So far, it seems I’ve been having quite good luck with my entries in the “experimenting with” style design challenges, as sometimes it’s the simple things that are interesting to me. Case in point – the Experimenting with Thermistors Design Challenge where I somehow managed to write 13 blogs covering things from both a theoretical and practical perspective.
Thanks to element14 and Molex for choosing me as one of the challengers and especially for choosing me as the grand prize recipient. I feel extremely fortunate to be the winner, as the prizes were something I actually wished I had (but didn’t know it at the time). Thanks also goes to srutledge and danzima for their speedy divide-and-conquer approach to sourcing and shipping the prizes half-way across the world to me in Australia.
As a result, my two-part prize had arrived on Wednesday 2nd November, but I didn’t quite have the time to unbox and blog about it until now, especially since I want to review these items to some depth which takes a bit of time as well. So here is Part 1, focusing mainly on the Apple AirPods Max, written on the Lenovo Legion 5 I won from Experimenting with Thermal Switches.
Table of Contents
Musing about Noise Cancelling
I can remember the days when Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) was something that very few audio companies could offer and prices were sky-high, with a set of headphones costing well north of AU$500 a pair. Back then, they were considered the exclusive domain of high-flyers (literally) who racked up enough frequent-flyers miles to make them pay for themselves. It took until 2008 when I spotted a decent deal on the AudioTechnica ANC7 for me to get my first set (for AU$199) and since then, I’ve been an active proponent of ANC headphones.
As a patient and environmentally-conscious person, I’ve avoided car ownership so far this lifetime and rely solely on public transport to get around. But that is often not a recipe for convenience or comfort – it’s almost guaranteed that one will be a bystander to loud arguments, low-fi music blaring from Bluetooth speakers, loud school-kids having a rowdy conversation or people taking voice-calls on their Bluetooth headsets unaware that they’re almost screaming. This makes for a very stressful and distracting commute.
But the situation with ANC is different, as they’re built to try and exclude as much sound from the outside as possible through passive isolation, supplementing the isolation in the lower frequency spectrum with feed-forward microphones. As a result, they reduce constant sources of noise fairly well, with the side effect of injecting a little bit of white-noise. Because the “noise floor” has been reduced, you can enjoy your audio at a lower volume for the same perceived signal-to-noise ratio which may avoid hearing loss due to prolonged listening at high volumes. Perhaps this is the greatest benefit, although I have no doubt, some will keep the volume cranked in which case they can enjoy clearer audio.
The barrier-to-entry is mainly the price which has steadily decreased over time, but the isolation offered by the cheaper options often are marginal at best. Other options include the use of passive isolating in-ear monitors which can have a significant level of isolation but at the cost of potentially transmitting “cable thump” when moving around, being annoying to take out and insert when someone wants to chat to you and potentially irritating your ear canals (as they do mine!). This became a vital arsenal in my daily commuting kit that I went through the original ATH-ANC7 and two ATH-ANC9s (AU$210), leading to my present Sennheiser PXC550 (AU$242) which has served me for the past three years. The latter was the first that I had which was Bluetooth-connected, offering a new level of convenience in exchange for slightly degraded audio quality and occasional interruptions. It has been a good companion, with a neutral-ish sound signature and the option to go wired when the need arises. But it is also somewhat tired, with a battery life that’s slowly dwindling and earpads that recently had been replaced with aftermarket ones which seem to dent the isolation somewhat, which is a shame.
Perhaps what may be surprising to some is that at least three of the blogs in this contest were written from a moving train, on a laptop, with my noise-cancelling headphones on to give me the isolation necessary to concentrate on writing. I wonder if you can pick out which blogs …
Unboxing
Knowing all of this, you can probably understand my excitement at receiving the Apple AirPods Max, as it is widely regarded to be part of the current crème of the crop of ANC headphones. They currently retail at about AU$899 which is much much more than I would ever want to spend on a piece of audio consumer electronics for myself (or about the same cost as all the pairs of ANC headphones I’ve owned in the past 14 years added together!). Heck, even the two smartphones I carry with me each day, combined, cost less than that! But since I’ve won these, I can bypass the feelings of guilt …
… and enjoy the unboxing experience, knowing that this is something that sets Apple products apart. It begins with pulling on this innocent-looking tab …
… which releases the cardboard overpack that fans open in the centre, making for a grand reveal. But it’s more than just pretty – the ends of the box are assembled by tucking flaps together thus no adhesive is needed, and the arrangement also forms a bit of a crumple zone at both ends as well. I guess for Apple products, that colour-print box is a vital part of it! That’s why it’s shrink-wrapped as well!
