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Apple Announces $550 Headphones

ManaByte

ManaByte

Gold Member
www.theverge.com

Apple announces $549 AirPods Max noise-canceling headphones, coming December 15th

Move over, Beats.
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com

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.
Click to expand...

 
Papa

Papa

Banned
eddie4 said:
There is no way in hell these will be better than what companies that have been in the audio industry for decades put out. No way.
Click to expand...

Big brain feels until you realise they’re charging more than said companies
 
eot

eot

Banned
Fuck paying that much for headphones, I've never had a pair that didn't start breaking in some way, big or small, after two years
 
D

Durask

Member
matt404au said:
Not a chance that these will be better than the Bose QC35 / NC 700.
Click to expand...

Why?

IMHO QC35 are good for noise cancelling but sound wise they are not that great, IMHO, no bass whatsoever. Of course tastes differ.
I have Bose and V-Moda and for music I vastly prefer V-Moda, of course V-Moda does not have NC.
 
eddie4

eddie4

Genuinely Generous
Burger said:
For Apple to sell the 3.5mm cable separately on a pair of $550 headphones is perhaps the most miserly thing they've ever done.
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They're trying to save the earth, duh...less plastic now, but more plastic later when you realize you'll need it, just like the charger.
 
Burger

Burger

Member
diffusionx said:
It's not even in the top 10.

This is a company that sells $700 wheels for a computer that starts at $6000.
Click to expand...

That's not miserly - it's opportunism. The computer is priced relatively well - the wheels are not, sure, but they are a extremely low selling item that probably had a rather large R&D + tooling cost.

A headphone cable for headphones is not the same. It's a commodity item - albeit one that's not industry standard because fuck you.
 
Pagusas

Pagusas

Elden Member
eddie4 said:
There is no way in hell these will be better than what companies that have been in the audio industry for decades put out. No way.
Click to expand...

Yep, just like no way in hell Apple would make a better phone than decade old phone making companies...

Lets wait for reviews, if they are worth the money ill get them day 1
 
Chromanticore

Chromanticore

Banned
20 hours. No headphone jack. 550 dollars. No USB C. And all the cool rumored features are magically gone. This is high comedy. But Apple has an army of dipshits that will order this before reading a single review, so good on them for knowing how to fleece the dumb-dumbs.
 
Jooxed

Jooxed

Gold Member
matt404au said:
Not a chance that these will be better than the Bose QC35 / NC 700.
Click to expand...

I didn't get to tell you before you took a break that I ended up picking up a pair under your recommendation. Love them, sound quality is fantastic and the noise cancelling is top notch.
 
n0razi

n0razi

Member
Will these magic headphones give me courage?



Chinbo37 said:
I own 500 dollar headphones, i bet they sound better. But they have a cable :messenger_loudly_crying:
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Fiio BTR3 or BTR5 will fix that easily

p1uiR2K.jpg


ADGmAj6.jpg
 
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V1LÆM

V1LÆM

Gold Member
you just know they will still sell like crazy. apple is basically a fashion brand these days. good thing they have noise cancelling to drown out all the poor peasants.
 
Orutisu Furio

Orutisu Furio

Member
Ridiculous price but expect to see a lot of celebrities, athletes, and other "influencers" wearing these publicly.

Maybe they're great. But $550 for headphones? It's half the price of a MacBook. The margins on the product must be insane for apple.
 
diffusionx

diffusionx

Gold Member
I'm going to hold off on sound quality, but I will say I don't really like the look of them, and the "case" that the website shows is fucking ridiculous.

I bought a pair of Bose noise-canceling headphones in like, 2013, and while I use them only for travel, they still work great and if I had to replace them I wouldn't spend $550 on Apple ones without a proper protective case.
 
Haint

Haint

Member
Durask said:
From what I've read the margin on the Beats headphones is insane.

Cost Of Making Dr. Dre’s Beats Headphones Is Far, Far Less Than You’d Think

Dr. Dre just made himself a fortune, but made Apple a profit margin monster. The Daily Mail is reporting that Beats headphones, the headset company started by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine that was just ...
www.inquisitr.com www.inquisitr.com
.
Click to expand...

I can 100% guarantee you the margins are several times higher than 90%. The $200 model probably costs Apple $20-$30 to produce and the $600+ models $50-$60. Margins in audio gear are astronomical (several hundred %) across the board, but especially headphones, which is why every company under the sun produces them. Entire mega cities in China produce almost nothing but untold varieties of drivers which companies can go and buy for pennies or dollars. The Chi-Fi IEM market arose when people discovered $12 Chinese iems were using the same drivers from the same factory as $1000 western models. Enterprising Chinese bought them, resold them out of a van, and were able to build large global companies out of it, such as TIN HiFi.

To be fair to Apple though, this Pro Max allegedly packs in a lot of technology that other headphones don't. The mics that supposedly measure inside the cups and apply adaptive EQ is way more sophisticated than anything Sennheiser or Beyer attempt. The BoM is still dirt cheap, but there's definitely some design and research complexity here.
 
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