphones for an interesting binaural experiment). Less fancy is our YouTube unboxing video.
Here, I’ll tell you a little about its use, the tech, and, most importantly, how they sound. If you want a deep tech dive from the horse’s mouth, go here.
Really, Apple? Silly stuff.
Features
Apple-designed dynamic driver
Active Noise Cancellation
Transparency mode
Adaptive EQ
Spatial audio with dynamic head tracking
Optical sensor (each ear cup)
Position sensor (each ear cup)
Case-detect sensor (each ear cup)
Accelerometer (each ear cup)
Gyroscope (left ear cup)
Eight microphones for Active Noise Cancellation
Three microphones for voice pickup (two shared with Active Noise Cancellation and one additional microphone)
Apple H1 headphone chip (each ear cup)
That’s a pretty comprehensive list, all of which Apple integrates into an elegantly holistic listening experience. In addition, they weigh in at a tubby but very comfortable 384.8 grams. I’m not sure you’ll be training for a marathon with the AirPods Max. My wife used them in her daily 5K run and found their weight and solidity uncomfortable. But, unlike other headphones, sweat is not an issue and the weight is very evenly distributed with the mesh headband leading to long listening sessions with no crown fatigue. Just not for runners. They may work for less impactful workouts.
Rarely does Apple misstep when shipping a product, except for the Apple Maps debut and the original Newton. They were disasters. The AirPods Max is not. It’s a very good headphone for those in the Apple ecosystem, well made and worthy of the MSRP.
In Silver, Space Grey, Sky Blue, Rose Gold, Green, matching the colours of the new iPad Air.
My Use
If you are an Apple user (Mac, iPhone, iPad, HomePod, etc), the Max’s are very convenient. In fact, they produce ‘convenient sound’. Keep your iPhone handy and let Apple do all the work. Pairing, because of the advanced chipset, is the best in the business. Bluetooth 5 never had it so good. Battery life is reasonable, and, with no off switch, setting them down drains the battery slowly, dropping into low power mode after two hours. This may change with future updates.
As you can see by the photograph above, the case is a bit of a joke. The magnets within them switch the headphones into low power mode. But, if you’re a traveller, buy a third party case.
You can use the Max’s wired, but the bi-directional cable from Apple is $35. More outrage. Geez, audiophiles spend that on contact cleaner and BluTac. This review was completed wirelessly. From all accounts, the wire solves a very slight latency, but not much else. You’ll be buying these as wireless Bluetooth headphones.
Android user? It’ll work. But, why? Go Sony (at least Sony has ‘LDAC’, with a much higher bitrate than Apple, 990kbps—when it works) or Bose, or better still, B&O.
Phone calls sound great. One of the 8 mics is specifically to control wind noise. As for ANC, it’s the best around with the important ‘ambient’ mode (Apple calls it Transparency Mode) also the best in the business. Very natural. When in Transparency, you’ll hear your barista no problem or that speeding car very clearly.
So, before we get into the reason for this review, the sound, who should buy these headphones?
I feel you must be all in, or, at least most of the way in the Apple Ecosystem for them to pay off. For technical reasons more than musical. The advanced technology—Apple calls it ‘computational audio’, Spatial Audio and Adaptive EQ—is unique to Apple and using it is a big part of the Max’s charm. As such, if you are ‘in the system’, an Apple Music subscriber, and stream videos on your iPhone or iPad, then they are a good buy.
If you're an audio tinkerer and spend your spare time scouring the internet for the best price for a high end, detachable, XLR headphone cable or you want to use a tube headphone amplifier (our review of the Icon Audio HP MKII Headphone Amplifier is up Feb—$1099), then Apple’s version of ‘high end’ sound is not for you. It's a ‘sit back dear, and here are your pipe and slippers' kind of product. Everything is done for you, no thinking or tweaking required. Fit & finish is exemplary including detachable, magnetic earcups and well-designed, pistonic headband expanders. It feels like a quality product, but certainly no better than M&D or B&W.
My set in silver. Such expert workmanship in aluminum and steel.
Sound
All the digital whizz bangery does offer a specific type of sound. When reviewing two-channel, digital, non-headphone audio, I call it ‘ziss, boom, bah’. All tizz and effect. Many people, many civilians love this type of sound. And Apple delivers.
Yet, the sound Apple designs is evenly distributed across the entire spectrum; no tessitura is threadbare or wanting. Bassheads will get the bass they deserve with very well controlled transients and bloom. Apple is so damned secretive about numbers, etc, especially about its Apple Silicon, I can’t report to the specheads how low they go. But the bass counterpoint in Thomas Newman’s ‘Dead Already’ from the American Beauty soundtrack and the bass line from ‘Train Song’ (Holly Cole Temptation), were as impressive and controlled as on any consumer headphones I’ve used and matched some very expensive headphones I’ve tried. The bass on these two tracks is subterranean.
From my Apple Library. Notice the AirPods Max icon in the iPhone volume bar?