The minimalist-design box has a pretty picture of the headphones on the front, with the rear showing off the included Smart Case. It’s clear from the image, they’re trying to turn this into a bit of a fashion accessory in a way … it sort of reminds me of a small hand-bag if you were to hold it by the headband. As a case, however, I’d say it’s a little too minimalistic as it leaves quite a bit of the unit exposed to potential harm. At that price, I’d rather not take any chances …
Up front is the headphones themselves. To protect them in shipping, and to protect the environment, they are wrapped in paper rather than plastic.
In fact, the whole tray in which the headphones and accessories are packed in is made of cardboard. I suppose that can give the environmentally-conscious a bit of a warm-fuzzy feeling for a while.
Even the cable ties are replaced with cardboard wrap-arounds. This almost seems Japanese in its execution.
It’s no surprise that there’s a bunch of paperwork included, almost none of it being all that useful. Most of it is just there to ensure legal obligations are complied with. The user guide leaflet is quite small – there’s not all that much to say, but most of it is dedicated to working with Apple-based devices and is no use to me.
Traditionally, as an engineer, I have very little desire for Apple products. They’re expensive, minimalist to the point of being restrictive and often quirky for the sake of being unique. A key example of it is the fact the unit relies on a Lightning connector. This leads to a USB-C to Lightning cable being supplied for charging the AirPods Max. No power adapter is included, but if you don’t have USB-C port somewhere, then you’re out of luck unless you have a USB-A to USB-C adapter!
The Smart Case is made out of a nice-feeling synthetic leather material with a velvety-smooth finish inside. It has a bit of stiffness and weight thanks to embedded magnets which keeps the flap closed and the headphones in deep-sleep mode.
The design is a bit strange, as the bottoms seem to be open at the edges for no obvious reason. A notch is cut into one of the faces to allow for charging while the unit is in its case, but the design is very curious. If anything, it almost reminds me of a pair of underwear, gone wrong …
The headphones themselves are very pretty indeed. A mixture of metallic tones, shiny and matte in contrast with a boxy shape that has been rounded off in an appealing way. The headband arms extend smoothly with sufficient tension, while each earcups is made of a relatively solid metal shell. The right earcup is home to the “digital crown” – a rotary encoder control with central push, similar to the sort you find on an oscilloscope. A push button is also provided for toggling between transparency and pairing modes.
Other than that, there is a Lightning port for charging and (supposedly) audio from Apple devices, next to an indicator LED. Microphone and reflex port cut-outs are seen around the shell, with the left earcup housing a special shell design for the antenna element. Being very “simple”, there really aren’t any other controls or connections.
The unit as a whole is quite weighty compared to most of the units I’ve previously used which feel flimsy and plasticky in comparison. However, when travelling, lighter may be better when every gram counts and may mean getting away with lower clamping forces. This particular one seems to have a higher-than-usual clamping force, but this is somewhat offset by the comfortable earpads which are made of a woven textile material rather than the more traditional smooth pleather which means less stickiness and sweatiness while still gripping adequately. The insides of each earcup are marked with L and R to indicate orientation. The headband is covered in rubber and the cushion is merely tensioned mesh. I suppose an Apple engineer may have been inspired by a Herman Miller Aeron chair and thought “it’s comfy, I can use that!”.
There are also feedback microphones inside the earcups to measure the sound getting through to the ear, to help tune the noise reduction.
The design of the unit is “magnet-heavy”, but that does lend itself to an interesting design feature – the ability to snap off and replace ear cushions easily. While replacement earpads are easily obtained from Apple, the price is an eye-watering AU$99 which is about half-way to the units I previously used!
User Experience Opinions
This section focuses on my subjective opinions about the AirPods Max. Your mileage may vary, depending on your expectations and preferences.
Sound Quality
There’s no argument – sound quality of the AirPods Max is excellent. It has a mostly neutral signature like the PXC550s I have been using before them (and the ATH-M50xs I usually use when at home at my desk), so I didn’t need to adjust to the sound signature at all. The midrange is perhaps just a smidgen warmer, but it’s hardly perceptible. I listened to my library of FLACs and found all my music sounded exactly how I expected them to sound. I appreciate the fact it’s not a bass-heavy monster – while some people find those sound signatures “fun”, I find them artificial and fatiguing. While it doesn’t support anything more than the baseline SBC and Apple-favourite AAC codecs, the audio quality sounds pretty good regardless. Unfortunately, it has no 3.5mm support, so it’s not possible to use an analog connection for better quality and the USB-C connection doesn’t seem to do audio on my non-Apple devices.
