Q: What did you get after spending three or four thousand to buy an active noise-cancelling headset?
A: In addition to getting the functions that a pair of active noise-cancelling headphones should have, its design concept gave me a glimpse into the future , and even allowed me to turn on Do Not Disturb mode in the real world.
There are two reasons why I am confused about whether to buy AirPods Max: one is the official website price of 4399, and the other is that I have been using AirPods Pro for two years. During the period of time when I was struggling to buy or not, I swiped almost all the evaluation videos about this headset on the Internet, and there were complaints about this headset and blowing up the evaluation of this headset.
When I got the earphones and started using them, I found that the AirPods Max still exceeded my expectations on the good side. On the bad side, it didn’t seem to be bad. After about three weeks of high-intensity use, here are the advantages of this headset and what I can’t help but complain about, and what goes beyond the headset itself – Do Not Disturb mode in the real world.
the advantages that attract me
obsolete power button
Yes, there is no power button on the entire series of AirPods, which I personally think is the most forward-looking design on AirPods. Whether it is the semi-in-ear or in-ear AirPods series, or the head-mounted AirPods Max, there is no “long press the power button to turn on” in the whole process from receiving the goods and opening the package to successfully connecting the device to start playing music. Either directly open the cover of the charging compartment, take out the left and right earphones and put them on the ears respectively, or take out the AirPods Max body directly from the protective sleeve and put them on the ears directly. Most of the time, using AirPods Max is just a matter of picking it up directly from the desk and putting it on your ears.
There is no traditional “power button” design that directly hits my pain point. To exaggerate, it even makes me feel like I have spied a corner of the future.
One-point setup
Of course, when it comes to the near-on-the-go experience of AirPods, the “single-point setup” when pairing Apple products with new devices and the ability of headphones to perform “seamless relay” between different devices must be avoided. After receiving the goods, open the package, take out the earphones, remove the protective cover, and then unlock the iPhone. After a while, you will see the new device connection pop-up window appearing in the lower part of the screen. Just click the connection, and the iPhone will be connected to the earphones. Pairing, there is also a concise introduction guide during the period, all steps are concise and elegant.
A pop-up window when connecting to a friend’s iPhone, there is no intermediate step when connecting to your own phone for the first time.
I estimate that if a friend has only used AirPods and has never been in contact with traditional Bluetooth headsets, he must not understand the matching method of “long press the pairing button to enter pairing mode” for most Bluetooth headsets on the market. In the Apple ecosystem, there are many first system initialization settings between new devices, or the operation of connecting new accessories for the first time, most of which are encapsulated into elegant screen pop-ups. It’s all done with just a few taps on the screen, not too friendly for mainstream users who aren’t digital enthusiasts.
seamless relay
Headphones moved from iPhone to iPad, back to iPhone, and then to Mac.
The “seamless relay” function updated in WWDC2020 allows the headset to automatically select which device’s audio to play according to a certain logic between different devices logged into the same iCloud account, which largely solves the problem of inconsistency between various Apple devices. The problem of using the last meter of AirPods. For example, AirPods were first connected to the iPhone to play music. Then, I picked up the iPad on the bed and started playing the video. At this time, the headset will automatically connect to the iPad to output audio. At this time, I thought that there was still a video conference to participate in. Go to the Mac on the table and join the online meeting room. At this time, the AirPods will automatically switch to the Mac. If a call comes on the iPhone at this time, the AirPods will automatically connect to the iPhone.
Traditional Bluetooth headsets have to be paired on two devices in advance. When the headset is connected to two devices at the same time, playing media content on either device will crowd out the other device’s control over the headset. Traditional Bluetooth headsets can achieve a “seamless relay” experience with only two terminal devices. But once the number of devices exceeds two, it is a bit stretched, and it is impossible to seamlessly relay between multiple devices like AirPods. It is quite common to use more than two devices at the same time.
If you use Apple and non-Apple products at the same time, the traditional Bluetooth headset will have a better experience.
No endurance anxiety
In the three weeks of using the AirPods Max, I never heard the earphone low battery beep. However, the battery life still depends on the specific usage scenario. For example, I use it intermittently for two or three hours a day, and put it directly on the table when not in use, and charge it every three or four days. After a full charge, the official data says that it can be used continuously for 20 hours, while the AirPods Pro has to be put back into the charging case after a maximum of 4.5 hours of use, and the AirPods 3 can be used continuously for 6 hours.
Although the earphones will turn on ultra-low power mode after putting them in the smart case. But as a qualified lazy person, this step is simply too lazy to do it. I put the earphones directly on the table before getting off work. The next morning, I found that the earphones would lose power by 7%, about 10 hours later.
