Brand-new devices are old hat. Most major manufacturers nowadays have taken to simply refreshing their existing products, which basically means tweaking a couple of aspects and maybe offering some new colour options. There’s sometimes a higher price tag to go with it. That’s fine – it shows they recognise that their current products need improvement. I can even stomach a higher price tag, as until we get negative inflation, things are only going to get more expensive, whether it’s clothes, your weekly grocery shop or a new pair of headphones.
What I can’t abide is not improving the sound quality. Believe it or not, these new devices might have a new colour, a rejigged design and even a higher price, but they usually sound the same as the one they’re replacing. If the original device then has its price slashed, the ‘new and improved’ model can actually be a worse buy.
Time for some Roam truths
Two recent examples spring to mind: the Apple AirPods Max and the Sonos Roam 2.
These are very much refreshes rather than proper, full-fat sequels. The new AirPods Max have a USB-C port and come in some new colours. And that’s it. The Roam 2, meanwhile, has a more subtle Sonos logo, a dedicated button for Bluetooth pairing, and doesn’t need to join your home wi-fi network before it can pair with a speaker over Bluetooth. This led us to say in our Roam 2 review: “Maybe Sonos would have been better off calling (it) the Roam 1.5 rather than the Roam 2.”
These tweakments have cost both devices. The original Sonos Roam earned four stars, but the sequel gets only three. Why? Because markets don’t stand still. In the three years since the original Roam launched, plenty of brilliant Bluetooth speakers have arrived on the scene: the JBL Charge 5 Wi-Fi, Tribit Stormbox Micro 2 and JBL Xtreme 4, to name but three. The Bluetooth speaker market is one of the most competitive, so to think your previous speaker’s sound quality can compete with the latest and greatest is naive at best, and at worst just plain arrogant. Is it any wonder it lost a star?
Admittedly, none of these speakers boast Sonos’ seamless multi-room capabilities. But I would think Sonos would want to convert new customers, not just preach to the converted.
Maxed out
In some ways, the latest version of the AirPods Max is an even worse offender, though in other ways it’s less guilty.
The original AirPods Max launched at the end of , which means the refresh arrived almost four years later. In the world of wireless headphones, that’s an age: during that time, we’ve seen heavyweights like the Sony WH-1000XM5, Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones and Mark Levinson No. 5909, while Sony has redefined the lower end of the market with its WH-CH720N and WH-CH520 models. And Apple relaunches the AirPods Max without improving the sound quality?
So why is it any less of an offence than the Sonos Roam 2? Two reasons. First, Apple didn’t have the cheek to call these the AirPods Max 2. Keeping the name the same sends out a clear message: yes, these have a USB-C port instead of Lightning and come in some new colours, but they’re basically the same product as the original, so don’t expect better sound quality. (Apple did the same when it updated the AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C in place of a Lightning port.)
Second, the AirPods Max were already some of the best-sounding wireless cans you can buy. Four years on, the original pair still feature in our best wireless headphones guide. Yes, that’s partly down to how well they work with Apple devices, but it’s mostly due to their sound quality – “very special indeed” was our verdict back in . And that is still the case today: while this (very) premium end of the wireless headphones market has grown in the past four years, the AirPods Max remain among the best-sounding in it. So we can be more forgiving in this case.
Running just to stay still
I think any new device, even a slight refresh, should come with better sound quality, particularly when its predecessor didn’t have class-leading sonics. The competition continues to evolve, so if you’re not improving, you’re getting worse comparatively – the market is a treadmill, and you need to run just to stay still. Not doing so will cost you stars, as Sonos has learned. Device makers, take note!
MORE:
AirPods Max 2 were a no show – but I’m not surprised Apple went for a soft update
Sonos Roam 2 vs Roam 1: which is better?
But the Sonos Arc Ultra should sound better than the original – here’s why
