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 (Buy Now)
Related Forum: AirPods

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Friday July 4, 2025 1:05 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are just over two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Latest Rumors These rumors surfaced in June and July:Apple logo repositioned: Apple's logo may have a lower position on the back of the iPhone 17 Pro models, compared to previous...
Apple Watch Ultra Night Mode Screen

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Launching Later This Year With Two Key Upgrades

Wednesday July 2, 2025 1:13 pm PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 appears to be nearly over, and it is rumored to feature both satellite connectivity and 5G support. Apple Watch Ultra's existing Night Mode In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year with "significant" new features, including satellite connectivity, which would let you...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Max Battery Capacity Leaked

Thursday July 3, 2025 5:40 am PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature the biggest ever battery in an iPhone, according to the Weibo leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post, the leaker listed the battery capacities of the iPhone 11 Pro Max through to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and added that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature a battery capacity of 5,000mAh: iPhone 11 Pro Max: 3,969mAh iPhone 12 Pro Max: 3,687mAh...
airpods pro 2

AirPods Pro 3 to Help Maintain Apple's Place in Earbud Market Amid Increasing Low-Cost Competition

Thursday July 3, 2025 7:25 am PDT by
Apple's position as the dominant force in the global true wireless stereo (TWS) earbud market is expected to continue through 2025, according to Counterpoint Research. The forecast outlines a 3% year-over-year increase in global TWS unit shipments for 2025, signaling a transition from rapid growth to a more mature phase for the category. While Apple is set to remain the leading brand by...
iphone 16 pro models 1

Here's How the iPhone 17 Pro Max Will Compare to the iPhone 17 Pro

Saturday July 5, 2025 1:00 pm PDT by
Apple should unveil the iPhone 17 series in September, and there might be one bigger difference between the Pro and Pro Max models this year. As always, the Pro Max model will be larger than the Pro model:iPhone 17 Pro: 6.3-inch display iPhone 17 Pro Max: 6.9-inch displayGiven the Pro Max is physically larger than the Pro, it has more internal space, allowing for a larger battery and...
apple silicon mac lineup 2024 feature purple m5

Apple's Upcoming Macs Listed in New Report

Thursday July 3, 2025 9:09 am PDT by
AppleInsider's Marko Zivkovic today shared a list of alleged identifiers for future Mac models, which should roll out over the next year or so. The report does not reveal anything too surprising, but it does serve as further evidence that Apple is seemingly working on new models of every Mac, including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro. Apple is...

Top Rated Comments

dukebound85 Avatar
59 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
59 months ago
5 reasons to consider it huh?

Well I have 550 reasons not to.
Score: 111 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Pangalactic Avatar
59 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
59 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
59 months ago
You forgot to add flexing to the list!
Score: 43 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple_Robert Avatar
59 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)