Sound Quality on Apple Air Pod Max

[calyptorhynchus]

Just thought I'd relate this experience so that in the future someone with the same problem might be able to Google it (if you're not in the Apple ecosystem read no further!).

For the past couple of years I've mainly been listening to music in mp3 or wav via a middle-aged ipad and wireless headset. The headset I bought on special for $25 from a supermarket, but the sound was adequate.

When this headset fell apart and couldn't be taped together any more I took a deep breath and shelled out for an Apple Air Pod Max headset. I tried it and the sound quality was rubbish, much worse than my previous cheap headset. It was very muffled.

I was despondent at this but assumed after a bit of fiddling that it was because my iphone wasn't recent enough to take a picture of my ear, and my ipad wasn't recent enough to turn on spatial audio.

However after another couple of days of despondency I had another Google and discovered that you can go to the ipad Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual > Headphone Accommodation > Custom Audio Setup and you can go through a five-minute set of tests which sets up the headphones properly. Result (for me), absolutely stellar audio quality (the quality I was expecting).

But strange that nothing in the documentation that comes with the headset mentions this process and the documentation implies that you just pair the device and go.

Anyway, hope this helps someone.

[DavidW]

I have an app for my cheap wireless headphones that does the same thing-- tests hearing and sets a custom eq.  It is surprising how even on cheap, knock about cans how revelatory good EQ can be to improving sound quality.

[Spotted Horses]

Just thought I'd relate this experience so that in the future someone with the same problem might be able to Google it (if you're not in the Apple ecosystem read no further!).

For the past couple of years I've mainly been listening to music in mp3 or wav via a middle-aged ipad and wireless headset. The headset I bought on special for $25 from a supermarket, but the sound was adequate.

When this headset fell apart and couldn't be taped together any more I took a deep breath and shelled out for an Apple Air Pod Max headset. I tried it and the sound quality was rubbish, much worse than my previous cheap headset. It was very muffled.

I was despondent at this but assumed after a bit of fiddling that it was because my iphone wasn't recent enough to take a picture of my ear, and my ipad wasn't recent enough to turn on spatial audio.

However after another couple of days of despondency I had another Google and discovered that you can go to the ipad Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual > Headphone Accommodation > Custom Audio Setup and you can go through a five-minute set of tests which sets up the headphones properly. Result (for me), absolutely stellar audio quality (the quality I was expecting).

But strange that nothing in the documentation that comes with the headset mentions this process and the documentation implies that you just pair the device and go.

Anyway, hope this helps someone.

I have AirPods Max and love the sound without customization. (To the extent that I have trouble motivating myself to tether myself to my "audiophile" DAC/Headphone setup.) I assumed that the customization would be a minor improvement, but perhaps I should make the effort.

As I recall the customization is run on iPhone/iPad. Somehow it can be transferred to a MacOS computer (which is what I use basically all the time).