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I am really glad that my last pair of microphones is still alive and allowed me to finish this video, but I am no 100% confident with the recording in terms of absolute fidelity. The relative differences between all headphones can be still distinguished quite well here and appear correct to me, but I wouldn't trust the overall timbre of the recording, which appears a bit too harsh to me especially in the 5khz region. This doesn't seem to be that obvious with most of the other  headphones but the Airpods Max appear smoother to me in real life than through this recording. I already tried to re-adjust my usual compensation to bring it a bit closer, but don't treat my sound samples too seriously which is als the reason why I didn't include any original recording samples (besides needing all those songs as files to be able to do this).

To conclude the topic Airpods Max: It is a very competent pair of headphones and I really regret returning them, but they are simply too expensive for me although they are not overpriced either. To me they improve a lot with the inclusion of a personal audiogram, but a direct access to this audiogram data in order to manipulate it and get an indirect way of controlling the response at particular key-frequencies would be the dot on the i.

Maybe we have some iOS experts here who can take a look at the audiogram data and how it is built up and how to prepare it to import it back as headphone correction again.

Files

Apple Airpods Max special - the final take!

Comments

Marcin Sławicz

Great listening session! It was just yesterday when I took my 30-year old AKG K280 Parabolic headphones - an Austrian invention from late 80s, semi-open backs with double drivers forming a kind of "acoustic lens". Nowadays I find them unlistenable - elevated middle bass and totally recessed trebles. But with proper equalization - magic happens. I defined a number of parametric filters in Equalizer APO and set them according to the frequency response chart. But I made the final tweaking "by ear", using a sinewave generator and many well-known tracks. And then I watched your video. I compared not only your recordings but also the same track played locally. Unbelievable, how close in timbre were my AKGs to some of your headphones, especially to Soundcore Q30, slightly less to Airpods, and not so much to Sennheiser HD800s with their weird phasy soundstage. Of course, my local playback gave me a bit clearer sound and better-defined soundstage, but that is justified without additional microphones and YT. So here are my conclusions from yesterday's evening: -your binaural recordings are great for relative comparisons -my equalization process was quite successful -equalization can make good headphones even better. There's no help for headphones with a serious flaw out of the box though. -one doesn't always get what he pays for in Hi-Fi world (Quality-Price-Ratio is fuzzy at least) BTW, thank you for discovering Till Brönner for me. Interesting and very well-recorded music.

oluvsgadgets

I just got the K240 it sounds horrible but I am thinking of it as a cheap monitoring headphone which could be used by everyone for my recordings if I equalize them accordingly.

Jose Santos

interesting, how come still had not such an idea, recently i tried too something like that with my tribits on an EQ that came in with an windows update called nahimic, it was as more of an experience and first thing i had tried was soulpersona, and then to some other random pop tracks and such, and tbh it sounded nice(apo really was not doing much tho idk y, still i think i'll try later on to learn more on peaking filters or is the band EQ enough??) but then i headed to oluvs recordings and it felt a bit different, nahimic there started to had some weird vocal witch as an experiment gave me even more of the doubts so i just kept all as it was.

KlarkKentThe3rd

So you finally got a unit of Elex that refused to break?

oluvsgadgets

No, the final unit that I got had again an imbalance. 4 duds out of 4 is quite a bad statistics

christof.komander@googlemail.com

Thanks for always comparing to the Anker Q30, can't believe how good it sounds, I stopped using everything else. Also always enjoying your (Bose) rants, keep going, thats why you will always be the best and most honest reviewer! Cheers

Adam B

I noticed that the main difference between apple and anker is in the width of the stage and its selectivity (you can hear the places where the instruments are located), I am curious if it is a matter of speakers or the software in the headphones? I was listening to it on the anker headphones so it's possible that many things I just did not listen to.

ToneDeafLoser

I'm looking into getting a Q30. I just tried the QC35 and was impressed with the comfort. How is the Q30 in terms of comfort? My Q10 have a pretty hard clamp force and aren't that comfortable.

oluvsgadgets

I actually cannot complain. Maybe the headband on top (where it touches your head) can cause some pressure over time but this probably also depends on the size and form of a head. I had way worse and less comfortable headphones.

Patryk Dąbrowski

Not really interested in Airpods but this Amiga Boing Ball in the background makes my day :-) Thanks for great reviews, I've got the HD58x some months ago and now I'm waiting for the Q30 - all based on your videos.

oluvsgadgets

I think I have still mk1 therefore I am thinking of getting mk2 just in case. I never had issues with the ES100 it’s powerful enough to drive most headphones and the 10-band EQ works really well. There may be better solutions out there but probably more expensive.

