AirPods Max unboxing and review
AirPods Max are here, and I can't believe it. These have been rumored for quite awhile, but of course they were rumored under the name of AirPods Studio, and when this name was finally announced, not only did people have a lot to say about the name, but they had even more to say about the price.
At $549, they're a pretty expensive pair of headphones, but are they worth it? Should we get this unboxing under way? Thought we would maybe go for something a little tiny today, just kidding. I don't even need a knife, do I?I'm so excited about this!
These come in five different colors, this is the space gray, there's also a silver a pink, a sky blue, and a green, basically the same exact colors as the new iPad Air.
I'm gonna set them right there and let's just see what's in here. I was hoping that they would have a matching lightning cable for each of the headphones, but they don't, it's just the basic Lightning 2USB-C. I do wish that the would've made these USB-C, but it kind of makes sense because all of the other AirPods in the AirPods family are all lightning, and the phone is lightning, makes sense.
The case is magnetic. It's kind of like the Smart Folio case on the iPad. This soft mesh, this kind of feels like the Home Pod covering, super soft. This is the first taking out of the case moment. There will never be another one after this. Oh, they're lightweight.
Okay, let's get these connected. You basically are just able to bring it next to each other and they should automatically connect, here we go! I'm so ready. They're connected, they're connected, here we go,
It's such a nice fit, like you don't even feel this sitting on your head. This is why they call it AirPods, because it feels like I'm floating on a freaking cloud. I need to listen to something right now. Transparency mode is on, and it's like so super clear, it's almost like I'm not even wearing these. I don't even feel this touching the top of my head. It's so wild. Okay, noise cancellation is now on.
So if you press the digital crown button, that activates Siri. I'm gonna turn up with the digital crown. Oh, it even has the little click sound that the Apple Watch makes. I have it so loud, like I think it's all the way up. I can't even, I actually can't hear my own voice right now.
You gotta put these on. Get over here, get over here. So you're probably gonna have to adjust this a little bit. I actually never even adjusted it yet. I was even listening to that over top of my hair.
I have them turned up all the way and I'm yelling, and I can't hear my voice, and it is perfectly, it's perfectly clear with no distortion at all. This is the loudest that I've ever heard.
I'm so in shock right now because I knew they were gonna be good and I am honestly, genuinely surprised. Oh my gosh, I can't believe that I can't hear myself. This is so weird.
They're incredibly comfortable, like I don't feel this on the top of my head. A lot of headphones, you'll be able to feel this pressure on the top of your head. Where I do feel most of the pressure, it's kind of interesting because it is sort of like right around the center but it's giving you that seal around your ear.
I still have transparency mode on and it sounds like I'm talking perfectly clear, but, there's nine microphones on here, did you know that? We're gonna get into the tech details. I wanted to do that before I do the test.
But now, I'm so shook, I can't even think straight. When they first announced this, obviously the AirPods are meant to be wireless but for me as an editor and for a lot of other people who do a lot of stuff where you need to have no latency in editing or in some type of music production, I need to be able to plug these in.
So this is their lightning to 3.5 millimeter audio jack. This is crazy because I still have the transparency mode on so I can kind of hear my hair rubbing on the microphone, but it sounds so perfectly clear that it's like I'm talking without these on.
And then when I lift this up, it automatically disconnects from my phone, and then as soon as I put it back on, I hear it again connecting to my phone. That's gonna be a real test because we'll be wearing these for like over an hour and a half.
The comfort level, anyway, there's so much more that I need to tell you about these. So the new AirPods Max have high fidelity audio with an Apple-designed 40-millimeter dynamic driver that will produce well-balanced sound across the entire audible range. These also have a pair of Apple H1 chip for computational audio that is capable of executing over nine billion operations per second to adapt the audio to the fit and seal of your ear. This is called Adaptive EQ. This actually measures the sound signal being delivered to your ear and will be able to adjust the low and mid frequencies in real time based on the fit and the seal around your ear, also taking into account glasses, hair, or even piercings.
So for the noise cancellation, they have eight microphones that are able to capture and cancel all of the unwanted noise. There's three outward-facing microphones on each ear cup and there's one on the inside that's able to listen to the sound of what your ears are hearing. So using that H1 chip, it's able to analyze the data and is able to create an equal and opposite sound that will then reduce the unwanted sound.