Very elegant interactive experience
The entire headset has only two buttons, which are located above the earmuffs on the right, and are separated on the left and right sides by the middle head beam. The circular knob on the left controls volume and media, and the long bar on the right controls noise reduction/transparency modes individually.
Only after you actually use it can you realize that this is a textbook-level headset button interaction design.
Thanks to the design that the two buttons are distributed on both sides of the head beam, as long as we know that when the headset is on the head, the “digital knob” is at the back and the “noise reduction switch button” is at the front, we can easily blind operate.
The left is the “digital knob”, and the right is the “noise reduction switch button”
To adjust the volume, just casually slide your finger over the right earcup, the carefully positioned and sized knob can always be easily manipulated by your fingers. Accompanied by the sound effect of the Apple Watch digital crown turning in the earphone, the volume adjustment is completed elegantly and gracefully.
To switch to “Noise Reduction/Transparency Mode” or “Start/Play Media”, you just need to lift your palm in a way that is very consistent with the way the muscles of the human arm work and move at an angle, and press your thumb against the right earmuff first. Below the , the index finger and middle finger can be instantly positioned to the position of the knob and button through the middle head beam. After pressing, the operation is completed with Apple’s optimized pressing feedback. It seems that the earphone should be controlled in this way, which is very intuitive.
If you want to hear what the person on the other side is saying, you only need one step. Thanks to the fact that the media control and noise reduction control are two separate buttons, and both buttons are above the headset, when we lift the palm to control the headset, the index finger and middle finger can be used at the same time with the help of the thumb. Press both buttons. The original state of turning on noise reduction and playing music at the same time was instantly switched to the state of turning on transparency and pausing playback at the same time.
This is very useful in scenarios where you don’t want to take off the headphones frequently, and at the same time don’t want to ignore the other party, but you can’t ignore it directly.
That is, it solves the need to quickly hear the other party’s needs, and at the same time implicitly conveys the implication of “I don’t want to talk to you now”.
The same scene is much more complicated on AirPods Pro. You have to short press the handle to pause the music, and then long press the handle to switch to transparent mode. It is better to take off the earphone on one side directly. There is also a small detail here that has an excellent experience. If noise reduction is turned on, when one side of the earphone is removed, the other side of the earphone will automatically switch from noise reduction mode to transparent mode, just like taking it off at the same time. The headphones on both sides are the same. After the single-sided earphone is put back into the ear, the noise reduction will be automatically turned on again without feeling, full of details.
Here, Apple has made a special treatment for the pressing effect of the two physical buttons, which not only maintains a certain sense of pressing paragraphs, but also greatly eliminates the impact of the stethoscope effect on the earphones on the hearing. Put on the earphone and tap the earphone with your finger, and you can hear the noise formed by the original soft action amplified by the stethoscope effect of the earphone.
To achieve the required noise reduction effect
At the beginning, I started with AirPods Max for the noise reduction effect that is better than AirPods Pro, and it did not disappoint me when I got it.
In the room, whether it is the noise of the cooling fan of the computer, the noise of the fan of the air conditioner outlet, or even the noise of the fan of the switch in the computer room, as long as the active noise reduction is turned on, all the noise generated by the fan will disappear instantly. The experience is magical, like being momentarily deprived of this specific sound from the fan.
On vehicles, whether it is the roar of a car or a high-speed train engine, or wind noise, active noise cancellation can easily deal with it. Even when taking the subway, if you encounter the kind of wind whistling or relatively sharp noise during the acceleration and deceleration of the subway, you can enjoy music at normal volume after turning on the active noise reduction.
On the street, because it is hot in the south right now, as long as the air conditioner is out, I have no desire to use headphones at all, so the real sense of hearing in this aspect is temporarily ignored.
High-frequency noises like human voices, the performance of this headset can only be said to be quite satisfactory. When only active noise reduction is turned on and music is not played, you can still hear the voice of the person on the other side speaking at a normal volume, but after playing music, you can basically hear the content of the other person’s speech clearly. In general, the noise reduction effect of the high frequency part can still be accepted. After all, this is the difficulty that the active noise reduction technology of all headphones is still overcoming.
Uncomfortable wearing experience
Personally, I think it is the most natural and comfortable state not to wear anything on the ear, so I will not use “comfortable” to evaluate any product that is worn on the ear, so for me, “not uncomfortable” can be It is said to be the highest evaluation of a headset wearing experience.
The most criticized place for this headset on the Internet, in addition to the price of 4399, must be the weight of 384g. Nearly two iPhone 13 Pros are placed on the head, which is really heavy just thinking about it, but when the earphones are actually worn on the head, the actual wearing experience is magically less heavy than imagined. Even this headset seems to be more insensitive than some lighter headsets, provided that your sitting posture is relatively correct and the cervical spine is in a normal physiological curve.
