Wild. I have been eagerly awaiting this refresh, but this doesn't address either of the main issues with the original AirPods Max:
1. Still just as heavy. The AirPods Max sound quite good, but they are very heavy, to the point of being fairly uncomfortable after listening for any longer amount of time. This release as the exact same weight as the originals (13.6 oz).
2. Still no off button/position. They stay partially on unless you put them in the awkward and useless "case", which means they're constantly out of power when you want to use them. There's even an obvious fix: the ear cups swivel flat, they could just make this the "power off" position. Solved. But they didn't, so presumably these still have the same problem. There's also no mention of magnetic charging via stand, which would be another way to help alleviate this problem.
If these were even a few ounces lighter and powered off properly, I would buy them for sure. Given this announcement, I guess I will look for something else to replace the old AirPods Max.
Personally the thing that really surprised me about mine was the amount of condense water builds up under the pads when I'm wearing it over a workday.
My noise cancelling started to go flaky until I stumbled upon that - after I've dried it off after every use and stopped using the "case" /store pads separately from headphone things improved a lot again.
It feels like a serious design issue, I'm really confused why so few people talk about it, but I guess it's because most are just casual users of the headphones with people only wearing it a few minutes a day... And the water only really build up when you're wearing it several hours without taking it off
As someone who has never seen these or paid attention to them I was thinking "how heavy could they possibly be?" Then I saw 13.6 oz and I was blown away. That's actually really heavy for headphones!
People wear them at work daily and it doesn’t seem to be a problem. One guy looks likes he’s Tier 3 support and uses them 8 hours a day 5 days a week for years.
People compliment my Jabra’s voice quality otherwise I would’ve switched already.
Are you sure your AirPods Max have the latest firmware? This issue was addressed in an update right after the first version came out and people reported the issue you're describing:
If you set your AirPods Max down and leave them stationary for 5 minutes, they go into a low power mode to preserve battery charge. After 72 stationary hours out of the Smart Case, your AirPods Max go into a lower power mode that turns off Bluetooth and Find My to preserve battery charge further
[Archive link, as the latest Support doc doesn't have this wording any longer]
I got excited there for a second — free fix for the most annoying problem with my headphones! But no, my AirPods Max have the latest firmware and still have this issue. Any time I leave them for more than a day, the battery is drained.
What does “down” and “stationary” mean? I put my Sony to random paces, mainly just throwing it into my backpack. Would that be considered as down and stationary? Would it be turned off if I’m on the move? In a car? On a bus?
They must have been utterly unusable on release then.
I have latest firmware and if I forget to place my Max's in their case they are at half power or less within a few days.
As such they get used a lot less than I would otherwise. One of my more wasteful purchases in the past few years.
That and the super annoying behavior where two floors away they decide to randomly pair with my Mac Studio when someone Slack Huddles me or whatever, then I need to fiddle with settings to get my airpods pro to connect instead.
This is coming from someone who thinks the Airpods Pro are downright magical in how well they work.
Could be because I also pair them with regular old Bluetooth from a PC in addition to the Apple ecosystem. The earbuds likely don't have the same issue because they inside a case and are fully turned off when not in use.
Sound quality honestly isn't that great either, but I suppose that's more inherent in headphones in general vs. speakers than anything to do with them specifically.
386 grams, the extra 0.2 grams is not only irrelevant it's non existent because the process of converting from one measurement standard to another never increases the precision of the measurement.
Using 3 digits of precision also avoids being temped to use the rather niche ,2 convention when claiming to embrace a region as large as the rest of the world.
Might as well be 3862 grams considering how much they hurt to wear for any length of time. I was also hoping this update would improve the ergonomics, but no. Still too heavy and no mention of any improvements to the headband.
Perception is at odds with quality sometimes. For headphones, lighter is better even though people often perceive denser objects as being of higher quality. This is why high-end headphones often contain a fair bit of plastic, but also make sparing use of light-weight metals such as magnesium in the places where strength is especially important.
These Airpods appear to have ear-cups made entirely of aluminum, which is an odd choice. Plastic cups are typically more than strong enough and aluminum is actually a fair bit denser than magnesium. That's a lot of weight for no good reason. Aluminum is a great material for some things, but Apple seems to be using it for everything even when its not appropriate.
I’ve been using AirPods Max since they first launched, and over the years I’ve tried several times to switch to Bose.
However, the Bose headphones just haven’t worked as smoothly for me from a software and integration standpoint. I tend to run into more glitches and small issues compared to the AirPods Max. I’m not sure whether that’s primarily a Bose issue or something related to Apple’s ecosystem, but my guess is that other high-end headphones probably face similar integration challenges when paired with an iPhone.
I also have the AirPods Max and had the Bose QuietComfort Ultra, and it is hard to convey how effortless the Max are in comparison. The switching between devices is so seamless (if you are in the Apple ecosystem). The controls are also much easier to find and use.
Yeah despite being heavier I find the Airpods Max more comfortable to wear than my Sonys. Sony has shockingly shallow ear cups and do get much warmer and the headband is very narrow and barely padded. The Airpods Max ear cups are better and the headband is wide and mesh so spreads out the weight and it breathes too.
The one major downside to the Airpods Max is that they do not have an off button and the case is useless for throwing them in a duffel / backpack, as it doesn't protect the headband mesh at all. I have a 3rd party hardshell case for them but it is very unreliable in actually putting them in "ultralow power mode", so the battery drains.
I’ve been using my AirPod Max for hours for the past 2 years and never noticed they were “heavy”. I’m wondering now as I’ve never researched on headphones (I just buy simplicity from Apple, I’m not an audio sophisticated costumer) that was never brought out to me, so I haven’t even noticed.
The AirPods Max are excessively comfortable, even though they are heavy. Some (most?) lighter headphones are actually less comfortable because they do not “fit the head” so well (at least for me).
Caveat: after a while the mesh at the top starts to stretch, and then you get the two metal bands going straight into the head, and that hurts. And the worst part is: this mesh is not replaceable :( There are silicone band-aids that can be bought, but I would have very much preferred for a possibility of repair to exist…
I tested Apple, Sony and Bose and found the AirPods Max to be the most comfortable for long periods of time, for me. It depends on how well you adjust them and what bothers you the most about headphones.
It's kind of like standing desks; some people are able to go all day with it with the right setup and feel better than if they had sat. Others feel miserable after a few hours. Neither is wrong but they may not understand the other's experience, or what they might be doing differently that affects their results.
The 400g don’t bother me personally. I agree not being able to turn it off sucks, I switched to android for some time and it would just leave the pair on until the battery died. I think it’s basically a feature to force users to stay within the iOS ecosystem
> to the point of being fairly uncomfortable after listening for any longer amount of time.
#1 reason I use the Sony XM4/XM6. Sometimes I wonder if they intentionally do this to appeal to a younger crowd cause as an older person with neck issues it’s just not a very good product.
The audio quality of the Sonys is just as good but the comfort is a much better. I think I like the mic on the AirPods Max better but the mic on the MacBook I use in meetings works as well for meetings.
Reading #2 makes me sad. I had a pair of Bose for probably a decade and tried out Sony and the biggest complaint I have is the lack of a physical off button. The Sony have a known issue where it don’t detect that it’s off of your head and it’s not that obvious that the headphones are on or off. At least a few times a week I put them on in the morning and they have been on all night.
Sony WH 1000 XM4 and WH 1000 XM6 both have physical off buttons and I've also never had a problem with them not turning off due to inactivity. If I take my XM6 off and put them on the desk, they pause music/podcasts and will fully turn off after some minutes (like 15 minutes? not sure, but it's short enough that if I go eat lunch and come back, they turned off automatically).
I had that problem pop up with my Sony xm4s after a couple of years of use. Cleaned the lens on the inside of the left ear cup and they work perfectly again. Go to sleep, pause music, etc when I remove them.
I leave my AirPods Max sitting on my desk for weeks at a time outside of the case and the battery never drains. I just put mine on today after sitting on my desk for a week and they still had 99% charge.
Strange. Are they first gen or later? I did get the absolute first gen of these, so maybe it's a problem they couldn't fix in firmware? Or I just have a defective pair?
Same. I rarely use mine and find that they just about always still have battery. And even when they don't I'll just plug them in and go find something else to do for a few minutes and by the time I come back they are usable for hours. The talk about the power button is super strange to me.
Absolutely! I have both the AirPods Max and the Bose QC Ultra and even though my whole ecosystem is Apple, the QC Ultra is a lot more comfortable reliable on day to day usage. Comfort is due to weight, and reliability is the batter is predictably on the QC Ultra, but on the Max I never know if the battery went all down because I can't turn it off.
They have direct feedback that many people return them bc they’re too heavy, and yet… It’s just Apple being stubborn. I guess it’s not a big enough problem for them, and they don’t care about losing the market. One must laugh.
Putting it in or out of the case is not that big of deal (for me). However, once you take them out of the case you need to put that case somewhere, and you can't use headphone stand that was just holding them. So now I need a space for them when I don't use them and when I do use them, and it can't be the same space (in my scenario).
Peripheral tech must have absurdly lucrative margins. I see it in my niche interests too. Cycling or golf gps are like hundreds of dollars. They are the same products they were 15 years ago: cheap lcd screen with a cheap gps radio and some severely underpowered cpu with noticable input lag. Designed to fall apart in a few years. Still same prices they always were, maybe they get away adding another $50 a year to the price on occasion. It is like they hit their price point and margin number and are perfectly happy making probably >60% markup on us who have no option otherwise. Yes we could potentially order prototypes trivially for cents a unit from same places in china the first party manufacturers go to, but minimum order is probably 1000 units.
That is literally the sole moat of these companies: minimum orders from china and the fact we can't spend the ad money they can to move that volume quickly. Not tech or offering a good deal. Just being there already with money and doing the inevitable. Being the more productive drug dealer quicker to move the kilo to the captured audience and bankrolled to get the next several and scale.
For cycling tech, if you're outside the US, check out Chinese manufacturers like iGPSport and Magene.
Picked up a spider-based power meter for around £290 and a big computer for £150. Both are great, and work just as well as their western counterparts costing significantly more.
That's not what they were saying and the same can be said for those listed. But that they can cost the same as a Macbook Neo which arguably has significantly more technology in it.
First off, $150 more isn't a small amount to be considered "in-line" with the others. That's roughly 40% more.
The difference is also Apple neither has the audio legacy of those companies nor the quality of those products to warrant that kind of premium. To Apple, it is just another market they can go after, but a lot of those companies built their entire foundations on audio. You are not going to convince me Apple is in the same category as the company that invented the Walkman and CDs.
Also, if you look into the teardown videos, it's really a cheap driver from China - all plastic, not even using aluminium for the basket, just literally hard-glued onto the body. It's not repairable nor eco-friendly. It's anti-consumer. Sony uses Aluminium housing for their drivers and they are the cheapest in the lot.
Weird response. He said "I don't understand how a pair of headphones can be $549" and you responded "here are some headphones that are priced at $549".
Yeah. We know. It's just hard to understand how anyone can value headphones at this price. It's lunacy.
Or Sennheiser momentum 4, 150 bucks and sound at least as good if not better, have absolutely huge battery compared to tiny apple one, more comfortable and generally work much better with non-apple ecosystem (also apparently they support multi-device pairing but I haven't used that one).
Don't pay the novelty price shortly after release, these go down quite a bit after introduction, ie last year Sony are basically the same device.
Sennheiser HD 800 S is $1700 and has been around for years. Or the Meze Elite Tungsten at $4,000 - if Apple can get 80/90% of the way there at $549, they'd be a steal for the right customer.
The quality x price curve is not linear. Expensive materials and engineering often produce only incremental quality improvements, if any. Sometimes the improvements are only cosmetic. So Apple's headphones would need to be a lot closer to the best of the best than 80-90% in order to justify their price.
As said, different markets. If you look from the same perspective, the last iPhone I ordered is 3x the price of a last generation MacBook Air.
$549 is pretty reasonable if the headphone has the sound detail it's advertising. Given how AirPods Gen 3 sounds, I'm sure that thing sounds pretty amazing.
Well, in the market segment of Bluetooth ANC headphones, there's not that much. Bowers & Wilkins and Focal come to mind, both audiophile luxury brands and similarily overpriced.
On the other hand, the flagship Sony is quite a bit less than AirPods Max.
Most offerings (eg Apple Music) already has lossless audio for a while, as does Spotify, as it has been supported for the previous generation of AirPods Max already (ie this is not a new feature) and wirelessly on the AirPods Pro 2.
Why they don’t support it wirelessly on the AirPods Max 2, which should be a superior product to the AirPods Pro 2, is beyond me.
My AirPods Max 1 left a headband dent in my skull from how poor the quality of the headband was after more than a year of daily use. They also are super heavy and don't travel well at all.
Apple deciding that, on their 2nd refresh of these (after usb-c), they still aren't going to fix those fundamental issues is very frustrating for what feels like a very disproportionately expensive product (even by Apple standards).
I'm now a very happy QC Ultra 2 user. Can't recommend enough.
I hope that commenter was being hyperbolic. I have heard of headphones making visible impressions or “dents” in the soft tissue and msucle after long periods of use (Google Tyler1 headphone dent if you don’t believe me), but such a dent would disappear within minutes or hours. An actual deformation of the skull due to headphone-wearing would definitely be strange.
I'm also a Bose QC user and I can't speak highly enough about them. Best piece of tech that I ever bought. Going on three years now and they are still like new. I have three very loud, rambunctious kids and they are a life-saver.
Not the skull, but probably the scalp. Our scalp is made up of skin, fat, and muscle. When you press a rigid object against it for hours every day, that soft tissue temporarily compresses. It happens to my kid who wears headphones for gaming. It's the same mechanism that leaves red marks on your nose after wearing glasses, or grooves on your ankles after wearing tight socks. Wash your hair, give up on the headphones, and it'll return to normal.
The QC2 are about half the weight of the AirPods Max, and apparently the mesh in the AirPods Max band sags, and allows the metal bars to "dig in" to your scalp. Enough to cause irritation, but 400 or 500 grams resting on your head can't mess with an adult, developed skull.
I thought that any headphones would leave a dent in your head? At least that's been my experience, and I don't think my headphones are nearly as heavy as these things.
I've traveled extensively with my AirPods Max. I just toss them in my backpack with whatever else is there and move on. They travel a lot better than my Bose ones did with the bulky case. I much prefer Apple's approach here.
I'll briefly join the chorus: AirPods Max were the worst value for money I've ever spent on a tech product.
But more interestingly: what happens at a company like Apple that leads them to not cancel this product and come up with something totally new? Is it that the success of their other products pulls this along so well that they are numb to this product being a dog? AirPods Pro (the earbuds) are a great product, so perhaps the headphones org just doesn't have to face the music?
> what happens at a company like Apple that leads them to not cancel this product and come up with something totally new
I'm in the suburbs of a middling Australian city, nothing special and not in particularly high socioeconomic areas
There is at least two people per bus wearing them (or at least very good comps), they're as common as Sony XM5 or XM6's and while they're not Airpods penetration, they're wildly popular for their pricepoint
> so perhaps the headphones org just doesn't have to face the music?
Some people don't like anything in their ears. Some people have ear canals that don't work/aren't comfortable with "standard" tips. This is why headphones will always exist.
