‘Condensation Death' Is Breaking $550 AirPods Max and Driving Users Nuts

They cost $550, but they're certainly not worth $550

Stop buying logos people

Funnily enough, I don’t think there are any visible Apple logos in the AirPods Max.
- They don't literally mean a logo in this case they essentially mean don't buy a brand because of the brand but something because it's good and worthwhile.
I don’t buy logos. I buy products that solve problems in my daily life. Apple comes to be very very good at offering appropriate solutions I don’t need to deal with beforehand to become such a solution. In this case of course the product is crap, if it can’t handle the environment its supposed to work in.
- thats why i own apple stocks. as long as consumers are defending the company for even the craziest prizes - i'd be fine
  monitor stand 1k ... no problem https://www.apple.com/at/shop/product/MWUG2D/A/pro-stand
  wheels for 800 ... no problem https://www.apple.com/at/shop/product/MX572ZM/A/apple-mac-pro-rollen-kit
  thunderbold cable for 179 ... no problem https://www.apple.com/at/shop/product/MWP02ZM/A/thunderbolt-4-pro-kabel-3-m
  i'm happy when you are ... paying 500 for the headphones is ok if it makes you happy ... not for the value of the headphones, but your happyness is worth much more
- It's also just not very good as a product. There are better sounding headphones that cost less money.
  It's just oh look shiny shininess.

That's insane. I have the same Bose over-the-ear (I can't stand in-ear) headphones for years. They have been to the gym with me, jogging, and just existing in a humid, Tokyo summer for the last 5.5 years and have zero electronic issues. I did replace the exterior cushiony bit twice now, but the actual electronics are fine.

Do they block outside sound though? AirPods do and the trouble with that is you're also trapping air in with your ears.
And the air being trapped close to your skin will inevitably be a different temperature to the air on the other side of the material. The temperature gradient creates condensation. It's inevitable.
Assuming you want good sound isolation* the solution isn't to avoid condensation, it's to design it so the condensation forms somewhere that it doesn't matter.
(* AirPods sound isolation is so good they have a microphone on the outside which, if it detects a fire/eathquake/etc evacuation siren, will replay that sound with the headphone speaker)
- Airpods have good ANC, but they're not magically better than things on the market. My 3 year old Sennheiser Momentum TW2s have better ANC, and cost $250 less.
- Closed-back headphones and ANC are nothing new, and the Bose QC line (which I assume is what the previous commentator has), are indeed closed-back ANC headphones.
  I found your attempts to explain somewhat condscending, and also feel like it's treating the Airpods like they're some revolutionary product, which they're not. Feel free to correct me if that was not your itention.
- Do they block outside sound though
  They have noise cancellation that works well enough for me (they have more advanced newer versions, but I see no reason to upgrade now). When I first tried my friend's before buying, I complained he ruined the world for me because I never knew how much background could be cut out, heh.
  Yeah, the condensation is inevitable and does need to go somewhere. I don't know where it goes with mine, but the headphones keep on working.
- Bose pretty much wrote the book on noise cancelation.
- I've used Bose Quite Comfort (the I or the II, not sure anymore) in the trading floor of an Investment Bank (think fishmonger's market but with financial assets) back in the late 00s to be able to do software development (which requires focus and concentration to do efficiently).
  They most definitly block outside noise (still do, in fact, over a decade and 2 earcup replacements later).
  Still work fine. Somehow the "condensation" "problem" was already solved a decade and a half ago.
  Oh and even though noise-cancelling tech in headphones was near-bleeding edge back then, which is not at all now, they cost roughly half as much as these airpods which fail "due to condensation" (though inflation adjusted and using the higher GDPUSD cross-exchange rate from back then, it's maybe only 2/3 as much)
I've had some Bose Quiet Comfort (I think maybe it was the very first model, but might be the 2nd) for over a decade, with tons of use (for a while I did software development in the middle of a Trading Floor, think highly intellectual focus requiring work in the middle of a fishmonger's market) and had to use those things all the time.
They're all scratched on the outside by now (from going in and out of a backpack) and the ear cups were replaced twice.
Still work fine.
Best £250 I ever spent.
- Similar experiences with my Quiet Comforts II. I'm not using the shell it comes with, so it's buffed a little, and had to replace the earcaps twice just because they get worn down in my backpack, but they work absolutely perfect.
  Sure, the battery life isn't as great as it was when I bought them in 2017 but for single-day usage they're fine and I just give it a small micro-usb-powered pep-talk every night to use them the next day.