Transparency mode is something that is on almost all high-brand headphones at this point so this will allow you to turn off the noise cancellation so you'll be able to hear the world around you. You're able to turn this on or off on your iPhone, your Apple Watch, or even on the headphones directly with this button right here.
Spatial audio is also something that is very interesting, and they did announce this before and it is in the latest AirPods Pro with the latest iOS update, but I actually have not tried this yet, so this is gonna be so exciting, that I'm gonna be able to test out the spatial audio for the first time on the AirPods Pro Max.
So what this spatial audio is is it basically gives you a theater-like experience with dynamic head tracking, so the sound is always mapped directly to your content, so as you move your head, the accelerometer and the gyroscopes both in your AirPods, your iPhone, or your iPad will constantly be tracking and comparing the motion of your head to your device.
So Apple's obviously known for their attention to detail in design and I really love the look of these. So this is a stainless steel headband, and it has a mesh headrest and these memory foam ear cushions which magnetically attach to your AirPods and you can also mix and match these if you want to get an extra pair, so they're $65 a piece, so you can get them as a replacement or if you just want a different color.
The digital crown is a really nice feature which is pulled from the Apple Watch, and this lets you adjust the volume by turning the dial or push once to play, pause, or answer a call, twice to skip forward, three times to skip back, and then press hold for Siri. There's an optical sensor in each cup that will detect when it's placed on your head and positional sensors where the headband meets each ear cup that will be able to detect the movement and rotation.
There's also an additional ninth microphone that is used to enhance your voice during phone calls. So these have a 20-hour battery life and this smart case for storage. There's a built-in magnet that activates the case detect and the sensor in each ear cup so that it'll be able to place the AirPods Max into an ultra low-power state to preserve the battery.
I am honestly way more impressed than I thought I was gonna be because obviously, like I knew they were gonna be cool because they are incredibly expensive, but here's the thing, you're paying for what you're getting. It's crazy and totally beyond anything I expected.
Airpods Max review after 6 month usage.
The AirPods Max are Apple's premium wireless noise cancelling headphones and were released in late 2020.
When Apple came out with the AirPods Max priced at 549 dollars, I was really skeptical if the AirPods Max could justify that price but after using them for over the past six months, they not only surpassed my expectations from using previous headphones in terms of sound quality and noise cancellation, they’re hands down my favorite Apple product the company has released within the past few years.
So, let's dive into what make the AirPods Max such a great choice for wireless noise cancelling headphones, the best features, what are some of the downsides to using the AirPods Max, and who do I recommend them for? First let's talk design. The AirPods Max have a few design traits that make them very unique in the headphone space.
First, they're much heavier than a lot of over-the-ear headphones people may be accustomed to wearing, weighing a whopping 13.6 ounces or 384 grams versus 255 grams for the Bose 700s, for example. Now after using them for six months, is theweight as big of a deal as it seems when you first pick up your pair of AirPods Max and put them on? For me, no.
I got used to the AirPods Max's weight pretty quickly and Apple does a good job distributing the weight of the headphones with their band and ear cushion design and I've been able to wear these headphones comfortably for hours on end. The materials are breathable and I've never experienced any clamminess around my ears when I've worn them for a few hours.
Now, everyone's head shape and size is different so that could impact your experience with the AirPods Max, but for me they've been comfortable. And the weight has not been an issue. The only time I really noticed the weight of these headphones is when I put my head on a pillow with them on then I'll notice their weight a bit more. Another impression you get with these headphones is how solid and well-built they feel.
The aluminum material, telescoping mechanism to adjust the headband, the magnetic ear cushions and internal speaker hardware design, everything just feels solid, well-built, and built to last and should be easy to service which isn't always the case for Apple products.
Now the two predominant features that set these headphones apart from others out there is their sound and active noise cancellation. First let's talk about sound.
The marketing Apple uses for the AirPods Max talks high fidelity audio, low distortion, and computational audio with the H1 chips found in the headphones. So what does all that mean to the average user who just wants to pick up a pair of AirPods Max and listen to music on them? Well simply put, they sound fantastic.
Like you'll hear a lot of detail in the music that you listen to on them, you'll hear a lot of nice separation in the audio tracks that you listen to as well and overall, they're just the best sounding pair of headphones I have ever used and they're the most expensive pair of headphones I have also ever owned.