Another invisible selling point of this headset was discovered: correcting posture. If you are hunched over, the cervical spine is not under the natural physiological curve, and the neck will be sore after a long time. In a normal sitting position, when you use it with your eyes looking at the front monitor, you will hardly get tired even if you wear it for a long time. However, friends who often look down at the desktop need to consider the weight factor when they buy this headset.
In addition to the elasticity of the head beam itself, there is an inward buckle at the connection shaft between the earmuff and the head beam, which ensures that the entire earmuff can fit seamlessly around the ear and gently wrap the ear in the earmuff. . The earmuffs have enough space for the ears, and there is no uncomfortable feeling of pinching the ears when wearing them for a long time. At the same time, the special mesh fabric on the ear pads and the memory foam inside provide excellent noise reduction and sound quality under the premise of ensuring comfortable wearing.
The only reason I couldn’t help taking the headphones off was because of the heat, and I wonder if I’d be able to use headphones with air circulation in my lifetime.
Sound quality – the most controversial topic
One of the selling points of this headset is “computed audio”. Compared with the less obvious “adaptive equalization” function, the “transparency mode” is very amazing.
And “spatial audio” once again made me seem to have glimpsed a corner of the future.
Since the sound quality of headphones is affected by the fit of the ear pads, Apple’s “adaptive equalization” technology is to let us experience the same sound quality every time we wear headphones. It seems to be very advanced, but in actual use, it seems that you can’t understand the difference from other headphones. Since the sound quality is relatively metaphysical, beggars have different opinions. I can only say that the sound quality of AirPods Max is quite satisfactory.
It’s a relatively common scenario when someone else wants to talk to you while wearing headphones. Before the “transparency mode” appeared, we had to take off the earphones in order to hear other people’s speech clearly. Now we only need to gently press the noise reduction switch button to achieve the same effect as taking off the earphones. If it is not for the feeling of being wrapped in the ears, it is estimated that there will be an illusion that the earphones are dropped.
The picture on the left is “spatial audio”, and the picture on the right is “spatialized stereo”
Spatial audio technology refers to the fact that headphones can simulate a sense of hearing similar to reality in three-dimensional space through computational audio technology.
First, spatial audio technology can be subdivided into “spatial audio” and “spatialized stereo”. The sound source of spatial audio playback records the spatial dimension of the sound when it is recorded, and spatialized stereo is to “calculate” the original two-channel stereo sound by calculating the audio, similar to the sound effect of Dolby Atmos with spatial dimension.
| spatial audio | Spatialized Stereo | |
| English | Spatial Audio | Spatialize Stereo |
| Audio format | Dolby Atmos | two-channel stereo |
Second, both types of spatial audio can optionally turn on the “head tracking” effect. That is, the absolute position of the sound in the three-dimensional space is fixed with the screen as the coordinate. No matter how our head turns, the position of the sound we perceive will not change. In layman’s terms, no matter how you turn your head, the sound you hear always comes from the screen.
However, what is regrettable and expected is that there are still relatively few content and platforms that support spatial audio in China. In order to experience what it is like to watch a drama with the function of “spatial audio”, I specially went to the “Home Edition Apple TV+” subscription. After switching from stereo to spatial audio, in official words, it is more immersive. Specifically, you can clearly feel that the voice of the speaker in the video is more separated from the sound of the environment, and the surrounding sound is more spatial. sense. Although the effect is still far from the viewing experience in a Dolby Atom specification theater, it can already feel the direction of future development. After all, AirPods popularized this technology to the level of mass consumer goods.
Apple TV+ supports both Dolby Atoms and Dolby Vision.
Can’t help but want to complain
sultry
As long as I’m not in the air conditioner in summer, I definitely don’t have the courage to use headphones. As long as the temperature exceeds 30 degrees and the air conditioner is not turned on indoors, after using the headphones for a period of time, both ears feel like they are in a sauna. And I have a physique that sweats every time I move around in summer. I absolutely cannot use headphones when I need to move around or make large movements. Although the memory foam is very comfortable to wear, the sweat-absorbing effect is also very good. I feel sorry for that in silence. 499 set of ear pads.
Cannot be used on the side
It’s almost impossible to use the headset in bed, and the headset will press against the ear with a slight turn of the head. Since I like to sleep on my side, the only time I use headphones while lying down is during a half-hour nap in the company, lying on a folding bed, setting an alarm, starting to play sleep white noise, putting on an eye mask, and finally putting on my headphones. , Thanks to the excellent active noise reduction effect of the headphones, a 30-minute nap is not comfortable. Remember to temporarily turn on the do not disturb mode of your phone~
Stuttering during playback
It may be the problem of my earphone itself. Occasionally, when playing music, it will freeze for a moment. Although the frequency of occurrence is not particularly high, it still affects the experience. After all, this is a earphone with a price of 4399, and playing music smoothly is the most basic. Function. Another problem is that when I connect the headset to the Mac and play content, if there is a system notification sound, there will be a certain chance of interrupting the content I am playing. The experience is a bit strange. I hope it can be updated through the firmware later. solve this problem.
