I purchased this on a lark after getting and being very satisfied with my new maxed-out iMac. These are actually quite surprising in terms of sound quality. I've written quite a bit about my wide-ranging experience with top-flight headphones in other threads here in Tom's Corner. My current stable includes the Stax SR009S (powered by a Mjolnir Audio Carbon amp), the Koss ESP 950 (also powered by the Mjolnir), and NAD Viso HP-50. All other headphones I've owned (including the Sennheiser HD800S, Focal Utopia, Audeze LCD-4 and 4z, and Dan Clark Ether 2) have been moved along and none of the others I've auditioned at shows (including the Abyss models, Hi-Fi Man electrostats, and the progeny of the old AKG 1000 off-the-ear designs) have been found worthy.
So it was surprising when the new Apple model proved worthy of keeping, at least for a while. They are quite good sounding--very spacious and quite neutral in response, at least when used via Bluetooth from my iMac. They do not sound quite so good when sourced from my iPhone 11 Max. They are the best I've used with binaural recordings--the effects are most realistic on them, in other words. But even with normal material they are good enough that I don't feel an instant strong urge to switch back to my Stax when listening to them for viewing movies or streaming music. They present as "open" and "large" a soundfield as any headphones I've experienced.
They are quite heavy and have a good deal of head-clamping force, though, so that makes them not as comfortable as any of my other headphones. The noise cancellation function works very well indeed, but it's really not needed since these are not open back and seal out a lot of noise even when the noise cancellation function is turned off. They also have a "transparency" function which allows you to hear your environment quite well by using the built-in microphones which also pick up your voice for audio/video calls--the transparency mode is very close to what you hear from your environment when you take the headphones off. I would say that the headphones sound remarkably similar in all modes; just a tad better with the noise cancellation feature turned off than in the other modes.
They look very high in quality--not at all plasticky--and very sturdy. The cushions are attached magnetically and come off easily for cleaning.
Much is made in Apple's advertising about the special stereo processing (spatial audio) built in. But, as it turns out, this only works (at least for now) when sourcing sound from Apple devices which contain gyroscopes, which my iMac doesn't. Only iPhones and iPads do. Besides that, right now it doesn't work with most music sources, mostly just some video services, like Apple's own. I found that a big disappointment at first (this was not clear from the info I read prior to ordering them), but these sound so good with normal stereo that all is (mostly) forgiven already. The fact that they do binaural sound so well is a compensating plus since that's also a rather small percentage of available recordings.
The software is supposed to learn to produce better sound as it accommodates to your head and hearing. Not sure how that's possible, but either I'm getting used to the sound more each time I don them, or they are actually breaking in/sounding better now than when I first put them on. They also seem to improve in sound during each session as I wear them.
These actually sound quite a bit like the NAD Viso HP-50. They have the same sort of warm bass balance with extended and quite capable deep bass along with highs which are a bit soft. They portray a similarly "out of the head" impression, although more as in wider and higher soundspace, as opposed the the NADs which are uniquely "out there" in front in a way that mimics speaker sound. The midrange is fairly neutral, but here I'd give the nod to the NAD which is peerless in terms of midrange neutrality. The Apples are just a bit too heavy in the lower mids, especially noticeable on male voices I know well. However, this coloration is comparatively slight and is less obnoxious than a thinness which would rob baritone voices of their natural weight. It is also a coloration which is reduced by the adaptive EQ as I wear them.
In sum, a very pleasant surprise, especially if you don't like being tethered by a wire to your source. These are hugely better sounding than the prior Air Pods Pro IEMs which my wife owns.
So it was surprising when the new Apple model proved worthy of keeping, at least for a while. They are quite good sounding--very spacious and quite neutral in response, at least when used via Bluetooth from my iMac. They do not sound quite so good when sourced from my iPhone 11 Max. They are the best I've used with binaural recordings--the effects are most realistic on them, in other words. But even with normal material they are good enough that I don't feel an instant strong urge to switch back to my Stax when listening to them for viewing movies or streaming music. They present as "open" and "large" a soundfield as any headphones I've experienced.
They are quite heavy and have a good deal of head-clamping force, though, so that makes them not as comfortable as any of my other headphones. The noise cancellation function works very well indeed, but it's really not needed since these are not open back and seal out a lot of noise even when the noise cancellation function is turned off. They also have a "transparency" function which allows you to hear your environment quite well by using the built-in microphones which also pick up your voice for audio/video calls--the transparency mode is very close to what you hear from your environment when you take the headphones off. I would say that the headphones sound remarkably similar in all modes; just a tad better with the noise cancellation feature turned off than in the other modes.
They look very high in quality--not at all plasticky--and very sturdy. The cushions are attached magnetically and come off easily for cleaning.
Much is made in Apple's advertising about the special stereo processing (spatial audio) built in. But, as it turns out, this only works (at least for now) when sourcing sound from Apple devices which contain gyroscopes, which my iMac doesn't. Only iPhones and iPads do. Besides that, right now it doesn't work with most music sources, mostly just some video services, like Apple's own. I found that a big disappointment at first (this was not clear from the info I read prior to ordering them), but these sound so good with normal stereo that all is (mostly) forgiven already. The fact that they do binaural sound so well is a compensating plus since that's also a rather small percentage of available recordings.
The software is supposed to learn to produce better sound as it accommodates to your head and hearing. Not sure how that's possible, but either I'm getting used to the sound more each time I don them, or they are actually breaking in/sounding better now than when I first put them on. They also seem to improve in sound during each session as I wear them.
These actually sound quite a bit like the NAD Viso HP-50. They have the same sort of warm bass balance with extended and quite capable deep bass along with highs which are a bit soft. They portray a similarly "out of the head" impression, although more as in wider and higher soundspace, as opposed the the NADs which are uniquely "out there" in front in a way that mimics speaker sound. The midrange is fairly neutral, but here I'd give the nod to the NAD which is peerless in terms of midrange neutrality. The Apples are just a bit too heavy in the lower mids, especially noticeable on male voices I know well. However, this coloration is comparatively slight and is less obnoxious than a thinness which would rob baritone voices of their natural weight. It is also a coloration which is reduced by the adaptive EQ as I wear them.
In sum, a very pleasant surprise, especially if you don't like being tethered by a wire to your source. These are hugely better sounding than the prior Air Pods Pro IEMs which my wife owns.
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