To me its somewhat on the extreme side of thing that any sort of music will distract me from my work so I mostly just use ANC without listening to anything. However, since APM has ANC capability, how well does it stack up compare to others like XM4 and QC in term of pressure, high/low noise frequency filtering, and overall isolation?
I can measure the noise-floor between XM3, QC35ii and APM to give you an idea what the effect of the ANC is there. It’s present and audible on all of them, but subjectively lowest on the APM. All have the “pressure” effect, but again I’d say the APM is the least obvious of the three in that regard.
The Apple ANC is the best of the three, so far. I’d have to fly with them to know for sure, but they certainly do better in my normal home and urban environments, and especially so with voices.
I can measure isolation (I think I’m the only one doing that, even if I’m not doing reviews anymore), at various frequencies (have done so for other closed-back cans).
Won’t be till after Christmas now, though.
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ANC is very competitive on the APM. Some people reported the cabin pressure issue but I don’t seem to have that problem. There is more noise floor on the APM than on the XM4 or Bose 700 (or the Sennheiser), but it’s not bad enough to where it becomes an issue. One potential drawback is that it seems like the ANC is a bit inconsistent at times, like when changing environments. But so far my experience with it has been that it’s on par with the best of them for that functionality.
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haha again I have the opposite impression (at least on the XM4). Would love to see the measurements.
You’re referring to the XM4 and the Bose 700 … so they might well be lower. I don’t have either, just the XM3 and QC35ii. But I’ll post measurements (and send you the test files and procedures) when I get a chance. The difference isn’t huge, except in the vocal range.
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Wicked. Yeah on all of them it’s so low that to me it’s a non issue. It’s not like those older Momentums or anything.
Right!
It’s completely unnoticeable in quiet/silent musical passages, across all of them and only audible if using them without music to shut out other noises. And they are all MUCH quieter than all the crap they shut out. All are suitable there … I’d go with the cheapest/most comfortable if that was my goal.
Though if I was just looking to shut out noise, and not play music, I’d be going with what I use for shooting and some of my louder hobby-pursuits!
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Alright so I’ve just been comparing more with the other ANC headphones I have here. This is how I’m going to rank them for this current environment I’m in (which may be different depending on your environment).
ANC Attenuation: Bose 700 > APM > XM4 (XM4 and APM have worse high frequency attenuation than Bose 700) > PXC 550 ii
ANC Noise Floor: Bose 700 > APM = XM4 = PXC 550 ii
Tuning (default): APM </> Bose 700 (depending on preference) > PXC 550 ii >>>>>> XM4
Technical performance: PXC 550 ii (detail) > Bose 700 > = APM = XM4
Feature integration and ease of use: XM4 >= APM (depending on ecosystem and what you’re doing) > Bose 700 > PXC 550 ii
Movie watching: APM >>>> the rest for compatible content, otherwise about equal.
I’m honestly surprised by the Bose 700. I was not expecting it to be any good. Realistically though I’d probably more likely use the XM4 with my EQ preset, just for the ability to have that on all devices connected.
hey @Resolve - did you figure out how to measure from your phone/AP Max? Let me know. i can help!
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I did indeed. I added it to the original post: Apple AirPods Max - New Over-Ear Headphones from Apple
So far it seems more likely that it influences the adaptive EQ, rather than functioning like a traditional EQ preset.
Here’s a final approximation of what the ‘Vocal Range’ preset does:
Now, this isn’t perfect because I just used the delta between the two on my own pinna, and then approximated the difference to the existing measurement. I was worried this wouldn’t work because there’s always the potential for different coupling effects between the head and the rig to produce different results - and there may indeed be some differences.
Moreover, I was only able to plot the pinna and concha effects as I mentioned earlier, because the in-ear mics are not at the ear drum reference point like the GRAS is. But, seeing how close the rest of was apart from the mids (for the in-ear measurements), I think this is about as close as it’s going to get. Additionally, seeing them taper together again above 4khz gives me a bit of confidence that at least for the mids I didn’t miss anything. So, for all we know there could have been additional differences in higher frequencies - or more significant differences due to the additional effects. But I have no way of measuring that due to the unique nature of this device.
How did your ears measure them? Was the difference between the two settings noticeable? And if so, was it significant enough?
These headphones are fascinating in the level of difficulty they are to measure.
I have in-ear mics that Mad Economist made me for exactly this kind of stuff. They don’t block the canal so it let’s me also hear and measure in realtime simultaneously. It’s also great for being able to compare how something behaves on the GRAS pinna compared to my own. The downside is that it only shows pinna and concha effects, but not canal and drum resonances, so if there are differences between my own ear and those from the GRAS canal simulator then I wouldn’t know just from this. But surprisingly I’ve found that they usually match reasonably closely - which is a testament to the KB5000/1 and how close it is to a human ear.
As for the difference in the presets, yeah it’s noticeable. It doesn’t completely fix the lack of ear gain but it gets it close enough to where I’d say it’s a good tuning.
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Awesome APM review and lots of interesting sound demos in various modes. Worth watching and listening for yourself.
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I really like this guy haha. He’s very self-aware in his videos.
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'2020. The year an Apple headphone made it to 150 posts on an audiophile headphone site in less than 14 days. I kid. This is a net positive.
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Forgive me for a momentary diversion from the far more interesting technical discussion with a less interesting anecdotal testament.
Having the APMs for a few days now, I’m finding the sound quality surprisingly good, albeit a touch bloated, with noise cancelling and pairing considerably more consistent than on my Sony MX4s. The fit is quirkier, but feel much more “premium” and still comfy enough.
The real mind blower was watching the Mandalorian finale on an iPad Pro in Spatial Audio mode. It was a bit of a revelation, really. The tools we have to actually mix in atmos and surround binaurally aren’t nearly as good as what these present. It honestly, for a hot minute, made me deeply insecure, and I had to flip through and listen to my own mixes I have on the service just to make sure they translated. Lol. I even did that “are my speakers on” thing that I hear people talk about, even though my atmos array isn’t hooked up to any of my consumer devices. Lol.
Switching to Apple TV, which doesn’t support Spatial yet, was a much more typical experience, with its mix warts and all.
In spatial atmos, the subs came up, phantom center (ie dialog) moved in front of the listener, the panning was perfectly convincing, and it dialed in just the slightest amount of early reflections that tied it all together. The head tracking was instantaneous. Interestingly, there is a 5 second reset for center direction, with another 5 seconds of adjustment, which was never distracting.
The comparison, here, would be to the Mobius with its Waves NX tracking, but, they occur to me as a bit gimmicky, without the convincing, seamless execution and integration the APMs have. I still have a pair, so if I can find a common ground application, I’ll put them head to head.
As someone who can’t do IEMs, I think for office and public transpo use, these are a real winner. For sporting and strenuous physical activities, I’d feel better wearing the Sony’s.
For a first generation device, these are superb. I’m really looking forward to subsequent generations once consumer streamers all adopt this technology.
Mia copa. This turned out to be way more long winded than I intended. It’s time to let the smart people talk.
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Glad to see some comparison with the spatial audio. Yeah I just did the same thing with it and loved that experience - technical performance considerations aside. To me THAT is truly new and innovative. Like not the specific pieces of the experience, but how it’s tied together.
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We did a live stream on the APM with Crin and Tyler. Check it out here:
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