At the moment this is sort of where I’m at. There are a lot of us in the audiophile space who want a good wireless ANC headphone, one that doesn’t compromise on sound quality - and so far all the consumer focused stuff tends to do that for the sake of features.
I think it’s understandable to be interested in the APM for the hope that this bucks that trend. Moreover, many audiophiles are also within the Apple ecosystem, or at least they’re partially invested, and the thought process may be “Apple works for me in these other areas where alternative options did not, it should be the superior choice for audio too right?”. So far that question remains to be answered. We can’t base conclusions or assumptions on brand success in other areas - regardless of whether or not we use Apple products - but this is something I’ve been seeing quite a lot of already.
I suspect the consumer-tuning of the AirPods Max will be quite appealing to a large audience … regardless of whether they’re participants in the broader Apple ecosphere.
Audiophiles? Not so much.
And the price may not be very conducive either.
Overall, so far, I like the APM better than their immediate competition. I’ll still take my XM3 for travel (when I’m not just using the Bose QC20i, AirPods Pro or Ety ER-4XR when I really have to pack light) vs. the APM. The extra battery life, and more solid packing options, in environments where sound-quality tends to be compromised anyway, are worth it.
I would probably go with the Sony’s for travel/home use if I wasn’t an Apple-user. Half the price. Nearly as comfortable. Better battery life. More CODEC support (though LDAC with the XM3 isn’t noticeably better than AAC with an iOS/iPad OS source and the APM).
But as an Apple user, and looking at wireless-ANC cans?
You can’t touch this.
At least not without going down normal audiophile paths.
My only concern, at present? What happens if the mesh on the headband tears? It’s thin and light. It might be super-strong (not going to test it). I’m surprised apple didn’t make it easily replaceable, as it seems like the only potentially fragile part of the whole setup.
So far I’m mainly just disappointed with the technical performance. The tuning is one thing but on the whole it’s generally inoffensive and even bordering on pleasant, and that’s more than I can say for the default tuning of many competing products. I just wish it had taken steps towards the audiophile category - especially with that price tag. It’s also likely limited by the size/space parameters that had to have been influenced by design and aesthetic considerations rather than strictly acoustic ones. At the moment I’m feeling like this is another example of apple tax - not just in terms of the price you pay, but also in terms of the form factor.
They’re not cheap, for sure. The case is daft. They could be easier/smaller to pack (though volume wise, they’re still smaller than the Sony or Bose units).
So far, though, they’re the best Bluetooth ANC headphone I’ve heard. More so in an Apple ecosystem than not, but in either case, the competition isn’t ahead (for me) on audio performance. Again, I probably wouldn’t buy them at all if I wasn’t an Apple user.
The XM3/XM4 aren’t really good enough to gain any real benefit from LDAC. The Bose stuff is more about ANC, brand and convenience. B&O aren’t really on the field.
Yes, I’d have preferred a more audiophile tuning/performance bias …
But Apple’s (Beats) headphone market is, what, the same size, in terms of revenue, as the entire rest of the personal audio space? So they were really never going to go for anything other than a slightly modified consumer-tuning. And the technical performance is still better than any other BT/ANC can I can name.
In theory, the Ananda BT should be better. But it’s Bluetooth module is, if I’m being charitable, pretty arsey. And the headphone itself is not at all to my taste, no matter how it is driven (and the BT module does it NO favors at all).
Oh man, the one I reviewed was pretty rough. The tuning was way brighter than the wired Ananda. I mean, yes the technical performance was quite good as we’d expect. But that was not a fun experience, and I don’t really consider it in the same ballpark.
For other wireless headphones, I have heard a number that have better technical performance than the APM. For non ANC stuff, the Audeze Mobius is easily ahead of the APM - but that also is a bit unfair because of no ANC. Also, the Mobius tuning is surprisingly decent with the ‘neutral’ preset. For ANC stuff, I’m inclined to agree that there’s not much that’s got good technical performance going on, but side by side with the Sennheiser PXC 550 ii… the APM is just not as detailed in the mids. Better slam, better soundstage, and less offensive treble on the APM, but for speed and detail I’d give it to the Sennheiser.
Also, I should note, Andrew lent me his iPhone 11 and Macbook, so all the subsequent testing and measurements are done on that.
There are some interesting non-ANC options, but the only situations in which I would consider a wireless headphone all pretty much require ANC, so the Mobius are a non-starter for me (not withstanding that I didn’t care for them at all*).
I haven’t heard the newer Sennheiser PXC stuff. That last time I did (years ago), it was all on-ear nonsense, and they sounded “quite poor”, the ANC was way behind Bose, and they were on about the same plane as Grado for comfort**. I quite liked the Momentum 2, but no idea how/if they are similar.
Again, horses for courses …
*I’m not a gamer. I’ve not really liked any Audeze cans except the pre-fazor LCD 2 and 3, the whole LCD-4 line, and the i4 and i3 …
**I just can’t do on-ear headphones anymore. Doesn’t matter what brand, nor what pads, about 10 minutes is my limit before I want to throw them someplace …
First full discharge, I got 22 hours, and change, of mixed listening and calls, and with a mix of having the headphones in and out of the case when not in use.
Then I tried the 5 minute charge (this was after the AirPods Max had shut themselves off due to low battery) from a 2019 16" MacBook Pro. I got 98 minutes straight listening there.
