Apple AirPods Max Wireless Headphones Review

The Apple AirPods Max have a refined and minimalist design that reflects their premium status and high-end materials. The ear cups have a sleek aluminum cover with a satin finish, and the headband is wrapped in athletic knit webbing, which adds texture to the look. They come in several colors to better suit your style: 'Space Gray,' 'Sky Blue,' 'Green,' 'Pink,' and 'Silver.' The 2024 model update with a USB-C port (instead of a Lightning port) come in 'Purple,' 'Blue,' 'Midnight,' 'Starlight,' and 'Orange.' While the magnetic ear cushions will match the rest of the headphones' color scheme by default, you can also buy additional cushions from Apple separately if you prefer to mix and match colors.

They're decently comfortable. Although lighter than the hefty Dyson Zone Wireless, they still feel heavy overall. The headband doesn't distribute the weight well, and depending on your head shape, the metal frame can put pressure on your head. They also have a high clamping force, which can be fatiguing and cause you to take breaks during long listening sessions. On the upside, the ear cups have replaceable plush padding, so if it gets worn down, it's easy to swap out.

They have very good controls. There are only two buttons found on the right ear cup's top side, and registering commands is very easy. They have a unique Digital Crown, which acts as both a knob and button. It makes a clicking sound when you adjust the volume. There are audible beeps to indicate when you're connected or disconnected from a device. Unfortunately, when you press the crown, it doesn't give any feedback. The headphones also lack a power on/off button, which is a little disappointing. Instead, they go into a low-power standby mode.

The digital crown has the following functions:

• When turned: Adjusts volume.
• One press: Plays or pauses audio. Also answers calls. As of Firmware 6A300, you can use this command to mute and unmute the mic when on a call.
• Double press: Skips the track forward. Also ends a call.
• Triple press: Skips the track backward.
• Press and hold: Activates Siri.

There's also a button that offers the following controls:

• One press: Allows you to cycle between ANC on, ambient mode, and ANC off.
• Press and hold: Enters pairing mode.

The Apple AirPods Max have a passably breathable design. Due to their over-ear design, they trap some heat, which can become uncomfortable over time. It won't be too noticeable while working at your desk, though. While they can make your ears especially warm if you're wearing them while working out, they aren't designed for this purpose.

The Apple AirPods Max aren't the most portable. They're bulky and don't fold into a more compact format. While they come with a carrying case, it doesn't make them easier to take with you on the go.

Their carrying case is more of a sleeve that only fits over the two ear cups, leaving the headband unprotected. This is by design, as you can use the headband as a carrying handle. There are magnets near the inside of the case that automatically put the headphones into a low-power sleep mode.

The Apple AirPods Max's build quality is great. Compared to other premium headphones like the Bose QuietComfort 35 II/QC35 II Wireless 2018 or the Sony WH-1000XM4 Wireless, which are both made from hard plastic, the Apple are made with premium materials and have an aluminum exterior with a metal and silicone headband. However, these materials have different pros and cons than traditional plastic builds. The mesh screen surrounding the headband feels very fragile as it can rip or become damaged, especially if you're using the headband as a handle when carrying the headphones around. That said, like that of the Sonos Ace Wireless, the ear cushions are held in place by magnets, so you can easily replace them if they get damaged.

There have been reports from users about condensation forming on and inside the drivers after wearing them for a few hours. It can occur even if you wear them at your desk or live in a dry climate. Some reports suggest that this is due to the metal ear cup design, which can trap heat from your ears, and create condensation. They don't have an IP rating for dust or water resistance, as Apple hasn't had them IP-evaluated.

Thanks to their clamping force, these headphones won't move around if you're wearing them at your desk. The headband can move around a bit if you wear them while headbanging to a song. For more stable premium headphones, try the Dyson OnTrac Wireless.

• Apple AirPods Max
• USB-C to Lightning charging cable
• Carrying case
• User guide

These headphones use Apple's Adaptive EQ, which adjusts their sound to the fit and seal of the headphones on your head. Using it, they deliver a touch of extra bass compared to our target curve. The added thump and rumble can be especially pleasing if you're a fan of EDM and hip-hop. However, vocals and lead instruments are veiled, while sibilants like hi-hats are dull due to treble roll-off. While they don't have any built-in EQ presets, if you have a compatible iOS or iPadOS device, you can access a couple of different EQ presets in the 'Accessibility' settings to help you adjust their sound.

We've also tested their sound via firmware 3C39. They perform very similarly to the original firmware's sound profile. You can see a graph comparison of our results here. However, whether the ANC is on or off makes a difference in the sound profile, as this effectively turns the Adaptive EQ on or off, respectively. Both the wired and Bluetooth connection have a very similar frequency response when the ANC is on. However, if you turn the ANC off, there's a minor difference between frequency responses, and is most prominent in the bass range. Using Bluetooth reproduces more low bass. Using the headphones wired results in less thump and rumble but a bit more boom and warmth. You can also see all four passes together here.

