Five Reasons Why You Might Want to Consider AirPods Max

Since the launch of the AirPods Max last week, we've done a couple of videos sharing a brief hands-on with Apple's new over-ear headphones and a comparison of them to other popular noise-cancelling headphones from Bose, Sony, and Sennheiser.

There's been a lot of debate about whether the ‌AirPods Max‌ are worth their $550 price tag, and value is always going to be something of a personal decision, so in our latest video we decided to look at five reasons why you might think about purchasing the new ‌AirPods Max‌.

Build/Comfort

For people who are going to spend quite a bit of time using headphones, comfort and build quality are obviously key factors in determining whether they're going to have a good experience with a particular set. Comfort is going to vary from person to person based on head shape, head size, and other factors, but we've found the ‌AirPods Max‌ to be incredibly comfortable.

airpods max reaons 4
The mesh ear cups offer a good seal while still allowing for some breathability that helps reduce sweating sometimes experience with other materials like leather. And if your ear cups wear out, the magnetic attachment system of the ‌AirPods Max‌ makes them incredibly easy to swap out.

‌AirPods Max‌ are made largely of metal, with aluminum ear cups and stainless steel telescoping arms, which gives them a quality feel that is pleasantly cool to the touch. Those metal part do mean, however, that the ‌AirPods Max‌ come in significantly heavier than many competing headphones, which may be an issue for some users. But we've found that the mesh headband does an excellent job of distributing that weight across the head for maximum comfort.

Noise Cancellation

One of the main reasons people buy over-ear headphones is for active noise cancellation (ANC), and we've found that the ‌AirPods Max‌ offer excellent capabilities in that regard. In our experience, it's difficult to hear anything from our surroundings while wearing the ‌AirPods Max‌ with ANC turned on.

airpods max reaons 1
You can of course turn off ANC if you want to be able to hear more around you, but there's also Transparency mode which keeps ANC on but pipes surrounding sound in, and we've found that it lets us hear just enough without being too much of a distraction.

Audio Quality

While the ‌AirPods Max‌ won't match high-quality wired headphones, we've been impressed with the sound the ‌AirPods Max‌ can deliver over Bluetooth. The sound profile of the ‌AirPods Max‌ is well-balanced and not overly aggressive toward either the highs or lows.

airpods max reaons 2
With H1 chips in each ear cup, the ‌AirPods Max‌ use computational audio to adjust what you're hearing in real-time, customizing it for the fit on your head and other factors. And while we don't recommend turning the volume up too high, we found that sound quality remains solid even at higher volume levels, offering a clear, distortionless sound.

H1 Chip

Speaking of those H1 chips, they deliver more than just good audio quality. They're also the key component that integrates the ‌AirPods Max‌ into the Apple ecosystem. Just like with AirPods and recent Beats headphones, the H1 chip supports easy pairing and seamless audio switching among devices linked to your iCloud account. If you're listening to music from your iPhone and then pick up your iPad to start watching a video, the ‌AirPods Max‌ can automatically switch over to begin playing the audio from your ‌iPad‌.

airpods max reaons 5
This is all customizable, of course, so you can select which devices you want to be able to take over as audio sources automatically, and even if you turn off automatic switching for a device, it takes just a couple of taps to manually switch over.

Spatial Audio

Finally, there's Spatial Audio, a new feature Apple recently rolled out to AirPods Pro and which is also included on ‌AirPods Max‌. Spatial Audio offers an immersive, 3D audio experience with compatible content, and while we initially thought it would be rather gimmicky, we were quickly proven wrong. It really has to be experienced to be believed, but it makes it feel like the audio is coming from all around you, yet anchored by the device you're watching the content on.

airpods max reaons 3
So if you're watching a show on Apple TV+ on your ‌iPad‌, for example, you'll get a surround-sound experience which is very nice on its own, but then if you turn your head or move your ‌iPad‌, the audio adjusts on the fly to match the relative orientation of your head and the ‌iPad‌. It's a remarkably good experience that will make you think your headphones have stopped working and that your ‌iPad‌ is blasting audio out of its own speakers.

Wrap-up

Those are our top five reasons why you might want to invest in ‌AirPods Max‌. Yes, their $550 price tag can be a bit hard to swallow when competitors are coming in at $350 or less, but if you're heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem, the combination of comfort, build quality, and features might be enough to tip the balance in favor of the ‌AirPods Max‌.

Were you able to get your hands on the ‌AirPods Max‌ before shipping dates slipped well into next year? Have you recently opted for a competing set of headphones after seeing what the ‌AirPods Max‌ had to offer? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Related Roundup: AirPods Max
Buyer's Guide: AirPods Max (Neutral)
Related Forum: AirPods

Top Rated Comments

dukebound85 Avatar
29 months ago
Reasons Not:
- Price
- Weight
- Other have better performance at cheaper prices
- Not able to turn off
- Case is useless
Score: 145 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PutTheFBackIn Avatar
29 months ago
5 reasons to consider it huh?

