I’m reading and watching a lot of reviews of the new AirPods Max and almost every people are asking “I don’t know with which headphones I have to compare it”. Since in my other life I was an audiophile (crazy) guy, I want to write something about this.
Most of people are trying to compare them to the Sony WH-1000XM4, but is totally wrong to me! The XM4 is a different kind of headphone.
Before continue I need to write something about the background of Apple and its products. Apple doesn’t build products to have “the best *insert nerdy feature here*”, Apple builds products to have “the best product.” Fullstop. And the best product is not necessarily the best on the specs paper or the best in something else that you can measure with raw numbers. Apple usually make the best product for the overall experience with the product, this make a good product on the sheet paper, the best -for you- product overall, because you’re going to use it, not to read the specifications.
Infact, Apple doesn’t provide any specs on the APM (AirPods Max), here’s the info page of the APM and Sony WH-1000XM4:
Do you notice some differences? Yes, there’re no numbers, no drivers size, no frequency responses, no response in sensitivities, nothing…
Why this? Well for some different reasons, because the sound is subjective to every people, and people are affected by “biases”, you can listen a totally flat in response headphone and to you it will appears a “meh…” headphone, because the sound will be bad because is …flat… without emphasis and emotions, and music is emotional. But is technically “the best”.
Or you can listen to a great headphone with perfect (to you) sound but very heavy and sturdy around you head, this will make not a great experience to you, after 15/20 mins you will put it off.
Or you can listen a super perfect $4.000 audiophile headphone but, since it’s super perfect, it has the cable for the best sound experience, and you can’t go out with them, or the cable will get stuck in something inside the bus/train, or is very frustrating in 2021 to have still the cable! So it will result to you in not a great headphone, you won’t carry it with you, or in your head, for every day/commute.
These are some of the reasons why Apple doesn’t put tech/nerdy infos on their products, you must have the best user experience with Apple products, and this not necessary means to have also the best numbers on paper. In example, the new Mac M1 chips are the best also in numbers, according to the benchmarks. But Apple doesn’t write these numbers on the product page, because they’re not necessary to have a great experience with the Apple MacBook/Mac Mini, you will notice the numbers because you will feel to have the best user experience with these products. This is what Apple wants and why they makes you to pay a little extra/premium price for Apple products: for the UX (user experience).
That said, back to the APM with already some more infos about the headphones to compare with the Apple ones. I think the APM is an headphone for a target of modern and quite young people. And modern and young people usually listen to modern music like pop or commercial music that usually is made with a lot of electronic devices and it can’t be definited as pure music, for pure music I mean the sound that a violin or a trumpet makes. So Apple has not build it for listening jazz, blues or classical music, and for that the true high-fidelity sound is not needed, rather could be a trouble. This because this kind of music is developed with some specific hardwares inside the audio recording rooms, and with some specific filters in order to be played on modern devices, like, precisely the AirPods Max.
And this is a first point of possible comparision: forget the audiophile hi-end headphones and we can concentrate on modern, user friendly headphones that put the user experience over the true hi-fidelity sound.
And the same target with similar features headphone could be the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H9 (3rd Gen)
B&O puts user experience and aesthetical pleasure over the raw number and sound. I owned some B&O head/earphones and I think this are the first competitor. Priced at $500, not so far from the APM.
A very interesting competitor, I think is the Bower & Wilkins PX7.
And here I’m a bit biased because I own this headphone (and the previous gen PX) and i found them beautiful with the perfect mix between sound/UX/price. Priced lower than the other two at $399.
If I want we could enter deep in the headphone market with another option, less common and more unknown: the Master & Dynamic MW65.
For $499 you get a cool headphone but with some outdated specs (like BT 4.2).
Another interesting option could be the DALI IO-6, less famous brand but with a nice looking headphone (I don’t know about the sound, never tried). Price is on the same step: $499.
Want to go deeper inside the audiophile world? Here you are, the Beyerdynamic Amiron wireless
$599 headphone with no ANC, best use is at home, but I think could be the headphone for the people who use it at home/office and doesn’t won’t a frequencies cutting technology (aka Active Noise Cancellation) but want the commodity of cable-less headphone.
And I put also two other options, cabled options, for the people who want the best sound experience (rather than comfort and comodity) headphone for the same price of the APM but with cables:
Focal Elegia: official price is $900, but street price is about $600/700, similar to the AirPods Max
Less expensive headphone could be the Audeze LCD-1 cabled headphone, $399.
…and if we want to compare the AirPods Max to true Hi-End headphones? Well, we can: the Focal Utopia for example. $3.999 headphone
Oh don’t forget the HIFIMAN HE-R10P for $5.499
Or the HIFIMAN SUSVARA for $6.000
…and so on. Is full of options here and there, I have never mentioned the Sony WH-1000XM4 because everyone is talking about it, surely it’s a great headphone, with a tons of feature, specific sound and maybe the best ANC but I think this headphone is more oriented to the nerdy guys who want only the sound, the features and the ANC. Overshadowing the materials and user experience. Not really an Apple competitor.
In the end of the article I can’t not mention the horrible “case”(bag?) of the AirPods Max, I don’t know why (or better I know why…) they choose to use something like this and not like -in example- the cool bag of the B&W PX7.
Size matters but also the usabilty matters. I wouldn’t carry with me the APM, and no, at the moment I’m not interested in buy the AirPods Max but I can recognize the ability of Apple in make these products very usable and cool.