Range:
As good as anything else I have for Bluetooth range, but not noticeably better. But I do see slightly better range when coming off the latest iPhone vs. either of my Mac Pro units.
So these are like almost 800 canadabucks. I can get two xm4s for that price as Amazon has a decent sale right now.
I have a feeling apple is trying to create a market for these by price alone - unknowing consumers who think they are buying audiophile levelish stuff simply because price.
A couple hundred less I might consider them as I’m appled up, but it’s hard to justify the premium over the Sony’s, for me anyway. The wife has the xm3 and it’s fine for what it is.
Question for ya. I’m finding that the APM doesn’t connect to multiple devices the same way that the XM4 does. In particular, when using the iPhone, and the ‘Vocal’ setting, it doesn’t retain this preset when using it on the Macbook. Are you aware of any way to get around this or make the EQ profile exist on both? I’m trying to measure the Vocal preset to get a sense of exactly what gets boosted, and this is proving challenging.
If indeed it’s the case that it doesn’t retain the iPhone’s EQ preset, that’s actually a BIG win for the XM4, because the Sony app keeps the profile even when using it on desktop.
Which presets do you mean? The ‘Headphone Accommodation’ presets are essentially EQ profiles built into the ios device. The APM’s adaptive EQ function is always on, so it’s not actually something you change.
The downside at the moment is that it’s not possible to measure the ‘Vocal’ preset from the ios device, to see which parts of the midrange it elevates. So far from my subjective listening it sounds like it balances the mids a bit better with the bass, but it doesn’t quite fix the ear gain region.
On another note, I’m going to be quite critical of the APM as a ‘headphone’. This is straight up low res, as Crin has said as well. But the 3D spacial audio stuff when watching movies is extremely lifelike. The head tracking thing is a total gimmick, just like it is on the Mobius, but the spatial audio makes it so that movie content on Apple TV sounds like… I dunno, like it’s all a binaural recording. Really cool.
Okay so far when switching between the phone and the macbook, it seems like it disconnects the headphone from the previous device. So it can be paired to both at the same time, but not actually connected simultaneously. It’s still seamless in the sense that it’s one click (just like the Sony), but the way it does it seems to be different. The reason this is what I’m thinking is because it prevents you from making changes to “Custom Audio Setup” in the iOS device settings when it’s being used on the macbook. Contrast this with the Sony, and all the changes you make in the app with custom EQ carry over.
But, if there’s a way to do it that I’m not seeing I’d love to know. Otherwise I may have to look into some way of generating the tones on the iOS device.
As far as I know, the “EQ” (there’s more to it than that) profile is handled by the iPhone/iPad not the headphone. Which is, as you say, different to the Sony.
At the same time, switching between iOS (14.3) and macOS (Big Sur 11.2) doesn’t seem to result in a change in sound (on the settings I’m using, including going through the tuning process) - but I could just be burned out on listening right now (I’ve done a lot in a short time, on not much sleep - so will give it a day off and try that specifically).
You can, you just have to do it the old fashioned way … put test tone files on the device, play them manually, and then deal with measurement sync directly.
There are, for sure, more resolving headphones for less money, even after factoring in a DAC and amp. None of them are wireless with ANC, however (unless I’ve missed one somewhere … most I have never bothered to comment on because they’re almost all bloody awful). But either way, I would not describe these as low-res.
I would also very skeptical about any comparisons/evaluations done with AAC off an Android source (without knowing specifically which, and what OS revision it was on). God knows why, since the CODEC is open, but some of the implementations are terrible.
Seems to be connected to all of my in-range devices at the moment. And no “clicks” are required to make them switch to playing from a different device.
Listening from the Mac Pro, a call came in, all I did was answer on my iPhone. When the call ended, my music resumed from the Mac. A bit later I took the iPad out onto do the deck, kicked off a song on that, and that’s what came through on the headphones.
Yes when switching to different media on different devices, that’s all seamless. I mean for getting it recognized by REW. That requires selecting the APM on the MacBook when having it previously connected to the iOS device.
This is different from the Sony in that it stays connected, while it looks like the APM just switches devices. Obviously this isn’t an issue for the average user, but it also potentially means there’s no benefit to the MacBook portion of the ecosystem (if the profile doesn’t stick. I’m going to keep trying).
I spent about 4 hours A-Bing with the Drop Pandas.
The Pandas have more detail, but soundstage, instrument separation, and tuning go to the APMs. Listened to them wireless and wired streaming Qobuz and with Flac files on a Sony WM1A (plus/minus SMSL SP200 THX).
I have to do more listening and I’ll start comparing them with the DCA Aeon 2C and a few other wired headphones tomorrow and this weekend.
So far, very interesting
The EQ presets work only within the Music app, and not in other iOS apps. Headphone Accommodations work across all iOS apps. They are done at the source and not on the headphones.
I did some more listening, and some quick comparative measurements, and the Headphone Accommodations do not transfer to the Mac (yet). They do apply when switching from iPhone to iPad to Apple Watch.
Apple have a support document on it, also, that calls this out specifically.
So proper measuring is going to require putting test files on the device and playing from there. Which I’ll do a bit later (just quick and dirty stuff so far). It’s a bit of faffing about to sync up afterwards.