Rumors of a pair of Apple over-ear headphones have been circling for a while now, with numerous outlets reporting that the San Cupertino company is planning to release a pair of studio-quality cans this year.
According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple’s over-ear headphones, which some are calling the Apple StudioPods, could arrive in the second half of this year. And we’re not talking about a new pair of Beats headphones – we’re talking Apple-branded.
Apple’s WWDC 2019 keynote came and went with no mention of the headphones.
Rumors surrounding a pair of Apple over-ear headphones are just that – rumors. There’s been no confirmation from Apple that it’s planning to release cans to compete with the likes of Bose, Sennheiser, and Sony headphones.
The earliest reports of Apple over-ear headphones came in February 2018 from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who claimed that Apple was working on updated AirPods and “own-brand, high-end over-ear headphones with an all-new design”.
The Apple AirPods also aren’t the bassiest earbuds on the market – but more powerful bass could absolutely be achieved by a higher-spec pair of over-ear headphones.
Ketan Bharadia, International Technical Editor of What Hi-Fi? agrees: “I’ve never rated the sound of the company’s in-ears but, considering [Apple’s] engineering might and the sonic qualities of their iPhones and the HomePod, there’s plenty of potential for over-ears to stir things up.”
Over-ears tend to offer higher sound quality than in-ear models anyway, partly because they have bigger drivers than in-ear models. These larger drivers are able to displace larger volumes of air than their smaller counterparts, which in turn creates a more powerful audio performance.
We know that Apple has a strong design aesthetic; despite initial ridicule, the Apple AirPods have become iconic for their unique design, with lots of true wireless earbud manufacturers since taking inspiration from their long, protruding stems and all-white minimalist color scheme.
Although Apple hasn’t even confirmed the existence of the StudioPods, that hasn’t stopped German tech publication Curved from mocking up its own concept illustrations of what the headphones might look like.
If Apple wants its StudioPods to compete with the best over-ear headphones on the market, it should take a leaf out of Sony’s book, and offer the same high-standard of noise-cancelation provided by the Sony WH-1000XM3s, as well as noise isolation.
If Apple is going to release a pair of over-ear headphones, we’d expect them to have the same H1 headphone chip that’s built-in to the AirPods (2019) and the PowerBeats Pro.
Apple’s new H1 chip is designed to improve connectivity and battery life, and allows for a new ‘Hey Siri’ voice activation feature in the upgraded AirPods – all of which we would like to see in any future Apple over-ear headphones.
