AirPods Max: Should You Buy? Everything We Know
Apple in December 2020 surprised us with the AirPods Max, the long-rumored high-end over-ear headphones that had been in development for at least two years.
AirPods Max are the first Apple-branded over-ear headphones that Apple has designed. There have been similar over-ear headphones sold under the Beats brand, but the AirPods Max join the AirPods and AirPods Pro as an Apple audio accessory.
The AirPods Max feature oval-shaped ear cups with a U-shaped, inverted knit mesh headband and knit mesh ear cushions. The design of the headband allows it to evenly distribute weight and reduce on-head pressure, plus it has adjustable arms to fit a range of head sizes.
Ear cups attach to the headband through what Apple calls a “revolutionary mechanism” meant to balance and distribute pressure, and each ear cushion has been designed with acoustically engineered memory foam to create a seal for immersive sound.
Ear cushions attach to ear cups magnetically and are interchangeable, with Apple selling ear cushions on a standalone basis. AirPods Max come in five colors: silver, space gray, blue, pink, and green, all with matching ear cups.
At the top of one of the AirPods Max ear cups, there’s an Apple Watch-inspired Digital Crown that provides precise volume controls and gestures for playing/pausing audio, skipping tracks, answering/ending phone calls, and activating Siri.
To provide excellent sound quality, the AirPods Max are equipped with a 40mm Apple-designed dynamic driver. Apple says the AirPods Max deliver deep bass, accurate mid-ranges, and crisp, clean high-frequency extensions. With a dual neodymium ring magnet motor, AirPods Max maintain a harmonic distortion of less than 1 percent across the audible range, even at max volume.
Like the AirPods, the AirPods Max are equipped with two Apple H1 chips that provide high quality sound thanks to the 10 cores that power computational audio capabilities.
AirPods Max feature Active Noise Cancellation technology and the same Transparency mode, Adaptive EQ, and spatial audio features that were in the original AirPods Pro.
Active Noise Cancellation works through three outward-facing microphones on each ear cup that detect environmental noise, along with a microphone inside each ear cup to monitor the sound reaching the listener’s ear. Apple’s software adapts the noise cancellation to the environment in real-time.
Transparency mode allows outside sounds to still be heard even with ANC turned on, while Adaptive EQ adjusts the sound to the fit and seal of the ear cushions by measuring the sound signal and adjusting it in real-time. Spatial audio uses dynamic head tracking to place sounds anywhere in space for an immersive, theater-like experience.
All of the devices in the AirPods family feature automatic device swapping on any device where the user is signed into their iCloud account, along with quick pairing, Siri access, and audio sharing. AirPods Max have optical sensors to detect when they’re on a user’s head.
When put on, AirPods Max can play audio, and when removed, the action pauses the AirPods audio. The aforementioned microphones allow for clear phone calls and ensure that Siri hears user commands even when music is playing.
AirPods Max have a battery that lasts for up to 20 hours for listening to music, talking on the phone, or watching movies with Active Noise Cancellation enabled and the volume set to 50 percent. For charging, Apple provides a Smart Case made out of a soft material that puts AirPods Max in an ultralow-power state to preserve battery charge when not in use. AirPods Max charge using Lightning, and a five-minute charge provides 1.5 hours of listening time.
Apple sells AirPods Max for $549, and at least iOS 14.3, iPadOS 14.3, macOS Big Sur 11.1, watchOS 7.2, and tvOS 14.3 are required to use the headphones.
Apple regularly updates the software that runs on the AirPods. The current firmware is version 5E133, released in April 2023.
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