AirPods Max (2020) [/]
Dec 05 2022
AirPods Max are high-end over-ear wireless headphones from Apple. The first version was released in Dec 2020 for $550 and I bought mine four months ago.
Build quality is pretty good. Metal earphones and arms attached to the central bar which is more of a mesh and hard plastic which allows your head to breathe more. Two controls on the right cup, a button/dial (for volume control) and a rectangular button (for noise cancellation mode). Each ear cup has its own processor.
With the latest OS updates you can connect the headphones to all your Apple devices, I have Mac, iPhone and iPad. Audio automatically switches -- when I start a video or audio on one device the headphones switch and the previous device pauses whatever you were watching or listening to.
For auto switching I think it needs to be an app where you focus your attention like video or web video or music. Don't think background audio affects it and games don't necessarily cause a switch if you're still watching a video or listening to music but does switch if you're not. It's actually a bit confusing at times and I don't have all the cases down.
Audio is very good. By themselves the ear cups muffle outside sounds well. Actually noise cancellation is excellent and really was able to cut down nearby construction noise from a level that's probably dangerous to fairly quiet though still there. For fans and such it pretty much silences them. There is also a transparency mode that makes external sounds louder (I was thinking it would just make it sound as if you didn't have the headphones on but no the sounds are quite loud even fan noises).
Fairly comfortable, not as much as the Beats Studio Pro. I can wear the headphone for a three or four hours or most of the day if I take like a ten minute break every hour. Battery life is claimed to be 20 hours with noise cancellation on and it does seem to be all day.
There's a built in mic and as far as I can tell everybody else hears me fine. I've asked and my friends didn't really notice a difference. And other people I've Zoomed with didn't seem to complain.
When it works they are great headphones and probably worth the price. But as the version one product I've had problems.
Sometimes the noise cancellation button activates randomly (not sure if this is the headphones doing it or the Mac/iOS device thinking it's being triggered). You set it to toggle between two of the three modes (off, noise cancellation, transparency) and I use the first two which are both usable (transparency is way loud as I mentioned) but whenever it switches there's a loud alert tone and sometimes it's switching back and forth every couple of seconds for like a minute.
The other annoying thing is sometimes the headphones refuse to connect to any device. Or they might connect but not play sounds. There is a way to power cycle the headphones which doesn't trigger when this happens. There is also a way to factory reset the headphones which also doesn't trigger. I have to leave them in their case charging for a day or more and then I can take them out and factory reset.
I do have a backup ear bud and a Beats Studio Pro wired headphones so it's not intolerably bad. Maybe the next version of AirPods Max will work better (and I tend to think it's the Max rather than the three devices it connects to). For now I'd have a hard time recommending them.
Build quality is pretty good. Metal earphones and arms attached to the central bar which is more of a mesh and hard plastic which allows your head to breathe more. Two controls on the right cup, a button/dial (for volume control) and a rectangular button (for noise cancellation mode). Each ear cup has its own processor.
With the latest OS updates you can connect the headphones to all your Apple devices, I have Mac, iPhone and iPad. Audio automatically switches -- when I start a video or audio on one device the headphones switch and the previous device pauses whatever you were watching or listening to.
For auto switching I think it needs to be an app where you focus your attention like video or web video or music. Don't think background audio affects it and games don't necessarily cause a switch if you're still watching a video or listening to music but does switch if you're not. It's actually a bit confusing at times and I don't have all the cases down.
Audio is very good. By themselves the ear cups muffle outside sounds well. Actually noise cancellation is excellent and really was able to cut down nearby construction noise from a level that's probably dangerous to fairly quiet though still there. For fans and such it pretty much silences them. There is also a transparency mode that makes external sounds louder (I was thinking it would just make it sound as if you didn't have the headphones on but no the sounds are quite loud even fan noises).
Fairly comfortable, not as much as the Beats Studio Pro. I can wear the headphone for a three or four hours or most of the day if I take like a ten minute break every hour. Battery life is claimed to be 20 hours with noise cancellation on and it does seem to be all day.
There's a built in mic and as far as I can tell everybody else hears me fine. I've asked and my friends didn't really notice a difference. And other people I've Zoomed with didn't seem to complain.
When it works they are great headphones and probably worth the price. But as the version one product I've had problems.
Sometimes the noise cancellation button activates randomly (not sure if this is the headphones doing it or the Mac/iOS device thinking it's being triggered). You set it to toggle between two of the three modes (off, noise cancellation, transparency) and I use the first two which are both usable (transparency is way loud as I mentioned) but whenever it switches there's a loud alert tone and sometimes it's switching back and forth every couple of seconds for like a minute.
The other annoying thing is sometimes the headphones refuse to connect to any device. Or they might connect but not play sounds. There is a way to power cycle the headphones which doesn't trigger when this happens. There is also a way to factory reset the headphones which also doesn't trigger. I have to leave them in their case charging for a day or more and then I can take them out and factory reset.
I do have a backup ear bud and a Beats Studio Pro wired headphones so it's not intolerably bad. Maybe the next version of AirPods Max will work better (and I tend to think it's the Max rather than the three devices it connects to). For now I'd have a hard time recommending them.