As much as I appreciate these in-depth reviews of the AirPods Max, they always feel like reviews of, say, a Burberry coat.
Although this is pure unproven (and maybe unprovable) speculation, I think that people buying such products have already decided to do so at some deep emotional level, and any half-decent review just provides the necessary rationalization for an otherwise excessive purchase.
Absolutely get what you're saying, however I wonder if in the audiophile world the opposite is the case: Apple is seen as the inferior interloper and this is rationalizing giving them a chance?
I bought them because of two features:
1. I own a pair of Bose 700 and on YouTube they “crackle”. It’s worse when watching something at 1.5x and it’s really distracting when you’re watching a talk or tutorial.
2. Bose switch automatically to the first device connected. So let’s say I’m in the middle of a zoom call waiting for participants to join. If my phone is the first device and I browse a site with a voice add or click something by accident, the Bose switched to that sound source.
Neither are terrible inconveniences but it’s a minor life improvement to not deal with those things. Is that worth $550? Not sure. But I’m glad I spent the money.
> switch automatically to the first device connected
I think this is a generic Bluetooth audio chipset problem - I know it happens both with my Taotronics dongle and my PLT headphones. Bloody annoying when I'm listening to something on the phone, I've forgotten the Macbook is also connected, and bash beeps, killing the music.
Bose ain't held in some high regard in hifi community neither. They have good active noise cancellation, and marketing. But that's about it. Quality of reproduction is subpar in the price level.
These days there are many other aspects to using headphones, ie as you mention how things work over bluetooth. Or comfort (which alone would kill these for me, even if they would be properly great in everything else). Or various signalling with purchases.
Anyway as long as everybody is happy with what they have all is good.
Although this is pure unproven (and maybe unprovable) speculation, I think that people buying such products have already decided to do so at some deep emotional level, and any half-decent review just provides the necessary rationalization for an otherwise excessive purchase.