Is this another "your holding it wrong" level argument they're making?

I have a lot of apple kit - I appreciate their over-engineered approach to a lot of hardware, and I like their approach to privacy.
But they do make mistakes in design - the puck, the aerials, butterfly keyboards, unrepairability of design…
And one thing I really hate is their response to those errors. Its almost always to blame the user. I just wish they would be honest.
- On repairability of design is not a mistake it's a feature.
- mistakes in design... unrepairability
  Who... Who's gonna tell em?
- Unrepairability isn't a mistake. It's a feature (for Apple).
- I am quite sure this is a legal issue. If they admit the mistake, probably customers in many countries would be allowed a free replacement or refund. And then shareholders would sue the company because it is mandatory to work on maximising profit.
- I wouldn't call their projects overengineered. They're overdesigned.
  That's kinda the big difference between apple and everything else. Apple products are impeccablly designed with engineering and flexibility of use as an afterthought at best.
  It's why they're often years behind on the actual tech, but have it implemented in a very clean, "pretty" manner.
  Other companies get the tech out there and offer more flexibility for the power users, but they don't have the polish off Apple products.
- No doubt. I'm not an Apple fan, but I do respect most of their engineering/designs. And it's too bad that all companies were more honest.

And my dollar store earbuds have gone through the wash three times and still work.

Surely they sound great too. Noise reduction and all
- I mean, of course my earbuds sound like garbage, but the airpod max should not break from sweat lol.
How do you stand those things?? I've tried dollar tree headphones and they were awful awful. I like VE monks as beaters

This is an Apple miss. Their tendency for status equaling heavy materials and lack of obvious options just makes it a no-go for me. Noise cancelling, wireless, over the ear headphones exist for airplanes. Having a headset that is heavy, that doesn’t fold and can’t be turned off (only put to sleep in a dumb bra-like case) don’t meet that mark.

I’m sure they sound great and the magnetic ear cups a good idea, but this is a miss for me. The price is the final nail in the coffin. My Sony XM4s sound nearly as good, can be worn for long flights without fatigue, fold up, and because they’re light but sturdy plastic I’m not worried about them denting or anything like that if I drop them. And I didn’t have to pay over $500 for them.

I tested them and they don't even sound that great. For the price, there are a lot of WAY better options out there.
But that is the case with many Apple products.
- Maybe I'm not the most discerning listener, but I got a $60 pair of Skullcandy wireless noise cancelling earbuds and my only problem with them is that you have to hold them down to skip a track rather than just push once (that turns off noise canceling), which is bad UI, but other than that, couldn't be happier.
- If you think 350 for a pair of headphones is expensive, don't become an audiophile...

Apple has done the math and it’s cheaper to deny deny deny than to do the right thing. And that’s factoring in the inevitable class action lawsuit payouts.

https://youtu.be/SiB8GVMNJkE

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/SiB8GVMNJkE
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
I knew exactly what clip this would be. I think it's about time for my annual fight club rewatch. Always makes me want to/wonder why no one has started some anti corporate domestic terrorist groups...
- I think we might be on the brink. I just saw an article about someone getting in a shootout with the sheriff trying to evict him. It’ll start with individual acts like that and snowball.

perhaps don't buy overpriced crap like that and go for the $30 pair on Amazon instead

I got myself some new-old stock Harman Kardon ANC headphones from Ebay for around 50.
I can't believe people were paying ~300 for them new, they do feel nice to hold, but the sound oomph just isn't there for that original price. The ANC, stupendously long battery life, and actually being heard in calls is all it really has going for it IMO

The Max might have more questionable design decisions than any Apple product in history

The Magic Mouse would like a word.
- Magic Mouse: charging port on bottom
  AirPods Max: can’t turn off without putting in case, can’t use wired, condensation death
- And the puck mouse.
- Please - while connecting the cable to the bottom is less than ideal, it's still var better than swapping out batteries.
  It's not like they need to be plugged in all day - if it dies on you, fill up your glass of water and you'll be fine. Also low battery warnings appear weeks before it goes flat.

Never had this issue with mine. I’ve taken them kayaking with me, they got pretty wet and i got pretty sweaty, but the insides of the cups were dry. This has been discussed on forums ever since i bought them more than two years ago. This feels like recycled news just to stir people up about apple products. Good journalism. It worked.

Just had it happen to me a few months ago

"Oh, no! Anyway"

the way i misread the title...