In general, compared to headphones like my Bose 700s, the AirPods Max have a clearer sound, they will give you a bit tighter base and they can also get that really nice low frequency booming base as well, which sounds great on these and it's very tight, it's it's not you know messy or anything like that. And you also get more separation in your music tracks as well.
So when you listen to music tracks that you've heard a lot on previous headphones or other sound equipment, you'll likely notice new details in those music tracks when listening to them on the AirPods Max, like for example, the plucking of guitar strings that sound like they're right behind your ears and I'm not talking about Dolby Atmos here, this is just in stereo, though the AirPods Max do also support Dolby Atmos as well. Overall the AirPods Max give you a really great listening experience. So much so they've become my default device for listening to music.
One unique experience you get with the AirPods Max when listening to audio compared to other headphones is spatial audio.
Spatial Audio is Apple's technology that decodes a Dolby Atmos signal and reproduces a feeling of surround sound just with two speakers. It makes movies and TV shows that support this feature sound incredible.
Spatial audio also combines Dolby Atmos with head tracking so say like if you were in a theater facing a screen and then turned your head to one side away from the screen, one of your ears facing the screen would receive more sound than the other ear facing away from the screen. The same feeling is achieved with spatial audio's head tracking. Now, another part of the AirPods Max's listening experience is the noise cancellation in the AirPods Max really shine here and have the best noise cancellation I've ever experienced.
I find that the AirPods Max block out more sound with their noise cancellation than other headphones that I've used previously and a perfect example of this is when I'm wearing my AirPods Max and unloading the dishwasher. I'm typically, you know, stacking dishes in a cabinet or placing silverware and a drawer and oftentimes they're clanks and loud noises associated with doing that task. And the AirPods Max, they block out those noises perfectly but other headphones like my Bose 700s, for example, they actually let some of the noise in and it can be rather loud and annoying.
The AirPods Max’s noise cancellation isn't adjustable like other headphones but also doesn't produce as intensive a pressure sensation that I get when turning my Bose 700s up to their max noise cancellation level. Like the AirPods Pro, the AirPods Max feature transparency mode which fades in the sound around you and is so good you may forget you're wearing something over your ears for a second.
Apple uses eight microphones around the device for its noise cancellation and transparency mode to accomplish this and I love that Apple has a dedicated button for transparency mode on the headphones. You can also enable the option to turn off noise cancellation in Bluetooth settings on an Apple device.
Now another thing that the AirPods Max use its mics for is phone calls and I found that these headphones work great for both phone and video calls.
Thanks to the iCloud device switching feature that the AirPods Max have like other Apple products, when you stop playing music on your iPhone for example, and then go on to an iPad to start a video your headphones will automatically start playing audio from your iPad without you having to do anything which is awesome.
If you have and Apple TV, they're also really easy to connect to by long pressing the TV button on your Apple TV remote and selecting AirPods Max from the AirPlay audio selector. And coming later in 2021, the Apple TV 4K will support spatial audio through the AirPods Max which will be an absolute killer feature if you want to watch something on your TV without disturbing others, but not sacrifice a surround sound experience.
Controlling music and media is another thing the AirPods Max excel at Apple brought over the digital crown they developed for the Apple Watch to the AirPods Max which allows you to do a few things. You can turn the knob to adjust volume and it's much more precise of an input than the touch controls I've used on other headphones. I've had issues with past headphones where they're not enough volume levels, so either what you're listening to is too soft or too loud and with the AirPods Max, I don't have that issue at all.
You can also click down on the digital crown once to play/pause media, twice to skip forward, and then three times to skip back. You can also press and hold to activate Siri or just say Siri’s trigger word for a hands-free Siri experience which has worked very well for me over the past six months. And if you have a lot of Apple devices in your home with Hey Siri activated like with HomePod Minis, iPads, etc, when you say the trigger word with your headphones on, your devices are smart enough to know to only answer on your headphones.
When you have your headphones on Siri will also announce things like when someone calls you while you're wearing your AirPods Max and Siri will ask you if you'd like to answer or decline the call and if you say answer, it'll immediately connect the call.The range on the AirPods Max is also great. I can stream audio from my Mac in my Bedroom and walk two rooms over to the kitchen without the connection dropping.
