AirPods To The Max

Hello there blog-o-sphere! December kind of sneaked up on me. It’s holiday season here in America, which is a bit muted this year due to…extenuating circumstances. Right. Anyways, yesterday Apple did a thing. And I did a thing. Both things are about AirPods.

Max Volume

Yesterday, Apple announced a new product! They expanded their line of AirPods with an eye-brow raising expensive version called AirPods Max. These things cost more than double the AirPods Pro! Thankfully, my ears are not finely attuned enough to be able to appreciate the subtle sound advancements in the new AirPods Max.

You’d think for the high cost, the AirPods Max would have all the features of the Pro version plus more. But they don’t. Notably missing are: wireless charging and water resistance. Plus they lack Apple’s ultra-wide band chip. I’m interested to read upcoming reviews of the sound quality though, because that’s what these “studio” quality headphones are about. And they do include a nifty case. Plus – colors!

Min Volume

It so happens that also yesterday, I bought my first pair of AirPods! I got the least expensive gen 2 pods for the most bang per buck. They were on sale at a reasonable price to me. And no, I didn’t buy them due to the AirPods Max announcement.

I had wanted AirPods for a long time; in fact I almost bought them 2 years ago. A few things had held me back though:

1. The high price tag
2. The fear of them falling out of my ears
3. The uncertainty of them not fitting into my ears in the first place
4. The doubt over poor sound quality

So how did I vanquish these formidable barriers?

First, as mentioned, they were on sale! And I happened to have enough disposable cash on hand, so…ca-ching. The price was right.

Lasty, when I got my new-to-me iPhone 8 Plus last month, it came with brand new, never been waxed, EarPods! For the first time, I was able to try them out. They fit my ears well, they don’t fall out, and the sound quality is very good. Yeah, they lack bass compared to my other headphones but otherwise sound very nice. And, in fact, they do have some bass, it’s just very muted.

And after doing some Duck Duck Go-ing online (that’s a good search engine, y’all), I learned that AirPods and EarPods have a close enough physical design that I’m confident they’ll fit, not fall out, and sound as good or better.

There’s one more thing, too. I got the AirPods also because I plan to buy my first Apple Watch in the near future. AirPods will just work!

Mid Volume

The AirPods Pro look excellent and, I think, have enough greater features over the AirPods that their higher cost, when on sale, is justified. But I was unwilling to splash out that much money. Maybe I’ll upgrade to these in the future.

Sounding Off

So there you have it. I already own inexpensive wireless over-ear headphones and love being wire free. I also own in-canal wired earbuds; I tried them to see if that type of design was comfortable for my ears. They’re okay… I actually prefer the light non-intrusive feel of the EarPods that came with my iPhone. And although they let in some ambient noise, it’s not too bad.

Once I’ve had some time to really try out the AirPods, I’ll likely post my thoughts on them here, so stay tuned.