Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Summary: TLDR; Love the sound, great comfort on top of head (but a little tight on the side of the head around the ears), awesome for movies (spatial audio is awesome) and music. Excellent ANC. Connection from phone to iPad and back is perfect. However there is water buildup after 3-4 hours underneath the earcups - repeatable when just sitting at my desk at 66-70 degrees. Connection to a MacBook Pro and back to phone is just not as seamless, and it gets lost sometimes. I returned them but tested them extensively for 3 weeks, really wanted to keep them but the water flaw is too concerning at this price to risk it. Detailed Review: I’m going to start with the good: - spatial audio is really good. Watching the Mandelorian is great - more for the surround sound experience than the more gimmicky thing with turning your head - which is “cool” but adds little to no value. Whereas surround sound - experiencing noises from different sides really helps with the immersion. - sound quality is excellent for Bluetooth headphones. I preferred these instead of the XM4. I am not an audiophile but I like good sound and these seemed more balanced. I have $200 wired seinheiser headphones that I might like a tiny bit better for music for what it’s worth. - construction build quality is definitely a step up from competitors. - connecting to iOS devices is excellent and to a MacBook Pro is good - but not great. More on that later. - ANC really good equal pretty much to XM4. I think xm4 is slightly better at some things and these are better cancelling other noises. Overall excellent - headband / top of head very comfortable. Much more so than the xm4. Neutral: - lots of people made a big deal about no power off button and talk about it just “draining battery” unless you put it in the case. I tested this a lot, and it seems Apple is accurate when they say it goes to low power mode after 5 minutes of inactivity. Losing about 1% every couple of hours. Essentially losing 5% when left without a case overnight. I’m talking 5-6pm to 8am. However I had an issue where they wouldn’t turn on (only 1 day) with a full battery. Since there is no power button... I removed them form my ears out then back on, I stuffed them in the “smart case” removed them, nothing. I plugged them to the lightning cable to see if the charge light would turn on, and then they immediately started working (battery read 109%, I only plugged them in for 5 seconds). It only happened one day out of 20... but annoying nonetheless. - ear pad material is soft but course so moving it side to side hurts my ears. But leaving then on (normal use case) is comfortable. Cons: - the “case”. It has a nice material but it doesn’t provide any protection for them at all. Fairly pointless and you can see all the jokes online about it. I don’t think it looks bad, it’s just pointless without any protection. Going to ultra low power mode a day sooner (it still takes like 15 hours or something, not sure why it’s not instant to that power mode). - the price. Just a tad too high to swallow, but I had returned the XM4 for various small annoyances to splurged on this hoping it solved the issues - it mostly does but the last 2 points made me return them: - connecting to MacBook Pro and iPhone “automatic switching”. I was hoping this would be better than the XM4 (which constantly got stuck on the wrong device and had no way other than turning off Bluetooth to send it back to the laptop). It is better, but it’s not perfect. It’s perfect between iOS devices - going back and forth from phone to iPad is seamless and pretty amazing - much better than anything out there. However once a MacBook is involved it’s a different deal. There is a little prompt at the top right that shows up that you need to click when switching back and forth, but it no always shows up. Sometimes it does, sometimes it switches automatically and sometimes I need to connect the headphones to the MacBook again. I’m still not sure when it does which of them. However removing them from my ears and putting them back on resets it and I’m connected to the MacBook or the prompt shows up for me to click. Overall I’m not sure why they couldn’t make it as seamless as iOS where just clicking pause on one and play on them other switches the connection immediately: there is no awkward prompt or anything. Overall I was disappointed on the instant switching when involving my MacBook Pro. Still works better than the xm4 and Bose 700 that sometimes gets lost in between with no easy reset. Finally why I returned them - you can see the pictures I attached. I wanted these as primary work headphones (conference calls - which they work great, ANC which works great, easy switching which works very good but not great, and for music and movies which they are excellent). However the stories online I thought maybe affected few people. The first day I didn’t have any buildup, nor the second or the third. However today after a 4 hour session, I checked and there was enough for me to not be comfortable that these expensive headphones would last the 10 years I was hoping they would. If it weren’t for the water buildup I would probably keep them, they are that good, but this is a deal breaker since Apple does not cover water damage as part of warranty. I was simply sitting in my desk, half basement. I didn’t walk or exercise or anything. Temperature was 66 degrees Fahrenheit so fairly cool. The theory online is the metal acts as a heat sink in comparison to the warmth between your ears and earcup area. Update: I have been able to consistently (daily) repressive the condensation issue. It was not a one time thing. After 3-4 hours every day I get to wipe the inside because there is water. Yeah I returned them. Anyway I’m not gonna risk holding an expensive paperweight. Too bad because they are great headphones with a fatal flaw. I contacted Apple and the just said: “we are aware of the claims and are looking into them”. They are not just claims they are very much real. And you don’t have to wear them for 20 hours - this was only 4 hours. If you have a question feel free to ask. I’ve tested these and the xm4s fairly extensively.