Do these headphones justify the price tag?
There’s a new kind of sound in town: spatial audio. Daniel Bennett tests Apple’s new headphones alongside the latest development in surround sound to find out what the fuss is all about…
Let’s cut to the chase: can a pair of wireless headphones really be worth £549? Ultimately that’s the question facing anyone considering a pair of Apple’s AirPods Max. The answer isn’t one I expected to give, but yes, these headphones do justify their price tag.
It’s not an insignificant amount of cash: £549 is PlayStation 5 money; it’s package holiday abroad money. However, after a month’s use, working mostly from home, the AirPods Max have barely left my head, such is the comfort, audio prowess and ease of use of Apple’s new headphones. They’re so good that I’ve exhausted my music library, sought out new albums and even started watching films on my iPad. The only caveat is that if you’re not already invested in Apple’s expensive ecosystem, many of the AirPods Max’s best features will be lost to you.
DESIGN
The headphones are a world apart from the build of most wireless headphones, which feel creaky and toylike in comparison to Apple’s familiar machined aluminium finish. The mesh textile on the headband and ear cups, as well as the memory foam inside, distribute the pressure across the surface of your head and face such a way that you can wear the headphones for hours on end without discomfort, even with glasses on. The mesh is also more breathable than the leather you traditionally find on headphones.
The build quality is as solid as you’d expect, it’s only the price tag that stops me from chucking them in the bottom of my backpack. The ear cushions, which look like they might weather with age, snap on and off magnetically so it’s easy (but expensive) to swap them out (new ear cushions are £75).
AUDIO QUALITY
An Apple H1 chip – a specialised audio processor chip built from the ground up by Apple – powers each earcup separately. While delivering sound to each ear, each chip listens in to what’s going on inside the earcup via eight microphones dotted in and around the headphones. They’re looking for any distortion or interference caused by realworld use – maybe you’re wearing glasses, maybe you’re lying down – the idea is that they can make 200 adjustments per second to make sure the audio is consistently clear.
The outward effect of this unique tech puts these headphones in a class of their own. Like the very best hi-fi, these Apple headphones feel as though they completely open up your music. Listen to something like the noisy soundscapes of jazz rock band
“ULTIMATELY, NEW HEADPHONES BOIL DOWN TO HOW THEY MAKE YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR FAVOURITE ALBUMS WHEN YOU LISTEN TO THEM FOR THE 100TH TIME”
The Comet is Coming, and the huge bass and driving saxophone no longer drown out the detail of the synth and percussion playing in the mid-range. Switch to something more aggressive like Turnstile’s latest hard rock album Glow On and the thrashing guitars feel like they have more crunch, the hi-hats more sparkle. It’s all just a step closer to listening to your favourite band in the flesh than most wireless headphones can offer.
The headphones come into their own when paired with a source that has spatial audio. Apple’s slowly adding this tech – powered in part by Dolby Atmos – to its music library. It’s essentially an attempt to simulate your music coming from a 3D space, in other words
it mimics how music reaches your ears when you watch a live performance. Listen to Blinding Lights by The Weeknd and the 80s kick-and-snare drum intro sounds as though it’s coming to you from the back of the room before the vocals hit front and centre. Freddie Mercury sounds like he’s getting closer and closer as he builds into the verse of Another One Bites The Dust.
Spatial audio is even better with a movie. It simulates cinema surround sound in a way we’ve never heard on headphones before. Rubble and debris feel like they’re flying around your head in the final scenes of Avengers: Endgame and Hans Zimmer’s surging score for Interstellar really feels like it’s enveloping you. An iPad and a pair of AirPods Max is as close as you’re going to get to a mobile cinema.
There is one last trick these headphones pull off. Accelerometers inside track the position of your head relative to the device you’re watching on – so if you turn your head to the left, the sound moves with it. It’s uncanny the first time you realise what happening. Again, the idea is to more closely simulate audio in a real, live space.
VERDICT
While I wouldn’t tell anyone to go and spend £549 on a pair of headphones, I would say that this is a purchase you won’t regret. The Apple AirPods Max are a tier above any other wireless headphones, in almost every department: features, design and audio quality. They’re just so functional and comfortable that you’ll end up wearing them all the time. Ultimately, new headphones boil down to how they make you feel about your favourite albums when you listen to them for the 100th time, and the AirPods Max put a smile on my face every single time.