The noise cancelling, however, is something else entirely. Compared to the PXC550s, the noise cancelling is noticeably better, although not entirely without noticeable hiss. Whereas the PXC550s dent the noise in the background in a meaningful way, the AirPods Max seemingly almost kill it dead in its tracks. Even voices from a teleconference being played out of a laptop speaker in front of me are diminished to a quiet and tinny murmur that is hard to distinguish. This is excellent for those who want to be “in their own bubble”, but also makes it possible for one to disorient themselves – so remember to look twice before crossing the road! Another thing - don't be tempted to sing along to songs - you can sing quite loudly before you realise you're singing. Whoops!
There is also a transparency mode which can be accessed by pressing the button on the right earcup. This mode causes the sound and noise cancellation to fade out, then the sound and outside noise fade back in so as to allow you to hear what is happening around you. This is a rather nifty mode to use if you don’t want to take off your headphones and want to partake or listen in on a conversation (perhaps). It is, however, a little disconcerting the first few times you use it as the microphone pick-up pattern is completely different from that of the pick-up pattern of the ears, thus I was hearing loud rustling from my pants (for example) which I wouldn’t otherwise normally hear with my head oriented in a given position. It is easy to use though, unlike the silly gesture and touchy-touchpad controls needed to access a similar mode on the PXC550 which I almost never use.
Build Quality and Fit
Build quality is top-notch and the unit is weighty with a substantial amount of metal compared to the mostly-plastic designs of their competition. This does have a downside when travelling where every gram may count and did add enough weight to my head that my neck muscles noticed. It also seems to need more clamping force, but the earpads and textile material were comfortable and offset the pressure such that I would rate the comfort to be comparable to most other headphones in spite of its weight.
The headband is definitely unique in its design with arms that have notch-less extension on both sides. This mechanism slides smoothly and holds the position adequately well, however, for best fitting into the Smart Case, it seems that the headband must be retracted. The rubber finish on the arms and headband is nice to the touch, with the mesh inlay seemingly doing its job in obtaining just a bit of support from the top of the head without being uncomfortable. The headband adjustment should suit most, however, my head is on the large side, so I often have to extend headphones to their widest setting and this is no different for the AirPods Max. However, even in the largest setting, occasionally my head makes contact with the frame rather than the mesh when the earcups, which can lead to a tiny bit of discomfort.
An interesting side-effect of the weight and metallic construction is the fact that the two earcups have a habit of bashing into each other when handled, resulting in the two earcups bouncing off each other like a Newton’s Cradle. This is not ideal – I can envisage this can lead to deformation or marking of the outer surfaces over time.
The shape of the earcups is less deep compared to others, so when wearing them, it looks a bit unusual – almost as if one is wearing mini-pancakes on their ears … but that’s just my opinion.
User Experience and Compatibility
The digital crown forms the main part of the user interface which can be rotated for volume and pressed a number of times to enact certain functions. While the digital crown is often lauded for its feel, I feel this setup is even more cumbersome than the touchy-touch controls of the PXC550. I don’t find myself using the digital crown much to skip tracks because it requires multiple clicks compared to an intuitive forward/back swipe. However, for adjusting the volume, it is a rather nice experience as the audio “click” prompts also increase/decrease in volume as the encoder is rotated. The downside is that the rotation seems to be opposite of what I expect – for some reason, clockwise decreases volume, anti-clockwise increases volume.
Auditory feedback on this unit is via sound effects and not voice prompts, similar to a JBL set I previously reviewed. While this is multi-lingual friendly and the sound effects are of high-quality, it takes a little getting used to and can be easy to miss in audio (especially the low-battery riff).
As mentioned earlier, the Smart Case is a bit of a miss from my perspective. While the material is nice, the design really doesn’t offer enough protection for such an expensive device. It literally has holes all around and its main purpose seems to be to put the headphones into a deep sleep mode to reduce idle power consumption as it has no power switch. As a result, while it’s not all that useful, it’s not like you can go without them either. Without it, the Bluetooth remains active on the unit for many hours which means more battery wear.
The unit has excellent Bluetooth range in my testing – easily meeting the high-standard set by the PXC550s and even exceeding by a meter or so. I can easily use a Class 1 device inside both storeys of my house and walk outside all the way to the post box while maintaining passable audio connection (~20m through obstacles in an urban 2.4GHz-heavy environment).