I agree it seems terrible value, but I see plenty of people wearing them on the street so it’s probably a commercial success just as a luxury product for people to flex with. While everyone else gets the AirPod pros.
I owned a pair of the first gen AirPods Max. After a couple of months of usage, I began noticing a rattling inside the right earcup. I had never dropped them or exposed them to any sort of physical damage that could knock something loose. The rattling would happen every time I tilted my head in any direction. I had taken them to Apple Genius support in store 3 different times and 2 of those times the onsite tech agreed that there was a rattling sound. All 3 times they were sent to an Apple repair facility and they always came back with "cannot reproduce". I sold them on FB Marketplace for a deep discount, having alerted the potential buyer to the issue before I sold them to him. Never again will I purchase a set of AirPods.
Yes, my AirPod Pros do this too, and I've found that the issue is due to a problem with the external microphones which are involved in active noise cancelling. In order to fix the problem I had to disable ANC, and use them like a pair of basic wireless headphones, which has been quite disappointing. I've found that basically any instance of dropping the headphones on a solid floor, even while in the case, will result in this rattling sound occurring.
Funny that something similar swore me off another brand’s headphones. The noise cancelling would amplify mechanical vibrations of the headphones, so much so that even eating with them on would cause a deafening bass. Walking with them on was also incredibly loud.
I sent them to support with a very good description of the problem, came back the same, “cannot reproduce”.
It seems support workers for both companies just connect them to an audio source and check if sound comes out relatively alright.
Prior to the third time going to Genius Bar, I was able to reach a senior manager for Apple repairs in a phone call to Apple Support. And even after asking him to take down a note on my incident to have the repair tech physically open the right ear can, they still came back with "cannot reproduce". There was either a screw loose in my brain or the headphones. Guess we'll never know which.
This is simply supply chain updates marketed as an upgrade, similar to how Apple's Vision Pro "2" was just their current chip line shoved into the same form factor.
It represents the company effectively forgetting about it as as a product line, but leveraging the latest chips to keep them selling, even in small quantities.
If they truly invested any amount into updating these things, they would reflect the many lessons learned from the 1.0 product. To have a 2.0's form be 1:1 with the 1.0 is lazy at best.
I bought the original AirPods Max when they came out a few years ago. They hurt my ears if I wear them for more than an hour or so and the software is garbage - constantly losing one channel or just failing to connect at all - to Apple devices.
Apple has not done enough to fix glitchy software problems, which continue to occur even on the latest AirPods Pro devices. I won’t touch the Max headphones until I start hearing that the software has been fixed.
Interesting: "Why Apple is the best place to buy AirPods." I've never seen them have a section for that.
It's slowly made less sense to buy directly from Apple in recent years. Not a criticism just an observation. I assumed Apple was simply okay with that and decided it was net better for them. Seems reasonable. There was a period not that long ago where you could only buy directly. And there still are some products that are seemingly only on sale at specific retailers—Homepods have for whatever reason never (rarely?) been sold on Amazon, but are at Best Buy. Often you'll see like the latest Airpods for sale cheaper on Amazon/Costco/Target/etc. immediately even before launch day. The whole Apple experience is nice in its own way and sometimes I suppose you get small but nice little dopamine hits buying directly or going to the nice stores and having someone walk you through stuff (if you need/like it) so there's reasons some people go direct. Simply saying there's less reason than before and so I'm surprised and curious as to how this little section of the website came to be.
Do they want that margin back? Do they want to fight a little bit to keep you in more parts of the chain (but I guess not to the point of restricting sales/inventory to themselves)? Is this just like one PM (measured on one KPI) fighting for a little web real estate (presumably against the PMs involved in the retail partner channels)?
I'm not buying another expensive AirPods from Apple until they have their story straight w.r.t battery health and battery repair that is cost-effective. I'm done wasting money on these only to have battery issues, clicking noises etc in less than 2 years of continuous use.
Irritating thing is how Apple hides bluetooth headphones pairing 2-3 clicks deeper than AirPods pairing – on iPhones and Apple TV.
Replacing the batteries on the Maxes is actually a fairly straightforward process (no adhesive melting required, just a screwdriver and a pry bar), and spare batteries can be purchased on Amazon or Ebay for around 50 USD. It's one of the better Apple products in that regard, very unlike the in-ear models.
Did that change with the Air Pod Max USB-C, because iFixit says you have to get past adhesive to get to the batteries, after you turn the specialized screws only a quarter turn, and then use a dental pick to separate the pieces after you heat the adhesive being careful not to melt other parts?
>The next round of frustration: adhesive. That's right, releasing the locks and/or removing the screws isn't enough. Out comes the heat gun, which must be wielded very carefully to avoid melting all this plastic.
> Irritating thing is how Apple hides bluetooth headphones pairing 2-3 clicks deeper than AirPods pairing – on iPhones and Apple TV.
Can't you just create a Shortcut on the iPhone to pair with whatever you want via bluetooth in a single tap? Or just edit the control center menu itself and add the Bluetooth button directly to the control center?
4 clicks from control centre on stock settings.
Two if you add the Bluetooth widget into control centre.
Swipe down control centre > Bluetooth > hey presto
I really don't understand how these are $549. As others have pointed out, some people say the head band is not great. Others say the sound is solid but not exceptional. What makes these worth that much when there are so many options?
They sound incredible (with Apple products), feel super premium, excel at noise cancelling and have really good mics.
I've tried Bose and Sony; in fact, I have two pairs of QC Ultras sitting in their boxes waiting to be sold. Neither sound as good, even after EQing them as close to the Harman curve as their software allows (with Apple products; I haven't tried them with AptX streaming) and both were slower at cancelling noise. The Bose headphones I tried got decent mics after an update, but they are still unreliable at times.
The Maxes are also heavy, but you don't feel it due to its being very nicely distributed across the head. I've seen scores of people run, walk, and work out in these. I even saw a child using them!
I can't stress how premium the Maxes feel. The cups, for example, don't deform even after hours and hours of wear (and sweat). Replacing them is trivial and they attach with magnets instead of adhesive and/or clips. The headphone band is also extremely strong; much stronger than it looks. They feel like $549. Meanwhile, Bose charges $499 for their QuietComfort Ultras with their slow noise cancelling processors (AirPods use Apple Silicon, which is unbeatable atm) and cheap, plastic body (though part of the headphone band has a chrome finish --- premium!)
All this said, Bose and Sony headphones are significantly easier to travel with, and they have power buttons. This was why I sold my AirPods Maxes the first go around (though I went back to them a year later for the reasons stated previously).
There are two kinds of Apple products - those they make for the mass market and those that are for Apple "enthusiasts".
Mass market Apple products may be expensive but they are still great value. Look at the $499/$599 Macbook Neo for a recent example, but this generally covers iPhones and other Macs, as well as Airpods, Apple Watch etc.
Then there are the $550 Airpods Max, $3500 Vision Pro, $600 storage upgrades, $700 CPU wheels, $230 "iPhone Pocket", $20 polishing cloth...
In the latter category there is no effort to actually compete on price or value, because it is made for people who will blindly buy anything with an Apple logo on it.
They are a luxury item, you are paying for the privilege of signaling you can afford $550 headphones. Generic black over-ear headphones could be $800, could be $80, useless for signaling. Doubly true in the context of a gift.
>They are a luxury item, you are paying for the privilege of signaling you can afford $550 headphones.
Plus they give juuuust enough features to cover for the true purpose and give you plausible deniability. Same as most luxury items. None truly give the value of the cost (Is a Ferrari 10x as fast as a GR86? Carry 10x as much stuff? Go 10x as far on the same gas load? Etc etc etc)
"Oh but there's nothing like the experience of driving a Ferrari!"
Maybe for some people. For me, they work perfectly and integrate with all my other Apple stuff (MBP, iphone, TV, iPad), everything just works. My stress levels demand it.
I assume Apple ecosystem integration and also they give off that "I bought an expensive Apple product" vibe that an iPhone or Macbook no longer do IMO.
As someone with an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and a Macbook, I never got into Apple's headphones. My Sony WH-something-4 that I bought refurbished 4 years ago are more than enough for me.
The AirPods Pro are the best earpods I've ever had for everyday use, and I've had a lot. I like some of the old beats headphones, but I also haven't had to replace the ones I bought ~5 or 10 years ago. The Sony WH-whatever I have are probably my favorite and most comfortable.
They just work. The integrated mic is clear and easy to use for daily standups. They connect to my work and personal laptop in a few seconds every time - I’m never left panicking right before a big meeting. Of course the audio quality, noise canceling, and battery life are world class, but that’s the case for their competitors too - the reason I coughed up the extra $150 for Apple headphones is because I know they’re going to fucking work exactly as advertised, no glitches or gimmicks.
I think people are mainly confused because the AirPod Pros are quite competitively priced compared to other higher end offerings. The Max are so far off the market that it doesn't seem to make any sense and it seems unlikely that apple couldn't make up for lost margins with higher volume. Maybe they just literally can't/don't want to produce many of the Max and price them accordingly.
I say this as someone who uses many Apple products, but still can't justify buying this. (I do have AirPods but have wanted headphones so I don't have to stick something into my ears)
If you try to understand this stuff outside the context of fashion, you'll go around in circles (as I did).
If you see this through the lens of "people will pay anything to signal various things to others" and "you can charge whatever the market will bear" then it all adds up.
Well, if you buy only one pair it does work really nicely with all Apple kit. So you get really nice cinematic sound from Apple TV (for my non-prosumer ears), and effortlessly can switch between phone, laptop etc. The sound is really good for video calls.
They just work.
I mean there are other pieces of kit that probably just work as well but with these you don't need to do market research.
It's surprising how non-trivial even _adequate_ sound is still in 2026 and that's what these are guaranteed to give in any situation IMHO.
If you have only one Apple device probably no selling point as such.
The Apple Beats Studio Pro should meet this reasoning for $170 (on Amazon, $350 on apple.com - guess that explains the AirPods Max pricing) & the battery lasts twice as long. I have 2 near my Apple TV just so everything plays nice together.
Yeah I basically don’t trust anyone but Apple for wireless audio because every time I’ve tried allegedly-good non-Apple Bluetooth audio devices, they’ve been a ton worse, so bad I ended up barely using them.
In this case these are more expensive than I’d pay for headphones, but that just means I won’t have any Bluetooth headphones in this form factor. Been down that road before, non-Apple was a frustrating waste of money.
I mean FFS my AirPods are worse on Windows and Linux than in the Apple ecosystem, but are still better than the non-Apple ones I’ve tried, even there. It’s not even just the home-field advantage.
I bought the AirPods Max 1 but had to return them because they felt like a vice and were too heavy. I ended up going with the Sony wh-1000xm5, which are much lighter. My only complaint on the Sony is the earcups are not deep enough for my big ears.
I have the same issue with the shape of my ears not fitting any ANC headphones (and many larger over-ear ones). The only alternative to the APM I found that doesn't hurt after a few hours was the Sonos Ace. Which also have a price that hurts but at least they haven't broken yet while my APM kept breaking (and they're one of the few products where you can't infinitely renew Apple Care).
It's amusing to me how personal all this stuff is.
The XM5s were super uncomfortable to me (to the point I was relieved when they got stolen) and I ended up going back to Bose even though I liked the sound quality on the Sonys better.
Same experience. Everyone raved about the Sonys and so when my Bose died, I tried them out. I can't stand them! They're way less comfortable and have worse noise cancellation. The lack of buttons drives me crazy. And worst of all - when on flights, the noise cancellation will randomly stop working. Despite flights being one of the main reasons I purchase noise cancelling headphones.
I maintain a fork of this app, which allows you to quickly set and lock your audio input device, so that they don't switch your audio input device to bluetooth as soon as you turn them on. Mostly because of the first gen of these headphones. They LOVED to keep the mic on at all times with no way to disable that behavior.
Oh I wish I knew about this before buying SoundSource. SoundSource is a decent app when it works but it causes my mic audio goes in an out with it and people complain.
I can't believe they finally refreshed this after I just churned (after owning the v1 since launch), always happens! The old Airpods Max had an issue of these giant booms when it was going low power that just wrecked my eardrums - I feel like the apple ecosystem pull is pretty compelling, but I think torturing your users for enough time will get even the most loyal customers churn.
I've been enjoying the nothing headphones, I enjoy having an off button and ability to connect via wire to the device.
I wonder if you can buy a replacement headband yet, since they have a lifespan of about a year before the mesh collapses. Which probably happens because they are so god-damn heavy.
I really wish the audio technica headband style was more common, even they use it less now. The two winglets as the head contact are just so much more comfortable than literally any other configuration.
Has anyone done a teardown and figured out where all the gravity in these things comes from?
Do they brick less? I bought a pair for my husband and after a year they were bricked, apple support basically told him to buy a new one. I will never waste my money on the max line ever again.
Not to threadjack, but this is a question that I've had for a while and I've been looking for the right forum to ask: are there any "open source" earbuds? I would like to take a pair of earbuds and invert the noise-cancellation curve: basically, amplify any ambient noise (with filtering of course). My grandma (not in the US or EU) is hard of hearing, and the only options available to her are random Chinese junk. I would like to try this experiment, where I just invert the noise cancellation curve and make the ambient noise louder.
Lots of earbuds have transparency mode. I have Earfun Air Pro 4+ (which were big too big for my ears). They sound very good and have really good transparency mode. The company keeps releasing firmware updates every now and then.
Also got a nothing Ear. They are very comfy, and have very good sound. But transparency mode in those is awful. Other things are bad too.
Why do they refuse to add an auto power-off? Like is there any upside to keeping the headphones draining battery when they can tell it's not being used?
“Lossless Audio and ultra‑low latency audio preserve every detail of the original recording when connecting AirPods Max 2 to your device via USB‑C”
Since the AirPods Pro 2 that were released last year got wireless lossless, this surprises me: I would have expected lossless without cable in the AirPods Max 2, to the point that I was waiting to buy them.
That’s a shame, as that would be a real differentiator compared to all other headphone manufacturers, wireless lossless audio.
New AirPods Max finally have lossless wired audio, which is pretty nice and makes them finally catch up with the Pros.
Does anyone have experience with obtaining a flatter frequency response from any AirPods, though? While maintaining the full power of noise cancellation.
My experience with Pros has always been that they exaggerate the bass. EQ settings available in Music are coarse, and I don’t know of any other way to control frequency response independently of the app that plays the sound.
I know they are not really best for critical audio work, but they are damn convenient.
If you're using Android there's global eq available (mostly). I use an app called wavelet that lets you search for your headphone model and download a pre-made profile.
iPhone users are kinda out of luck, but the autoeq database can show you how to set Music's equalizer to approximate a flat response
I see, I remember checking that they didn’t support high definition wireless codec but missed the part where they could do lossless over the wire last year.
Why can’t they squeeze in that codec, considering Pros have it for years and are a lot smaller?
Edit: apparently I was confusing AirPods Pros with Sony WH models, which have LDAC. I guess there is no chance Apple adopts LDAC, even in their large heavy cans.
> My experience with Pros has always been that they exaggerate the bass
Based on my experience, almost all consumer-grade headphones (in ear and headphones) seem to suffer from this, I'm guessing people tend to prefer bass-heavy over "not enough bass". Not until you start looking at headphones meant for studio-use does it seem to get closer to expected when it comes to the bass.
