How are you all affording these?

As I walk around campus these days, I notice the various headphones people wear. As ever, Apple products are supremely popular amongst the young crowd. What is surprisingly however is the prevalence of people with the AirPods Max - a pair that costs $549. Even at its lowest Black Friday discount price, the top of the range AirPods are still $449. How the heck are college students affording these cans? Who spends that much money on headphones?

Perhaps I’m simply bitter that the AirPods Max does not fit my admittedly enormous head. The clamping force is too much, even at maximum extension of the ear cups. I bought a pair last year at a heavily discounted price of a still hefty $400, and sadly had to return them. The AirPods Max do sound amazing, but it’s probably for the best I didn’t keep them because spending that much money when I already have a set of Bose QC35 headphones is kind of ridiculous.

And I’m very much not a college student. I have disposable income!

I reckon my goals of austerity this year is going well thus far. With interest rates at relative historic highs, I’m trying to stuff as much money into savings as possible. I should be able to pay off the BMW M2 this year, thanks to earned interest in addition to the regular savings. Having that debt off my books grants me freedom to do other things, like paying extra for better seats on a plane.

The book Your Money or Your Life really shifted my perspective on new spending. Not that I was entirely profligate before, but I definitely like nice things (mainly, cars). The book frames money as life energy. After all, we have to work for money, and the prime currency (if you will) we trade for cold hard cash is our time. Therefore, anything you may want to buy should be viewed through the lens of how much of your life energy is required to afford it.

This is how I was able to avoid spending $79 on a Fitbit recently. That’s more than two hours of working, for something that is a nice to have. I’m not desperate to monitor my heart rate at all times; just continue to live healthily as I am now.

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Stay in the middle.

AirPods Max impressions

The first thing that comes to mind when picking up a pair of AirPods Max is: “My god this thing is heavy.” The aluminum and stainless steel construction feels absolutely premium to the hand, but the weight penalty is significant. My old pair of Bose QC35 - all plastic construction - feels downright feathery in comparison. I’ve got a fairly large head, so the increased heft shouldn’t be a problem. However, I can definitely feel the weight whenever I move. AirPods Max is best suited for stationary use.

Which is a shame because the noise-cancelling is fantastic. That is to be expected from a headphone with ear cups that completely surround the ear. Coupled with the magic voodoo that Apple does with nine microphones, the AirPods Max will easily quiet down your world. It just sucks that I’m very unlikely to take them on the road. Because of the aforementioned weight, and because the provided carrying case does not protect the entire headphone.

The QC35 will stay in the stable.

From a sound quality perspective, I would say the AirPods Max sounds marginally better than the already fantastic AirPods Pro. Admittedly, I am very much not an audiophile. The files I’m playing are at best 320kbps MP3 files, streamed over a bluetooth connection. The fact that I can scarcely tell the difference between a $550 pair of headphone and a $250 pair of earbuds is probably down to the quality - or the relative lack thereof - of the music files.

And you definitely should not spend $550 on the AirPods Max if all you’re listening to are MP3 files. This headphone is a luxury item to the extreme. The reason I bought a pair was because Woot.com is selling officially Apple refurbished units for $369 (nice). That brings it in line with the other premium headphones on the market.

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A little help.

Forgot how good it sounds

A crucial component of my piano learning setup is a proper set of headphones. The Yamaha CP88 keyboard I bought doesn’t have any speakers built-in. I don’t think my housemates want to hear my horrible beginner's pecking for an hour every single day, so some discreet headphones is the way to go. Not to half-ass anything - look at the price of the piano alone - I went for a pair of relatively expensive beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO.

Sound quality is important, but so is comfort. If I’m going to be wearing headphones for hours, I don’t want to feel burdened by them after 30 minutes. The DT 770 PRO fulfills that superbly, with excellent comfort and zero fatigue after an hour of wear. I would probably use the beyerdynamics to listen to music regularly, if not for the fact it is corded.

Indeed, after many years of wireless music listening with various AirPods and Bose noise-cancelling headphones, it’s very difficult to go back to being tethered to a cord. There’s no freedom to move, with means wearing them to cook or exercise is a complete non-starter. The cord being there at all can get in the way and be rather annoying. The only reason I went with wired cans to pair with the piano is because I don’t want to introduce any lag.

Well, and also because the CP88 keyboard doesn’t support any wireless connections.

I did try using the DT 770 PRO for some typical music listening, and I have to say I had absolutely forgotten how awesome a good pair of headphones can sound. The clarity of the bass and high notes is amazing. My AirPods sound like crap in comparison, as bad as the headphones they hand out for free on airplanes. It’s kind of funny how much quality we are willing to trade away in the name of convenience.

Not to say I’m giving up the wireless stuff anytime soon. However, I think for serious music listening - like hearing an album for the first time - I’m going to plug in the beyerdynamics from now on.

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Hidden jacks.

I am not getting the AirPods Max

“Wait, this thing is how much?!”

Yesterday, Apple announced the AirPods Max, a premium noise-cancelling headphone. The thing that immediately sticks out about it is the price: $549. In a product space that hovers around the $300 mark, the price for AirPods Max seems rather absurd. Why would anyone pay over two hundred dollars more for this instead of the critically acclaimed (and oddly named) Sony WH-1000XM4? $549 is not an impulse purchase by any stretch.

And yet shipping times for the AirPods Max have already stretched to weeks beyond the December 15th release date. Some of the color options are backordered well into February of next year. It seems the demand for this nearly-the-cost-of-an-iPhone product is strong. More evidence that this pandemic have largely spared the white-collar professional class. The tech bros still have jobs and money, and there’s no problem at all spending this amount of listen to music.

I understand why the AirPods Max cost so much. These headphones essentially has a computer chip inside, doing all sorts of computational trickery to make the sound as best as possible. No other competitor in the space have the CPU prowess that Apple possesses. So I’m sure the AirPods Max will sound absolutely fantastic, well worth the insanely high entry price.

But I am not buying one. I already have a set of AirPods Pro that I use frequently. I'm not a frequent user of headphones anyways: the only time the excellent Bose QC35 comes out of the case is during flights. Getting the AirPods Max at this point would just be something to showoff with; it’s very low on the utility scale.

I said I wasn’t going to get the AirPods Pro when it launched, so we’ll see what happens down the line. Should third-party retailers discount the AirPods Max to, say, $400, then that would be something to consider. Perhaps during Black Friday of next year.

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Short tail.