Well I have 550 reasons not to.
Score: 111 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Pangalactic Avatar
29 months ago
So, to sum it up:

- comfort is subjective
- noise cancellation at a great but worse than Sony WH1000-XM4 level
- Sound quality is bad FOR THE PRICE RANGE, and still doesn't beat cheaper headphones
- Switching audio between Apple devices, all right
- Spatial audio that WH1000 and many other cheaper headphones have

Add to that:
- heavyweight
- a terrible case
- never being able to turn them off
- lighting charging in 2020
- replaceable parts for half a kidney price

And that's just for $549! Sold!
Score: 85 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ilikewhey Avatar
29 months ago
I’m heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem, the combination of comfort, build quality, and features is not enough to tip the balance in favor of the AirPods Max. ?
Score: 49 Votes (Like | Disagree)
moabal Avatar
29 months ago
You forgot to add flexing to the list!
Score: 43 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple_Robert Avatar
29 months ago
The only reason is chick magnet. A lady sees you wearing your new metal cans with your Armani suit, and she will be as a Apple silicone case in your hand.
Score: 36 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iPhone 15 Pro Buttons CAD Leak

iPhone 15 Pro Leak Reveals Unified Volume Button and Mute Button

Monday March 20, 2023 8:33 am PDT by
As previously rumored, the next-generation iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will feature a unified volume button and a mute button, according to leaked CAD images shared in a video on the Chinese version of TikTok and posted to Twitter by ShrimpApplePro. Instead of separate buttons for volume up and volume down, the iPhone 15 Pro models are expected to have a single elongated button for...
iOS 16

iOS 16.4 for iPhone Nearing Launch With These 5 New Features

Monday March 20, 2023 11:50 am PDT by
Apple says iOS 16.4 is coming in the spring, which began this week. In his Sunday newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the update should be released "in the next three weeks or so," meaning a public release is likely in late March or early April. iOS 16.4 remains in beta testing and introduces a handful of new features and changes for the iPhone. Below, we have recapped five new features ...
voice isolation

iOS 16.4 Adds Voice Isolation for Cellular Phone Calls

Tuesday March 21, 2023 11:01 am PDT by
The iOS 16.4 update that is set to be released to the public in the near future includes voice isolation for cellular calls, according to notes that Apple shared today. Apple says that Voice Isolation will prioritize your voice and block out the ambient noise around you, making for clearer phone calls where you can better hear the person you're chatting with and vice versa. Voice...
original iphone auction

Factory-Sealed Original iPhone Sells for $55,000 at Auction

Friday March 17, 2023 1:08 pm PDT by
A first-generation iPhone still sealed inside its box sold for $54,904 at auction, which is more than $54,000 over the original $599 price tag of the device when it was released in 2007. The original iPhone was put up for sale by RR Auction on behalf of a former Apple employee who purchased it back when it first came out. Back in February, an original, sealed iPhone sold for over $63,000,...
airpodsd 3 purple 4

iOS 16.4 Seemingly References New AirPods and AirPods Case

Tuesday March 21, 2023 11:43 am PDT by
The iOS 16.4 release candidate version that was provided to developers today appears to hint at a new set of AirPods that could be coming in the near future. According to @aaronp613, the beta features references to AirPods that have a model number of A3048 and an AirPods case with a model number of A2968. There have been no rumors that new AirPods are on the horizon, and it is early for...
iOS 16

Apple Seeds Release Candidate Versions of iOS 16.4 and iPadOS 16.4 to Developers [Update: Public RC Available]

Tuesday March 21, 2023 10:25 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 16.4 and iPadOS 16.4 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming a week after the launch of the fourth betas. The RCs mark the final version of the software that will be provided to the public in the near future. Registered developers are able to download the iOS 16.4 and iPadOS 16.4 updates...
google bard

Google Opens Up Access to Bard AI Chatbot

Tuesday March 21, 2023 4:23 pm PDT by
Google today began allowing users to sign up to use Bard, its AI-powered chatbot that rivals Microsoft's Bing chatbot. First announced back in February, Bard is an experimental conversational AI service for Google Search. Those interested in Bard can join Google's waitlist to get access, and some users have reported getting invitation emails just hours after signing up. There are a long list ...
smart monitor m8 samsung

Deals: Samsung's iMac-Like Smart Monitor M8 Drops to Lowest Price of Year So Far With $250 Discount

Monday March 20, 2023 8:27 am PDT by
Samsung today kicked off a special "Discover Samsung" event, which will be a week-long savings event focusing on Samsung monitors, smartphones, TVs, appliances, and more. While some deals will stick around the entire week (through March 26), others will refresh every day. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Samsung. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small...