Lately, I’ve watched lots of ‘YouTube audiophiles’ going on about ‘soundstage’, ‘imaging’ and all the other jargon words they read on Wikipedia in preparation for their rushed reviews. Scoop! In the world of live music, two channel audio, room reflections, high end equipment topologies and subtleties, it’s a lot of jabber. Look, headphones give you a small picture of what a concert or live performance gives. Almost a musical X-Ray (this is where a fine open back, planar headphone & tube amp help to flesh out voices and instruments). No amount of electronic jiggery pokery can fake a well-trained, experienced ear. Or, a music-loving, non audiophile concert goer. For the musical moment, the soundstage and imaging may be snapshots, but no more, especially on consumer appliance headphones like the AirPods Max. Even the mighty 3K Focal Stellias (linked above) only hint at soundstage and imaging, two of the most important tenets of audiophilia. The good news is the AirPods Max give as good an account of themselves as any other in their price range (and above), including the wonderful M&W MW65 ANC Wireless Headphones ($499).
The cynic in me is beginning to believe that my beloved Apple is selling all this technology to increase subscriptions to Apple Music.
Even unmusical oafs like the guy above, with his 50 additional producers onboard playing at 11, could not upset the AirPods Max. No matter the repertoire, no matter the volume, the H1 chips will not allow distortion.
Even an audiophile track that busts bass chops was handled with ease. This track was especially impressive in the Max’s handling of explosive dynamics.
I enjoyed listening to lots of different repertoire.
To get into the timbral weeds, I chose a very recent release, the 2021 Vienna New Year’s Concert conducted by Riccardo Muti. This would accomplish two important aural tasks. Do the AirPods Max reflect the unique timbres heard in the Wiener Philharmoniker (strings, oboes, clarinets & horns, especially) and do they capture the gorgeous acoustics of the Musikverein? For the album, I used Apple Music, Tidal and Qobuz. This was instructive.
Lots of audio marketing punctuated the screen—Apple Masters, HiFi, CD Quality, etc. Here’s the thing. On the AirPods Max, damn if I could discern any major differences, in fact I believe the Apple Music download was very slightly smoother with a better dynamic response. All three were very enjoyable. I clicked on the track and the Max did its computational thing. Musical and sound design autopilot.
I used the gorgeous Johann Strauss II Kaiser-Walzer as guinea pig. The Max did a very good job controlling the acoustics and giving a pleasant replication of the Großer Saal. Could I hear the opening, pp viola string timbre in the opening vamp more realistically on one service over the other? Damn, it was close. Too close, when imagining the true resolution of these three files.
Heard on my SONOS system, the Qobuz and Tidal bitrate (CD quality on SONOS) beat the Apple Music AAC codec hands down, but heard on products like the Max and the HomePod mini, where Apple processes the hell out of the sound, not so much. Of course, listening to the three tracks on my reference system, with a Mytek HiFi Manhattan DAC II doing Tidal MQA duty and my MBL CD/DAC encoding Qobuz’ insanely high res files, it was a massacre. The Mytek is $6000, the MBL $15,400! Did you hear the Max is $549?
To test the mettle of the tech, especially the H1 chip in each earcup, gyroscopes, accelerometer, ANC, clever mics, etc, I played music with and without glasses (the earcups measure for frequency response when not sealed completely), in Transparency Mode and ANC, walking and sitting, inside and outside, and watched The Mandalorian and AppleTV Plus film Greyhound with the Spatial Audio on. The videos were immersive and impressive on my iPhone 12 Pro Max (or your iPad, but not on ‘stationary’ devices like Apple TV 4K and MacBook Pro). The headphones were never uncomfortable, never disappointed in producing musical results, and even Siri added to the picture. As for old school physical use, the digital crown volume control and pair button are both tactile, perfectly placed and work very well.
Many people still have suspicions about Bluetooth, even the 5.0 version. Much like WiFi, it’s a black art. When it works as advertised, it’s so convenient, but, when there’s trouble, and there always is, you know the aggravation. Too, the track’s sound is never going to be as consistent and high quality as that heard with a good wired headphone. Convenience always has a price.
Recommended?
If your fanboyishness is a constant, your life is tethered to your iPhone, and you don’t want to spend more money on better headphones, then go ahead. Press the buy button. The Dopamine rush will be considerable. And, you’ll have no regrets. The Max is a fine product, beautifully constructed and well priced. Sit back and enjoy the music.
But, better can be heard, unleashed from Apple’s self-imposed, walled garden, the garden where sound quality is always a secondary thought. For the same price or more, you can go Master & Dynamic, Bang & Olufsen or Bowers & Wilkins and own just as cool, just as socially desirable headphones unencumbered by the Apple engineers’ musical view of the world. [Or, before you buy, read two upcoming reviews in Audiophilia, both from leading high end headphone manufacturers; a set for $500 and another with serious trickle down tech for $900-Ed].
If you go for the $800 Beoplay H95 ANC Headphones, a $250 premium over the Max, you will get lighter, just as beautiful, just as comfortable, better sounding headphones with more refined instrumental and vocal timbre. Is that worth $250 to you?
Me? No.
Not even the $549 for the AirPods Max.
My musical life supersedes my fanboy world, which is also trumped by my audiophile gig. And longtime Audiophilia readers will know that I’m not a ‘headphone guy’. Yet, I hope my review will help guide you a little more than the flying superlatives found out there.
As such, I returned them.
And not without a little sadness for visually they are a thing of beauty. And those wanting convenience and consistent, Apple-inspired sound across all genres and styles will be eternally happy.
Further information: Apple