The Apple AirPods Max have satisfactory frequency response consistency. They're somewhat prone to inconsistencies in bass and treble delivery due to the headphone's fit, seal, and positioning on your head. You may especially notice a drop in bass if you have thick hair or glasses.

These headphones follow our target curve in the bass range extremely well. Although the whole range is slightly overemphasized, the extra thump, punch, and warmth don't overwhelm vocals or instruments. If you're looking for noise cancelling headphones with more bass, try the Bose QuietComfort Headphones Wireless.

Regarding the mid-range, these headphones do an excellent job of following our target curve. The range is very even and neutral, which is great for vocals and instruments. In songs like Flowers by Miley Cyrus, vocals in the chorus sound clear and present, though a dip in the high-mid can slightly weaken them.

The Apple AirPods Max's frequency response struggles to follow our target curve in the treble range. The whole range is underemphasized, although the deepest dip is between the low to mid-treble, which veils vocals and instruments and dulls sibilants in this range. In songs like Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye (feat. Kimbra), Kimbra's vocal climax in verse three lacks detail and presence, especially compared to the melody and percussion. Sibilants like hi-hats are also dull and lacking brightness.

The Apple AirPods Max's peaks and dips performance is very good. These headphones can follow their sound profile well, although there are a couple of large deviations in the treble range. A peak and a dip in the low treble can make vocals and instruments harsh or veil their details, depending on their frequency. A few sharp peaks in the mid-treble can also result in piercing sibilants like cymbals.

These over-ears have good imaging. Apple products tend to have good quality control and ergonomics, so you can expect your unit to have reliable imaging. Our unit's L/R drivers are well-matched in group delay and phase response. This ensures tight bass as transparent treble, as well as helps stabilize the stereo image. While there's a slight mismatch present in amplitude and frequency response, it's quite minor.

Note: Unfortunately, we couldn't test the left and right drivers at the same time, as we normally do. These headphones use Apple's Adaptive EQ, which adjusts its sound profile to the fit and seal of the headphones on your head. You can't turn off this feature unless you turn off ANC or Ambient mode as well. We ran the left driver separately from the right driver to test with the ANC on. While we don't know how comparable the results are due to this change in our methodology, the results of this test are still valid for our unit.

These headphones have a poor passive soundstage. Just like many other closed-back headphones like the Bose QuietComfort 45/QC45 Wireless, their soundstage sounds unnatural, closed-off, and as if audio is coming from inside your head rather than from speakers placed around you.

The Apple AirPods Max support Spatial Audio. This feature allows the virtual soundstage to reorient itself based on your head movements, creating a more immersive and 3D audio experience. If you're watching a movie and turn your head to the left, audio will become more noticeable in the right driver as your right ear is closer to the audio source. Spatial Audio also works with Dolby Atmos content available on Apple Music. It can help make your favorite tunes sound like you're at a live concert, as Dolby Atmos virtually creates different audio channels to help create the impression that sound is coming from all around you rather than from strictly the left and right drivers. You can turn Spatial Audio on/off by going into your iPhone's Bluetooth settings or when you connect to them for the first time with iOS 14.3. It's only available on newer Apple devices, and not all apps or services support it.

These headphones have a good weighted harmonic distortion performance. There's a small peak at normal listening levels in the low-treble, but it can be hard to hear with real-life content, especially since it affects a narrow frequency band. They also perform well at max volume, resulting in clear and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings we used to test the Apple AirPods Max, and our results are only valid when using this configuration. Although we tested these headphones using SBC codec, we have also tested them using AAC, which is Apple's proprietary codec. We first tested them by placing them on our Head Acoustics HMS, using a PC with SBC codec, and we ran a sweep. Without changing the position of the headphones, we then connected to our iPhone 11 Pro (iOS 14.3) with AAC and ran another sweep. We didn't detect any significant changes to the frequency response, and you can see the graph here. For over-ear headphones, we also do a sweep with humans and match the crossfade. Ignore anything below the 200-300hz range on this graph, as this was entirely measured on our testing equipment.

These over-ears have an outstanding full range noise isolation performance thanks to their adaptive ANC system. The ANC automatically adjusts depending on the headphones' seal around your ears and your environment, depending on the kind of noise and its directionality. That said, the ANC reduces sounds like ambient chatter and the hum of AC units extremely well. However, there have been a few articles and threads that note a drop in performance, starting in May 2021, and users also have alerted us of a potential change to ANC strength after updating to firmware 4E71. We previously measured a difference in noise isolation between firmware 4E71 to 5B58 via test tench 1.6, but we can't confirm whether a firmware update or other factors impacted these results. That said, test bench 1.7 improves the accuracy and scope of our noise isolation test, and we expect our current results to be more indicative of their real-life performance.

