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Apple AirPods Max review

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The Apple AirPods Max come close to audio perfection, but will let down audiophiles and Android users.
[Update: There’s a new pair of AirPods on the block. The Apple AirPods 3 come with support for Spatial Audio, adaptive EQ, and a longer battery life than their predecessors. Not only that, but the 2019 AirPods have also been given a permanent price cut.] The Apple AirPods Max were the most hotly-anticipated headphones of 2020, having been the subject of rumor and speculation for two years. As the first Apple over-ear headphones, expectations were high, especially considering the success of the Apple AirPods and the AirPods Pro, which have quickly become the most easily-recognizable wireless earbuds available today. Since 2018, we’ve heard rumors that the AirPods Max would be the most advanced wireless headphones ever to be released, with speculation that they would come with futuristic features like air gestures that wouldn’t require you to touch the headphones at all to control them. If the AirPods Max had come with those game-changing specs, their $549 / £549 / AU$899 price tag may have been justified – unfortunately that’s not the case. In reality, the Apple AirPods Max are more ordinary than many expected; albeit with extraordinary audio quality and brilliant quality of life features for those already devoted to the Apple ecosystem. Let’s take a look at the positives first; the best thing about the AirPods Max is their sound, which is nothing short of outstanding. They can easily compete with the Sony WH-1000XM4 in this regard, with a wide, immersive soundstage and carefully balanced profile, with crisp trebles, smooth mids, and powerful bass frequencies. With high levels of detail and clarity, the AirPods Max reveal elements in your favorite songs that you may not have noticed before – and that’s the mark of a pair of really fantastic-sounding headphones. The active noise cancellation is also class-leading, sitting shoulder to shoulder with the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 – and the Transparency mode is undeniably handy when you need to quickly tap into your surroundings. The design, although divisive, is another win for Apple. With large, flat earcups crafted from hunks of stainless steel, the AirPods Max look unmistakably ‘Apple’, focussing on simplicity and functionality. They feel premium, more so than the Sony WH-1000XM4, which are largely made from plastic, though that stainless steel build does mean the AirPods Max are rather heavy. Apple has included a mesh headband that’s designed to reduce the pressure on your head during use, but there’s no escaping their density; if you’re particularly sensitive to on-head pressure, the AirPods Max may not be the right headphones for you. Saying that, we did find them comfortable enough during our tests, and we appreciate the use of physical controls as opposed to the voguish swipe controls that most wireless headphones seem to favor these days. We particularly liked the reprisal of the Apple Watch’s Digital Crown, which allows you to precisely adjust the volume and easily control your music playback. That’s the thing about the AirPods Max, and Apple products in general: they just work. Pairing is incredibly easy, we didn’t experience any annoying connection dropouts, and Apple has eschewed technology like swipe controls that it doesn’t deem good enough for its products for the sake of keeping up with the competition. One rather large design issue is the lack of a 3.5mm audio port; if you want to listen to music with a wired connection, or hook up the AirPods Max to an amp or DAC, you’ll have to shell out for a USB-C to 3.5mm audio port adaptor. That seems rather miserly when you consider the price – and if Apple wants to market these as a pair of premium headphones, the inability to use them with an amp straight out of the box is unfortunate. Another thing that will put off the audiophile crowd is the lack of support for Hi-Res Audio codecs, which is limited to Apple’s own Apple Digital Masters. It begs the question: Who are the Apple AirPods Max for? Despite their premium price and fantastic sound quality, they certainly haven’t been marketed towards audiophiles who want to eek out every last drop of audio fidelity from their headphones with the use of Hi-Res Audio codecs and amplifiers. Yet, their price means the AirPods Max are hardly a mass-market product either, as many casual music listeners will be unwilling to shell out so much for a pair of noise-cancelling headphones. The conclusion we’ve come to is that the AirPods Max are aimed squarely at Apple devotees; those who already have an iPhone, use Siri regularly, and have perhaps already invested in a pair of AirPods in the past. There are so many benefits open to Apple users that Android users aren’t privy to, including immersive Spatial Audio, the ability to automatically switch between iOS devices, one-tap setup, hands-free Siri activation, and Audio Sharing. For Android users, the AirPods Max are simply a high-performance pair of noise-cancelling headphones with an unusual design, as fantastic as they may sound – and for these users, we can’t see how the high price is justified. But, if you’re a card-carrying member of the wider Apple ecosystem, you have a lot of money to burn, and you don’t care about Hi-Res Audio, you won’t find headphones that sound better or are easier to use than the AirPods Max. [Update: The AirPods Max have been given a slew of upgrades, including Conversation Boost, the ability to announce notifications with Siri, and integration with Apple’s Find My Feature.] The Apple AirPods Max cost $549 / £549 / AU$899 and were officially released on December 15,2020. However, stock shortages mean you’ll struggle to get the AirPods Max before the end of 2020, whether you’re buying from the Apple Store or third-party retailers. That price makes the AirPods Max far more expensive than many of the best over-ear headphones on the market, including our current favorite cans, the Sony WH-1000XM4; anyone hoping for a budget-friendly price, as we saw with the recently-launched HomePod mini, will be disappointed. There are rumors that Apple is planning to release a cheaper, sports-friendly variant of the AirPods Max, but even then you can expect those to cost a pretty penny. After the price, the next biggest controversy surrounding the Apple AirPods Max is their design; they look quite unlike any other headphones on the market right now, with large flat earcups crafted from stainless steel, and a carrying case that’s instantly recognizable.

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