Apple’s new over-the-ear headphones Airpods Max are available to buy for $549.
Apple today announced new over-the-ear headphones Airpods Max with active noise canceling, adaptive EQ, and high fidelity and spatial audio.
Apple’s new over-the-ear headphones Airpods Max is now available to buy on Apple.com for $549 (US) and will start shipping from December 15, 2020. Customers can also get personal engraving for free on apple.com and Apple App Store.
Apple says these headphones will bring the magic of airpods in an over-the-ear design. Airpods Max has computational audio generated with their advanced software, H1 chip, and acoustic design. These also come with adaptive EQ, active noise canceling, transparency mode, high fidelity, and spatial audio. They are available in 5 colors space gray, silver, sky blue, green, and pink.
“AirPods are the most popular headphones in the world, beloved for their effortless setup, incredible sound quality, and iconic design. With AirPods Max, we are bringing that magical AirPods experience to a stunning over-ear design with high-fidelity audio,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
AirPods Max uses computational audio to wirelessly deliver the ultimate personal listening experience.
Over-the-ear headphones Airpods Max
Apple is competing against well-established players in the over-the-ear headphone market like Sony, Bose, etc. Sony’s WH-1000XM4 wireless noise-canceling headphones and Bose noise-canceling wireless Headphones 700, with Alexa voice control, are among the popular choices among people. Their noise-canceling capability is the best in the market along with sound quality. Also, Sony’s headphones are available for around $280, while Bose 7000 around $330 (prices checked on Amazon). Apple’s headphones are priced higher than these options at $549.
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Design:
As per Apple, the AirPods Max is designed to provide exceptional acoustic performance for each user. The breathable knit mesh canopy, spanning the headband, is made to distribute weight and reduce on-head pressure. The stainless steel headband frame provides strength, flexibility, and comfort for a wide variety of head shapes and sizes. Telescoping headband arms smoothly extend and stay in place to maintain the desired fit.
Each ear cup attaches to the headband through a revolutionary mechanism that balances and distributes ear cup pressure and allows it to independently pivot and rotate to fit the unique contours of a user’s head. Each ear cushion uses acoustically engineered memory foam to create an effective seal.
These also come with a crown similar to the one in Apple Watch for precise volume control, enable Siri, play/pause/skip a track, and to answer/end phone calls.
Each earcup is equipped with an Apple-designed H1 chip. The computational audio utilizes each of the chips’ 10 audio cores — capable of 9 billion operations per second.
The headphones come with a 40-mm Apple-designed dynamic driver and a unique dual neodymium ring magnet motor that allows AirPods Max to maintain total harmonic distortion of less than 1 percent across the entire audible range, even at maximum volume.
Adaptive EQ:
AirPods Max uses Adaptive EQ to adjust the sound to the fit and seal of the ear cushions by measuring the sound signal delivered to a user and adjusting the low and mid-frequencies in real-time.
Active Noise Cancellation:
Each ear cup features three outward-facing microphones to detect environmental noise, while one microphone inside the ear cup monitors the sound reaching the listener’s ear. Using computational audio, noise cancellation continuously adapts to the headphone fit and movement in real-time.
Transparency Mode
With AirPods Max, users can switch to Transparency mode to simultaneously listen to music while hearing the environment around them — ensuring everything, including a user’s own voice, sounds natural while the audio plays. Switching between Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency mode can be done with a single press using the noise control button.
Spatial Audio
AirPods Max uses spatial audio with dynamic head tracking to place sounds virtually anywhere in space — delivering an immersive, theater-like experience for content recorded in 5.1, 7.1, and Dolby Atmos. Using the gyroscope and accelerometer in AirPods Max and iPhone or iPad, spatial audio tracks the motion of a user’s head as well as the device, compares the motion data, then remaps the sound field so it stays anchored to the device, even as the user’s head moves.
Battery:
Apple claims AirPods Max will feature battery life with up to 20 hours of high-fidelity audio, talk time, or movie playback with Active Noise Cancellation and spatial audio enabled.
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