Research by Harmon suggests almost everyone, musicians and pros included, prefers exaggerated lows and highs over flat response. Check the "Harmon Curve"
And there is certainly a way for you to set system wide eq, see what AutoEq recommends.
A tangential question: What are the best bang per buck headphones these days (preferably wireless)? Not earbuds, but over-the-head headphones. Tell me your favorites.
(The internet is so polluted that I cannot find any reliable recommendation today so I'm doing a mini "ask HN" here.)
I found this forum last year https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php which opens the door up to a high number of lower cost manufacturers making very high quality products. although the forum audience (audiophiles) generally eschew wireless products and prefer open backed (loud for everyone else and no noise cancelling) headphones, there are all kinds of products discussed.
Audio Science Review is a tremendous resource. But dangerous from a time resource perspective. I choose my headphone amp (JDS Labs) after spending much time on that site.
My personal best bang-for-the-buck are the Yamaha Orthodynamic HP-1 headphones that I bought at an estate sale last year for $10 and paired with a JDS Labs amp for $100.
Audiophile headphones in the '70s cost $100-$200. That's like $600-$1200 in today's dollars. Are the AirPods "audiophile" level? Many people think so.
Senn HD 490 PRO is an amazing and extremely comfortable headphone that has very affordable 1st party replacement parts (pads, cables) to boot. These are the first ones I've been happy with from day one. But they are wired & open back.
Best bang for the buck in terms of sound quality is probably the Hifiman HE400SE, which is less than $100, the AKG K701 and Sennheiser HD6XX, which are about $200. The catch is that you need a proper setup to drive them. But to be honest, getting the tuning you like that suits the music is more important.
I have had a pair of the Tozo HT3 for a few months now. Not the most comfortable cans ever, but as low as $30 for wireless + low latency mode + decent ANC is a pretty good deal IMO.
Another vote for the HT3. My wife and I have one each, and we are perfectly content with them — nice battery life, decent build quality, good connection to multiple (two?) sources.
The ANC is not in the same league as a $300 pair, but one certainly would not expect them to.
I don't know exactly how to measure bang for buck, but my Sony XM4s have been holding up well, sound good, are decently comfortable for a day's work, the battery life is good, etc.
They do have some annoyances like not always sleeping correctly when left connected to my laptop, but overall they are easy to recommend
Bose Quietcomfort (i have the 2nd gen ultra now but I've owned other models too) live up to their name for comfort. Very lightweight and the earcups are large enough that they don't pinch. They may not have the best ANC or featureset, but I enjoy mine immensely
any ANC soundcore (anker) headphones or TEMU if you fancy rolling the dice.
A colleague got a clone of the Sony 1000xm4, they sounded and look very similar.
For all day online calls, Jabra evolve2 65 are hard to beat for the price.
If you want to go cheap and don't want ANC (eg. open back headphones) then there's a lot of good reference/studio headphones around. I have a wired Audio Technica M40X for home use and a wireless pair of M20X for travel; both are great in a quieter environment.
The two sibling comments were good suggestions. I have Sony XM3s that have been going strong for 6 years, sound superb, and have IMHO better noise cancellation than Bose.
For my kids I got Anker Soundcores, and for the price they are astonishingly good.
Ignore the thing about open-backs though, I have some extremely high end Grado open-backs and barely use them. My primary hobby outside of work is making music and I have a dedicated studio at home with expensive sound damping / proofing - the only reason to ever wear the Grados is if I'm going to be wearing them for hours on end. Even then, the Sonys are comfortable enough that I've never reached a fatigue point in them.
i just bought airpods max a few months ago and i wear them constantly (autism), basically only taking them off for sleeping (sometimes i do end up laying in bed with them on). i initially found them uncomfortable after several hours due to my glasses, but it went away after a week. really love these, and my only complaint really has been the lack of adaptive mode (and the ANC was also a bit weak but less of an issue) so am glad to see both of these issues solved. am definitely going to get these and probably give this pair to my girlfriend.
The screech is produced by feedback in the noise canceling I think, happens if you lay on a pillow at the wrong angle also, never had it due to moisture myself.
You know what would be ground breaking from a company that prides itself on environmental sustainability? A replaceable battery. These headphones are all garbage once the lithium battery reaches end of life.
Forgetting all technical benefits: people will always have opinions on headphones and it's rather fascinating that Apple owns the entire market for fashionable ones, despite there being nothing stopping outside players.
They specifically acquired Beats for this reason to shore up that base, and so far no one has been able to make a dent in the celebrity or influencer space.
The only other pair I've seen treated that way is Nothing's Headphones - although the (maybe niche) musicians I've seen wearing them lean into y2k aesthetics, where Apple's products are more broadly appealing.
It just sits there, with no one touching it. Suddenly, music randomly starts and stops playing. Take it into the Apple Store, they acknowledge it’s a known hardware defect to start registering non-existent touches, and they refuse to fix it. Offer to replace it with a refurb unit for like ~$20 less than a brand new unit.
FWIW we use the minis all over our place and love'em. But we pretty much only ask basic questions or use them for airplay. Sounds quality is impressive imo.
The first thing I checked was if there's a better case. At this point I'm assuming it's a marketing move to have people just carry them openly on their neck at all times.
It's quite telling how dumb even Apple thinks the case is when you have to scroll pretty far down on the page and then pretty far to the right to see the so-called "Smart Case". It remains a pretty horrendous "case".
Is there any info on what codecs these support? They mention “lossless audio” without any extra detail, is this the new Bluetooth LE audio or something proprietary?
That's because old bluetooth has two main modes A2DP which supports one direction high quality audio and HFP which supports microphones but sounds like shit. Bluetooth LE Audio is fairly new and supports high quality audio and mic at the same time. But as far as I'm aware, no Apple product supports it yet.
I'm looking to replace my worn-out Sony XM-3s and am wondering if the AirPods Max 2 could be a better option than the XM-6s. I've always liked Sony's audio quality and ANC, but felt the headphones were not as comfortable to wear while sleeping on airplanes than older Bose models I had prior (like the QC-2s and QC-3s.)
Can anyone with experience with either the AirPods Max 1s or XM-6s tell me what they feel like to sleep with on an airplane (business class with a lie flat bed?) Plane travel is my primary use-case for these type of headphones.
I've been using the AirPods Max 1s for the last five years and you should get the Sony XM-6s. The Apple AirPod Max sound great, bur are heavy and fairly uncomfortable on the head when worn for more than an hour or two. Furthermore, I experienced persistent wireless connectivity problems and eventually sent them back to Apple under warranty. They were replaced successfully, but with a different pair of the same model which had a worn out headband. Overall it's been a bad experience and I wish that I purchased the Sony XM-6s insead.
Comfort issues aside, these are still stupid expensive.
I can buy a laptop for that money.
It’s strange to me that they haven’t introduced a more budget friendly line to serve different segments, like most of their product categories. Headphones aren’t an experimental hobby product.
If you have multiple apple devices, the seamless switching is the killer feature, for me anyway. My Bose headphones were absolutely abysmal at this, and it drove me mad.
My Pixel buds from Google have been pretty good since they support Bluetooth multipoint. I'd love to find some good headphones like Beats or the airpods, but Apple doesn't seem to support those standards, it only works with other Apple devices.
Apple headphones have better audio fidelity than you are giving them credit for. I have several different pairs of high-end studio headphones and expensive amps to drive them. The Apple Max, which I also own, frankly provides a cleaner reference than some of the classics. They are perfectly usable as reference headphones.
The built-in Apple audio DSP, amps, etc have surprisingly good fidelity. Much higher quality than you would expect from consumer hardware. They even provide high-impedance headphone jacks on their recent computers.
These earphones are not for people who appreciate good audio. They are for people who want more products in the Apple ecosystem and have lots of money to spend.
The problem I have with these headphones (at least V1) is that the ear cups don't tilt horizontally. Maybe my ears are more angled backwards that most people's ears, but with theses headphones, the headband part sits really far back on my head. This creates a lot of pressure on only the back edge of headband.
Until they make the ear cups tilt horizontally, these will be a no-go for me. My ancient 10+ year old Bose QCs 35s can pivot and are a million times more comfortable.
I have a pair (gen 1). Sound good with my MBP, but with my phone (16 Pro Max), I've had intermittent skipping of the audio signal, which just shouldn't happen at that premium level.
The Bluetooth chip & version in these won’t be the same one you have today, so there’s no guarantee that present experience will inform future experience (better or worse).
Noise canceling headphones are absolutely a game changer. I work from home in a very noisy downtown apartment with poor soundproofing and I’d never get anything done without ANC. I haven’t had the chance to try the AirPods Max yet, but I do wonder how it compares to the Sony headphones.
Unfortunately ANC only works on some sounds. In the suburbs you have leafblowers and cars driving past you on the sidewalk, and ANC removes everything /else/ which makes them stand out even more.
Leaf blowers and cars driving past are exactly the kind of thing that ANC works well on, a fairly constant noise. It doesn’t block out other kinds of things well. At least it always seems to go that way for me, so I can’t relate to your comment at all. My experience seems exactly the opposite and I have trouble imagining it differently for anyone else, because it works well against a constant noise kind of in the bass range.
I've been wearing the Soundcore Space Q45 for 6 months. Good noise cancelling, comfortable headband, not too heavy and they cost...$99. I can't imagine these being worth 5x as much, even with the Apple tax.
My AirPods Max headphones are incredible. They sound amazing. They also squeeze my head so much that they hurt so I don't use them. Kinda sad, really. I'd use them at my desk every day if they were comfortable to wear.
I've had some headphones in the past where I stuck them over a slightly-bigger-than-my-head object when not wearing them to stretch them out over some time to alleviate this problem.
Passive noise cancellation beats active hands down. (no weird air pressure, reliable, no need for batteries, less expensive)
Analog and wired beats bluetooth if you care for sound quality, portable DACs are very good in 2026.
Professionals are using BeyerDynamics and Sony headphones made for studios and almost unchanged since the 90s for good reasons.
The only good reason to opt for wireless is for practical reasons when you are running, and you want smaller models.
I absolutely hate noise. And so I loved AirPods Max. It was, I think the best noise cancelling money could buy and I’ve tried several of the Sony and Bose Headphones. Then funnily enough my AirPods Pro 3 completely smokes my AirPods Max. There are times when I literally can’t notice someone calling out my name, when I wear my pro 3 with ambient sounds, this never happened even with over the ear noise cancelling phones in the past. I have no idea what magic Apple used to pull this off and so my usage of AirPods Max has fallen to nil.
Now I wonder if AirPods Max 2 is even better than AirPods Pro 3 but we are soon reaching the point of diminishing returns. So to all kindred souls who hate noise, Pro 3 is probably good enough for your use cases!
Depends on your use case, I need exceptional noise cancellation. These and Sony XM6's are top tier in that department. I would wait until they're $100 or more off on Amazon.
Does anyone ever actually pay that for them, tho? I've got the QC Ultras; looks like they cost me 331 euro _with VAT_. Apple's RRP is usually the actual sale price, but IME the RRP for Bose stuff at least is generally pure fantasy, with actual prices being significantly lower.
EDIT: Currently they seem to be 350EUR inc VAT on Irish Amazon; Amazon is making it difficult for me to see the US price and I'm not interested enough to fight with it, but I'm guessing that there's a similar level of discount.
More than, considering Apple is willing to openly advertise Neo at $499 for education. The minimum-advertised-price on these won't ever drop below ~$529 for a hot minute.
XM6 does not support audio over USB-C (The USB-C port on the XM6 is only for charging)
QC Ultra 2 does, but the headphones turn off when plugged in and have to be turned back on while charging
AirPods Max with USB-C and AirPods Max 2 appear to be the only headphones among this group (XM6, QCUltra2, AirPods Max with USB-C, AirPods Max 2) that support both Audio over USB-C and automatic charging while in use.
Surprised to not see others comment on the terrible durability of these. Condensation (from normal use, not outdoor or gym) easily breaks these after a year or two. If not that, the twisting ribbon cable eventually breaks. Repairs are difficult and expensive and uncertain.
i'm sort of done with apple products for awhile. aside from apple silicon, the quality of hardware and software decisions seems to have been consistently dropping for quite some time. i regret buying the new iphone. i regret buying the new air pods. i don't regret buying a mac mini recently, but only because it's got an apple silicon processor.
No wireless lossless audio means these are a hard pass for me. I really expected Apple of all folks to figure that out since they engineer their entire stack, hardware to software, but they’re still just pushing the same bluetooth audio that my Airpods Pro 2’s consume (which are half the price and incredibly excellent). Sony’s LDAC is niche, but sounds objectively better to my ears than the AAC used on Apple’s kit when I opt to use my Walkman+XM4s.
As for wired listening? My XM4s sound okay wired in, and at home I’ve got critical-listening kit already. Adding a USB-C cable to the Max is not appealing given that 3.5mm already exists, USB-C cables are heavier than analog audio wires, and more corps block USB ports in general or mess with them in ways that corrupts the audio stack.
Give me wireless CD-quality audio and I’ll be a happy dinosaur. Until then, I have zero reason to upgrade what I currently have.
Yeah, at least for certain kinds of music. Don't get me wrong, I'm not soapboxing out here against folks who enjoy lossy music (my flatmates enjoy our local library transcoded to MP3s), nor am I going to praise-be the "high-res" audio movement. I just happened to have someone sit me down for a critical listening session on quality kit with a CD I had ripped before and my iPod with the MP3, and it was night and day to my ears.
Am I some golden-eared savant? Heck nah. I still listen to electronic mixes in shitty YouTube audio, because a lot of it isn't mastered in CD quality anyhow; I also enjoy leaning back with a good CD rip of classic rock or orchestral jams on my HD800s or my B&W 684s. I like the different experiences these setups offer, but my preference is always for lossless just as a matter of preservation regardless of whether I can hear it or not.
The H2 enables lossless audio over wireless. So this reads like a temporary limitation that software might solve down the road. But knowing Apple's track record for enabling features in partially dormant hardware ... I wouldn't buy these expecting that.
Given Apple's very recent track record on promising things and then watching them vanish into the ether - not to mention a lifetime being burned buying into future promises that never materialize ("MCE is the future of the entertainment experience!" (RIP in Win7), "CableCARD will free you from the tyranny of locked down hardware!" (RIP from the get-go), "Unfolded Circle 3 will finally support serial from the dock!") - means I don't buy on what it could do tomorrow, but what's on offer out of the box from day one.
Tired of accumulating scar tissue and burn marks in the name of shareholder value.
Could you point to where Apple claims that H2 enables lossless audio over wireless for the AirPods Max 2? I don’t see that claim on the spec sheet. What I see is this note:
“Ultra-low latency audio and Lossless Audio listening requires a wired USB‑C connection and compatible content from supported apps and services.”
So it doesn’t appear that lossless wireless is supported at all, even with Vision Pro.
While you nailed me on the subjectively vs objectively (early morning flub on my part), I'm going to respectfully push back on the "no audible difference between lossy and lossless" with a huge asterisk: it depends on the content, it depends on the mastering techniques, and it depends on the equipment, but there is a discernible difference in a lot of media between lossy and lossless audio, and that difference is easier to pick out by folks who take care of their hearing and listen on quality kit.
Which excludes 90% of the populace by default, and thus I never bought into the whole audiophile hype anyway. Let folks enjoy what they like, on the equipment they like. I ain't here to judge, just share.
