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there’s no perfect recco, headphones (and speakers) are quite personal and always involve compromises.
AirPods Max (APM for short) are actually very good headphones overall with relatively neutral tuning and decent detail retrieval. I like their low-end response quite a bit. the only downside for me is that they’re heavy as hell and uncomfortable for 3hr+ sessions.
a bit generic but I would give the Sony XM5 and Bose QuietComfort Ultra a try and see how you feel vs. APM. my guess is that you’ll find both more comfortable (mainly less heavy) and you might prefer the sound of one or the other. doubtful either will be higher performance, just different.
I’d recommend choosing a set of tracks that you’ve heard a million times, and listening to the same tracks on whichever models you compare. if you listen to random tracks on each, you might confuse yourself rather than drawing useful conclusions. taking notes is also helpful rather than relying on memory.
on the “consumer” side, I’m personally not a fan of headphones like Beats since they are tuned with a strong “smiley” EQ, tipped up at both the low and high end of their frequency response. that said, some people really dig it, so worth a try.
on the “hi-fi” side, my personal favs are Focal Bathys wireless headphones. they are a notable notch above APM in sound quality and quite a bit more comfortable. the main downside is that they’re even more expensive than APM ($1000?). there’s a new Bathys Mg model that is a notch higher ($1500?) and allegedly better still.
anyway, hope this helps a bit 💜 2 replies
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