Compatibility seemed good – no devices refused to pair with the unit and audio played back fine with SBC and AAC codecs. One downside compared to the PXC550s is that multi-point pairing isn’t really supported. It seems the last device that attempts a connection to the AirPods Max will take priority instead, thus depending on which device attempts a connection or when they are powered up, you can find yourself being disrupted mid-program.
Charging via USB-C seems to work well, assuming you have a proper charger or port, with the LED indicating <95% (amber) or >=95% (green). It is, however, careful about complying to standards so if it is connected to a charger with open D+/D- lines, the unit consumes 100mA for a short period before cycling on and off, refusing to charge. While this is safe behaviour, it may mean there are ports from which it refuses to charge.
As an Apple product, it is designed for an Apple-first experience. For users of non-Apple devices, it is possible to use the AirPods Max as a Bluetooth device, however, it means missing out on battery level indication (without third-party applications, which I don’t trust), find my device, cabled audio, firmware updates and virtual assistants. I find the lack of granular battery level status is perhaps the biggest downside of all, as the unit can really only indicate either full or <=15% remaining (amber).
Doing Some Tests
While there aren’t many objective tests I can do, I’ve decided to do some tests and their results are reported in this section. That being said, it’s probably good also to refer to the iFixit teardown and SoundGuys review as well.
The Magnets
I used my magnetic viewer card to take a look at the various magnets that comprise the unit.
The Smart Case has two magnets that secure the flap, each of them being magnetised in a radial fashion.
The main speaker in each earcup has a pretty decent magnet – the fields are clearly visible from the rear using the magnetic viewer card.
There seems to be four “paired” magnets, one in each corner of each earcup, to hold the ear cushions in place. That’s a lot of magnets for one device.
Battery Life and Charging
The claimed battery life is 20 hours. In testing across several sessions, I achieved 18h 5m 58s to the low battery warning and 20h 57m 8s to complete shutdown. This implies the battery life is longer than claimed and is relatively consistent with the competitors. That being said, given the shape and size of the unit, I would anticipate that the AirPods Max probably has a bigger battery than most.
Testing the charge time was done with a Rohde & Schwarz NGM202 Power Supply. Charging took 2 h 18m 57s, although a faster charge may have been achieved if I had started with my USB D+/D- lines shorted together (as I had them open in my test fixture and the AirPods Max refused to charge, instead cycling between 100mA draw and zero draw, being very compliant with USB requirements). Total delivered charge is 658mAh at 5V, given the 3.81V/664mAh battery in these units, it seems that the charging may be done using a linear charger. The measured capacity is in agreement, which is excellent.
Microphone Quality
On the whole, I found the microphone quality on the AirPods Max to be quite good in contrast with other reviews. Compared to the PXC550s, they seem to handle windy and noisy conditions a bit better and pick up the audio quite well. The audio is easily intelligible, although the voice may sound slightly harsh and brittle as the low end seems to be cut and sibilant sounds seem to provoke the compression. The difference is that the PXC550s turn down the noise cancellation and inject side-tone when in a call to allow the user to gauge how well the microphone is picking up their voice (similar to how old-fashioned telephone handsets did). This prevents the “shouting” that can sometimes happen, but the downside is less noise cancelling of the incoming audio to your ears. The AirPods Max does not do this, maintaining full noise cancelling it seems.
A sample audio recording of me doing a voice-review of the unit is below:
Conclusion
Thanks to element14 and Molex for this wonderful prize. It’s clear to me just why the AirPods Max has its supporters and is regarded an exquisite device with noise-cancelling performance that is best-in-class. The audio quality, connection range and build quality is excellent, with a design that’s every-bit distinctively Apple. The user interface is rather ordinary – the digital crown is great for controlling volume but feels backwards, while its use for media control is cumbersome and the musical feedback can be ambiguous and easy-to-miss. Unfortunately, the experience for non-Apple users is a little compromised especially when it comes to reporting battery life, the insistence on Lightning is somewhat backwards and the Smart Case design really doesn’t make sense from my perspective. The price is also rather eyewatering, although the flagship models from their competitors are also trending higher over time.
As much as I love the noise cancelling efficacy of the AirPods Max, I’m still not sure whether I want to wear it outside while commuting. Somehow, I’m not sure it’s such a good idea to be seen in public wearing something so pricey … lest I be mistaken for an Apple fanboy. But the benefits of improved noise cancelling are hard to deny. What a dilemma to have!
But that’s not all – there’s still another half of this prize to review. Unfortunately, that will have to wait until the next blog … since I’m still testing it as we speak.
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