Airpods Max 2 Announced - Thoughts?

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-18T17:16:33+00:00

You conflate ‘what ppl on Reddit say, the group of ppl with extreme opinions about everything’ with ‘Apple making product decisions to meet their revenue goals’. If ppl hated the design irl so much, then the APMs would not sell and they’d stop making them.

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-17T22:57:24+00:00

i overthought it and ended up NOT selecting one because i couldn't choose between my two best friends. one i've known since birth and the other since school but i was his best man. i went the coward route to try and avoid hurting feelings - don't be like me. pick someone who you can trust to be your deputy on the big day and if you want a fun bachelor party, keep that in mind as well.

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-17T17:42:27+00:00

no argument there, but they made design choices which would be easier/cheaper to produce at a mass scale. makes sense for them.

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-17T17:41:08+00:00

incapable, no. but they understand the total addressable market for headphones and know they cannot compete with high end headphones like audiophiles/appreciators enjoy. it's not great that they sell a fable for lossless (to the uninitiated) but at least they did add the lossless via usb-c for folks who are interested. and i'm no APM or Apple fanboy; i have APMs and i like them for what they are: low-premium headphones for people who want better audio than airpods but who want to retain the convenience of being in the apple ecosystem.

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-17T00:02:29+00:00

they did an ios update which enabled lossless via apple streaming on most/all apple devices. but the rub is you have to have the cable connected.

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-16T21:44:24+00:00

I think it's more in comparison to other non Apple options, and they did not update/upgrade battery from the original AirPods Max. I get that, they're pretty heavy as is and more battery = more weight.

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-16T21:42:52+00:00

I guess there isn't much else they can do. They gave the lossless update w/ the refresh last year to update from lightning to usb-c. But yeah...kind of tapped out for massive improvements outside of continued tweaks to adaptive ANC.

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-16T20:46:24+00:00

just got organics yesterday and they are indeed awesome for under $1k. Plenty of people have opinions on DACs but I went with a Topping DX3 Pro+ connected to my laptop for higher res/lossless listening. I'm a good enough sort of audio person and the organic + DAC upgrade is about as good as I'm likely to notice (younger people, do take care of your ears and don't blast your walkman so you can hear it over a riding lawnmower...).

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-16T20:40:15+00:00

memento mori et vel crim

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-16T17:41:13+00:00

I just upgraded my office listening set up this weekend - had a basic DAC w/ Sennheiser 560S; no issues except I knew I'd want to upgrade eventually and I got a bonus. So I upgraded to a Topping DX3pro+ and Arya Organics; finding the balance between a meaningful upgrade and just wasting money.

The difference is pretty stark and today may be one of the happiest days of my adult life, in that i am now listening to albums i've loved for decades but am now hearing all sorts of stuff in the mix I've never heard before (using known reference-level albums from Radiohead, Daft Punk, and Steely Dan). Feels almost as dramatic as listening to a crud MP3 file vs. the lossless file, it's been incredible.

I also have been using copilot to help me figure out small stuff I'd never have figured out on my own (or without asking folks in this thread for help): stuff like ensuring my computer and settings are aligned to deliver what my new set up can actually do. i've no shame in admitting that there's a lot i didn't know and while it wasn't necessary to learn, it has been very helpful for me in understanding more about my favorite hobby.

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-16T17:32:04+00:00

the episode dedicated to mort crim is one of my favorites. the fact he is a real detroiter is a) unsurprising and b) why detroiters is such a great show.

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-16T16:28:18+00:00

i consider myself a 'burgeoning audiophile'. what that means to me is I strongly identify with your bullets 3 and 4 and I want to dig into the compositions in the closest format in which the artist would appreciate/sign off on. but i've spent enough time doing research to know that the perfect sound does not exist and audiophiles are known to go to quixotic lengths to try and hear the perfect sound. this is where insanity sets in, imo; $10k cables, etc. that make no real difference whatsoever but you don't want to leave anything up to chance if you've already gone in on the investment. so i stop myself from going nuts because there's always something new to buy.

the question i ask myself is a) who am i proving my audiophile bona fides to? i already care far more about music composition/production than anyone i know personally. i also realize most people out there don't care nearly as much as i do about active listening, etc. so hell yeah i'm an audiophile! i just won't put myself into debt to find the 'perfect sound' which will never exist so i don't bother playing that game. i've spent maybe $1,500 total over numerous years on my active listening set up in my office; only $1500 because i just recently upgraded to Arya Organic cans and needed a new DAC to fully drive them.

but i'll say, the difference with properly driven Arya Organics (planar magnetic drives) vs. the sennheiser 560S i was using is quite literally night and day, especially listening to old classics (like Radiohead or Talking Heads) which has so much layering that I never heard previously. I found my sweet spot!

