4 ms·

I'm very much the target market for the APMs, so I read this with interest. Well, I mean, I would be, if I still got on planes. I own a nice pair of Sennheiser

I'm very much the target market for the APMs, so I read this with interest. Well, I mean, I would be, if I still got on planes. I own a nice pair of Sennheisers with active noise cancellation. They're AMAZING on planes, or other noisy environments, but like any full-sized set of headphones they're not something I'd wear moving around. Since COVID happened, mine have been on a shelf -- if I want headphones in the house, I just use my AirPods or the older set of wired Sennheisers semi-permanently set up next to the couch. But yeah, I'm interested in these for the post-COVID world. One thing gave me a little pause, though, prior to Gruber's piece, and that was my assumption that Apple wouldn't make it possible to use these in a wired mode at all. My Senns CAN be used that way, and it makes a big difference on a long-haul flight. If you can use your own nice headphones with the seatback system, you'll have a much nicer time, and I just assumed Apple wouldn't do that. I'm VERY pleased to see they allowed for that: "You can use AirPods Max as wired headphones with a Lightning to 3.5 mm headphone jack cable". There's lots of stuff I like about my wireless ANC-equipped Sennheisers, but they don't sound as good as the wired set by my couch. (I mean, no surprise; the older wired set is like $300, and the wireless ones were half that.) Additionally, the wireless ones have all the sorts of goofy interface bullshit and dodgy Bluetooth things going on that I associated with basically all non-Apple Bluetooth things. I'd absolutely pay a premium to have wireless headphones that rival my fancy wired Sennheisers, include ANC, and operate seamlessly. That'd be a no-brainer. But, as I said, only if travel actually becomes a thing again. ;)

killjoywashere 6y ago
I am traveling (I’m the kind of person you expect to travel in a pandemic, wear a mask!). And I have Gruber’s comparator: the Bose QC35 II. I carry mine in their case hooked to a carabiner hooked to my briefcase, so the APM’s highly exposed wrapper of a case is not my cup of tea. I can also see the utility for movies at home so I appreciate the MacBook/Apple TV problem. Those are 2 of my 3 main use cases (The other of course being VTCs like everybody else). I don’t think that I will be running out to replace my current headphones but when they get long in the tooth I might consider the second generation of this APM design. It’s not a retina MacBook where I would buy it pre-order as soon as the announcement is out. It’s a 2008 unibody MacBook. It has a compelling future but I want to see what version two is.
- ubermonkey 6y ago
  I think that's a fair assessment. I also think it is super super likely that Apple is about to hit Bose and other higher-end headphones makers by surprise with how good these sound. We'll have to wait for some real world usage tests and whatnot, but most $500 headphone makers are pretty hidebound / kinda into the woo-woo world of audio. These could be pretty disruptive -- especially if, in year or two, they introduce a lower-end model (AirPods MaxSE?).
  - vanilla_nut 6y ago
    Rumors indicate an AirPods (Max?) Sport in the coming months. I'd guess that those will be a lot more competitive with the XM4s/QC35s/etc., and likely will cost $299-399. I'm interested in how they'll differ from the AirPods Max, though -- a crappier speaker? More plastic and less aluminum? I think the trouble is that the AirPods Max (to me) seem more like $350 headphones than $550 headphones, so it's difficult to imagine what they'll do to hit the price point I actually have in mind.

killjoywashere 6y ago

I am traveling (I’m the kind of person you expect to travel in a pandemic, wear a mask!). And I have Gruber’s comparator: the Bose QC35 II. I carry mine in their case hooked to a carabiner hooked to my briefcase, so the APM’s highly exposed wrapper of a case is not my cup of tea. I can also see the utility for movies at home so I appreciate the MacBook/Apple TV problem. Those are 2 of my 3 main use cases (The other of course being VTCs like everybody else). I don’t think that I will be running out to replace my current headphones but when they get long in the tooth I might consider the second generation of this APM design. It’s not a retina MacBook where I would buy it pre-order as soon as the announcement is out. It’s a 2008 unibody MacBook. It has a compelling future but I want to see what version two is.

ubermonkey 6y ago
I think that's a fair assessment. I also think it is super super likely that Apple is about to hit Bose and other higher-end headphones makers by surprise with how good these sound. We'll have to wait for some real world usage tests and whatnot, but most $500 headphone makers are pretty hidebound / kinda into the woo-woo world of audio. These could be pretty disruptive -- especially if, in year or two, they introduce a lower-end model (AirPods MaxSE?).
- vanilla_nut 6y ago
  Rumors indicate an AirPods (Max?) Sport in the coming months. I'd guess that those will be a lot more competitive with the XM4s/QC35s/etc., and likely will cost $299-399. I'm interested in how they'll differ from the AirPods Max, though -- a crappier speaker? More plastic and less aluminum? I think the trouble is that the AirPods Max (to me) seem more like $350 headphones than $550 headphones, so it's difficult to imagine what they'll do to hit the price point I actually have in mind.