AirPods Max vs portable lossless audio | iFi Gryphon & Khadas Tea | Mark Ellis Reviews

AirPods Max are slowly coming down in price… but I’ve been wondering how Apple’s most expensive headphones compare against the audiophile competition. And, in particular, the new wave of bluetooth headphone amps and DACS.

CHAPTERS
00:00 - Intro
00:53 - Gear chosen for the test
02:52 - iFi Gryphon
04:32 - Khadas Tea
06:20 - Enter the AirPods Max
08:09 - Straight outta iPhone
09:13 - Conclusion

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[MarkEllisReviews]

Would you bother with lossless audio on your iPhone?

[TheIpadfanatic]

I am an audiophile and I did make it to the end of a very good video. Well done. Let me add this to the discussion. The Sennheiser HD560S is both scalable and more malleable. The Sennheiser sounds good on entry level gear and its sound will improve as your audio gear improves. Therefore its performance ceiling, although not infinite, is very high. The Sennheiser measures almost dead flat meaning its frequency response is considered neutral. If you apply an EQ profile, you can mold the sound into almost any frequency you prefer. The AirPods Max will sound the same regardless of what gear you own. Not at all a bad thing if you like the sound. My two cents worth.

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

Just so there’s no confusion, the ifi and Tea are NOT lossless when connected wirelessly, because even the best Bluetooth codec isn’t lossless.

[salparadise]

Soooo, is my insistence on having "prefer Lossless audio" in Apple Music the reason why all three of my bluetooth speakers are rubbish?
I have 2 HomePod Mini's and a Sonos battery standalone bluetooth speaker. £340's worth in total.
The HomePod Minis sound wonderful, when they work. They drop audio constantly. They don't work in stereo pairs unless they're both switched on together. Change songs = no audio. Change albums = no audio.
Ditto for the Sonos Speaker.
I've had one of the HomePod's replace by Apple.

Last night I gave up and ordered a Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin speaker, which has an Aux in. If it ain't wired it ain't worth the hassle.
Sound quality junky here.

[JeffJacquesmd]

Mark,
Nice review of a couple of interesting bits of kit.
Thought I’d add my two cents
1- The Gryphon puts out more power than the Tea. If you tried the Gryphon and the Tea with different headphone types (planar and dynamic for example) you’d hear more difference at lower volumes
2- there are sub category of audiophiles, some want to hear the music exactly as it was recorded, others want a various amounts of color
3- I know audiophiles who own the AirPods Max, usually just for travel
4- if you spent time with a few recordings you know well and A-B between the dongle and the Tea you’ll find a clear difference. Soundstage, instrument separation and engagement.

Cheers

[danvillanueva]

Any benefit in connecting the AirPods Max to the Tea via 3.5mm to lightning cable apple sells? And connecting the Tea to an iPhone via the USB C to Lightning cable it comes with?

[christopherwalton]

Personally whilst I appreciate a nice pair of headphones I have no time for lossless audio. As far as I can make out maybe one in a thousand people are even able to pick out the difference between lossless and a well encoded lossy file so for me I can’t see why I would put up with giant file sizes for no appreciable benefits. The biggest thing for me is having a nice pair of well EQ’d headphones and most importantly to actually take time to really listen to the music.

[VladVexler]

I think audiophiles still need Bluetooth noise cancelling headphones!! Just not for serious listening. Thank you Mark!

[Mrfpsara]

Connecting the gryphon with Bluetooth and playing low quality streaming defeats the whole purpose of this comparison….

[jorge]

If it does not work with lossless audio then the Apple headphones are not worth what they're asking. Simple answer tbh...

[LyndMavis]

Martin Timothy Allen Ruth Brown Christopher

[MarkJT]

The biggest weakness with Bluetooth DACs and iPhones is that the iPhone will only do Bluetooth at AAC, which is pretty crap. Far better would be a wired connection to the iPhone and a Bluetooth connection to to some wireless headphones, most of which can handle the higher quality codecs. But no one seems to make a portable DAC like that.

[AlnnVDR]

Android users need not apply when you want anything apple. So audiophile tech would be best for android users.

[billy]

Good content Mark. My iPhone is my main lossless audio device.

I run a pair of nice Moondrop Aria IEMs out of the lightning to 3.5mm adapter to great effect. Great $10 dongle worth the hype.

For over ears I use a Fiio BTR5 wired over USB-C to bypass BT compression into my over-ears. Airplay for speakers is also lossless.

So while it takes some maneuvering I’ve had wonderful audio using the iPhone. AirPods Pro are tops for convenience however.

[mikerisner]

Finally! An audio review that affirms I’m not missing out too much by not being able to listen to lossless music. Still curious whether Apple (or some other company) will debut wireless technology that can compensate a lossless stream.

[michaelcorcoran]

I don't think it's actually lossless.... Even if you're using ldac it's still technically lossy.

[shuvoalam]

You used a player not capable of anything beyond 16bit (iPhone), and a headphone that is almost 1/3rd the price of the airpod max. Of course you won't get much of difference out of it. Just by the result being Sennheisers holding their own, the airpods lose.

[garytpaul]

So, if Bluetooth makes it impossible to have lossless audio with the AirPods Max as the Bluetooth connection compresses the quality, surely it does the same between the iPhone and the DAC? “It’s down to Bluetooth - it’s just not possible.”

[topgazza]

I like a higher top end as well. A brighter sound if you like. I find myself using my AirPods Pros all of the time with their excellent noise cancelling and great sound quality, at least for me

[theparadoxray]

@Mark Ellis, thanks for the video. It’s great info. A quick question about the sound quality.

If you turn on Dolby Atmos (Spatial Audio) and then compare it with the high end lossless, do you find the spatial audio making the overall music enjoyment / sound field wider and better?