This past year, I’ve been quite obsessed with researching more about audio equipment. And by researching, I mean, mostly purchasing.

Based on what I’ve discovered, audio is a lot more difficult to experience compared to video. They instruct you quite a bit within an IT about how to manage video equipment with all the essentials like HDMI, DVI, VGA, DisplayPort, etc. and then everything related to display technology like In-Plane Switching, Twisted Nematic, and Vertical Alignment, but it really doesn’t feel like they train you much about audio. Perhaps it’s because most office environments just use HDMI for their audio or something like that. But it is kind of frustrating when there’s a whole area out there to explore that you’re just not trained on.

I’m definitely not what you would call a “sound guy“. In fact, most of the audio equipment that I’ve bought this past year barely scratches the surface. The equipment I bought mainly consists of Sonos speakers (which I reviewed in a previous post). And another pair of AirPods. This time, the AirPods Max. I initially had gotten the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless after a recommendation. But I had decided to return them after a few months due to me finding them a little uncomfortable, as well as frustrating to pair with my devices. Specifically, the cut off an audio on Windows, the compression with using the microphone at the same time as the audio. A lot of these are really just major Bluetooth limitations that they don’t have control over. But for a device that showed an MfI label on the box, it really didn’t feel like one.

Bluetooth is surprisingly behind when it comes to audio. Perhaps it’s just a low bitrate, but for something that’s existed for a long time now, it’s still kind of irritating that using a Bluetooth device isn’t as seamless as you would hope.

Although the audio on the AirPods, Max doesn’t sound nearly as good as the Sennheiser headphones I had, they still do sound pretty good. And I would definitely love to get a pair of wired Sennheiser headphones. The only real problem is that I don’t feel like I know enough about audio equipment to feel comfortable purchasing such an expensive pair of wired headphones. I’m worried that it may not fit with a 3.5 mm headphone jack (something that a few of my devices do not have). And I definitely don’t want to have to carry around an amplifier with me everywhere to be able to hear the music.

While Bluetooth may not be a very good experience for headphones when a vendor can only work so much with a specific platform, using a cable is. I find it pretty cool how iOS automatically stops the music if it detects that you’ve unplugged the headphone jack. And of course, it’s pretty easy to switch devices when you’ve got a cable that you can hot swap.

Despite already owning a pair of second generation AirPods Pro, I still feel like I can just buy buying the AirPods Max, despite having far less features due to their older chip, given how well they are canceling out wind (probably due to their design), as well as just being larger with the audio.

I still continue to use the AirPods Pro, though. Mainly because I find them more convenient for more active experiences, and also because I don’t want to get my AirPods Max damaged from sweat. 

Lossless Audio

Audio quality is really difficult to distinguish. At least when it comes to video quality. Just like video, you need a piece of high-end equipment to properly distinguish the difference. But unlike video, it seems like our ears just aren’t as well tuned to spot the differences in sound compared to sight.

The Wikipedia article for audiophile seems to mention that a lot of the ways people try to identify which version of audio sounds better is mostly speculation. And there’s been a lot of pseudoscience in the process.

Lossless audio on the music streaming service I use, Apple Music, is really confusing. Mainly because it isn’t clear which path you need to take or what things you need to buy to listen to it at its best quality without just wasting bandwidth on sound you can’t hear.

Apple Music supports lossless audio in Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC). However, the AirPods Max only support it through a cable (something I don’t have a problem with), and according to some sources, only the newest version of the AirPods Pro with the USB-C case. I’m going to wager that the newest regular AirPods also support it, but I’m not too sure.

None of the devices in the ecosystem support Hi-Res Lossless. But frankly, that’s OK, mainly because I’ve heard that nobody would be able to hear all the frequencies as high and low as it supports. And the option is really just there for marketing purposes. 

Switching between the wireless and wired modes on my headphones, I don’t feel like I can hear a difference. But sometimes I wonder if I listen to them enough, I will. 

Equalizers

Equalizers (EQ) are apparently one of many tools that sound enthusiast have to make their music sound better. The only problem is that I get nervous, touching any of the settings, because I’m worried that I’m going to ruin how the music was supposed to sound.

Part of me knows that this is a pretty nonsense argument. mainly because the way we all hear sound is incredibly subjective and none of us hear things the same way. But I’m just worried that if I adjust the settings too much, I’ll never be able to hear the song the same way again.

My Own Hearing

I have really sensitive hearing, and one of the things that probably blows away a pleasant listening experience is the fact that I set up volume limits where possible to be pretty low.

I have the specifically set up on my phone. Where iOS provide you with the ability to set up a hearing limit.

I do try to care about my ears. Especially given that I will need them for a very long time. 

Conclusion

At the same time that all I do this, I think to myself.

It’s really stupid to be thinking about all these different things when I could just be enjoying the music.

But at the same time, it’s also really nice to have crisp sounding audio. I’ve never been to any concerts or anything like that. So I really don’t have a reference point as to what real life music would sound like. I used to play the piano when I was younger and took lessons about it. But the store I took them were at an organ shop and was mostly keyboards and other electronic instruments. So I can’t really use those experiences either.

A part of me says that I just really don’t have a vision for buying all this stuff. My listening preferences primarily consist of soundtracks, pop music, and sometimes classical and new age (for focusing on workloads). and a lot of the stuff in my library is a mixture of stuff artists that you’ve probably heard, and a selection of ones that you haven’t.

Either way, music is pretty important to me. So I’d like to continue listening to it whether that’s just in the background, or actively paying attention to it.