Apple AirPods Max

[John]

Just acquired a pair as a gift in silver with a white headband. Never been much of a headphone guy but can see myself getting some usage from these. I’m heavily entrenched in the Apple infrastructure and have learned that there’s some compatibility with Sonos as well.

A big thing for me is convenience and how seamless these devices operate, the less faff, the better. I usually wait for my better half to rise before playing music but with these I can pop them on get some use from them.

I think I prefer listening with the noise canceling feature turned on. It lowers the noise floor and cuts out the sound of the forced air heat along with the refrigerator noise that I hear with the ambient feature on. It allows for lower listening levels but still allows you to enjoy the music.

Works well with Apple TV so has some use there as well.

 

[Somafunk]

Yeah they are good, check out on YouTube all the extra features in the apple HealthKit app to get the most out of them

 

[John]

Will have to find that YouTube video. Saw the bit on the Health app and enabled the headphone portion. Interesting that it keeps track of headphone levels and will send notifications. One concerns I always had with headphones was damage to my hearing, especially in loud areas like airplanes!

 

[Somafunk]

You may already have discovered this but you create a personal custom sound in health - settings, see video below

 

[John]

Thanks for the video, I’ll have a play with the settings and see how the custom settings sound compare with the standard ones.

 

[krenzler]

For me the out-of-the-box sound is preferable. I like the APM tuning with the very good low-bass and relaxed mids and highs which prevents any long-term fatique. For me any of the other sound settings just brighten the sound which seems a less enjoyable tuning for these headphones.

 

[John]

For me the out-of-the-box sound is preferable. I like the APM tuning with the very good low-bass and relaxed mids and highs which prevents any long-term fatique. For me any of the other sound settings just brighten the sound which seems a less enjoyable tuning for these headphones.

I had a play with the settings and have come to the same conclusion. I’ll be sticking with the stock settings for now. I imagine there’s some break in involved with the amps/drivers so I’d rather live with them for awhile as is.

 

[John]

I’m thinking this part of the Health app works only with Apple headphones but I’m not certain. I was always hesitant to use headphones as I was fearful of hearing damage from playing them too loud. What I like about the noise cancelling is that it lowers the noise floor and allows me to play at lower volume levels and hear more into the music and what’s going on.

It’s similar to listening in a quieter room with loudspeakers when the HVAC and other exterior noises are lower, but better. Here’s some headphone stats the app keeps track of whenever I’m using them. It will be interesting to see how they look when I’m using them in a very loud environment like a plane.

 

[Jamie]

Bot alert!
(Looks like Bot post now deleted.... Tony is on the ball as usual)

 

[John]

I have pretty much used noise cancellation the whole time I’ve been using these which is typically in the early morning when my wife is asleep. One thing I noticed after removing them following a short listening session is how sensitive my hearing becomes to all the ambient noise/sounds I hear around my home. This is time is when the forced air heat is running because the thermostat changes from 62 to 68 degrees, the heat runs 30 to 40 minutes before it shuts off. The coffee maker is another device that raises the noise level along with the sounds from the refrigerator.

I’ve never been much of a headphone guy but after using the AirPods Max I can’t see myself wanting to use a non-noise cancelling headphone for listening to music. They simply provide a more immersive and focused listening experience than when listening in transparency mode or when noise management is turned off.

I had a play with the settings and when noise management is turned off the earpads/headphones create a low pass filter effect where the low frequency sounds are more prominent vs transparent mode. Both settings are much less good for enjoying music than when noise canceling is engaged.

I’m looking forward to giving these a try on my three season porch when lawn service equipment from the neighborhood has a strong adverse effect on listening to music and I end up refraining from listening altogether.

 

[John]

Thanks, your post got me moving forward on this. I mentioned upthread that I found the MIMI app and since that time did a retest with noise cancelling engaged. I think it yielded a better test as I was having ambient room noise issues with the first test.

This morning I manually entered the MIMI audiogram results into the AirPods Max app Custom Audio Setup. It’s cool how it allows you to compare the custom to standard settings before deciding whether or not to use the audiogram custom setting. To me, it was a no brainer going with the custom setting.

This little exercise couldn’t have come at a better time, as I will be getting a lot of use of these the next week or so.

Thought I would add this from another thread that related to the AirPods.