Battery life on the AirPods Max has been good but I wish it was maybe just a little better but that's more because I'm using these things for hours on end like every single day since I got them so I ended up charging them just every couple of days and it's not that big of a deal but I do find that you do typically get around 20 hours of battery life for listening as well as for phone and video calls. The only way to charge them is through the lightning port on the bottom and an LED light will turn green when they're finished charging.
If your battery level dips below 10% your Apple device will give you a notification to charge them which is nice the AirPods Max also have a quick charge feature which will give you 1.5 hours of listening time with just five minutes of charging the AirPods Max also feature ear detection, so when you take them off it'll automatically pause media and then when you put them back on again, it'll resume right where you left off. Another part of controlling any headphones is powering them on and off and with the AirPods Max, there's actually no power button.
You know at first, I thought it was weird with them not having a power button considering all the headphones I've owned before have had a power button, but now that I've used them for over the past six months, this is actually a feature I really like about them because you just take them out of the case and boom put them on and you don't have to worry about hitting a button or anything they just automatically turn on and connect to your devices, especially if you have multiple Apple devices they'll actually connect to at least think it's two simultaneously and then when you take them off you don't have to worry about hitting a power button to save battery, you just put them in a case and forget about it. It's really nice. And yes, let's talk about that case.
Now the case is not as bad as everyone made it out to be for users like me who are mainly going to use these headphones at home and at an office.The case is definitely a bit more form over function. It does stand out and is way more brand identifiable than the cases you get with a pair of both 700s, for example, which is very plain.
Now one use case where this case is probably not going to be adequate for you is when you're traveling or any of the other scenarios where you don't have a dedicated pocket or pouch in your bag just for these headphones, you just want to throw them in with a bunch of other loose stuff, then I would probably want a case that actually covers the entirety of the headphone not just what this case covers because you'll notice here it's still exposing part of the aluminum material on the headphones which can be prone to scratching if you've ever scratched a MacBook Pro you'll know what I'm talking about. So yeah, I definitely want a case that would cover the entirety of the headphone in that scenario. And luckily you can find several options on sites like Amazon that go for around 20 US dollars.
Another downside with the AirPods Max is the ear cushion replacement cost. That'll set you back 69 US dollars which, I think is a little pricey. Now after six months of use so far, I think my ear cushions have held up rather well, why don't really have much sign of wear, so I don't expect I'll need to replace them anytime soon.
And personally, I prefer this knit material that Apple uses with the AirPods Max over what other headphone manufacturers use which is typically some sort of synthetic leather. I find that that material just over time does not hold up as well as what I think the knit material will do in the months ahead in terms of durability.
Now the last downside that I want to point your attention to it's a minor one for me, but I do want to mention it is the lack of a lossless support over a wired connection with these headphones as well as a lack of a proprietary high-fi wireless codec for Bluetooth-like Sony's LDAC. The AirPods Max can't do pure lossless from an analog 3.5 millimeter jack source because the cord apple designed for them converts that analog signal to digital, so it'll sound really good but won't be completely lossless.
Now this might matter to some users out there but for me it does not matter at all because I have tried to do blind sound tests between an AAC file format and a lossless format and I could never guess which one was actually the higher quality format, so to me the lack of this feature doesn't matter as much. All right, and that's the AirPods Max.
So who do I recommend these headphones for?
I'd recommend them to any Apple user who is serious about sound quality and wants their music and media to sound fantastic, you want to listen to music, podcasts, watch TV shows, or movies on your iPad or iPhone or even on your Apple TV and not sacrifice on sound quality and that immersion of a surround sound experience. The AirPods Max offer the best sound experience the company currently offers and are also great for those who work in an office or travelers who want to block out noise and get some work done or listen to something.
They sound fantastic, are comfortable to wear for hours on end, effortlessly pair with Apple devices and automatically switch between them, give you spatial audio, and have a durable design that should last a long time. And while yes, they don't come without some quirks like with the case. Overall, when people ask me what headphones I recommend, the AirPods Max are at the top of my list.
Now while the AirPods Max do cost more than other offers from mainstream consumer headphone brands like Bose, Beats, and Sony, to me, they offer enough extra functionality to Apple users and superior controls and sound reproduction to justify that higher price. The AirPods Max retail for $549 US dollars and come in silver, space gray, sky blue, pink and green, and can be purchased at a variety of retailers.