Even though my Focal Bathys headphones are more expensive and have worse noise cancellation, I'm still sticking with them because the Airpods Max are so damn uncomfortable.
That surprised me... I buy every in-ear AirPods Pro without much deliberation, even the Pro 3 which measurably regressed on sound. The heart rate sensor and ANC bump were enough.
I say that to clarify: I wanted to want these.
But it's death by a thousand cuts. The weight alone I'd live with. The case I'd accept. No IP rating on something I'd like to wear outside.. fuck.. fine, annoying, moving on. But all of it together, at that price, with that much time to fix any of it? Hard pass.
I've gone for the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 instead. More expensive, noticeably worse ANC. But you can hear where the money went. The drivers, the feel, the fact that four hours in you've stopped thinking about them. It sounds like it was made by people who find audio interesting.
Apple used to feel like that.
Embarrassingly, it also has no IP rating: somewhat hilarious from a company in West Sussex, where "unexpected sunshine" makes the local news. And the ANC versus Sony is less a gap than a... uh "chasm".
The question I'd put to anyone in this thread still weighing it up: are you buying the best headphone, or the most convenient one? For in-ears those are the same answer. For over-ears, I'm not sure they are.
I feel like a salesman now, but yeah you can... they come with a straight through USB-C:USB-C cable (though it's super thick and seems rated to carry 60w and USB2.0 speeds according to my Treedix.. weird choice) and a USB-C to 3.5MM jack cable.
I have used Soundcore q20i for more than a year, and I'm sure the AirPods have a better sound and have a better noise cancelling, but the difference in price $549 and 30€ (as I bought them) is pretty insane, also my Soundcore q20i last much longer than 20h and the noise cancelling is already quite good.
Between this and the Apple Vision Pro, does Apple just have one dude in their testing labs with a really really powerful neck? What is Neck Guy’s name and when did he join? Does Neck Guy work in Cupertino or is he contracted?
... and a $25 pair of junk earbuds will do better in terms of "pairing and staying paired" if you are using iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows, Steam Deck, whatever.
Crazy to think Apple is now pricing their consumer headphones in the same segment as serious professional gear, they seems to cost more or less the same I paid for my "studio-grade" DT 1770 Pro.
Typical studio grade cans need studio grade equipment to drive them. No surprise if decently sounding headphones that already ship with tailored DAC, amplifier, ANC cost more than decent headphones for which you need to buy all that (and lug around if you travel).
Yet, with that taken into account, today the latest
DT 1770 Pro still cost over 20% more than the latest AirPods Max.
Considering Apple markets Max for audio work, they compete on the same turf. This makes Apple’s offer unusually cost effective, not the other way around. I think this can be attributed to their fragility and inferior sound quality relative to DT 1770 Pro (at the end of a decent signal chain).
Guess I'll be the contrarian on this one - I've got a pair of the Max's and love them. I use them primarily for watching movies and TV (I live in an apartment and am not a sociopath), and the "spatial audio" is incredibly good. Apple's got a "Sound" to their products that isn't neutral, but is very detailed and tends to disappear pretty quickly. Both the noise cancellation and the "transparent" mode are phenomenal. They're a bit buggy, yes, but not tangibly worse than any other bluetooth headphones I've owned. They're heavy, but I don't wear them outside - they're solely for home use. I'm personally excited to see these get a refresh.
Does anyone have experience with the Fairbuds and Fairbuds XL? I am DESPERATE to get off this Apple headphone bandwagon but need something reliable that will work with Apple devices. I'm generally extremely happy with Apple products but the headphones have been a money sink.
I’m someone who bought three generations of AirPods Pro, as well as an AirPods Max. All four devices have been absolute headaches.
The first AirPods Pro had the rattle‑gate issue. I was able to get it replaced under warranty, but it was a pain to deal with until the recall program came out.
Ok I chalked it up to a first gen product and I generally liked it when it worked so I decided to upgrade to the second generation because it offered more features and I hoped that it improved reliability.
I upgraded, and I immediately got the rattle‑gate problem again, this time right past the warranty period. There was no recall program for second gens, and when I went to the store they told me the headphones were damaged and I was out of luck.
I try to maintain these devices extremely carefully, but I guess my use of isopropyl alcohol to disinfect and clean them damaged the ANC microphone. I’ve never dropped the AirPods, yet they still failed.
While being super frustrated with the Pro 2 I ended up buying the pro 3 but reconsidered after what I was told about the status of the Pro 2 but I missed the return window by a few days. After these Pro 3 fail, I just don't want to give them any more money for headphones.
I saw the Airpods Max on sale for Black friday a while back so I gave them a try as I was getting ear issues wearing in ear devices for so long each day. While they are very comfortable, the ear caps are a pain to clean.
They absorb sweat and oils over time and do not make it easy for them to get released when cleaning with detergent and water. it’s a massive effort. Im scrubbing with a toothbrush to clean, disinfect and then extensively drying them with a heater. All of this is taking 1+ hour each 1-2 weeks.
I am someone who is trying to maintain all my equipment as much as possible and this "woven texture" feels great but is not great for maintenance lifestyle.
Luckily ive accepted that the cheapo 20$ ear caps on Amazon are good enough and I just toss old ear caps after they become too hard to clean and buy another replacement set. I also have to disassemble the headband and use a special cleaning solution I found on Amazon, which smells like its just laundry detergent to prevent the headband from darkening from regular skin oils.
Now I’m starting to get very occasional "tinny" type of rattling with ANC enabled, as other people have indicated here as well.
These damn things are too expensive to have all these stupid issues. I’m really desperate for something more repairable and maintainable than this junk.
I had a sennheiser wired unit before this and those things lasted years with the only replacement being the ear caps like once a year.
As it stands, I may have spent close to $1,000 on this over the years, and I am just sick and tired of it. They’re not bad products when they work, they’re absolutely GREAT when they work. But man, all this headache when they dont work is just ridiculous at this point.
There’s been a lot of grumbling about RTO at my work, and if it happens, these will be a day one purchase. I used to have some Bowers and Wilkins PX headphones that I liked, and my wife really loves her Bose QuietComfort, but the weird thing I detested about both of those is how seemingly every headphone manufacturer except Apple feels the needs to add voice feedback to your device? “Headphones connected” and whatnot. It just really messes with my vibes, man.
Also quite frankly I’d rather just not have to buy them and keep working from home. Listening to music using good speakers is an objectively superior experience.
My number two complaint about AirPods Pro is that decreasing the volume of system sounds doesn’t seem to do much. Every time the low battery message makes me jolt and is a bit deafening. It is nice that it’s has no vocal component, but it’s still quite annoying. Curious if anyone compared them to Max in this regard.
20 hours is low in this category. The Sony XM6s are 30h, the Bose QCs are ~24h. Sennheisers can do 40-50h. All with ANC on, the numbers are slightly higher with ANC off.
Sorry, Apple audio stuff, while really impressive audio quality has made me deaf. I’ll take bad to no engineered audio quality and keep what I have left of my hearing for conversations and nature. Rapid degradation in my sense of hearing.
Wild. I have been eagerly awaiting this refresh, but this doesn't address either of the main issues with the original AirPods Max:
1. Still just as heavy. The AirPods Max sound quite good, but they are very heavy, to the point of being fairly uncomfortable after listening for any longer amount of time. This release as the exact same weight as the originals (13.6 oz).
2. Still no off button/position. They stay partially on unless you put them in the awkward and useless "case", which means they're constantly out of power when you want to use them. There's even an obvious fix: the ear cups swivel flat, they could just make this the "power off" position. Solved. But they didn't, so presumably these still have the same problem. There's also no mention of magnetic charging via stand, which would be another way to help alleviate this problem.
If these were even a few ounces lighter and powered off properly, I would buy them for sure. Given this announcement, I guess I will look for something else to replace the old AirPods Max.
Personally the thing that really surprised me about mine was the amount of condense water builds up under the pads when I'm wearing it over a workday.
My noise cancelling started to go flaky until I stumbled upon that - after I've dried it off after every use and stopped using the "case" /store pads separately from headphone things improved a lot again.
It feels like a serious design issue, I'm really confused why so few people talk about it, but I guess it's because most are just casual users of the headphones with people only wearing it a few minutes a day... And the water only really build up when you're wearing it several hours without taking it off
As someone who has never seen these or paid attention to them I was thinking "how heavy could they possibly be?" Then I saw 13.6 oz and I was blown away. That's actually really heavy for headphones!
Lots of people equate weight with quality. Good for selling them in store, bad for actual use.
16 replies →
People wear them at work daily and it doesn’t seem to be a problem. One guy looks likes he’s Tier 3 support and uses them 8 hours a day 5 days a week for years.
People compliment my Jabra’s voice quality otherwise I would’ve switched already.
2 replies →
That’s 385g vs Bose QC45’s 240g (8.5oz).
It's heavy but not unheard of; my headphones weigh 14.8 oz and some of the heaviest I know of are something like 1.3 lbs!
Still though, I think this is just a case of Apple making them heavier purely for a premium feel.
1 reply →
Are you sure your AirPods Max have the latest firmware? This issue was addressed in an update right after the first version came out and people reported the issue you're describing:
If you set your AirPods Max down and leave them stationary for 5 minutes, they go into a low power mode to preserve battery charge. After 72 stationary hours out of the Smart Case, your AirPods Max go into a lower power mode that turns off Bluetooth and Find My to preserve battery charge further
[Archive link, as the latest Support doc doesn't have this wording any longer]
[0]https://web.archive.org/web/20210315052229/https://support.a...
I got excited there for a second — free fix for the most annoying problem with my headphones! But no, my AirPods Max have the latest firmware and still have this issue. Any time I leave them for more than a day, the battery is drained.
6 replies →
What does “down” and “stationary” mean? I put my Sony to random paces, mainly just throwing it into my backpack. Would that be considered as down and stationary? Would it be turned off if I’m on the move? In a car? On a bus?
1 reply →
It's still extremely odd that they don't just... turn off.. ever? Even the case marketing copy notes this:
> When stored in the soft, slim Smart Case, AirPods Max enter an ultra‑low‑power state.
3 replies →
They must have been utterly unusable on release then.
I have latest firmware and if I forget to place my Max's in their case they are at half power or less within a few days.
As such they get used a lot less than I would otherwise. One of my more wasteful purchases in the past few years.
That and the super annoying behavior where two floors away they decide to randomly pair with my Mac Studio when someone Slack Huddles me or whatever, then I need to fiddle with settings to get my airpods pro to connect instead.
This is coming from someone who thinks the Airpods Pro are downright magical in how well they work.
Could be because I also pair them with regular old Bluetooth from a PC in addition to the Apple ecosystem. The earbuds likely don't have the same issue because they inside a case and are fully turned off when not in use.
Sound quality honestly isn't that great either, but I suppose that's more inherent in headphones in general vs. speakers than anything to do with them specifically.
Thats 386,2 gram for the rest of the world.
386 grams, the extra 0.2 grams is not only irrelevant it's non existent because the process of converting from one measurement standard to another never increases the precision of the measurement.
Using 3 digits of precision also avoids being temped to use the rather niche ,2 convention when claiming to embrace a region as large as the rest of the world.
1 reply →
[flagged]
3 replies →
Might as well be 3862 grams considering how much they hurt to wear for any length of time. I was also hoping this update would improve the ergonomics, but no. Still too heavy and no mention of any improvements to the headband.
3 replies →
My two issues with the previous version (had two of them).
The noise cancellation was intentionally downgraded at a certain point. Because one pair worked until it also got an update.
Second issue is both stopped working. No idea why and both shortly after AppleCare ran out.
They are very expensive and it’s just not worth the risk.
Perception is at odds with quality sometimes. For headphones, lighter is better even though people often perceive denser objects as being of higher quality. This is why high-end headphones often contain a fair bit of plastic, but also make sparing use of light-weight metals such as magnesium in the places where strength is especially important.
These Airpods appear to have ear-cups made entirely of aluminum, which is an odd choice. Plastic cups are typically more than strong enough and aluminum is actually a fair bit denser than magnesium. That's a lot of weight for no good reason. Aluminum is a great material for some things, but Apple seems to be using it for everything even when its not appropriate.
I have similar problems. Half the time after not being used for a while they're dead. Even if I left them in their bra, WITH A POWER CABLE PLUGGED IN.
And then they just won't connect. Requiring searching how to reset them, then doing it, then they still might not connect.
It sucks because they noise cancelling is amazing and they sound fantastic... when they work.
I’ve been using AirPods Max since they first launched, and over the years I’ve tried several times to switch to Bose.
However, the Bose headphones just haven’t worked as smoothly for me from a software and integration standpoint. I tend to run into more glitches and small issues compared to the AirPods Max. I’m not sure whether that’s primarily a Bose issue or something related to Apple’s ecosystem, but my guess is that other high-end headphones probably face similar integration challenges when paired with an iPhone.
On the bright side, Max is very reliable.
I also have the AirPods Max and had the Bose QuietComfort Ultra, and it is hard to convey how effortless the Max are in comparison. The switching between devices is so seamless (if you are in the Apple ecosystem). The controls are also much easier to find and use.
The weight hasn't been an issue for me.
I feel that fit and comfort is an incredibly personal thing, but the weight was always fine for me - their design spreads it out pretty well.
The killer feature for me is the deep ear cups. All the Sony headphones touch my Dumbo-sized ears and get crazy warm, the APMs don’t.
Yeah despite being heavier I find the Airpods Max more comfortable to wear than my Sonys. Sony has shockingly shallow ear cups and do get much warmer and the headband is very narrow and barely padded. The Airpods Max ear cups are better and the headband is wide and mesh so spreads out the weight and it breathes too.
The one major downside to the Airpods Max is that they do not have an off button and the case is useless for throwing them in a duffel / backpack, as it doesn't protect the headband mesh at all. I have a 3rd party hardshell case for them but it is very unreliable in actually putting them in "ultralow power mode", so the battery drains.
1 reply →
I’ve been using my AirPod Max for hours for the past 2 years and never noticed they were “heavy”. I’m wondering now as I’ve never researched on headphones (I just buy simplicity from Apple, I’m not an audio sophisticated costumer) that was never brought out to me, so I haven’t even noticed.
The AirPods Max are excessively comfortable, even though they are heavy. Some (most?) lighter headphones are actually less comfortable because they do not “fit the head” so well (at least for me).
Caveat: after a while the mesh at the top starts to stretch, and then you get the two metal bands going straight into the head, and that hurts. And the worst part is: this mesh is not replaceable :( There are silicone band-aids that can be bought, but I would have very much preferred for a possibility of repair to exist…
I tested Apple, Sony and Bose and found the AirPods Max to be the most comfortable for long periods of time, for me. It depends on how well you adjust them and what bothers you the most about headphones.
It's kind of like standing desks; some people are able to go all day with it with the right setup and feel better than if they had sat. Others feel miserable after a few hours. Neither is wrong but they may not understand the other's experience, or what they might be doing differently that affects their results.
The 400g don’t bother me personally. I agree not being able to turn it off sucks, I switched to android for some time and it would just leave the pair on until the battery died. I think it’s basically a feature to force users to stay within the iOS ecosystem
> to the point of being fairly uncomfortable after listening for any longer amount of time.