Adam B

Please let me know what your impressions of using q30 :) I felt a bit lacking in soundstage and I think I had hopeless headphones because for the first time I hear poor quality recordings or compression: P

Patryk Dąbrowski

I use q30 as a secondary headphones mostly for my home office, so it's not only music but also online meetings and they are fine in that role (no cable mesh, mic included, can pair with two BT sources). For music, especially long sessions there is no comparision to HD58x. For me one hour is maximum time I can use them and only with my custom EQ. I had no poor quality/compression problems - try a cable connection, that could be a bluetooth codec issue (like no AAC compatible source). I paired them with iPhone 7 and Lenovo laptop and never heard compression artifacts on YT or Apple music.

Michał Rękas

Oluv mam teraz zagłostkę, Airpods Max czy B&O H95... co byś doradzał dla melomana Soulpersony 😁?

oluvsgadgets

Muszę przyznać ze za mało znam H95 ale AirPods Mäx bym sobie juz dawno kupił gdy by nie były aż tak drogie. Tak za 499 juz bym o nich pomyślał naprawdę mi sie oodobaly choć nie mam aż rak potrzeby na nie, a H95 chyba jeszcze droższe. Trudno mi doradzić ale raczej bym wolał AirPods

Bart S

What is the Sennheiser, which you refer to as "LX" - what model are those? They sound pretty good.

Bart S

Ditto! Keep ranting, Oluv! Your honest rants are great.

Stephan

Hey! Mittlerweile sind ja einige Monate vergangen und die Preise für die Airpods stark gesunken. Kaum gebrauchte bekommt man mittlerweile schon für 350.-. Was denkst du? Nun zuschlagen? Die ernst zu nehmenden Reviews gehen doch ziemlich auseinander. So sagt DMS (youtube) zum Beispiel dass die Max katastrophal klingen. Deine Samples finde ich dagegen super. Auch im Mediamarkt war ich ganz angetan.

oluvsgadgets

Ich hätte sie behalten wenn sie nicht so teuer gewesen wären. DMS hab ich nie wirklich verfolgt, ich kann nicht beurteilen wie objektiv er wirklich ist. Bei den Airpods Max muss man das Gesamtpaket sehen und da kommt kein anderer ran momentan. Ich fand ihn mit persönlichem Hörprofil noch besser aber er greift dann leider auch in die Dynamik ein. Aber vielleicht hat sich ja mit den neueren Firmwares was verbessert. Wo bekommt man die momentan am günstigsten?

Stephan

Ich habe sie mir jetzt bei Digitec in der Schweiz für 399.- CHF im Angebot bestellt. Morgen werde ich sie in meinen Händen halten können! In deinen vergleichenden Aufnahmen hab ich dass Gefühl, dass mit dieser eingeschalteten Audiokompensation es ein wenig nach Kompressionsartefakte klingt. Täuscht das über die Aufnahme oder kannst du das bestätigen?

oluvsgadgets

Nein es war eher eine Art compander Effekt. Steht ja auch in der Beschreibung dabei, leisere stellen werden lauter und lautete leiser wiedergegeben. Ein Profil das nur rein aus den Frequenzgang wirkt gibt es leider nicht. Es fällt auch nicht sofort auf man muss die Stücke schon gut kennen, mir ist es am meisten bei meinen eigenen Aufnahmen aufgefallen, da habe ich sofort gehört das was nicht stimmt und musste erstmal finden dass es mit diesen Hörprofilen zusammenhängt.

Bishi

Es gibt eine App in der man sein Audiogramm anpassen kann und nach Apple Health senden kann und dann so auf die AirPods bekommt

oluvsgadgets

Ja schon aber leider keine Möglichkeit es danach noch zu beeinflussen.

Bishi

Ich meine eine App in der du dein Audiogram was du schon hast anpassen kannst, auch neue Frequenzen hinzufügen und dann das neue Audiogram, nach Apple Health senden. Ich hab es selbst noch nicht versucht, da ich keine Ahnung hab welche Auswirkungen welche Frequenzen haben. Hier findest du die App Bzw auch Screenshots https://apps.apple.com/de/app/ihearit/id1564791424

Termite bass

Hey Oluv! I have a question regarding loudness in regards to the Airpods. Do you feel that they go loud enough to satisfy all the listening scenarios? They feel to be a little underpowered sound wise but since iOS monitors the sound decibels it has put into perspective the loudness that we should be listening to safely. What sound percentage do you listen to these? I find that i have to have them to at least 85% to feel like they are loud enough that is hovering about 85DBs. thank you in advance

oluvsgadgets

I mostly listen at 50% - 65% maximum, everything else becomes uncomfortable to me in terms of loudness.