Benjamin Levicek If you follow our magazine regularly, you probably know that the Californian giant introduced brand new wireless headphones on Tuesday afternoon. All products, that is, as far as Apple headphone technology is concerned, boasted an in-ear design. However, the new AirPods Max will please demanding listeners who are not satisfied with such a design. In Apple's portfolio, we currently find the cheapest AirPods (2nd generation) introduced in the first quarter of 2019, the AirPods Pro, which the first owners could enjoy almost exactly a year ago, and the new AirPods Max – they will reach the first lucky ones on December 15. Which headphones will be best for you? I will try to answer that in this article.
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Pavel Jelic Structural processing
As I hinted at the very beginning of this article, AirPods Max boasts an over-the-ear design that is popular with professional studio products from the audio segment. The materials used are, as is often the case with premium headphones, very strong, but at the same time flexible, in particular, Apple used woven mesh here, which does not press on the head in any way and should ensure comfortable wear in almost any situation. In addition, AirPods Max boasts a telescopic joint that you can easily move, the product also holds perfectly in the position you set. As for the color design, the headphones are offered in space gray, silver, green, azure blue and pink - so absolutely everyone will choose. Their cheaper sibling, the AirPods Pro, includes ear tips, with three different sizes of ear tips to choose from. After pulling out the AirPods Pro, their iconic and very well-known design peeks out at you, there are high-quality microphones hidden in the "foot". The headphones are offered in white.
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The classic AirPods also have a similar design and the same color scheme, but unlike the AirPods Pro, they rely on a stone construction. The biggest disadvantage of this design is that it doesn't have to fit in everyone's ears. You can't even customize the headphones in any way. Furthermore, due to its shape, the product has no level of either active or passive noise reduction, which on the one hand can be an advantage during sports, on the other hand, AirPods Pro and AirPods Max have functions that will significantly help you with listening to your surroundings. We will get to these gadgets in later parts of the article, but before that, let's remember that AirPods Pro are resistant to sweat and water, which gives them an advantage over other siblings, especially during sports. Apple does not state this durability for the studio AirPods Max, but to be honest, I don't know anyone who would willingly go for a run with large studio headphones over their ears.
Connectivity
As you probably guessed, the Californian company implemented Bluetooth 5.0 and a modern Apple H1 chip in the new AirPods Max. Thanks to this chip, when pairing the headphones for the first time, you only need to bring the headphones closer to the iPhone or iPad, unlock it, and an animation with a pairing request will be displayed on the mobile device. AirPods Max also promise a perfect range, but it should be noted that all these functions are also available in the cheaper siblings, i.e. AirPods Pro and AirPods.
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Control
What the Apple company's headphones were really criticized for by their users was their control. Not that it's in any way inaccurate, quite the contrary, but you couldn't control the volume on either the AirPods or the AirPods Pro other than by launching Siri. In addition, control is only possible by tapping one or the other earphone in the case of classic AirPods, or by pressing or holding the sensor button when using AirPods Pro. However, this changes with the arrival of AirPods Max thanks to the digital crown you know from the Apple Watch. With it, you can skip and pause music, control volume, answer calls, launch Siri, and switch between throughput mode and active noise cancellation. On the other hand, we should expect the most elaborate control options from professional headphones, and it would be sad if Apple did not resort to this step.
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Features and sound
All tech enthusiasts are certainly looking forward to what functions Apple will offer them after unboxing the headphones. Of course, most of them have the latest AirPods Max. They boast active noise suppression, in which their microphones listen to the surroundings and send an inverse signal from the captured sounds to your ears. This results in an absolute cut off from the world and you can listen undisturbed to the tones of the songs. There is also a transmittance mode, where the spoken word captured by the headphones instead reaches your ears, so you don't have to take them off during a short conversation. Future owners of AirPods Max will also enjoy surround sound, thanks to which they will enjoy an almost identical sound experience as in the cinema when watching movies. This is ensured by the accelerometer and gyroscope of the AirPods Max, which recognize how your head is currently turned. There is also adaptive equalization, thanks to which you will hear the best possible sound performance for you, depending on how the headphones rest on your head. However, what we have to admit, all these functions will also be offered by the significantly cheaper AirPods Pro, although it is of course clear that, for example, active noise cancellation will be better in the new AirPods Max due to the over-ear construction. The cheapest and at the same time the oldest AirPods do not offer any of the aforementioned functions.