#1 reason I use the Sony XM4/XM6. Sometimes I wonder if they intentionally do this to appeal to a younger crowd cause as an older person with neck issues it’s just not a very good product.
The audio quality of the Sonys is just as good but the comfort is a much better. I think I like the mic on the AirPods Max better but the mic on the MacBook I use in meetings works as well for meetings.
Reading #2 makes me sad. I had a pair of Bose for probably a decade and tried out Sony and the biggest complaint I have is the lack of a physical off button. The Sony have a known issue where it don’t detect that it’s off of your head and it’s not that obvious that the headphones are on or off. At least a few times a week I put them on in the morning and they have been on all night.
Sony WH 1000 XM4 and WH 1000 XM6 both have physical off buttons and I've also never had a problem with them not turning off due to inactivity. If I take my XM6 off and put them on the desk, they pause music/podcasts and will fully turn off after some minutes (like 15 minutes? not sure, but it's short enough that if I go eat lunch and come back, they turned off automatically).
I had that problem pop up with my Sony xm4s after a couple of years of use. Cleaned the lens on the inside of the left ear cup and they work perfectly again. Go to sleep, pause music, etc when I remove them.
I leave my AirPods Max sitting on my desk for weeks at a time outside of the case and the battery never drains. I just put mine on today after sitting on my desk for a week and they still had 99% charge.
Strange. Are they first gen or later? I did get the absolute first gen of these, so maybe it's a problem they couldn't fix in firmware? Or I just have a defective pair?
Same. I rarely use mine and find that they just about always still have battery. And even when they don't I'll just plug them in and go find something else to do for a few minutes and by the time I come back they are usable for hours. The talk about the power button is super strange to me.
Absolutely! I have both the AirPods Max and the Bose QC Ultra and even though my whole ecosystem is Apple, the QC Ultra is a lot more comfortable reliable on day to day usage. Comfort is due to weight, and reliability is the batter is predictably on the QC Ultra, but on the Max I never know if the battery went all down because I can't turn it off.
13.6 oz is 382 grams
They have direct feedback that many people return them bc they’re too heavy, and yet… It’s just Apple being stubborn. I guess it’s not a big enough problem for them, and they don’t care about losing the market. One must laugh.
not to mention if some loud noise happens they blow your ear out with noise cancelling in an attempt to balance it...
expected way more from a refresh tbh
You don’t like using the Apple Bra to put your headphones into a sleep mode?!
They're not out of power. They're just in some weird deep hibernation mode. Mine do this, too.
The work-around I use is to plug them in to the charging cable for a couple of seconds. They wake up, the green light comes on and everything is fine.
It's a strange problem, but it's not the specific problem you think it is.
They are indeed heavy for me too.
Apple clearly optimized for the "always ready" experience, but it does feel awkward that the intended workflow involves putting them in the case
Putting it in or out of the case is not that big of deal (for me). However, once you take them out of the case you need to put that case somewhere, and you can't use headphone stand that was just holding them. So now I need a space for them when I don't use them and when I do use them, and it can't be the same space (in my scenario).
Does it? I haven't used the case since I bought them and don't feel like I'm missing anything.
I held off buying the first version for exactly these two reasons. Will also "hold off" on buying these.
1. They have steel weights in them to make them that heavy so they feel more premium.
You’re thinking of Beats. And you’re still wrong because the Beats were knock-offs.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47403183
2 replies →
I don't understand how a pair of headphones can be $549 meanwhile the Macbook Neo is $599
The pricing on these always seemed a bit crazy to me, like the value is way off compared to other Apple products
Peripheral tech must have absurdly lucrative margins. I see it in my niche interests too. Cycling or golf gps are like hundreds of dollars. They are the same products they were 15 years ago: cheap lcd screen with a cheap gps radio and some severely underpowered cpu with noticable input lag. Designed to fall apart in a few years. Still same prices they always were, maybe they get away adding another $50 a year to the price on occasion. It is like they hit their price point and margin number and are perfectly happy making probably >60% markup on us who have no option otherwise. Yes we could potentially order prototypes trivially for cents a unit from same places in china the first party manufacturers go to, but minimum order is probably 1000 units.
That is literally the sole moat of these companies: minimum orders from china and the fact we can't spend the ad money they can to move that volume quickly. Not tech or offering a good deal. Just being there already with money and doing the inevitable. Being the more productive drug dealer quicker to move the kilo to the captured audience and bankrolled to get the next several and scale.
For cycling tech, if you're outside the US, check out Chinese manufacturers like iGPSport and Magene.
Picked up a spider-based power meter for around £290 and a big computer for £150. Both are great, and work just as well as their western counterparts costing significantly more.
Inflation calculator site says 45% inflation since 2011, USD.
2 replies →
Isn't this pricing pretty in line with other high end ANC headphones?
e.g. Bowers & Wilkins PX8 ($699), Focal Bathys ($849), Sony WH-1000XM6 ($399), Kef Mu7 ($399), Bose QC Ultra ($449)
That's not what they were saying and the same can be said for those listed. But that they can cost the same as a Macbook Neo which arguably has significantly more technology in it.
1 reply →
First off, $150 more isn't a small amount to be considered "in-line" with the others. That's roughly 40% more.
The difference is also Apple neither has the audio legacy of those companies nor the quality of those products to warrant that kind of premium. To Apple, it is just another market they can go after, but a lot of those companies built their entire foundations on audio. You are not going to convince me Apple is in the same category as the company that invented the Walkman and CDs.
Also, if you look into the teardown videos, it's really a cheap driver from China - all plastic, not even using aluminium for the basket, just literally hard-glued onto the body. It's not repairable nor eco-friendly. It's anti-consumer. Sony uses Aluminium housing for their drivers and they are the cheapest in the lot.
Weird response. He said "I don't understand how a pair of headphones can be $549" and you responded "here are some headphones that are priced at $549".
Yeah. We know. It's just hard to understand how anyone can value headphones at this price. It's lunacy.
10 replies →
Or Sennheiser momentum 4, 150 bucks and sound at least as good if not better, have absolutely huge battery compared to tiny apple one, more comfortable and generally work much better with non-apple ecosystem (also apparently they support multi-device pairing but I haven't used that one).
Don't pay the novelty price shortly after release, these go down quite a bit after introduction, ie last year Sony are basically the same device.
4 replies →
Different target markets. Audiophiles and wealth exhibitionists are much more willing to pay the large amount
Doubt audiophiles are really the target for the AirPods Max.
10 replies →
Sennheiser HD 800 S is $1700 and has been around for years. Or the Meze Elite Tungsten at $4,000 - if Apple can get 80/90% of the way there at $549, they'd be a steal for the right customer.
The quality x price curve is not linear. Expensive materials and engineering often produce only incremental quality improvements, if any. Sometimes the improvements are only cosmetic. So Apple's headphones would need to be a lot closer to the best of the best than 80-90% in order to justify their price.
1 reply →
Just buy the good ol' HD-600, or some sealed cans, or whatever fits your head the best and use an eq profile from AutoEq.
As said, different markets. If you look from the same perspective, the last iPhone I ordered is 3x the price of a last generation MacBook Air.
$549 is pretty reasonable if the headphone has the sound detail it's advertising. Given how AirPods Gen 3 sounds, I'm sure that thing sounds pretty amazing.
You’re comparing their top-end luxury product from one category to their entry-level basic product from another category.
Premium products usually have higher margins.
Exactly.
If you want Apple-quality headphones to go with your MacBook Neo, the USB-C Earpods are $19:
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/myqy3am/a/earpods-usb-c
One is a fashion item, another is an education focussed laptop. People will pay a lot of money for how things look.
I've struggled to understand how Loop earplugs cost $25+ when you can get actual music-playing earphones for less than $10.
You should see the price of noise cancelling aviation headsets. Bose are killing it.
Price and quantity go in pairs.
As long as a pair exists on the demand curve, Apple can charge that price.
And _STILL_ the Sony MDR's are still ~$100.
It does look strange when you compare it directly to a MacBook, but headphones are a weird category
Same could be said about the Vision Pro, much pricier than their mass market alternatives, while being in-line with high end professional gear.
a lot of non apple headphones cost more... and many don't even sound better...
Well, in the market segment of Bluetooth ANC headphones, there's not that much. Bowers & Wilkins and Focal come to mind, both audiophile luxury brands and similarily overpriced.
On the other hand, the flagship Sony is quite a bit less than AirPods Max.
4 replies →
You do, you just don't want to admit it because you think it may make you look ridiculous, but your intuition is correct - Apple sells tech jewelry.
Every single one of their products is overpriced to appear premium.
>Ultra-low latency audio and Lossless Audio listening requires a wired USB‑C connection and compatible content from supported apps and services. (5)
>(5) Ultra-low latency audio and Lossless Audio listening requires a wired USB‑C connection and compatible content from supported apps and services.
Soooooooo Apple, you gonna tell us which content, apps, and services are compatible?
On another note, it seems excessive that your marketing page for this product needs 22 footnotes, disclaimers, and legalese consisting of 1,252 words.
Most offerings (eg Apple Music) already has lossless audio for a while, as does Spotify, as it has been supported for the previous generation of AirPods Max already (ie this is not a new feature) and wirelessly on the AirPods Pro 2.
Why they don’t support it wirelessly on the AirPods Max 2, which should be a superior product to the AirPods Pro 2, is beyond me.
My AirPods Max 1 left a headband dent in my skull from how poor the quality of the headband was after more than a year of daily use. They also are super heavy and don't travel well at all.
Apple deciding that, on their 2nd refresh of these (after usb-c), they still aren't going to fix those fundamental issues is very frustrating for what feels like a very disproportionately expensive product (even by Apple standards).
I'm now a very happy QC Ultra 2 user. Can't recommend enough.
>My AirPods Max 1 left a headband dent in my skull from how poor the quality of the headband was after more than a year of daily use.
You should get checked out. No adult should have a dent put in their skull by headphones.
I hope that commenter was being hyperbolic. I have heard of headphones making visible impressions or “dents” in the soft tissue and msucle after long periods of use (Google Tyler1 headphone dent if you don’t believe me), but such a dent would disappear within minutes or hours. An actual deformation of the skull due to headphone-wearing would definitely be strange.
Yea I ran into the exact same issue. My workaround was buying a silicone band that wrapped around the top of the set to help as a sort of "2nd layer."
It isn't perfect, but it makes them wearable.
Pretty incredible oversight by a company that focuses so much on "design."
The bands sell pretty well on Amazon from what I can see so this isn't an isolated issue.
Interesting. Echoes the failure of the original Vision Pro knit headband, Version 2 of which is much better — but it took 2 years to appear!
1 reply →
I'm also a Bose QC user and I can't speak highly enough about them. Best piece of tech that I ever bought. Going on three years now and they are still like new. I have three very loud, rambunctious kids and they are a life-saver.
How easy is it to switch between devices? That was always the main draw of airpods for me.
A literal dent in your skull?
It’s not in the skull, it’s in the soft tissue on top of it. I’ve had the same dent after wearing them for a while, it comes out after a while.
13 replies →
Not the skull, but probably the scalp. Our scalp is made up of skin, fat, and muscle. When you press a rigid object against it for hours every day, that soft tissue temporarily compresses. It happens to my kid who wears headphones for gaming. It's the same mechanism that leaves red marks on your nose after wearing glasses, or grooves on your ankles after wearing tight socks. Wash your hair, give up on the headphones, and it'll return to normal.
The QC2 are about half the weight of the AirPods Max, and apparently the mesh in the AirPods Max band sags, and allows the metal bars to "dig in" to your scalp. Enough to cause irritation, but 400 or 500 grams resting on your head can't mess with an adult, developed skull.
Yeah. My bone grew around the two plastic pieces of the band because the mesh in the middle lost all of its springiness.
One day I felt my head and decided that I was switching as soon as a competitor refreshed.
3 replies →
"I found a GAMER DENT in my head..." https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rp7emJhjk5g
[dead]
I thought that any headphones would leave a dent in your head? At least that's been my experience, and I don't think my headphones are nearly as heavy as these things.
They will replace worn out fabric on the v1s with AppleCare. Have to send them in but it works.
I've traveled extensively with my AirPods Max. I just toss them in my backpack with whatever else is there and move on. They travel a lot better than my Bose ones did with the bulky case. I much prefer Apple's approach here.
You are wearing it wrong?
[dead]
I'll briefly join the chorus: AirPods Max were the worst value for money I've ever spent on a tech product.
But more interestingly: what happens at a company like Apple that leads them to not cancel this product and come up with something totally new? Is it that the success of their other products pulls this along so well that they are numb to this product being a dog? AirPods Pro (the earbuds) are a great product, so perhaps the headphones org just doesn't have to face the music?
> what happens at a company like Apple that leads them to not cancel this product and come up with something totally new
I'm in the suburbs of a middling Australian city, nothing special and not in particularly high socioeconomic areas
There is at least two people per bus wearing them (or at least very good comps), they're as common as Sony XM5 or XM6's and while they're not Airpods penetration, they're wildly popular for their pricepoint
I wish someone would find a way to take the wireless chips and battery out of thrown-away headphones and put them into a decent pair of headphones.
> so perhaps the headphones org just doesn't have to face the music?
Some people don't like anything in their ears. Some people have ear canals that don't work/aren't comfortable with "standard" tips. This is why headphones will always exist.
I agree it seems terrible value, but I see plenty of people wearing them on the street so it’s probably a commercial success just as a luxury product for people to flex with. While everyone else gets the AirPod pros.
Or Beats?
I owned a pair of the first gen AirPods Max. After a couple of months of usage, I began noticing a rattling inside the right earcup. I had never dropped them or exposed them to any sort of physical damage that could knock something loose. The rattling would happen every time I tilted my head in any direction. I had taken them to Apple Genius support in store 3 different times and 2 of those times the onsite tech agreed that there was a rattling sound. All 3 times they were sent to an Apple repair facility and they always came back with "cannot reproduce". I sold them on FB Marketplace for a deep discount, having alerted the potential buyer to the issue before I sold them to him. Never again will I purchase a set of AirPods.
All three pairs of AirPod Pros I've owned have had rattling issues that would reproduce when I physically moved/tilted my head. It's really annoying.
Yes, my AirPod Pros do this too, and I've found that the issue is due to a problem with the external microphones which are involved in active noise cancelling. In order to fix the problem I had to disable ANC, and use them like a pair of basic wireless headphones, which has been quite disappointing. I've found that basically any instance of dropping the headphones on a solid floor, even while in the case, will result in this rattling sound occurring.
1 reply →
Same here. Three pairs and all had this issue after some time. One of the pairs was a used one with the same problem.
This is exactly why I will never buy them at all again.
For the price that is insane.
Funny that something similar swore me off another brand’s headphones. The noise cancelling would amplify mechanical vibrations of the headphones, so much so that even eating with them on would cause a deafening bass. Walking with them on was also incredibly loud.
I sent them to support with a very good description of the problem, came back the same, “cannot reproduce”.
It seems support workers for both companies just connect them to an audio source and check if sound comes out relatively alright.
Prior to the third time going to Genius Bar, I was able to reach a senior manager for Apple repairs in a phone call to Apple Support. And even after asking him to take down a note on my incident to have the repair tech physically open the right ear can, they still came back with "cannot reproduce". There was either a screw loose in my brain or the headphones. Guess we'll never know which.
