Apple Vision Pro and the Future of High End Audio

[godofwealth]

I just received my Apple Vision Pro VR headset (excuse me, spatial computer in Apple’s parlance). My review is short: in the last 40 years I have used many type of computers, starting with punched card IBM mainframes to the latest generation AI supercomputers. But this device blows everything else away in its sheer ability to transport you into a different environment.

The interface needs improvement and it needs to get lighter and perhaps less expensive. I had to get custom Zeiss eye correction inserts that need to be ordered with a prescription when you order the device. But all this is to expected from a first generation device.

What it does well it does better than anything else in the market. The 3D movies are mesmerizing in their clarity and sheer jaw dropping realism. A short 3D music clip of Alicia Keys rehearsing in her LA studio was amazing. You physically feel like you are in the studio with her band and the music in Dolby Atmis surround is quite impressive.

Will this change the way people consume music? Probably not, but it makes YouTube videos look so pathetic in comparison. 5 minutes with this device will tell you a lot about what the future of AV will be in the coming years.

 

[Tuckers]

We will see. I'm not convinced of the value proposition or the use cases.

 

[PYP]

I just received my Apple Vision Pro VR headset (excuse me, spatial computer in Apple’s parlance). My review is short: in the last 40 years I have used many type of computers, starting with punched card IBM mainframes to the latest generation AI supercomputers. But this device blows everything else away in its sheer ability to transport you into a different environment.

The interface needs improvement and it needs to get lighter and perhaps less expensive. I had to get custom Zeiss eye correction inserts that need to be ordered with a prescription when you order the device. But all this is to expected from a first generation device.

What it does well it does better than anything else in the market. The 3D movies are mesmerizing in their clarity and sheer jaw dropping realism. A short 3D music clip of Alicia Keys rehearsing in her LA studio was amazing. You physically feel like you are in the studio with her band and the music in Dolby Atmis surround is quite impressive.

Will this change the way people consume music? Probably not, but it makes YouTube videos look so pathetic in comparison. 5 minutes with this device will tell you a lot about what the future of AV will be in the coming years.

Perhaps I'm naive, but why not a hologram? Who wants to put on a headset?

 

[godofwealth]

We will see. I'm not convinced of the value proposition or the use cases.

Actually, after having used it for several days now, I think the Vision Pro is an absolutely screaming bargain. 10 years or so ago, I built a home theater for my house in Massachusetts. Cost me around 35 grand! At one tenth the price, the Vision Pro is far far superior as a display device to any home theater that I have experienced (and believe me, I have sat in million dollar home theaters). When you put 22 milllion pixels on a postage stamp sized display 1 inch from your eyeballs, the sheer resolution and clarity beats any display device on the market, at whatever price point you want to name. My OLED TV looks like junk compared to the Apple Vision Pro. And for $3500? That’s like getting it for free….if you compare it to the cost of building a state of the art home theater. Heck, there are folks here on WBF who spend more on their USB cables or Ethernet cables! Save yourself some bucks on your next fancy cable, and get the Vision Pro instead.

I watched some 3D movies streamed from the Disney+ streaming service (Avatar, Incredibles 2, Star Wars). It’s the most amazing movie going experience I have ever had (a long long time ago, when I was growing up, movies were shown in theaters in 70mm, and the Vision Pro gives you your own private 70 mm screen!).

 

[Republicoftexas69]

Will never don a pair on my head. To many unknowns and what are the side effects?
I don't even own a TV and despise my iPhone.
Sounds like someone has a lot of Apple stock.

 

[PYP]

Will never don a pair on my head. To many unknowns and what are the side effects?

https://www.businessinsider.com/app...te=1&user_id=e7ce617addfc9551bcae3b7539221c8d Apple's new VR goggles may rewire our brains in some unexpected ways.

Some of this is alarmist, but it seems common sense that extended use will require our brain's to adjust (something brains do well). And part of the alarm comes from the profit motive, which is to convince people to stay in altered reality for an extended period.

As the article claims:

"When people adapt to a perceptual change for long enough, the real world starts to look wrong in the opposite direction."

We have already seen this movie:

Stay a meat bag! Please.

 

[Republicoftexas69]

https://www.businessinsider.com/app...te=1&user_id=e7ce617addfc9551bcae3b7539221c8d Apple's new VR goggles may rewire our brains in some unexpected ways.