Toggle noise reduction/transparency to indicate that the volume is too loud
This is the only point I want to complain about on the interactive level of this headset. When the surrounding environment is relatively quiet, every time the noise reduction/transparency mode is switched, the prompt sound in the earphone always makes people’s blood pressure soar instantly, and the experience is extremely poor. I still can’t understand why Apple must highlight the sound effects when switching modes.
Logic loopholes in “seamless relay”
The first scenario is when you don’t want the headset to transfer to another device but it does transfer. When the headset is connected to the MacBook to play a video, after another person picks up his iPad and starts playing the video, the logic of the seamless transfer will grab the control of the headset to the iPad, even if the headset is switched back to the Mac, the second time Restarting playback on the iPad still competes for control of the headset.
The second scenario is that the headset should transfer to the other device but it doesn’t. When the headset is connected to the Macbook to play media, and a call comes from the mobile phone, the headset will not switch to the iPhone after answering. At this time, you have to manually switch the output on the iPhone, or take off the headset to make a call. To be honest, this kind of transfer logic Not at all elegant.
expensive
Well, I admit it’s not the headset’s problem, it’s mine. In general, there are far more things about this earphone that I can’t put it down, which makes me want to complain, which makes me have a very magical psychology: this earphone is expensive, but at the same time it is very expensive. The main reason for me to have this idea is the following mention of “beyond the role of the headset itself”.
At the moment, focus is the most scarce mental resource.
Beyond the role of the headset itself
When we turn on the do not disturb mode on our mobile phones, block annoying message prompts, and want to concentrate on work and study, the real environment in which we live will always interfere with us inadvertently. For example, the humming of the air conditioner, such as the chattering of the uncles and aunts outside the window, such as the colleague next door is twitching with Erlang’s legs crossed, without the headphones, such as the colleagues diagonally opposite are whispering about a very interesting thing Sounds, such as the movement of people who are always in and out of the water toilet in the library, and so on.
At this time, put on AirPods Max, press the noise reduction button, and turn on the “Do Not Disturb Mode in the Real World” with one click.
Just like the conspicuous Do Not Disturb icon that appears on the right side of the avatar when Feishu turns on the Do Not Disturb mode, the AirPods Max on the head is a sign of turning on the Do Not Disturb mode in the real world. This “conspicuous” sign can not only invisibly reject many people who want to chat with you, but also block out many noises in the real world, forming a small world of your own amid the noise. Although I can see what interesting content the colleagues diagonally opposite are talking about, I just can’t hear their voices. space.
After continuing to dig deeper into why I had this idea, I found that it seemed to be an escape from this noisy world, or a compromising attitude. In a non-interfering way to resolve the conflict between people and noise, or it can be said that people and people.
During the period of hesitating whether to buy headphones, I was particularly impressed by the second half of the official promotional video, and now I have a new insight: after the protagonist turns off the noise reduction, he can hear the noise of the decoration downstairs, while the noise reduction is turned on . Immerse yourself in your own world instantly after the noise . Apple’s advertising is really strong, it makes me feel like reading a good book, I can have different perceptions when watching it at different times and with different mentalities. The following is this advertisement.
Digression: A good partner for noise-cancelling headphones – Endel
This is a relatively small white noise app. Its biggest feature is that it can generate background music in real time through AI algorithms according to the user’s heart rate, location, lighting, weather, etc. There are various “soundscapes” in the software that correspond to different life scenarios. I usually use soundscapes for sleeping, studying, and relaxing.
Compared with directly playing the playlist of the corresponding scene, the different “soundscapes” on Endel can make you focus more on what you are doing, rather than being attracted by the music from time to time.
Screenshots of Endel’s homepage with different “soundscapes”
Summarize
Some of the core functions mentioned above can be achieved by many headphones on the market, and even better in some aspects. I’ve written so much that what appeals to me about AirPods Max doesn’t mean other headphones are bad, just because everyone’s usage scenarios and needs are different. In the case of using Apple’s family bucket, I personally feel that AirPods Max is really easy to use. The most attractive point for me is that this headset can not only have an experience comparable to other mainstream headsets in some core functions, but also in some The subtleties can feel that Apple is taking the user experience seriously. Overall, the flaws do not hide the flaws.
Finally, this article is my daily real experience and my heartfelt words. It can be said to be subjective. If you have any opinions or suggestions, please leave a message in the comment area. District to share your story.
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