1 reply →
This is simply supply chain updates marketed as an upgrade, similar to how Apple's Vision Pro "2" was just their current chip line shoved into the same form factor.
It represents the company effectively forgetting about it as as a product line, but leveraging the latest chips to keep them selling, even in small quantities.
If they truly invested any amount into updating these things, they would reflect the many lessons learned from the 1.0 product. To have a 2.0's form be 1:1 with the 1.0 is lazy at best.
I bought the original AirPods Max when they came out a few years ago. They hurt my ears if I wear them for more than an hour or so and the software is garbage - constantly losing one channel or just failing to connect at all - to Apple devices.
Apple has not done enough to fix glitchy software problems, which continue to occur even on the latest AirPods Pro devices. I won’t touch the Max headphones until I start hearing that the software has been fixed.
Interesting: "Why Apple is the best place to buy AirPods." I've never seen them have a section for that.
It's slowly made less sense to buy directly from Apple in recent years. Not a criticism just an observation. I assumed Apple was simply okay with that and decided it was net better for them. Seems reasonable. There was a period not that long ago where you could only buy directly. And there still are some products that are seemingly only on sale at specific retailers—Homepods have for whatever reason never (rarely?) been sold on Amazon, but are at Best Buy. Often you'll see like the latest Airpods for sale cheaper on Amazon/Costco/Target/etc. immediately even before launch day. The whole Apple experience is nice in its own way and sometimes I suppose you get small but nice little dopamine hits buying directly or going to the nice stores and having someone walk you through stuff (if you need/like it) so there's reasons some people go direct. Simply saying there's less reason than before and so I'm surprised and curious as to how this little section of the website came to be.
Do they want that margin back? Do they want to fight a little bit to keep you in more parts of the chain (but I guess not to the point of restricting sales/inventory to themselves)? Is this just like one PM (measured on one KPI) fighting for a little web real estate (presumably against the PMs involved in the retail partner channels)?
I'm not buying another expensive AirPods from Apple until they have their story straight w.r.t battery health and battery repair that is cost-effective. I'm done wasting money on these only to have battery issues, clicking noises etc in less than 2 years of continuous use.
Irritating thing is how Apple hides bluetooth headphones pairing 2-3 clicks deeper than AirPods pairing – on iPhones and Apple TV.
Replacing the batteries on the Maxes is actually a fairly straightforward process (no adhesive melting required, just a screwdriver and a pry bar), and spare batteries can be purchased on Amazon or Ebay for around 50 USD. It's one of the better Apple products in that regard, very unlike the in-ear models.
Did that change with the Air Pod Max USB-C, because iFixit says you have to get past adhesive to get to the batteries, after you turn the specialized screws only a quarter turn, and then use a dental pick to separate the pieces after you heat the adhesive being careful not to melt other parts?
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/AirPods+Max+Teardown/139369
>The next round of frustration: adhesive. That's right, releasing the locks and/or removing the screws isn't enough. Out comes the heat gun, which must be wielded very carefully to avoid melting all this plastic.
Can you get replacement batteries from Apple? I would not want some no-name brand batteries so close to my ears.
> Irritating thing is how Apple hides bluetooth headphones pairing 2-3 clicks deeper than AirPods pairing – on iPhones and Apple TV.
Can't you just create a Shortcut on the iPhone to pair with whatever you want via bluetooth in a single tap? Or just edit the control center menu itself and add the Bluetooth button directly to the control center?
4 clicks from control centre on stock settings. Two if you add the Bluetooth widget into control centre. Swipe down control centre > Bluetooth > hey presto
As for ATV, yeah that thing is deep
Apple TV Bluetooth drives me insane. Congratulations to the psychologists and engineers at Apple who worked on making it so bad..
My (non apple) Bluetooth devices almost always need a manual connect step
I really don't understand how these are $549. As others have pointed out, some people say the head band is not great. Others say the sound is solid but not exceptional. What makes these worth that much when there are so many options?
They sound incredible (with Apple products), feel super premium, excel at noise cancelling and have really good mics.
I've tried Bose and Sony; in fact, I have two pairs of QC Ultras sitting in their boxes waiting to be sold. Neither sound as good, even after EQing them as close to the Harman curve as their software allows (with Apple products; I haven't tried them with AptX streaming) and both were slower at cancelling noise. The Bose headphones I tried got decent mics after an update, but they are still unreliable at times.
The Maxes are also heavy, but you don't feel it due to its being very nicely distributed across the head. I've seen scores of people run, walk, and work out in these. I even saw a child using them!
I can't stress how premium the Maxes feel. The cups, for example, don't deform even after hours and hours of wear (and sweat). Replacing them is trivial and they attach with magnets instead of adhesive and/or clips. The headphone band is also extremely strong; much stronger than it looks. They feel like $549. Meanwhile, Bose charges $499 for their QuietComfort Ultras with their slow noise cancelling processors (AirPods use Apple Silicon, which is unbeatable atm) and cheap, plastic body (though part of the headphone band has a chrome finish --- premium!)
All this said, Bose and Sony headphones are significantly easier to travel with, and they have power buttons. This was why I sold my AirPods Maxes the first go around (though I went back to them a year later for the reasons stated previously).
There are two kinds of Apple products - those they make for the mass market and those that are for Apple "enthusiasts".
Mass market Apple products may be expensive but they are still great value. Look at the $499/$599 Macbook Neo for a recent example, but this generally covers iPhones and other Macs, as well as Airpods, Apple Watch etc.
Then there are the $550 Airpods Max, $3500 Vision Pro, $600 storage upgrades, $700 CPU wheels, $230 "iPhone Pocket", $20 polishing cloth...
In the latter category there is no effort to actually compete on price or value, because it is made for people who will blindly buy anything with an Apple logo on it.
Apple should just sell them at Tiffany's at this price. Bundle them with diamond earrings.
I've tried basically all the noise cancelling headphones. This one has the best noise cancelling. If that's what you care about, you'd buy this.
>I really don't understand how these are $549.
H2 chip enables smart audio switching when paired with Apple account + other Apple products. This is a feature that many people find valuable.
What's new about this with the H2 chip?
My H1-chipped USB-C Airpods Max (OG) seem to switch seamlessly between my iphone, ipad, and macbook pro already.
1 reply →
But not 549 valuable. You get that on their much cheaper airpods. Also doesn't need h2 for that, even their older ones did it.
2 replies →
They are a luxury item, you are paying for the privilege of signaling you can afford $550 headphones. Generic black over-ear headphones could be $800, could be $80, useless for signaling. Doubly true in the context of a gift.
>They are a luxury item, you are paying for the privilege of signaling you can afford $550 headphones.
Plus they give juuuust enough features to cover for the true purpose and give you plausible deniability. Same as most luxury items. None truly give the value of the cost (Is a Ferrari 10x as fast as a GR86? Carry 10x as much stuff? Go 10x as far on the same gas load? Etc etc etc)
"Oh but there's nothing like the experience of driving a Ferrari!"
3 replies →
Maybe for some people. For me, they work perfectly and integrate with all my other Apple stuff (MBP, iphone, TV, iPad), everything just works. My stress levels demand it.
1 reply →
I assume Apple ecosystem integration and also they give off that "I bought an expensive Apple product" vibe that an iPhone or Macbook no longer do IMO.
As someone with an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and a Macbook, I never got into Apple's headphones. My Sony WH-something-4 that I bought refurbished 4 years ago are more than enough for me.
The AirPods Pro are the best earpods I've ever had for everyday use, and I've had a lot. I like some of the old beats headphones, but I also haven't had to replace the ones I bought ~5 or 10 years ago. The Sony WH-whatever I have are probably my favorite and most comfortable.
They just work. The integrated mic is clear and easy to use for daily standups. They connect to my work and personal laptop in a few seconds every time - I’m never left panicking right before a big meeting. Of course the audio quality, noise canceling, and battery life are world class, but that’s the case for their competitors too - the reason I coughed up the extra $150 for Apple headphones is because I know they’re going to fucking work exactly as advertised, no glitches or gimmicks.
This is Apple, my dude - the company that sells a glorified sock to carry your phone in for US $230.
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/11/introducing-iphone-po...
That’s all you have to understand.
I think people are mainly confused because the AirPod Pros are quite competitively priced compared to other higher end offerings. The Max are so far off the market that it doesn't seem to make any sense and it seems unlikely that apple couldn't make up for lost margins with higher volume. Maybe they just literally can't/don't want to produce many of the Max and price them accordingly.
I say this as someone who uses many Apple products, but still can't justify buying this. (I do have AirPods but have wanted headphones so I don't have to stick something into my ears)
If you try to understand this stuff outside the context of fashion, you'll go around in circles (as I did).
If you see this through the lens of "people will pay anything to signal various things to others" and "you can charge whatever the market will bear" then it all adds up.
You can buy three socks for the price of one set of casters.
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/mx572zm/a/apple-mac-pro-w...
1 reply →
Well, if you buy only one pair it does work really nicely with all Apple kit. So you get really nice cinematic sound from Apple TV (for my non-prosumer ears), and effortlessly can switch between phone, laptop etc. The sound is really good for video calls.
They just work.
I mean there are other pieces of kit that probably just work as well but with these you don't need to do market research.
It's surprising how non-trivial even _adequate_ sound is still in 2026 and that's what these are guaranteed to give in any situation IMHO.
If you have only one Apple device probably no selling point as such.
The Apple Beats Studio Pro should meet this reasoning for $170 (on Amazon, $350 on apple.com - guess that explains the AirPods Max pricing) & the battery lasts twice as long. I have 2 near my Apple TV just so everything plays nice together.
2 replies →
Yeah I basically don’t trust anyone but Apple for wireless audio because every time I’ve tried allegedly-good non-Apple Bluetooth audio devices, they’ve been a ton worse, so bad I ended up barely using them.
In this case these are more expensive than I’d pay for headphones, but that just means I won’t have any Bluetooth headphones in this form factor. Been down that road before, non-Apple was a frustrating waste of money.
I mean FFS my AirPods are worse on Windows and Linux than in the Apple ecosystem, but are still better than the non-Apple ones I’ve tried, even there. It’s not even just the home-field advantage.
1 reply →
> What makes these worth that much when there are so many options?
You want to be seen in public wearing this object
Because Apple
I bought the AirPods Max 1 but had to return them because they felt like a vice and were too heavy. I ended up going with the Sony wh-1000xm5, which are much lighter. My only complaint on the Sony is the earcups are not deep enough for my big ears.
I have the same issue with the shape of my ears not fitting any ANC headphones (and many larger over-ear ones). The only alternative to the APM I found that doesn't hurt after a few hours was the Sonos Ace. Which also have a price that hurts but at least they haven't broken yet while my APM kept breaking (and they're one of the few products where you can't infinitely renew Apple Care).
I had the xm6 but the combination of worse sound (for me at least) and shallow earcups which hurt my ears drove me back to airpods max
It's amusing to me how personal all this stuff is.
The XM5s were super uncomfortable to me (to the point I was relieved when they got stolen) and I ended up going back to Bose even though I liked the sound quality on the Sonys better.
Same experience. Everyone raved about the Sonys and so when my Bose died, I tried them out. I can't stand them! They're way less comfortable and have worse noise cancellation. The lack of buttons drives me crazy. And worst of all - when on flights, the noise cancellation will randomly stop working. Despite flights being one of the main reasons I purchase noise cancelling headphones.
https://github.com/jstilwell/MacAudioInputLocker
I maintain a fork of this app, which allows you to quickly set and lock your audio input device, so that they don't switch your audio input device to bluetooth as soon as you turn them on. Mostly because of the first gen of these headphones. They LOVED to keep the mic on at all times with no way to disable that behavior.
I assume it's the same with the second gen.
Oh I wish I knew about this before buying SoundSource. SoundSource is a decent app when it works but it causes my mic audio goes in an out with it and people complain.
Oh my god, where has this been. Is there any way you can make it work for 14.4? I desperately need this.
So is this like https://apps.kopiro.me/soundanchor/ ?
I can't believe they finally refreshed this after I just churned (after owning the v1 since launch), always happens! The old Airpods Max had an issue of these giant booms when it was going low power that just wrecked my eardrums - I feel like the apple ecosystem pull is pretty compelling, but I think torturing your users for enough time will get even the most loyal customers churn.
I've been enjoying the nothing headphones, I enjoy having an off button and ability to connect via wire to the device.
I wonder if you can buy a replacement headband yet, since they have a lifespan of about a year before the mesh collapses. Which probably happens because they are so god-damn heavy.
I really wish the audio technica headband style was more common, even they use it less now. The two winglets as the head contact are just so much more comfortable than literally any other configuration.
Has anyone done a teardown and figured out where all the gravity in these things comes from?
Do they brick less? I bought a pair for my husband and after a year they were bricked, apple support basically told him to buy a new one. I will never waste my money on the max line ever again.
Did you try putting them in the freezer for 20 minutes?
curious: why would this help?
3 replies →
Not to threadjack, but this is a question that I've had for a while and I've been looking for the right forum to ask: are there any "open source" earbuds? I would like to take a pair of earbuds and invert the noise-cancellation curve: basically, amplify any ambient noise (with filtering of course). My grandma (not in the US or EU) is hard of hearing, and the only options available to her are random Chinese junk. I would like to try this experiment, where I just invert the noise cancellation curve and make the ambient noise louder.
Pixel buds have this feature, it's called transparency mode. I use it for cycling so I'm still aware of my surroundings in traffic.
Lots of earbuds have transparency mode. I have Earfun Air Pro 4+ (which were big too big for my ears). They sound very good and have really good transparency mode. The company keeps releasing firmware updates every now and then.
Also got a nothing Ear. They are very comfy, and have very good sound. But transparency mode in those is awful. Other things are bad too.
1 reply →
Thank you! I was unaware of that mode. Does it amplify the sound a bit?
1 reply →
https://pine64.com/product/pinebuds-pro-open-firmware-capabl...
Is that not what a hearing aid is?
Why do they refuse to add an auto power-off? Like is there any upside to keeping the headphones draining battery when they can tell it's not being used?
“Lossless Audio and ultra‑low latency audio preserve every detail of the original recording when connecting AirPods Max 2 to your device via USB‑C”
Since the AirPods Pro 2 that were released last year got wireless lossless, this surprises me: I would have expected lossless without cable in the AirPods Max 2, to the point that I was waiting to buy them.
That’s a shame, as that would be a real differentiator compared to all other headphone manufacturers, wireless lossless audio.
New AirPods Max finally have lossless wired audio, which is pretty nice and makes them finally catch up with the Pros.
Does anyone have experience with obtaining a flatter frequency response from any AirPods, though? While maintaining the full power of noise cancellation.
My experience with Pros has always been that they exaggerate the bass. EQ settings available in Music are coarse, and I don’t know of any other way to control frequency response independently of the app that plays the sound.
I know they are not really best for critical audio work, but they are damn convenient.
Based on the wording AirPods Max 2 looks to have the same limitation as AirPods Max (USB C) where using the wired audio means the mic is not usable.
Really quite annoying from the "damn convenient" aspect as well.
If you're using Android there's global eq available (mostly). I use an app called wavelet that lets you search for your headphone model and download a pre-made profile.
iPhone users are kinda out of luck, but the autoeq database can show you how to set Music's equalizer to approximate a flat response
Apple added wired lossless audio last year when they moved to USB-C iirc
I see, I remember checking that they didn’t support high definition wireless codec but missed the part where they could do lossless over the wire last year.