Some of this is alarmist, but it seems common sense that extended use will require our brain's to adjust (something brains do well). And part of the alarm comes from the profit motive, which is to convince people to stay in altered reality for an extended period.

As the article claims:

"When people adapt to a perceptual change for long enough, the real world starts to look wrong in the opposite direction."

We have already seen this movie:

Stay a meat bag! Please.

YOu calling me a meat bag?

 

[PYP]

YOu calling me a meat bag?

LOL. Where I grew up the challenge was: You talkin' to me? Long before De Niro, whose accent was a pale version of the real thing.

No, it was a general sentiment for all would-be surrogates to resist the temptation of a better life as a semi-zombie. Think of the day when the power fails and the headsets don't work. Bedlam.

The article touched upon the effect on the brain. How about the body? Atrophied except for the neck muscles which grow stronger to hold up the heavy headset.

 

[Republicoftexas69]

LOL. Where I grew up the challenge was: You talkin' to me? Long before De Niro, whose accent was a pale version of the real thing.

No, it was a general sentiment for all would-be surrogates to resist the temptation of a better life as a semi-zombie. Think of the day when the power fails and the headsets don't work. Bedlam.

The article touched upon the effect on the brain. How about the body? Atrophied except for the neck muscles which grow stronger to hold up the heavy headset.

Well I am a meat sack. We do not have bags in Texas.

 

[godofwealth]

Will never don a pair on my head. To many unknowns and what are the side effects?
I don't even own a TV and despise my iPhone.
Sounds like someone has a lot of Apple stock.

FWIW, I own no Apple stock, although foolish of me, since I had the opportunity to buy Apple stock when it was around $10 30 odd years ago and close to bankruptcy.

I lived next to an astronomer in Massachusetts for many years who studied galaxies billions of light years away. She never listened to music and couldn’t understand why anyone would own a stereo. Horses for courses. So you don’t own a TV. Well, plenty of people don’t own a stereo and never will. But they watch TV. Like hundreds of millions around the world.

I bought my first television, a Sony Trinitron 19” tube TV, in 1984 40 years ago so I could watch the LA Olympics. Boy, it’s been a long journey since then. Perhaps since LA is once again going to host the Olympics, I can watch it in 3D on my Vision Pro in the best virtual seat in the stadium! That would be something to look forward to.

 

[J007B]

Reminds me of the Segway. It was going to change transportation. Mail delivery, sidewalks filled with commuters riding to work. In the end a novelty.

 

[godofwealth]

If you live in the Bay Area like I do, literally tens of thousands of folks use Segway like electric scooters to get around cities like San Francisco or San Jose.

 

[godofwealth]

Let me add for emphasis that far far more people will buy the Apple Vision Pro than the Taiko Extreme Server or the Lampizator Horizon. Great as I think those products are, they are an absolute novelty trinket compared to the Vision Pro. Apple will likely make a billion dollars this year selling the Vision Pro, far larger than the entire high end audio market combined.

 

[Republicoftexas69]

FWIW, I own no Apple stock, although foolish of me, since I had the opportunity to buy Apple stock when it was around $10 30 odd years ago and close to bankruptcy.

I lived next to an astronomer in Massachusetts for many years who studied galaxies billions of light years away. She never listened to music and couldn’t understand why anyone would own a stereo. Horses for courses. So you don’t own a TV. Well, plenty of people don’t own a stereo and never will. But they watch TV. Like hundreds of millions around the world.

I bought my first television, a Sony Trinitron 19” tube TV, in 1984 40 years ago so I could watch the LA Olympics. Boy, it’s been a long journey since then. Perhaps since LA is once again going to host the Olympics, I can watch it in 3D on my Vision Pro in the best virtual seat in the stadium! That would be something to look forward to.

Enjoy the olympics, more a Winter Games guy.

 

[PYP]

Apple will likely make a billion dollars this year selling the Vision Pro, far larger than the entire high end audio market combined.

You may be right. On the other hand, Berkshire Hathaway reduced its holding in Apple by 1 percent. Not to worry, they still have $167 billion invested. And Warren Buffett's speciality is not tech.

The skeptic in me thinks that anything that gets folks further from consensus reality isn't necessarily all good. Weaker minds will turn it into something weird and the money motive will attract the companies that emulate Philip Morris (the tag line of which, without irony, is Delivering A Smoke-Free Future).

