Apple’s new Airpods Max launched at £550, which seems excessive. Or does it?
Apple’s first pair of over-ear headphones launched with a price tag of £549, which seems excessive until you consider what they offer
We were all warned in advance, so we should have known. When news about Apple’s over-ear wireless noisecancelling headphones was leaked, it suggested a high price tag. If any brand was going to up the price ante in the headphone market, it was always going to be Apple. And so it has come to pass.
The Airpods Max are now officially priced at £549. That’s around two-thirds more than the premium wireless noisecancelling propositions from established, class-leading brands, such as the Sony WH-1000XM4, Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 and Sennheiser Momentum 3 Wireless.
Even hi-fi brands who have entered this market haven’t been able to command quite such high prices – note the Bowers & Wilkins PX7, Bang & Olufsen H9 and Shure Aonic 50.
So how will Apple’s boldness affect the market? Is it a green light for rival brands to go higher up the price spectrum? And how can the Airpods Max justify their price? You might be surprised.
What’s so special about the Airpods Max?
The Airpods Max have more than just price to differentiate them from their rivals – Apple has given them a set of features that no other brand can offer. Alongside the typical wireless Bluetooth connectivity and active noisecancellation, the Airpods Max feature the latest Apple audio technologies, as introduced in IOS 14 and for the Airpods Pro true wireless earbuds. These include Apple’s spatial audio, Audio Sharing, the H1 chip and adaptive EQ.
Such features add up to an impressive specification sheet that will make the
Airpods Max a genuinely unique pair of headphones and give Apple iphone users performance features that no other pair of over-ear headphones can offer.
Apple users will quite happily pay a premium for a seamless and complete Apple experience – and why not? The brand has a pulling power like no other but, more importantly, it has a readymade audience and ecosystem of features. Want the very best all-round experience for your £1000 smartphone? It will be hard to argue against the Airpods Max being that.
Then there’s the design. Apple is arguably a luxury goods business that happens to sell tech products. People buy products on sight, in every sense. No matter that Sony and others have also delivered great-looking products, there’s a market for anything Apple and its Jony Ive-inspired aesthetic.
Whatever you make of the choice of colours, the Airpods Max’s breathable knit mesh headband, aluminium ear cups, ‘Digital Crown’ multi-functional dial, and even the jacquard-textured
‘L’ and ‘R’ inside the ear cups all come together to create a design that takes into consideration the small details as much as it does the bigger audio picture.
What about the sound quality of the Airpods Max?
While Apple may sometimes not give the impression of caring unduly about audio quality, it usually nails this aspect too – even if there has been the occasional dud, such as the ipod Hi-fi.
Just take the Airpods Pro, not to mention the Homepod and Homepod Mini – all of them delivered class-leading sound. These products give us good reason to believe the Airpods Max sound performance will have been taken seriously in Cupertino. (If you want to see just how seriously Apple takes audio, read our online feature looking inside the Apple audio labs at whathifi.com).
Of course, for now, the jury is out on sound performance. The best-value wireless noise-cancellers out there for the money are currently the Sony WH-1000XM4, which are 40 per cent cheaper than the Airpods Max.
So, would the Airpods Max have to sound at least 40 per cent better to win our stamp of approval and top the leaderboard? Not necessarily. As we previously highlighted, there are many other reasons why Apple products are so desirable, but there’s no denying that, for us here at What Hi-fi? at least, they’ll need to sound really good. For the sake of Apple and every IOS user who values sound quality, let’s hope they’re up to it.
How will rival headphones manufacturers react?
So how will the Airpods Max measure up against existing models? And what will those brands do next? Luckily, they’re in a good place – the latest Sony XM4 headphones, for example, are exceptional and will be hard to beat, not least for their audio performance.
We know that Apple has previously nailed wireless audio and noisecancelling tech with the Airpods and Homepod, which just leaves the question of whether it can put all its know-how into an over-ear package.
Of course, we have to remember that rivals such as Bose and Sony are up to the third and fourth generation of models, meaning these brands have perfected their craft to deliver great sound and great features in what are now tried and tested designs. That said, we’re sure Apple has learnt plenty from its Beats headphones venture, meaning this is the company’s first over-ear rodeo in only the strictest sense.
And will Apple’s rivals follow suit with pricey models?
Will the likes of Sony and Bose be tempted to offer more expensive models? We’re not sure. Much as we love some of the headphones on offer, they will need all the points of differentiation they can muster, and keeping a lower price tag could be crucial. Not least with rumours that there is a cheaper Airpods Max ‘Sport’ model in the pipeline.
We’d also question whether there is a wider appetite for portable wireless headphones around the £500-£600 mark – the existing models are so good, that this higher price, without Apple’s unique features, seems hard to justify. Still, if in a few years’ time the world is blessed with even more premium and excellent wireless headphones, we will know who to thank.
Ultimately, the Airpods Max offer something that no other brand can. For iphone users wanting the ultimate audio experience, nothing can match the Airpods Max. And that’s why for many, that price may not be a problem – little wonder they’re already selling out fast.