I’m curious to hear the Apple headphones. There aren’t many studio quality headphones with ANC because studio headphones are usually open back, and it makes lit

I’m curious to hear the Apple headphones. There aren’t many studio quality headphones with ANC because studio headphones are usually open back, and it makes little sense to put ANC in open back headphones. I reserve judgement but don’t think the Apple headphones will compete with headphones used for mixing and mastering. There has been relatively little innovation in headphones (and speakers) the last decade or so aside from DSP correction. The last really innovative (from an audio engineering point of view) headphone in my book is the HEDDphone with Air Motion Transfer drivers previously unseen outside some exotic speakers. But it’s $2000, weighs 700g and requires an amp to drive it. I look forward to hearing the Apple headphones but am sceptical you can get as much of a boost with “computational audio” as you can with computational photography, compared to “dumb” headphones with similar drivers and tuning. I think the spatial audio stuff is interesting and possibly better than previous attempts on headphones. I think well off people will buy these headphones for the convenience factor (works and sounds marginally better than the next best competitor), and Apple will probably release a less expensive version down the line.