Why can’t they squeeze in that codec, considering Pros have it for years and are a lot smaller?
Edit: apparently I was confusing AirPods Pros with Sony WH models, which have LDAC. I guess there is no chance Apple adopts LDAC, even in their large heavy cans.
2 replies →
> My experience with Pros has always been that they exaggerate the bass
Based on my experience, almost all consumer-grade headphones (in ear and headphones) seem to suffer from this, I'm guessing people tend to prefer bass-heavy over "not enough bass". Not until you start looking at headphones meant for studio-use does it seem to get closer to expected when it comes to the bass.
Research by Harmon suggests almost everyone, musicians and pros included, prefers exaggerated lows and highs over flat response. Check the "Harmon Curve"
And there is certainly a way for you to set system wide eq, see what AutoEq recommends.
A tangential question: What are the best bang per buck headphones these days (preferably wireless)? Not earbuds, but over-the-head headphones. Tell me your favorites.
(The internet is so polluted that I cannot find any reliable recommendation today so I'm doing a mini "ask HN" here.)
I found this forum last year https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php which opens the door up to a high number of lower cost manufacturers making very high quality products. although the forum audience (audiophiles) generally eschew wireless products and prefer open backed (loud for everyone else and no noise cancelling) headphones, there are all kinds of products discussed.
Audio Science Review is a tremendous resource. But dangerous from a time resource perspective. I choose my headphone amp (JDS Labs) after spending much time on that site.
My personal best bang-for-the-buck are the Yamaha Orthodynamic HP-1 headphones that I bought at an estate sale last year for $10 and paired with a JDS Labs amp for $100.
Audiophile headphones in the '70s cost $100-$200. That's like $600-$1200 in today's dollars. Are the AirPods "audiophile" level? Many people think so.
Senn HD 490 PRO is an amazing and extremely comfortable headphone that has very affordable 1st party replacement parts (pads, cables) to boot. These are the first ones I've been happy with from day one. But they are wired & open back.
Wireless:
- Top tier general: sennheiser Hbd 630
- good enough: sennheiser momentum 4 (affordable)
- good ANC and “bassy”: Sony xm5/xm6 (‘muddy’ for some)
- I like the Bose ANC profile: Bose QC2
All of them have bad microphones (worse than wired ear pods)
All of them have good to great ANC
All of them are wireless
If you need a good mic then get dedicated headset for calls. Otherwise settle for “ok”
I didn’t include bathys/marklevin cause the new senn 630 outplay them on all fronts.
> All of them have bad microphones (worse than wired ear pods)
Yeah this is why people just buy AirPods Max.
Best bang for the buck in terms of sound quality is probably the Hifiman HE400SE, which is less than $100, the AKG K701 and Sennheiser HD6XX, which are about $200. The catch is that you need a proper setup to drive them. But to be honest, getting the tuning you like that suits the music is more important.
HD6XX was too harsh in the highs for me. I think HD600s are tuned ever so slightly better.
Also base DACs from a MBP M1 (max) were fine to drive it for me. Both HD600/XX
I have had a pair of the Tozo HT3 for a few months now. Not the most comfortable cans ever, but as low as $30 for wireless + low latency mode + decent ANC is a pretty good deal IMO.
Another vote for the HT3. My wife and I have one each, and we are perfectly content with them — nice battery life, decent build quality, good connection to multiple (two?) sources.
The ANC is not in the same league as a $300 pair, but one certainly would not expect them to.
I don't know exactly how to measure bang for buck, but my Sony XM4s have been holding up well, sound good, are decently comfortable for a day's work, the battery life is good, etc.
They do have some annoyances like not always sleeping correctly when left connected to my laptop, but overall they are easy to recommend
Bose Quietcomfort (i have the 2nd gen ultra now but I've owned other models too) live up to their name for comfort. Very lightweight and the earcups are large enough that they don't pinch. They may not have the best ANC or featureset, but I enjoy mine immensely
any ANC soundcore (anker) headphones or TEMU if you fancy rolling the dice. A colleague got a clone of the Sony 1000xm4, they sounded and look very similar.
For all day online calls, Jabra evolve2 65 are hard to beat for the price.
I'm still a big fan of my Bowers & Wilkins px7.
What is your main use case?
Conference calls? Get soundcores.
Actual music? Buy proper open backs and a DAC.
Any thoughts on the Ploopy?
https://ploopy.co/headphones/
1 reply →
If you want to go cheap and don't want ANC (eg. open back headphones) then there's a lot of good reference/studio headphones around. I have a wired Audio Technica M40X for home use and a wireless pair of M20X for travel; both are great in a quieter environment.
The two sibling comments were good suggestions. I have Sony XM3s that have been going strong for 6 years, sound superb, and have IMHO better noise cancellation than Bose.
For my kids I got Anker Soundcores, and for the price they are astonishingly good.
Ignore the thing about open-backs though, I have some extremely high end Grado open-backs and barely use them. My primary hobby outside of work is making music and I have a dedicated studio at home with expensive sound damping / proofing - the only reason to ever wear the Grados is if I'm going to be wearing them for hours on end. Even then, the Sonys are comfortable enough that I've never reached a fatigue point in them.
[dead]
Only thing which bothers me about over-the-ear headphones is the hot climate. How are they in the hot climate of Singapore, where it's very humid?
The price gouging against Australians is sick on this one. should be 777 AUD. No other product in the lineup is gouging this hard. Seriously Tim.
i just bought airpods max a few months ago and i wear them constantly (autism), basically only taking them off for sleeping (sometimes i do end up laying in bed with them on). i initially found them uncomfortable after several hours due to my glasses, but it went away after a week. really love these, and my only complaint really has been the lack of adaptive mode (and the ANC was also a bit weak but less of an issue) so am glad to see both of these issues solved. am definitely going to get these and probably give this pair to my girlfriend.
Looking at this design, I'm getting strong vibes of:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_Multipla#/media/File:Fiat...
Issues with my AirPods Max 1:
* occasional deafening screatch when there's too much moisture. I'm surprised they didn't need to recall them over that
* occasional reboots when you move it a bit on your head.
Unfortunately in apple-manner they don't mention if such issues were resolved with this v2
The screech is produced by feedback in the noise canceling I think, happens if you lay on a pillow at the wrong angle also, never had it due to moisture myself.
You know what would be ground breaking from a company that prides itself on environmental sustainability? A replaceable battery. These headphones are all garbage once the lithium battery reaches end of life.
Yup, my Airpods Max don't hold a charge anymore. Right on time for me to buy the shiny new one!
Forgetting all technical benefits: people will always have opinions on headphones and it's rather fascinating that Apple owns the entire market for fashionable ones, despite there being nothing stopping outside players. They specifically acquired Beats for this reason to shore up that base, and so far no one has been able to make a dent in the celebrity or influencer space.
The only other pair I've seen treated that way is Nothing's Headphones - although the (maybe niche) musicians I've seen wearing them lean into y2k aesthetics, where Apple's products are more broadly appealing.
I think the Sony XM series is also competing there. At least based on what I see fashion influences wear.
The mesh in version one lasted just over 12 months.
Repair bill at Apple was 90% of the cost of a new pair.
Truly the worst built product I’ve bought from Apple.
Never again.
The worst built apple product is the HomePod.
It just sits there, with no one touching it. Suddenly, music randomly starts and stops playing. Take it into the Apple Store, they acknowledge it’s a known hardware defect to start registering non-existent touches, and they refuse to fix it. Offer to replace it with a refurb unit for like ~$20 less than a brand new unit.
Edit to add: the unit is less than 2 years old.
FWIW we use the minis all over our place and love'em. But we pretty much only ask basic questions or use them for airplay. Sounds quality is impressive imo.
I got sick of it, unplugged it, and left it for a few months, and ... apparently it fixed itself? Now it's working fine, as fine as any HomePod does.
The first thing I checked was if there's a better case. At this point I'm assuming it's a marketing move to have people just carry them openly on their neck at all times.
It's quite telling how dumb even Apple thinks the case is when you have to scroll pretty far down on the page and then pretty far to the right to see the so-called "Smart Case". It remains a pretty horrendous "case".
Waterfield makes a better case, it even has magnets that do what the smart case does
Is there any info on what codecs these support? They mention “lossless audio” without any extra detail, is this the new Bluetooth LE audio or something proprietary?
What I'd like to know is if there's still a bandwidth issue, where if you use the microphone, the audio quality downgrades severely.
That's because old bluetooth has two main modes A2DP which supports one direction high quality audio and HFP which supports microphones but sounds like shit. Bluetooth LE Audio is fairly new and supports high quality audio and mic at the same time. But as far as I'm aware, no Apple product supports it yet.
I'm looking to replace my worn-out Sony XM-3s and am wondering if the AirPods Max 2 could be a better option than the XM-6s. I've always liked Sony's audio quality and ANC, but felt the headphones were not as comfortable to wear while sleeping on airplanes than older Bose models I had prior (like the QC-2s and QC-3s.)
Can anyone with experience with either the AirPods Max 1s or XM-6s tell me what they feel like to sleep with on an airplane (business class with a lie flat bed?) Plane travel is my primary use-case for these type of headphones.
I've been using the AirPods Max 1s for the last five years and you should get the Sony XM-6s. The Apple AirPod Max sound great, bur are heavy and fairly uncomfortable on the head when worn for more than an hour or two. Furthermore, I experienced persistent wireless connectivity problems and eventually sent them back to Apple under warranty. They were replaced successfully, but with a different pair of the same model which had a worn out headband. Overall it's been a bad experience and I wish that I purchased the Sony XM-6s insead.
Comfort issues aside, these are still stupid expensive.
I can buy a laptop for that money.
It’s strange to me that they haven’t introduced a more budget friendly line to serve different segments, like most of their product categories. Headphones aren’t an experimental hobby product.
Where are my $200 budget pair?
You want Beats, which is owned by Apple. Your $200 budget pair is the Beats Solo 4: https://www.beatsbydre.com/headphones/solo4-wireless/MUW43/s...
Truly the Beats of our generation. Buy headphones from audio specialists, not Apple.
Apple knows its cookies when it comes to sound. I can say that as someone who uses proper HiFi systems and has played in orchestras.
Apple's R&D budget for a single product is larger than the entire audiophile industry, and they also actually know how to manufacture things.
If you have multiple apple devices, the seamless switching is the killer feature, for me anyway. My Bose headphones were absolutely abysmal at this, and it drove me mad.
My Pixel buds from Google have been pretty good since they support Bluetooth multipoint. I'd love to find some good headphones like Beats or the airpods, but Apple doesn't seem to support those standards, it only works with other Apple devices.
Apple headphones have better audio fidelity than you are giving them credit for. I have several different pairs of high-end studio headphones and expensive amps to drive them. The Apple Max, which I also own, frankly provides a cleaner reference than some of the classics. They are perfectly usable as reference headphones.
The built-in Apple audio DSP, amps, etc have surprisingly good fidelity. Much higher quality than you would expect from consumer hardware. They even provide high-impedance headphone jacks on their recent computers.
Honestly Apple's Airpods Pro and Airpods Max sound pretty great though, and I own several pairs of "audiophile" IEMs and headphones.
Will agree about Airpods Pro, but Max are a notch below the competition (Bose, Sony, Sennheiser).
2 replies →
Apple hardware sound is the best on the market (macbooks, ipad, etc.).
It is unwise to dismiss their prowess
Still pretty happy with my Homepods in Stereo
These earphones are not for people who appreciate good audio. They are for people who want more products in the Apple ecosystem and have lots of money to spend.
The Apple designer who designed them owns a music label and obviously appreciates good audio
The problem I have with these headphones (at least V1) is that the ear cups don't tilt horizontally. Maybe my ears are more angled backwards that most people's ears, but with theses headphones, the headband part sits really far back on my head. This creates a lot of pressure on only the back edge of headband.
Until they make the ear cups tilt horizontally, these will be a no-go for me. My ancient 10+ year old Bose QCs 35s can pivot and are a million times more comfortable.
if you buy a headphone same price as a laptop, that says something about you.
That you're not price sensitive about headphones, or that you're way too price sensitive about laptops.
I have a pair (gen 1). Sound good with my MBP, but with my phone (16 Pro Max), I've had intermittent skipping of the audio signal, which just shouldn't happen at that premium level.
What did Support say when you opened a case?
The Bluetooth chip & version in these won’t be the same one you have today, so there’s no guarantee that present experience will inform future experience (better or worse).
I haven't contacted support about it. It's a minor annoyance, and my Airpods Pro (both gen 2 and 3) have worked perfect with my phone.
Noise canceling headphones are absolutely a game changer. I work from home in a very noisy downtown apartment with poor soundproofing and I’d never get anything done without ANC. I haven’t had the chance to try the AirPods Max yet, but I do wonder how it compares to the Sony headphones.
Unfortunately ANC only works on some sounds. In the suburbs you have leafblowers and cars driving past you on the sidewalk, and ANC removes everything /else/ which makes them stand out even more.
Leaf blowers and cars driving past are exactly the kind of thing that ANC works well on, a fairly constant noise. It doesn’t block out other kinds of things well. At least it always seems to go that way for me, so I can’t relate to your comment at all. My experience seems exactly the opposite and I have trouble imagining it differently for anyone else, because it works well against a constant noise kind of in the bass range.
I've been wearing the Soundcore Space Q45 for 6 months. Good noise cancelling, comfortable headband, not too heavy and they cost...$99. I can't imagine these being worth 5x as much, even with the Apple tax.
My AirPods Max headphones are incredible. They sound amazing. They also squeeze my head so much that they hurt so I don't use them. Kinda sad, really. I'd use them at my desk every day if they were comfortable to wear.
I've had some headphones in the past where I stuck them over a slightly-bigger-than-my-head object when not wearing them to stretch them out over some time to alleviate this problem.
My experience with headphones:
Passive noise cancellation beats active hands down. (no weird air pressure, reliable, no need for batteries, less expensive) Analog and wired beats bluetooth if you care for sound quality, portable DACs are very good in 2026. Professionals are using BeyerDynamics and Sony headphones made for studios and almost unchanged since the 90s for good reasons.
The only good reason to opt for wireless is for practical reasons when you are running, and you want smaller models.
Also, this design is kind of ugly and dated.
Still no headphone jack ? Can't believe people are selling headset without that.
It's been a decade. Forget about it.
Am I the only one who just loves that we’re getting more color back into Apple products?
I absolutely hate noise. And so I loved AirPods Max. It was, I think the best noise cancelling money could buy and I’ve tried several of the Sony and Bose Headphones. Then funnily enough my AirPods Pro 3 completely smokes my AirPods Max. There are times when I literally can’t notice someone calling out my name, when I wear my pro 3 with ambient sounds, this never happened even with over the ear noise cancelling phones in the past. I have no idea what magic Apple used to pull this off and so my usage of AirPods Max has fallen to nil.
Now I wonder if AirPods Max 2 is even better than AirPods Pro 3 but we are soon reaching the point of diminishing returns. So to all kindred souls who hate noise, Pro 3 is probably good enough for your use cases!
I was about to buy the first one. Is it really worth the price? (I have AirPods Pro 2)
Depends on your use case, I need exceptional noise cancellation. These and Sony XM6's are top tier in that department. I would wait until they're $100 or more off on Amazon.