However, what is new about the AirPods Max is, according to the Californian company, a significantly improved sound delivery itself. Not that the other generations of AirPods performed poorly and users were not satisfied with the sound, but with the AirPods Max, Apple is targeting born audiophiles. They contain a special driver with a double ring of neodymium magnets - this helps to bring the sound to your ears with minimal distortion. In other words, this means that the highs will be crystal clear, the bass dense, and the mids as accurate as possible. Thanks to the H1 chip, or rather its computing power, as well as, of course, ten sound cores, Apple could add computational audio to the new AirPods, which can perform up to 9 billion sound operations per second.
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Flying around the world with Apple As for AirPods Pro, they also contain 10 audio cores, of course, don't expect nearly as perfect music performance as the new AirPods Max. Although we will have to wait for their reviews, it is almost certain that they will be many times better with sound. Don't expect any revolutionary computing power with the classic AirPods, but I think that many listeners will find the sound to be more than enough as a backdrop to work or while walking. Of course, I would like to dedicate a few lines to the functions that you will enjoy on all currently available AirPods. This is automatic switching between devices, which works in such a way that if you are listening to music on the Mac and someone calls you on the iPhone, the headphones will automatically switch to the iPhone, etc. There is also sharing of music to the second pair of AirPods, which is for listening with a friend absolutely perfect feature.
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Battery, case and charging
Now we come to an equally important aspect, which is how long the headphones can last you playing on a single charge, i.e. how quickly they can refill their juice for the next musical experience. As for the most expensive AirPods Max, their battery can provide up to 20 hours of music playback, movies or phone calls with active noise cancellation and surround sound turned on. They are charged with a Lightning cable that can charge them in 5 minutes for 1,5 hours of listening, which is not a bad performance at all. Apple also supplies the product with a Smart Case, and after placing the headphones in it, it switches to ultra-saving mode. So you don't have to worry about keeping them charged.
With older AirPods Pro, when listening at a reasonable volume level, you get up to 4,5 hours of listening time with active noise cancellation turned on, then you can count on up to 3 hours of phone calls. As for recharging, after putting the headphones in the box, you can get 5 hour of listening time in 1 minutes, and together with the charging case, you can enjoy a whole day's endurance, i.e. exactly 24 hours. I have good news for lovers of wireless charging – AirPods Pro, or rather their charging case, just place them on a charger with the Qi standard. In this regard, the cheapest AirPods can easily compete with their competitors, as they provide 5 hours of listening time or 3 hours of calling time, and the case charges them in 15 minutes for 3 hours of listening time. If you would like to charge them wirelessly, you have to pay extra for the version with a wireless charging case.
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Price and final evaluation
Apple has never been afraid to set the price tag relatively high, and the AirPods Max is no different. They cost exactly 16 CZK, but we definitely cannot judge whether they offer little music for a lot of money - according to Apple's specifications (and marketing), it seems that they do not. However, not everyone can afford to invest relatively high funds in headphones, moreover, AirPods Pro is probably not quite suitable for the city. So I would recommend them to users who are really demanding in terms of sound quality, who enjoy the tones of their favorite songs while listening to them in the evening with a glass of something good.
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AirPods Pro cost CZK 7 on the official Apple online store, but you can get them a little cheaper at resellers. The same applies to AirPods, you can get them in the official online store for 290 CZK with a charging case or 4 CZK with a wireless charging case. AirPods Pro are such a golden mean for medium-demanding users who like to enjoy active noise cancellation or surround sound, but for some reason don't want over-ear headphones or can't afford to invest such a large amount of money in AirPods Max. The cheapest Apple headphones are suitable for those who can't stand plugs in their ears, don't want the latest functions and listen to music mainly as a backdrop to certain activities.
No one has ever seen or heard the headphones live, and Jablíčkář still provides a "complete" comparison. ???
Where is the comparison?