Users have also reported high cabin pressure when using ANC. It's a pressure-like feeling inside your ears when the ANC is on and is a similar sensation to when a plane ascends and descends. It's caused by your brain perceiving the lack of low-frequency sound as an uncomfortable pressure difference between the inner and outer ear. The cabin pressure of these headphones feels strong when their ANC is on. However, it won't be an issue for most users unless you're already sensitive to ANC. In comparison, other ANC over-ears, like the Bose QuietComfort 45/QC45 Wireless, seem to have somewhat less noticeable (but still present) cabin pressure.

When it comes to more dynamic scenarios, the Apple AirPods Max also have a fantastic noise isolation performance. You can wear them on planes to help greatly reduce airplane engine noise. They also do well when it comes to blocking out office sounds as well as a busy street.

Wind noise is pretty annoying; this sound directly interacts with the ANC's microphones, which ends up causing unwanted sound because the ANC is trying to counter it. Unfortunately, the ANC system ends up producing quite a bit of noise. The angle of the wind can also impact its amplitude, and these headphones lack a wind reduction feature to help their performance.

They have a decent leakage performance. They leak a bit of sound across the range, but most of it falls below the noise level of an average office. You won't bother others around you, even if you're listening to audio at a high volume.

The Apple AirPods Max's mic has an alright recording quality. Your voice sounds thin and a bit muffled, but speech is still intelligible to whoever's on the other end of the line.

The Apple AirPods Max's microphone's noise handling is poor. It has a hard time separating speech from moderate ambient noise, so if you're taking a call from a loud environment like a busy street, your voice will be drowned out.

The Apple AirPods Max have a great battery performance. While there have been user reports that firmware 3C39 has improved the battery performance, we received similar results after updating our model to this firmware. With their ANC on, they're advertised to last 20 hours continuously, and we measured just over 21 hours, which easily lasts through long days on the go. They also charge pretty quickly and have a five-minute quick charge that gives you up to 1.5 hours of playback time. On the downside, the headphones don't technically turn off unless you completely drain the battery. Instead, they enter a very low-power state when placed in their carrying case. They also go into a low-power mode when in an idle position for five minutes. If you don't want to be away from your audio for too long, you can use them while charging. Even though you can use them wired with a Lightning to 1/8" TRS cable, this cable isn't included in the box. You'll need to purchase this cable separately. You won't be able to use them passively either, as the headphones need power to produce audio.

The Apple AirPods Max don't have a companion app but an interface limited to iOS and macOS devices. On the iOS screen, you can switch between ANC, Ambient mode (which allows you to stay aware of your environment without removing your headphones), and off. You can reconfigure the Digital Crown knob to adjust the volume by going up and down or down and up. You can also turn the Spatial Audio feature on or off and access the same controls on macOS via your headphones' Bluetooth settings.

Apple allows you to adjust their sound through Headphone Accommodations in iOS and iPadOS 14 and higher. You can find instructions on how to access these features here. This interface allows you to tune audio for 'Balanced Tone,' 'Vocal Range,' and 'Brightness.' This interface is only available for select Apple and Beats headphones, and it only works on iOS/iPadOS 14 and higher. You can't use it on macOS, Android, or Windows. Due to this limited compatibility and because these features are outside the headphones' interface settings, we don't consider these to be EQ presets for the headphones.

You can't use them wired right out of the box, and they only come with a Lightning to USB-C cable for charging your headphones. However, if you want to use them wired, you'll have to purchase a Lightning to AUX cable separately, and you won't be able to use a regular lightning adapter. The headphones must also have battery life remaining for you to use them wired via the lightning-to-AUX cable. That said, you'll be able to use ANC and transparency mode using this connection, and it has negligible latency, so you'll be able to stream video without lip sync issues. These results only apply to the Lightning port variant and may differ from the USB-C port variant.

The Apple AirPods Max have very good Bluetooth connectivity. Although you can't connect them with more than one device at a time, they have an H1 chip. This chip allows you to seamlessly pair them with other devices in your Apple ecosystem. Unfortunately, these headphones don't support lossless audio via Bluetooth and only support SBC and AAC codecs, which is disappointing if you want to stream audio in higher resolution. SBC has high latency, so if you're streaming video, your audio and visuals will fall out of sync. However, some apps and devices compensate for latency differently.

The Apple AirPods Max can wirelessly connect to Bluetooth-enabled PCs. However, you can't connect them in any other way out of the box. You can purchase a lightning to 1/8" TRS cable separately, though. We can't confirm their compatibility because we haven't tested the USB-C variant.

These headphones can only connect to PlayStation consoles if you already have a lightning to 1/8" TRS cable. However, this cable isn't included in the box. Having not tested the USB-C variant, we can't confirm their PlayStation console compatibility.

Out of the box, the Apple AirPods Max aren't compatible with Xbox consoles. However, you can purchase a Lightning to 1/8" TRS cable for analog compatibility. Our model is the Lightning port variant, so the compatibility of the USB-C variant with Xbox hasn't been tested.