They'll still be popular. The brand is worth a lot to folks.
Not that anybody's asking, but I really think people would be better served with a quality set of wired cans or IEMs (Sennheiser, Audio Technica, Shure, etc) attached to a FIIO BTR3.
As someone who did basically this 7 years ago, I have to strongly disagree. Active noise cancelling is important. It doesn't matter how great the fidelity the headphones are if there's a ton of external noise and closed cans can only attenuate so much. In a perfect something like the Senheiser HD880 would be the best headphones ever but in a noisy office/plane/train/home environment the noise cancelling with lower fidelity drivers would give better total fidelity.
That being said people are probably better off spending hundreds of dollars less for something like a Sony WH-1000X or Bose QC than the AirPoxMax.
ANR... in my experience, it’s better to go for straight attenuation. My personal recommendation is IEMs, which can be quite comfortable for long-time wear. They’ll give you a greater reduction in sound than the best ANR technology, and they’ll do so without the weaknesses of ANR (has some weird edge cases where frequencies are not equally lowered).
Being fair, ANR technology is fatiguing to my ear; it makes them hurt as if I’ve been listening to loud noises for too long. I’ve heard this from a few others as well, but it definitely drives me towards passive attenuation.
IEMs are notoriously unforgiving. You would need to try quite a number of them as well as tips in order to find one that is comfortable for long-term use. Variety of people's ears are that diverse.
And in most cases the only way you get good isolation is by having a strong seal which in turns means a strong vacuum which for most people becomes uncomfortable.
It's one of the reasons why on/over-ear are so popular because they work well with pretty much everyone.
1) IEMs can be custom fit to your ear, for half the price of this pair of cans.
2) Comply comfort tips, in an appropriate size, have worked for everyone I’ve ever chatted with about IEMs. Those who don’t like IEMs never tried to change the tips (and honestly, most people don’t realize you can; defaults and all that).
3) A strong seal does not imply a vacuum. IEMs are not hermetically sealed; air is allowed past.
4) IEMs are used by musicians of all shapes and sizes, which kinda puts lie tot he statement on how they’re unforgiving.
5) Based on some impromptu research (walking down the streets of NY), the most popular headphones are actually earbuds. IEMs are a lot closer to earbuds than cans are. In fact, if we’re looking at, say, AirPods pro, an IEM is barely different (though you get more choices in tips).
But you've complete missed the point. APM are designed for home/offices where noise-cancelling is the critical feature.
You can get some IEMs that will isolate enough to give you a similar effect but almost all of those are not comfortable enough to wear for 8+ hours a day.
On ear/over-ear etc headphones aren't noise cancelling and often have poorer leakage making them inappropriate for home/work.
ANR maxes out at around 20db in an ideal environment, and is not equal in its coverage of frequencies. Good closed back over-hear headphones will offer around 10db of attenuation, and IEMs will isolate to 25db or greater (on par with earplugs).
And with good tips, IEMs are indeed all day comfortable.
On a more anecdotal note, I (and others who have spoken up on HN) get fatigued by ANR, similar to as if I’m listening to too-loud music. That, and the frequency issues with ANR, have pushed me more towards IEMs.
What's the intended use case for a device like that? Like, ultimately my headphones are still wired into a device I need to carry around, and Bluetooth isn't good enough for me to be able to walk too far away from wherever my phone has ended up.
They’re clipped to your body, and your phone (or computer) doesn’t have to be. It’s also the size of a pack of gum - tiny.
They also don’t use standard bluetooth codecs, they use a different “HiFi” codec (I don’t know the details; but it’s significantly higher quality audio), and the range is pretty good - across the house or further for me.
It looks like the BTR5 is more feature rich, and has slightly better components. But, price for quality, the BTR3 has been fine for me (it drives some high sensitivity headphones (Shure 535) better than anything else I own).
I haven't herd of AirPod Max until now, so I'm not in the same context as you.