Comment by StefanKarpinski
14 hours ago
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.
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.
I remember a teardown where weights were taped inside. I think it was a beats headphone.
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The weight is sign of reliability
-Boris the bullet dodger
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.
Sure, plenty of people also wear a 14 oz hard hat strapped to their head all day with no negative health impacts. Doesn't mean it's enjoyable or comfortable for everyone.
I used to wear them daily and I didn't like it. Noise cancellation was important for me, but they were really heavy.
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.
Can you name the models? I'd be curious to know.
I know my way around premium wireless headphones and I'd wager most of them within that price range are somewhere between 250 and 320 grams (like 8.8 oz to 11 oz).
Did those headphones have a band over the top?
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.
Interesting notion, but how do you know it's 13.6 and not 13.600?
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You're too high by a power of 10.
No it’s not?
On a planet with 10g gravity.
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.
I think you'd find quite a difference between 386,2 g and 3862 g, especially when wearing it on your head.
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I had the same reaction to the originals. They just hurt! One of my kids swiped them and I never used them again: I wanted to like them but they were almost as uncomfortable as my Vision Pro
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.
That doesn't sound right. I have them on my desk. Don't even know where the bra case is. I use and charge them only once in a blue moon, perhaps every 2 months, and the battery does not die. I don't lay them flat or anything either.
Like others here, I don’t have this problem. I often leave them in my backpack for weeks between airplane flights, etc.
Try hard reset (long press (~15s) both buttons).
I know I have had this issue and did not have it after reset. Though I do have another annoying, and seemingly unique issue: sometimes, when adjusting the position of the headphone, they do a “click” (and a loud one), and just shut down. After a few seconds, they boot up again.
The farthest from the last reset, the more often it happens. I have no idea why.
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Have you reset your AirPods Max by holding down the non circular button until it starts blinking white and then reconnecting?
There have been times where the AirPods Max have sort of crashed, and I cannot get them to connect properly. I find that forgetting the AirPods in the phone/computer and then resetting them by holding down the button allows them to start fresh with a new state. Maybe that can help resolve the issue for you. But Im constantly switching them between three nearby devices so maybe thats why I have this problem. Just throwing it out there in case you haven't tried a reset.
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?
I mean, I regularly leave them on a shelf in my apartment and they apparently do not consider that "down" or "stationary" enough to not just drain the battery completely. Truly a bafflingly bad design from the company that is (was) known for great hardware design.
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.
Perhaps for Find My/UWB support?
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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.
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.
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
Yeah, between the weight, no real power‑off, they feel like way too much hassle for something this expensive. Kinda wild that this "refresh" doesn’t really fix any of that
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.
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.
The AirPods Max are the most comfortable headphones I've ever worn. My head and my ears are both significantly larger than average and they are the only ones that don't squash my ears. I keep the Apple bra on it, inside a 3rd-party hard case, and it never runs down on its own. The battery is still healthy five years later. It's the last surviving Lightning connector in our household, and I might keep them for another five years.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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?!
13.6 oz is 382 grams
> 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.
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.
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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
My mistake. Nice catch.
That being said, AirPods use a steel frame construction to get the weight up for the same reason. There's a whole thing with weight in neuromarketing for luxury and luxury-adjacent products. There's fringe benefits acoustically to using it, around resonance mainly, but mostly it's to get weight and influence perception. Same reason as the knock-offs, different mechanism.
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