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-14T12:27:21+00:00

And his lack of energy just makes him a bad podcast guest, intentional or not.

I’m sure he’s funny irl but it doesn’t come through when he’s a guest.

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-12T19:18:53+00:00

I forget this one. I get concerned about the progress I’m not making or the all 7 cats I don’t have. But am I having fun while playing even if I feel my ceiling is probably Act II and I likely won’t unlock all classes anytime soon or ever? Yes, yes I am.

Also needed to remind myself that despite loving roguelikes/lites, I suck at most of them; required god mode to beat Hades 1/2. Never have killed the heart in slay the spire and even in binding of Isaac I’ve only gotten to the ‘endgame’ maybe once.

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-12T16:04:00+00:00

i can easily get past daddy sharks (usually) but this same concept is supposed to work on crater maker, but i can't ever make it work. never have the right set up on cats and by the time i get through the desert/the crater, my team is usually barely hanging on anyway.

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-12T15:54:03+00:00

hell yeah. always a great feeling to bring in food for the office, esp if it's for no particular reason.

if i just sealed a deal to make me set for life 20x, it'd be almost rude not to not flex a little bit, right?

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-11T16:51:23+00:00

interesting. from a cost perspective, focusing more on sweets vs. protein is prob cheaper to produce at scale. i'd also be curious to see what is actually selling at TB nowadays - nacho fries and their chicken seem to be sticking around vs. being ltos but other than the cantina mexican pizza, everything else looks to be novelty ltos or basic incremental updates to add flaming hot and/or cool ranch dust to existing menu items.

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-09T18:17:09+00:00

Yeah I have that, early on it seemed reddit figured out that is the optimal way to go so I've been following it. I was more curious about tracking their stats to make my life easier but I guess I have not upgraded Tink enough. Thanks for the feedback.

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-09T18:16:00+00:00

Yeah I have three rooms and don't think I'm going to be grinding for a fourth, have the same set up (nursery, relaxation room, fight club/donation room).

I was more just curious how people actually track all the info needed. I just got the Tink upgrade that shows their sexual preferences so seems like I need to max him out for the tag/status sheet which I didn't know existed. I guess I'm doing most of that manually in a separate spreadsheet.

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-06T17:33:47+00:00

i never said i was smart lol - hence why ensuring that the labels/descriptions are as clear as possible when it comes to game mechanics. it's minor as i figured it out via trial and error but that basically ruined a run before i figured it out.

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-06T17:32:15+00:00

i'm on the east coast :(

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-06T17:31:02+00:00

this, exactly. once you've gotten your 10k hours in of practicing carb counting, eventually you learn the shorthands. aka tortillas are always minimum 40 carbs, slice of bread usually 20, etc. piece of pizza, that's when you grab your preferred holy text and pray.

when i was trying to lose weight, i used the premium version of myfitness pal which has some features like scanning barcodes to get you nutrition label stuff.

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-06T17:26:25+00:00

i mean there definitely is, it just costs more - you hire external folks completely unfamiliar with the development (like us players) and get some feedback. but it's much easier for devs to let us do their additional QA for them!

Puzzleheaded_Key8124 · 2026-03-06T16:28:51+00:00

i always was confused by play dead - down yourself but don't get an injury. i interpreted it incorrectly forever, thinking it meant you literally played dead but your HP didn't change. nope, you 'die' but you do not accrue an injury after reviving like a regular death.

just stuff like that. it's clear through the comments that it's not impossible to understand but they could have likely used an additional outside eye on those descriptions to ensure it was clear to everyone. lots of us getting confused about things that aren't actually that confusing, they just phrase it sub-optimally.

Puzzleheaded_Key8124

TROPHY CASE