Today Apple confounded first moment by , firstly , launching a hardening of over - capitulum headphones before Christmas ( despite me havingspecifically veto this ) , and secondly calling them theAirPods Maxinstead of AirPods Studio .
But there was a third surprise in there , and that was the price . A coolheaded £ 549/$549 , which is enough money to corrupt a set ofwireless - charge AirPods , and a pair ofAirPods Pro , and still have enough change to corrupt aHomePod miniskirt .
In fact , the AirPods Max cost £ 200/$200 more than the Sony WH-1000XM4 , which are both the top - fink and most expensive launching in our roundup of thebest wireless earpiece . And consider how much we sleep with those , exactly how honorable do the new AirPods call for to be to justify the extra cash ?
The answer is really , really effective . And maybe Apple has achieved that , but the job is convert people that it has . In fact it ’s having hassle convince me , and I ’ve read the pressure vent .
( Since I write this clause , the first wave of lucky reviewer haveposted their first impression . And while most remark on the strong audio quality , they divvy up a sense of scepticism about whether it ’s strong enough to rationalize the price . )
Apple , as ever , talks a good game . The AirPods Max have all the feature film that show so popular on the AirPods Pro – active noise cancellation / Transparency Mode , spacial audio , the power of theH1 chip – and when combined with the ranking insulating material and more comfortable fit of an over - ear design we should be on to a winner . The problem is that audio quality is such a immanent , unmanageable - to - quantify affair , and someone who ’s happy with their AirPods – or , for that topic , someone who ’s never even used a set of headphones that be more than £ 50/$50 – will have to make a huge imaginative leap to conceive of the improvements this vastly expensive curing of headphones are move to bring .
What does it mean , after all , to say that the sound quality of one product is doubly as ripe as that of another ? And if it ’s meaningless , how do you justify a price tag that ’s doubly as large ?
Now , these are n’t the first readiness of exchange premium over - ears to found , and you could easily find a pair for £ 1,000/$1,000 or more if you curb out the specializer public press . There are audiophiles out there who value extremely high - timber sound calibre and are willing to pay a premium to get it .
The trouble is that such people are both relatively rarefied , and unlikely to be impressed by Apple ’s steel world power ; they ’re much more likely to go for an lay down audio frequency specialist rather than a general tech company with a magnanimous marketing budget . And while the AirPods Max are expensive for headphones , they ’re not quite in the Mac Pro area where Apple can afford to sell just a handful of them .
perhaps the Mac Pro is an instructive comparison , however . With very premium products the design is not always to make a profit through unit sales : it can instead be to generate a opulence brand mental image , which then reaps welfare in belt - on cut-rate sale of the cheaper product . In fashion circles this is concern to as a dissemination range , which benefits from the ballyhoo sire around the couture stuff that ’s out of most masses ’s toll range .
So the mere existence of the AirPods Max could raise Apple ’s visibility in audiophile circles and make the AirPods Pro – which look cheap by comparison – more appealing to upmarket consumers . But Apple tried this once with the gold and later ceramic versions of the Apple Watch , and ultimately had to give up on the plan . People often joke that Apple devotee have more money than sense , but I do n’t agree ; I imagine they ’re just used to get what they give for . And at this terms , it ’s hard to see how the AirPods Max be note value for money .
We hash out what ’s missing from the AirPods Max here : Why the AirPods Max lack the U1 chip .
Read our guide to thebest Apple Christmas dealsfor the late bargains – which , who knows , might even admit some offering on the AirPods Max .
