AirPods Max first experience: a new benchmark for headphones

This review is a transcript of the video, everyone is welcome to watch it at station B.

design

The first impression of AirPods Max is very delicate. Also called AirPods, but Max’s earmuffs are made of more advanced anodized aluminum, but they are also very cold outdoors in winter. There is no logo on the earmuffs, which is simply Muji.

The head beam is made of stainless steel and can be telescopically fixed in one position, with good damping and no sliding. The joint between the head beam and the earmuffs is very special, with a built-in spring for opening and closing at a greater angle.

A U-shaped groove is designed above the head beam, officially called a dome net, to disperse the head pressure.

The ear pads are made of memory cotton, and the outer layer is covered with a mesh fabric. A great design is that the ear pads are magnetically attached to the earmuffs, which can be replaced with different colors, and the price is 499 yuan for a pair.

This time, AirPods Max comes in five colors, including space gray, silver, sky blue, green and pink.

The only inconvenience is that AirPods Max is not made into a folding design, which takes up more space. AirPods Max comes with a smart protective cover for storage. It is made of silicone and also uses a magnetic structure. The shape makes me think of many things, only the earmuffs can be wrapped, a bit like a hard shell jacket for macarons.

Sense of wearing

As a head UP master, my 63 cm head should not be able to find an opponent in a radius of five kilometers, and I should have a say in the issue of wearing comfort.

First of all, the weight. AirPods Max and earmuffs weigh 384 grams. This weight is really not light. For comparison, Sony WH-1000XM4 weighs 254g, Bose QC35 II weighs 240g , and Bose 700 weighs 250g . When I turn my head, I can still feel a little head drop, hanging around my neck. Although it is not tired, it is not comfortable enough.

Then there is the pressure on the head caused by the pressure of the head beam. I have no discomfort in my head for half an hour, but personally feel that the comfort is not as good as the Bose 700. Of course, the most comfortable is still the Bose QC35.

Too loose may affect the stability of wearing. I especially found a colleague with a small head. After wearing it , it won't fall off.

Many people ask me whether the head beam will collapse the hairstyle. I am responsible for telling everyone that it will, but as time goes by, this may not be a problem.

Interactive

This is the brightest part. It is hard to imagine that a headset can be stuffed with so many sensors, the purpose is to make everything consistent with intuition.

The pairing method of AirPods Max is the same as that of AirPods Pro. When the headset is close to the device, an animation pops up and click to connect.

Take it off, pause it, put it on and play it. Needless to say, AirPods Pro also has optical and position sensors.

The knob of AirPods Max introduced into Apple Watch can be said to be a ghost design. Press to pause/play, rotate to adjust the volume, double-click the next song, which is very friendly to blind operation, and there is a gear sound when rotating.

I have always disliked the touch gestures on the headset, because the lack of feedback due to touch in thin air will give me a psychological hint of the uncertainty of interaction.

In addition, there is a noise control button to switch between noise reduction mode and transparent mode.

The most interesting thing is that AirPods Max does not have a power button, and there is no concept of switching on and off at all, just like the iPod of the year. Apple's idea is that you don't need to consider the problem of switching on and off-as long as the headset is not working, it will automatically enter a low-power mode.

In fact, as long as the headset is not working, you can enter a low-power state, hang it around your neck, and put it on the table, not necessarily in a smart protective case. The principle is that the light sensor on the headset is monitoring whether the headset is worn on the head.

As for the power consumption of this low power consumption, I will give back to you later.

Regarding the delay of Bluetooth, there is basically no problem with watching videos and playing games, but if it is used for post-monitoring, which has extremely high accuracy on the audio track, it will still have some impact.

Although AirPods Max is not equipped with a 3.5mm headphone jack, buying a Lightning adapter cable and turning it into a wired headset can eliminate the Bluetooth delay.

Regarding the compatibility of Android phones, I tried this Mi 10 Ultra that can be paired normally. Noise reduction switching, volume adjustment, playback pause, and switching to the next song can all be used normally.

Sound quality

The following is a routine metaphysics session, which only represents subjective feelings.

Compared with AirPods Pro, AirPods Max with a larger sound unit has a much better sense of hearing. The low-frequency volume is significantly more powerful, and the elasticity is also smooth, not the feeling of booming.

Compared with the Bose 700, AirPods Max sounds fuller in three frequency bands, and the separation between the human voice and the background is clearer, especially the high frequency details are more delicate than the Bose 700, and the Bose 700 is slightly dry and muddy.

After talking about the traditional sound quality, let's take a look at the difference of AirPods Max .

AirPods Max is equipped with an H1 chip on both earmuffs , which achieves 9 billion operations per second. Apple calls it "computing audio."

The reason why sound quality is metaphysics is that everyone has different feelings about sound, and the ear canal, head shape, and wearing style all affect the sound. How to ensure that the sound heard is the best?

Apple’s approach is the adaptive equalization function, which customizes the sound effects according to the fit and tightness of the ear pads. For example, if the left side is worn loosely, the introverted microphone will detect the listening content and adjust the sound on the left. Frequency, it will amplify this part to maintain the balance of the sound.

In addition, like AirPods, AirPods Max is also equipped with the "spatial audio" function. The so-called spatial audio, is given a sense of the scene to the sound, more immersive feeling, to increase the immersive audio-visual.

No matter how you turn your head, it feels that a certain kind of sound is coming from a fixed direction, as if you are in a live or movie theater scene.

This feature is amazing, but it doesn't make a difference with AirPods Pro.

Noise reduction

AirPods Max is equipped with 9 microphones, 8 of which are used for active noise reduction. Click the noise control button, duang sound, the world escaped into emptiness .

In order to test the noise reduction level of AirPods Max, we used ASMR equipment to monitor. Hengping's opponent was the headset-bose 700.

The first set of tests simulates the office environment, and the central air-conditioning is turned on. The noise is about 45dB, which is usually relatively quiet.

AirPods Max and Bose 700 have not changed much, and both can bring a very quiet effect, at the top level, with little difference.

In the second environment, we choose to be on a very noisy road with a lot of traffic, and the noise is about 60-70dB. No matter from the sound track oscilloscope, or the actual sense of hearing, AirPods Max's noise reduction is better.

AirPods Pro did not use ASMR because it did not fit the ASMR ear canal. The subjective feeling is not much worse than AirPods Max. It may be because the passive noise reduction of earplugs is better, that is, the ears are blocked tighter.

to sum up

Before AirPods Max, it was hard for me to imagine that a headset would be equipped with 18 sensors. I can hardly imagine that I can use a pair of headphones to hear the taste of Live.

Just like many years ago, I couldn't imagine that without a huge optical lens, only relying on dual cameras, TOF sensor and ISP algorithm, mobile phones can also reproduce the mood like a sharp knife.

AirPods Max is not a traditional headset. It does not combine units, materials, cables, structure and acoustic design like traditional "Hi-Fi" headphones, but instead focuses on interaction. Experience, noise reduction capabilities and computing audio. In these three aspects, AirPods Max has become a benchmark.

To some extent, it is not even a headset, it is a smart wearable device.

After computational photography, audio is also inevitably drawn into the torrent of sensors and algorithms. This makes me wonder how we can feel when the vision and hearing under the blessing of algorithms work together on people. The real and illusory world, and what kind of computing device it creates.

The LiDAR of the iPhone 12 Pro and the computational audio on the AirPods Max may all pave the way for it.

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Ai Faner | Original link · View comments · Sina Weibo