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Headphones · Apple AirPods Max

Apple AirPods Max AirPods Max 2

8owners with an opinion
50%of verdicts positive
4/4positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for noise and comfort; criticized for ease of use.

What owners wrote

Likes it
I have a pair and they’re fine for wearing when sat down. In fact they’re my preferred headphones for airplane journeys and noisy offices because the noise cancelling is top notch. However I tried to wear them one on a train commute and it was horrid. Walking around with them really isn’t fun precisely because of their weight. Every head movement feels like hard work and the headphones don’t even feel stable on your head during any movement due to the weight. So I end up owned two headphones (well, technically 3): 1. AirPod Max for focus time 2. Sennheiser earphones (in ear) for commuting / exercise workouts. 3. Sennheiser DJ cans for DJing, video streaming and other times when I need wired, zero latency, audio.
Likes it
It allows two devices to connect at the same time. I usually have my phone and my macbook hooked up to it all the time. Once in a while one of them will act badly and usurp full control over the bluetooth connection and I'll have to disconnect it. Super rare. For the most part the experience is seamless.
Doesn’t like it
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
Doesn’t like it
Yeah, no joke. For bald people like myself these headphones are unusable once the mesh stretches enough that the metal bands touch your skull. I could go 30 minutes before the discomfort made me have to take it off. No such issue with the WH-1000XM6, I can wear it the entire day.
Doesn’t like it
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).
Likes it
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.
Doesn’t like it
I noticed that behavior as well, but whenever I speak loudly with the headphones on. One remark to myself that's too loud, and suddenly pop and the noise cancellation is gone for like 10 seconds. Super annoying.
Doesn’t like itHasn’t owned it
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?
Doesn’t like itHasn’t owned it
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
Doesn’t like itHasn’t owned it
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.
Doesn’t like itHasn’t owned it
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.
Doesn’t like itHasn’t owned it
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
Likes itHasn’t owned it
> 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