Meanwhile, parents continue to be concerned about screen time and know nothing about the online environment in which their kids live. Parents are then shocked to find out that their kids are using the latest smoke-free nicotine products from you know who.

 

[Tuckers]

I remain fairly guarded about AR headsets. I spent a couple of years being professionally optimistic about the Metaverse and VR, which served our company and our clients well. I also prevented any of our interests from committing any significant capital in it. It was a recent lesson (from a career of lessons) about how a technology/speculation looking for a use case is usually a good way to lose your shirt. I totally get that watching movies on the Vision Pro would be fun and spectacular, but is that a killer app?

Lessons from VR headsets is that humans do not seem to like to cut down on their field of vision or wear gear on their heads beyond a certain restriction. The cost, weight, and the narrow field of vision might just be too much for consumers to want to use it frequently enough to justify owning it. We will see. Also, it is an Apple ecosystem only product, if you want to use the higher use cases of creating virtual screens of your work. You would need a macbook pro, an ipad, and an iphone all to truly get good usability from it. Also whoever you want to interact with also has to have a strong investment in the ecosystem, which feels awful lonely to me (i.e the Facebook Portal).

Personally, I have a lot more priorities to spend my money on than this. And I am NOT a fan of wrapping a bunch of EMF emitting equipment around my brain. Just an hour or two of wearing Bluetooth headsets makes my brain feel cooked, and I minimize my time doing so.

 

[godofwealth]

Last night I watched the Pixar film “Elemental” streamed in 3D from the Disney+ channel on my Vision Pro. I have watched many Pixar films on regular OLED TVs, and my Sony front projector, both on Blu-Ray and 4K. Let me say that the experience of watching “Elemental” on my Vision Pro was just a complete game changer in *every* way. The sheer jaw dropping quality of the 3D Pixar animation on the Vision Pro was just light years beyond what I was experienced with conventional home theater. The sheer vividness of the image, the feeling that you are in the midst of these “flame” and “water” characters, and literally transported into their environment is unmatched. I have now watched several 3D movies on Disney+, including Avatar, Star Wars VII, and Alice in Wonderland. In every case, the movie video quality is just out of this world. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that putting 20+ million pixels an inch from your eye balls just makes it so much more realistic, as is of course the spatial video component.

I bought the Vision Pro primarily for home theater, to relax in the late evenings for an hour or so watching movies. I did not buy it to replace my iPhone or Macbook Pro, and I personally think it would make a pretty lousy everyday computer or phone. But, for the ability to transport yourself to a distant location and be taken in by some incredible natural or artificial setting is unmatched on this device compared to anything else on the market currently. For the price Apple is asking, it’s a steal.

As always, you should try it yourself. Apple offers a 14-day return policy, no questions asked. So, you don’t have much to lose. If you hate it, return it. Also, some people have experienced nausea or headaches or other problems that makes it difficult for them to enjoy it. I don’t experience any of these issues. I don’t walk around my house with them, and I don’t plan to travel with them anywhere (they only work in the US, as far as I know).

Sound wise, I use the latest Apple headphones with the USB-C charger. These have the H2 chip that makes Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos sound pretty nice. Of course, it’s not close to high end, but for movies, it’s perfectly enjoyable.

 

[Tuckers]

A very good review of them. Doesn't pull any punches. Is also an audiophile, and has opinions about sound quality.

 

[godofwealth]

Last night I watched a long segment of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour streaming in 4K UHD with Dolby Atmos on the Vision Pro. I’m not someone who listens to Ms. Swift’s music at all. It was in fact my first experience hearing her perform live. The visuals were quite stunning. The 3D special effects in the Sofi stadium in LA were remarkable. The music is not my cup of tea. It seems very forceful and charged. I can see why she appeals to a such a large fan base of younger folks, but old geezers like me prefer the serene soothing sound of Hildegard von Bingen, an abbess who lived a 1000 years ago! But musical reservations aside, hearing the live concert and watching it on the Vision Pro was an amazing experience.

The real power of the Vision Pro will come later when 8K 3D surround video will become more commonplace. Apple plans to release a lot more of the 3D content for the Vision Pro. The live sportscast of NBA and MLS will make a significant difference as well. The best is yet to come.