Review: The AirPods Max with USB-C and Lossless Audio

Thank you for this.

So, what I've found is, with everything turned off, atmos, hearing Accommodations etc, there is no difference between wired and bluetooth. Only when I turn bluetooth off does a difference appear with a far wider sound stage, greater imaging etc.

I'm still really unsure that, just plugging in the APM with USB-C gives lossless. I'm of the mind it needs bluetooth off.

I will also say, with the firmware update, I think they've, again, updated the tuning. It's more sparkly to my ears and, wired or unwired, is a really nice experience. I know it's not high end audio, but considering how well they work for us, low lowest latency I've experienced with over ear bluetooth, how the sound output switches back to the iPhone when headphones are off etc, I think they're terrific... Just a tad too expensive.

I'd be interested to know what is actually happening with bluetooth on and off, when atmos personal sound etc are also off as the sound difference is quite significant, to my old rubbish ears.

Thank you for your review. I enjoyed reading it. Now, what I'm curious to know is, have you compared the lossless air pod max technical stats to stats of comparably priced headphbones? If so, do you have any thoughts to share?

Second, have you listened to comparably priced headphones side by side with the lossless air pod max to form an opinion as to which sounds best?

Thanks,

Bruce

Analogue headphones for the same price, for stereo, will always sound better. Significantly better? Possibly not, but for an audiophile something like the HD600 Senhizer, which are actually quite a bit cheaper, will sound better though, it's important to note, a lot of audiophile level headphones are rated as reference headphones in that they aren't tuned and give a very flat and clean response. Sony, for example, are quite heavy in the bass in its consumer headphones, as are beats, though less so in recent years. And then, there are other tunings in analogue headphones like the Grado line which are super bright, cutting almost, but create a very present sound, even if their most popular headphones are uncomfortable and are rather crude in build compared with the APM.

You give up some resolution with wireless but, especially in the case of the APM, you gain convenience, Atmos, automatic pairing, beautiful transparency as you'd only really get in a pair of open back headphones, but with the advantage of best in class ANC.

The audiophile hole is deep and expensive... But fun if you like that sort of optimisation, getting the best possible sound but, as with all of these things, quality, comfort, price are all subjective. ,

Ordered them on Saturday along with the USB-c to 3.5mm jack (male) as well as the USB-c to 3.5mm jack (female), as well as a bunch of other cables and adaptors, and my order arrived earlier today. I don't care much about lossless audio myself, and believe that the higher range felt by the original poster is likely the result of remixing and remastering to take advantage of the higher sample bit depth, however as a screen-reader user, latency is very important to me, so that was my main motivation to buy these headphones.

Since the firmware that came with the new AirPods Max was outdated, the USB audio functionality was not available initially, but the USB-c to 3.5mm jack (male) cable did a really good job of killing latency until eventually the AirPods self-updated and I switched to the USB-c cable for native USB audio. I also don't think that the audio quality is anything worth writing home about, since while the bass response is incredible, the same cannot be said for the treble, so the audio experience ends up feeling rather muffled. The transparency mode, on the other hand, seems to over-emphasize higher pitched sounds, to the point that I hardly recognize some sounds while wearing these AirPods. The Beats Fit Pro that I had before these didn't have these problems, and while I tend to be rather tolerant when it comes to audio quality, I do wish that Apple provided an equalizer so that I could adjust these things, which should be pretty telling regarding my thoughts on the audio quality of this alleged luxury product.

hi,
I'm impressed by your review. I currently have the Airpods Max with Lightning & love them, but my dad uses them when he mows our lawn because he enjoys listening to music while he works. I use them while working & am debating saving up for a pair of these.

If you don't already have a pair the USB C model may be worth the extra cost just to keep all your devices charging from the same cable, especially if you have a type C equipped iphone and if you travel.
I'd say buying wired audiophile grade headphones without a separate DAC is almost a waste unless you plan to add one later but that's just my opinion. I'm loving my steel series nova pro wireless for the simple reason it can be used simultaneously with my laptop and iphone, with one connection by its proprietary 2.4ghz adapter or by 3.5mm/USB and the other by bluetooth letting me listen to media on my phone and use my laptop with NVDA while managing the volumes independently or even talk to someone over bluetooth while again using NVDA at the same time.
The one thing that would really get my attention though is if Apple released a model with planar magnetic drivers, I've been curious about them for a while and I'd love to try some but I haven't been aware of a well regarded brand making an affordable pair with bluetooth which I consider essential.

For some reason I thought that the sample bit depth of these headphones was 24-bit, but I just checked the decibel reduction in Audio MIDI Setup with the volume all the way down while using USB audio, and the reported reduction is 52 decibels. This is roughly 10 multiplied by the base 10 logarithm of 2 to the power of 17, and since sound level in decibels is based on the amplitude of the wave, which in turn is defined by the absolute displacement from zero, this means that the real bit depth of the AirPods Max is 18-bit, with the last bit representing the sign of the sample. These values are internally provided to CoreAudio by device drivers, and since this is Apple hardware, I have little reason to believe that they are not providing accurate information. Another thing I noticed is that the maximum sample rate of audio captured through this device's microphones is 24KHz, putting them in-line with all the other AirPods.

Being able to take advantage of USB audio is nice, however at this point I'm not sure these headphones provide enough value to justify their price, as in my opinion it shouldn't be hard to find a pair of analog headphones with better audio quality. I will not return them since that's not my style, and will continue using them, but I don't think there's much premium quality to be found in this product. I mean the build quality seems to be good, but that's probably the only positive aspect that I can point out given the price.

Is that bit depth with bluetooth on or off?

I very much like the sound of the headphones. I've got wired, but don't use them as, though they sound better, they're less convenient. I don't think, if you're in the apple walled garden, especially for voiceover users, there is a better option for wireless. Wireless, by its nature, makes tradeoffs of course.

I use SoundSource on my Mac for all EQ except that which I recorded using my digital/audio interface. I recommend it. Unfortunately, I don't know if it is available for IOS.

Fully tethered USB audio with the latest AirPods Max firmware and macOS 15.4.1.