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!
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’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’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.
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.
I've worn these for multiple cross-country and transatlantic flights, and have not noticed them being too heavy for comfort, but that's definitely gonna be a personal thing.
>which means they're constantly out of power when you want to use them.
I have not found this to be a serious problem, assuming you put them in the case. Even out of the case, though, they keep a charge a while -- which I unfortunately know b/c I lost my case on a plane a while back.
I have the original model. I haven't seen a huge need to upgrade so far -- mine still work great, have excellent battery life, and so replacing them isn't on my radar. Honestly there's a real chance mine will hang on long enough be the last remaining Lightning-connector thing in our house.
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
It's a really strange update. Necessary, as the cheaper & smaller AirPods Pro had all these features for a while now.
But there aren't even new colors - the colors were released in a AirPods Max 1.1 release that changed to a USB-C port.
Even still, they are calling these "2". Which means the next update could be a few years out given this update was basically 6 years after the initial launch.
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.
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
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.
> 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.
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'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?
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.
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 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 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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
559 comments
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.
People compliment my Jabra’s voice quality otherwise I would’ve switched already.
Much prefer lighter Sony or Bose top of line
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...
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
I've worn these for multiple cross-country and transatlantic flights, and have not noticed them being too heavy for comfort, but that's definitely gonna be a personal thing.
>which means they're constantly out of power when you want to use them.
I have not found this to be a serious problem, assuming you put them in the case. Even out of the case, though, they keep a charge a while -- which I unfortunately know b/c I lost my case on a plane a while back.
I have the original model. I haven't seen a huge need to upgrade so far -- mine still work great, have excellent battery life, and so replacing them isn't on my radar. Honestly there's a real chance mine will hang on long enough be the last remaining Lightning-connector thing in our house.
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
But there aren't even new colors - the colors were released in a AirPods Max 1.1 release that changed to a USB-C port.
Even still, they are calling these "2". Which means the next update could be a few years out given this update was basically 6 years after the initial launch.
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.
> 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.
expected way more from a refresh tbh
The pricing on these always seemed a bit crazy to me, like the value is way off compared to other Apple products
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.
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?
>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.
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 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.
Irritating thing is how Apple hides bluetooth headphones pairing 2-3 clicks deeper than AirPods pairing – on iPhones and Apple TV.
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.
(The internet is so polluted that I cannot find any reliable recommendation today so I'm doing a mini "ask HN" here.)
I've been enjoying the nothing headphones, I enjoy having an off button and ability to connect via wire to the device.
Edit: also has a proper cushion on the headband.
* 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
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.