With a price that will make you cry iPhone-sized tears, the AirPods Max still feel like one of the best status symbols you can buy.
Apple’s AirPods Max came out 5 years ago. Feel old yet? I do, but that’s probably because, as my doctor has explained, I am deficient in vitamin D. Me being kind of old doesn’t help, either, but hey, who’s counting? (Me, I’m counting.) Enough about the deafening roar of my own mortality; let’s talk about AirPods Max.
When Apple’s AirPods Max were first unveiled exactly five years ago on Dec. 15, 2020, it marked a big step for the company. Sure, it had been churning out AirPods since 2016, but the AirPods Max were its first pair of over-ear wireless headphones (not counting Beats) that set a new expectation for sound quality and an unprecedented strain on your wallet along with it. In true Apple fashion, the over-ear cans debuted at $549, which is more expensive than any AirPods-branded product to date and well more than halfway to buying yourself a brand new iPhone 17. I’ll give you one guess what they cost now. If you guessed $549, congratulations, because the price hasn’t changed at all.
To be fair, Apple did update the AirPods Max last year, adding USB-C (thank God) and lossless audio support. It also added a few new colors. But I think we can all agree, no matter what a game-changer being able to charge your headphones with USB-C is, a substantive update this was not.
It’s wild to think that Apple could still be selling its 5-year-old AirPods Max for $549 in the ripe old year of 2025, but if you put a pair on right now, I think most would agree: overpriced or not, they still hold up. Because of the size and form factor of over-ear wireless headphones, AirPods Max brought a few of AirPods’ key features to the next level. One of those features is active noise cancellation (ANC). AirPods Max, like other over-ear wireless headphones, are great at cancelling noise, which is thanks to a couple of things.
One reason is software.
