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Apple Announces $549 Airpods Max Over-the-Ear Headphones with Active Noise Cancellation

By Rain Noe - December 8, 2020

in Object Culture

Today Apple unveiled the Airpods Max, their $549 over-the-ear wireless headphones with active noise cancellation.

From a design standpoint, there are plenty of visual cues that this is an Apple product: The earcups are anodized aluminum;

parts of the form recall the Apple Watch;

the shiny arms of the headband recall the monitor support arm on the old dome-base iMac G4;

the fancy knit mesh recalls their Homepod speakers;

and it comes in five colors.

One design detail that recalls an external product--Herman Miller's Aeron chair--is the headband. "The canopy spanning the headband is made from a breathable knit mesh," Apple says, "distributing weight to reduce on-head pressure."

The digital crown from the Apple Watch has been borrowed, here serving as a volume knob that also lets you skip tracks, answer the phone or summon Siri. It's not clear what combination of taps or presses invokes the latter three functions, but hopefully Apple has gotten around the problem with these types of buttons, where they can tend to rotate undesirably as you press them.

One cute trick not depicted in the photos is that when the headphones are on your head, they automatically pause playback if you lift an earcup off of your ear. Playback resumes when the earbud is allowed to spring back over your ear.

Some minor gripes: The headphones don't break down any smaller for transport, and the purse-like case seems like an afterthought. The case encloses the earcups but not the mesh headband, which I'd want to protect if this thing was knocking around in a bag with other stuff.

Lastly, I'd prefer a more obvious left/right indicator than the digital crown or the cutesy knitted "L" and "R" inside the earcups. But I know, I know, minimalism is all the rage these days.

For those who can swallow the steep price tag and/or tend to give generously during the holidays, the Airpods Max will be available one week from today, on December 15th.

Here's the design vid:

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Michael DiTullo

2 years ago

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Having worked on a few dozen headphones I find a lot of what they did really interesting. The cans themselves are very shallow. To compensate for that acoustically they must have had to up the amplification which is expensive. I'm sure most of the the electronics are custom vs the off the shelf bluetooth/noise canceling/ amplification chipset modules that most headphone makers use to save money.

The cans themselves have a serious undercut if you look at the top view and no visible part lines of course. I suspect they made this with either a collapsing core tool or they stamped it with no undercut and maybe post processed it to draw the metal out and in with some kind of progressive die.

The knit headband and ear cups are really nice. Most headphones use leather or synthetic leather for the pads which is great for creating an acoustic seal, but doesn't feel very nice after awhile.

The only thing I would have considered is a finish change on the cup that might hint to the first iPhone and break up that surface a bit as well as show off the nice cross section. But maybe they tried that and didn't like it.

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- Cameron Day
  
  Michael DiTullo
  
  2 years ago
  
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  The Aluminum is probably a 2 part Fluidformed/Hydroformed process. First press/tool forms a vessel with no undercut, then part is placed on a die (solid side up) and secondary (2 piece) tooling is placed around the outside of part and bulge-pressed a second time to create the 'undercut'. Then all the bevels and holes are machined.
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  - Stuart Constantine
    
    Cameron Day
    
    2 years ago
    
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    This guy molds...
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- Kyle Lamson
  
  Michael DiTullo
  
  2 years ago
  
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  At 0:25 in the video they mentioned 'machined aluminum ear cups'... so it doesn't seem they are molded or drawn.
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Dee An

2 years ago

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> I'd prefer a more obvious left/right indicator than the digital crown or the cutesy knitted "L" and "R" inside the earcups.
- Use a permanent marker pen. Or add a decal. A piece of Red pvc tape around the R arm . Spray paint. Nail varnish. Just how minimalist is your desk if you don't have at least one of these things?

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Nick LiCausi

2 years ago

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the carrying case is silly

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Karl Hungus

2 years ago

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Like all apple products, good or bad, i have no doubt it will sell out. It's good to see that there's at least one sharp edge on the product, keeping up w apples need to make physical objects you touch uncomfortable. Why does apple continually do this? Add a radius! The spacer mesh with the jacquard L and R is a nice detail but, It looks like a feminine product to me, like princess Leia's hair buns and the case looks like a purse.

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Frank Borsboom

2 years ago

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Hmm.... I'm sure I will fall in love with these when I wear them, same as the Bose's and Sony's flagship ANC headphones.
But I really dislike them using the watch crown to adjust volume. I understand they want to unify interactions between devices, but I'm scared that the crown will be too small or clumsy to use properly. I think the Microsoft Surface Headphones, and the new B&O, do a much better job with their dial.
But then again, I'm usually wrong about this stuff...

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