I had the Sony's but returned them after 3 days. I had this issue: https://corychu.medium.com/sony-wh-1000xm6-sound-terrible-wi... I went back to Apple.
No
try them out , there should be display models in your nearest tech store / apple store
still can't play doom on them
The headphones cost nearly as much as the MacBook (Neo).
Sony HH-1000XM6 are $500
Bose QC Ultra are $450
That is the market for premium BT headphones. There are way more expensive headphones out there.
But yeah it is notable that the Neo is cutting the legs out of the lower end laptop market to that degree.
Does anyone ever actually pay that for them, tho? I've got the QC Ultras; looks like they cost me 331 euro _with VAT_. Apple's RRP is usually the actual sale price, but IME the RRP for Bose stuff at least is generally pure fantasy, with actual prices being significantly lower.
EDIT: Currently they seem to be 350EUR inc VAT on Irish Amazon; Amazon is making it difficult for me to see the US price and I'm not interested enough to fight with it, but I'm guessing that there's a similar level of discount.
1 reply →
Here in Switzerland, Wh-1000XM6 are 349 CHF vs 499 CHF for the APM.
Nope, right now the price for both of them is around €389.
Get ready for Apple introducing the first Macbook with a headphone chip.
More than, considering Apple is willing to openly advertise Neo at $499 for education. The minimum-advertised-price on these won't ever drop below ~$529 for a hot minute.
20 hours of listening is surprisingly low --
sony xm6 -- 30h
bose qc ultra -- 24h
would recommend the sony anc headphones, they're quite good.
XM6 does not support audio over USB-C (The USB-C port on the XM6 is only for charging) QC Ultra 2 does, but the headphones turn off when plugged in and have to be turned back on while charging
AirPods Max with USB-C and AirPods Max 2 appear to be the only headphones among this group (XM6, QCUltra2, AirPods Max with USB-C, AirPods Max 2) that support both Audio over USB-C and automatic charging while in use.
They couldn't use a bigger battery because they needed that extra space for their profit margins.
From the wording it sounds like there will still be the annoyance of not having a mic if you're using lossless wired audio.
What's the latency on these like for music production?
$549 for consumer grade headphones, really?
Surprised to not see others comment on the terrible durability of these. Condensation (from normal use, not outdoor or gym) easily breaks these after a year or two. If not that, the twisting ribbon cable eventually breaks. Repairs are difficult and expensive and uncertain.
I bought two pairs that each lasted one year. I think this explains it.
New one will suffer the same exact issues.
i'm sort of done with apple products for awhile. aside from apple silicon, the quality of hardware and software decisions seems to have been consistently dropping for quite some time. i regret buying the new iphone. i regret buying the new air pods. i don't regret buying a mac mini recently, but only because it's got an apple silicon processor.
Still the weird case??
No wireless lossless audio means these are a hard pass for me. I really expected Apple of all folks to figure that out since they engineer their entire stack, hardware to software, but they’re still just pushing the same bluetooth audio that my Airpods Pro 2’s consume (which are half the price and incredibly excellent). Sony’s LDAC is niche, but sounds objectively better to my ears than the AAC used on Apple’s kit when I opt to use my Walkman+XM4s.
As for wired listening? My XM4s sound okay wired in, and at home I’ve got critical-listening kit already. Adding a USB-C cable to the Max is not appealing given that 3.5mm already exists, USB-C cables are heavier than analog audio wires, and more corps block USB ports in general or mess with them in ways that corrupts the audio stack.
Give me wireless CD-quality audio and I’ll be a happy dinosaur. Until then, I have zero reason to upgrade what I currently have.
So you're one of the few people who actually can consistently tell MP3 and lossless apart?
https://abx.digitalfeed.net/
Yeah, at least for certain kinds of music. Don't get me wrong, I'm not soapboxing out here against folks who enjoy lossy music (my flatmates enjoy our local library transcoded to MP3s), nor am I going to praise-be the "high-res" audio movement. I just happened to have someone sit me down for a critical listening session on quality kit with a CD I had ripped before and my iPod with the MP3, and it was night and day to my ears.
Am I some golden-eared savant? Heck nah. I still listen to electronic mixes in shitty YouTube audio, because a lot of it isn't mastered in CD quality anyhow; I also enjoy leaning back with a good CD rip of classic rock or orchestral jams on my HD800s or my B&W 684s. I like the different experiences these setups offer, but my preference is always for lossless just as a matter of preservation regardless of whether I can hear it or not.
Let folks enjoy what they like, how they like it.
The H2 enables lossless audio over wireless. So this reads like a temporary limitation that software might solve down the road. But knowing Apple's track record for enabling features in partially dormant hardware ... I wouldn't buy these expecting that.
Given Apple's very recent track record on promising things and then watching them vanish into the ether - not to mention a lifetime being burned buying into future promises that never materialize ("MCE is the future of the entertainment experience!" (RIP in Win7), "CableCARD will free you from the tyranny of locked down hardware!" (RIP from the get-go), "Unfolded Circle 3 will finally support serial from the dock!") - means I don't buy on what it could do tomorrow, but what's on offer out of the box from day one.
Tired of accumulating scar tissue and burn marks in the name of shareholder value.
Could you point to where Apple claims that H2 enables lossless audio over wireless for the AirPods Max 2? I don’t see that claim on the spec sheet. What I see is this note:
“Ultra-low latency audio and Lossless Audio listening requires a wired USB‑C connection and compatible content from supported apps and services.”
So it doesn’t appear that lossless wireless is supported at all, even with Vision Pro.
> The H2 enables lossless audio over wireless
But that's only with the Vision Pro, no?
I.e. very short and more or less consistent distance between transmitter and receiver.
but sounds objectively better to my ears
Subjectively. Objectively, there's no audible difference between lossy and lossless (at usual bitrates).
While you nailed me on the subjectively vs objectively (early morning flub on my part), I'm going to respectfully push back on the "no audible difference between lossy and lossless" with a huge asterisk: it depends on the content, it depends on the mastering techniques, and it depends on the equipment, but there is a discernible difference in a lot of media between lossy and lossless audio, and that difference is easier to pick out by folks who take care of their hearing and listen on quality kit.
Which excludes 90% of the populace by default, and thus I never bought into the whole audiophile hype anyway. Let folks enjoy what they like, on the equipment they like. I ain't here to judge, just share.
Even though my Focal Bathys headphones are more expensive and have worse noise cancellation, I'm still sticking with them because the Airpods Max are so damn uncomfortable.
Some more on announcement post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47398462
excited to buy the first gen second hand
> Up to 1.5x more Active Noise Cancellation than the previous generation
Does that mean 50% better, or 150% better? Sure does look like weasel words.
Yeah, wouldn't this be measured in decibels (dB) of attenuation, not percentages. Percentages of what?
The Max 2 finally arrived and I felt nothing.
That surprised me... I buy every in-ear AirPods Pro without much deliberation, even the Pro 3 which measurably regressed on sound. The heart rate sensor and ANC bump were enough.
I say that to clarify: I wanted to want these.
But it's death by a thousand cuts. The weight alone I'd live with. The case I'd accept. No IP rating on something I'd like to wear outside.. fuck.. fine, annoying, moving on. But all of it together, at that price, with that much time to fix any of it? Hard pass.
I've gone for the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 instead. More expensive, noticeably worse ANC. But you can hear where the money went. The drivers, the feel, the fact that four hours in you've stopped thinking about them. It sounds like it was made by people who find audio interesting.
Apple used to feel like that.
Embarrassingly, it also has no IP rating: somewhat hilarious from a company in West Sussex, where "unexpected sunshine" makes the local news. And the ANC versus Sony is less a gap than a... uh "chasm".
The question I'd put to anyone in this thread still weighing it up: are you buying the best headphone, or the most convenient one? For in-ears those are the same answer. For over-ears, I'm not sure they are.
> even with the Pro 3's having inferior sound quality
Then
> I decided to buy the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2
Have you seen its frequency response?
Yeah, but isn't that a deliberate tuning thing?
Much further away from Apples marketing as "best airpods yet" for an all-rounder product.
can you use them in wired mode?
I feel like a salesman now, but yeah you can... they come with a straight through USB-C:USB-C cable (though it's super thick and seems rated to carry 60w and USB2.0 speeds according to my Treedix.. weird choice) and a USB-C to 3.5MM jack cable.
I have used Soundcore q20i for more than a year, and I'm sure the AirPods have a better sound and have a better noise cancelling, but the difference in price $549 and 30€ (as I bought them) is pretty insane, also my Soundcore q20i last much longer than 20h and the noise cancelling is already quite good.
Edit: also has a proper cushion on the headband.
I like my wired headphones. Just like tube amps, they will never be outdated.
Hopefully they have fixed the issue with the silicone/elastic breaking down in the head band fabric.
Between this and the Apple Vision Pro, does Apple just have one dude in their testing labs with a really really powerful neck? What is Neck Guy’s name and when did he join? Does Neck Guy work in Cupertino or is he contracted?
Why is Hacker News posting about fashion trends?
I see they didn't fix the annoying design flaw where the ear cups click together and deface one another when you take them out of the case.
Never buying these again. Bought the 1st generation and they died just after the warranty expired.
That happened to me twice. So I went one more round than you and got the same result again. It seems more like an unreliable product than a fluke.
... and a $25 pair of junk earbuds will do better in terms of "pairing and staying paired" if you are using iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows, Steam Deck, whatever.
Crazy to think that they are now selling an entire Macbook for the price of these headphones.
Crazy to think Apple is now pricing their consumer headphones in the same segment as serious professional gear, they seems to cost more or less the same I paid for my "studio-grade" DT 1770 Pro.
Typical studio grade cans need studio grade equipment to drive them. No surprise if decently sounding headphones that already ship with tailored DAC, amplifier, ANC cost more than decent headphones for which you need to buy all that (and lug around if you travel).
Yet, with that taken into account, today the latest DT 1770 Pro still cost over 20% more than the latest AirPods Max.
Considering Apple markets Max for audio work, they compete on the same turf. This makes Apple’s offer unusually cost effective, not the other way around. I think this can be attributed to their fragility and inferior sound quality relative to DT 1770 Pro (at the end of a decent signal chain).
3 replies →
who's max?
Guess I'll be the contrarian on this one - I've got a pair of the Max's and love them. I use them primarily for watching movies and TV (I live in an apartment and am not a sociopath), and the "spatial audio" is incredibly good. Apple's got a "Sound" to their products that isn't neutral, but is very detailed and tends to disappear pretty quickly. Both the noise cancellation and the "transparent" mode are phenomenal. They're a bit buggy, yes, but not tangibly worse than any other bluetooth headphones I've owned. They're heavy, but I don't wear them outside - they're solely for home use. I'm personally excited to see these get a refresh.
Does anyone have experience with the Fairbuds and Fairbuds XL? I am DESPERATE to get off this Apple headphone bandwagon but need something reliable that will work with Apple devices. I'm generally extremely happy with Apple products but the headphones have been a money sink.
I’m someone who bought three generations of AirPods Pro, as well as an AirPods Max. All four devices have been absolute headaches.
The first AirPods Pro had the rattle‑gate issue. I was able to get it replaced under warranty, but it was a pain to deal with until the recall program came out.
Ok I chalked it up to a first gen product and I generally liked it when it worked so I decided to upgrade to the second generation because it offered more features and I hoped that it improved reliability.
I upgraded, and I immediately got the rattle‑gate problem again, this time right past the warranty period. There was no recall program for second gens, and when I went to the store they told me the headphones were damaged and I was out of luck.
I try to maintain these devices extremely carefully, but I guess my use of isopropyl alcohol to disinfect and clean them damaged the ANC microphone. I’ve never dropped the AirPods, yet they still failed.
While being super frustrated with the Pro 2 I ended up buying the pro 3 but reconsidered after what I was told about the status of the Pro 2 but I missed the return window by a few days. After these Pro 3 fail, I just don't want to give them any more money for headphones.
I saw the Airpods Max on sale for Black friday a while back so I gave them a try as I was getting ear issues wearing in ear devices for so long each day. While they are very comfortable, the ear caps are a pain to clean.
They absorb sweat and oils over time and do not make it easy for them to get released when cleaning with detergent and water. it’s a massive effort. Im scrubbing with a toothbrush to clean, disinfect and then extensively drying them with a heater. All of this is taking 1+ hour each 1-2 weeks.
I am someone who is trying to maintain all my equipment as much as possible and this "woven texture" feels great but is not great for maintenance lifestyle.
Luckily ive accepted that the cheapo 20$ ear caps on Amazon are good enough and I just toss old ear caps after they become too hard to clean and buy another replacement set. I also have to disassemble the headband and use a special cleaning solution I found on Amazon, which smells like its just laundry detergent to prevent the headband from darkening from regular skin oils.
Now I’m starting to get very occasional "tinny" type of rattling with ANC enabled, as other people have indicated here as well.
These damn things are too expensive to have all these stupid issues. I’m really desperate for something more repairable and maintainable than this junk.
I had a sennheiser wired unit before this and those things lasted years with the only replacement being the ear caps like once a year.
As it stands, I may have spent close to $1,000 on this over the years, and I am just sick and tired of it. They’re not bad products when they work, they’re absolutely GREAT when they work. But man, all this headache when they dont work is just ridiculous at this point.
They're one year old at this point, why is this news?
What was released last year was the same AirPods Max just with a USB-C port. This is a new generation.
ah, indeed, thank you.
[dead]
There’s been a lot of grumbling about RTO at my work, and if it happens, these will be a day one purchase. I used to have some Bowers and Wilkins PX headphones that I liked, and my wife really loves her Bose QuietComfort, but the weird thing I detested about both of those is how seemingly every headphone manufacturer except Apple feels the needs to add voice feedback to your device? “Headphones connected” and whatnot. It just really messes with my vibes, man.
Also quite frankly I’d rather just not have to buy them and keep working from home. Listening to music using good speakers is an objectively superior experience.
My number two complaint about AirPods Pro is that decreasing the volume of system sounds doesn’t seem to do much. Every time the low battery message makes me jolt and is a bit deafening. It is nice that it’s has no vocal component, but it’s still quite annoying. Curious if anyone compared them to Max in this regard.
To me they look like shit. I'm sure gen Z and Alpha will love it.
I'll be interested in seeing a review on specialized sites. The 20 hours of battery life is impressive.
20 hours is low in this category. The Sony XM6s are 30h, the Bose QCs are ~24h. Sennheisers can do 40-50h. All with ANC on, the numbers are slightly higher with ANC off.
I don’t know that it should be a generation specific thing. I’m a millennial, and I like their look.
For me its the first product that caused a sensation of instant repulsion. Which made me think I'm falling outside the target audience.
Strongly assume most tech marketing is focusing on the newer generations of impresionables.
1 reply →
All colors? As a Gen X graybeard I think they simultaneously look like Completely Generic Cans and Macaroons On Your Head.
At AU$999 here in Australia, I'm not so sure they will.
Wired headphones and earbuds seem to be having a moment as well.
Sorry, Apple audio stuff, while really impressive audio quality has made me deaf. I’ll take bad to no engineered audio quality and keep what I have left of my hearing for conversations and nature. Rapid degradation in my sense of hearing.
I don't understand. Are you blaming Apple for turning your volume up too high?