Not Another AirPods Max Review
The December Surprise is finally here! The AirPods Max launched on December 08, 2020 for $549.
I wrote this reflection on the new AirPods Max, as if there weren't enough videos and reviews of these headphones floating around. But one thing I've disliked about a number of the reviews to date is their aim of trying to quantify if the AirPods Max are "the best." Since when is that how anything we buy works?! Sure, some thresholds and benchmarks can be compared to help rank whether something is demonstrably better in a specific category, but so much of the AirPods Max, as with many other products, is their collective mix of their tangible and intangible parts. This is known as the gestalt, or how the whole has a quality greater than the individual parts' sum.
Let me start with the summary: I can't tell you if the AirPods Max are the headphones you should get. I don't know how much you appreciate their design, how discriminating your hearing is, or your preferences around adaptive EQ or noise cancellation. I also don't know if you have a stupid-shaped head or not since that'll factor into how comfortable you'll find these headphones. Lastly, I don't know your devotion to a particular brand or how the value of these headphones stacks up against their cost for you.
What I can say is that I've loved the AirPods Max since the day I got my hands on them. They sound great. I love the look & the idea that Apple made an over-ear pair of headphones. Finally, I've seen Apple develop pairing and computational audio technologies in products like the AirPods and HomePod to feel confident with my purchase instantly.
Beyond that, you do you. Apple has a pretty stellar return policy, so if you've been considering them, give these a go for a few weeks and return them if they aren't your thing. That's about it! Everything else I've written below is just me maundering on, but since you're already here, give the rest a read if you'd like.
Sound
I've watched videos & read reviews comparing the AirPods Max to everything from the Sony XM4's, Sennheiser Momentum, to the Bose NC 700s. I've watched videos from audiophile's, audio engineers, and YouTubers. And what I can say after viewing a fair number of reviews is that I haven't come across anything that unequivocally and unconvincingly determines that the sound or comfort of the Max is far better (or worse) than any of its competitors (and vice versa).
The issue of 'how good they sound' is verifiable to a point, but a great deal of it also boils down to a matter of personal preference. Apple claims to have achieved low distortion across the audio range, and published frequency response graphs show a competent headphone set. But beyond that, your preferences become much more critical than which pair of headphones people think are best. So many factors determine this: from the types of music you listen to, to where you plan on listening, to your preference for a specific sound signature, to your hearing ability. The demands from a commuter using noise-cancellation while listening to podcasts and rock may be quite different from someone who wants to listen to classical music in their quiet den. But saying that, I feel the AirPods Max have tried to cast the widest possible net in appealing to as broad a spectrum of audio listers.
The most accurate test for "the best" headphones would be to buy all 3-4 sets of headphones you were considering, somehow blindly test each out across all your use cases and the songs you typically listen to and rate them across a period of a few days. That'd be the only way to single out your preferred, not best, headphones from the pack. Rest assured, all these headphones have been scrutinized to death over the past couple of weeks, with reviews painting the picture that they all sound great. You can't go wrong, but the decision about which of these great sounding headphones do you like best will depend on you.
I will second what I've seen several reviews mention previously: transparency mode is magical! It's essentially bionic hearing, computationally amplifying specific sounds, including voices. I can hear better with the AirPods Max on than with them off, though I'll probably still take them off in stores, so I don't seem like a total jerk when I'm talking to someone. I only have positive praise for Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) too, which has effectively blocked out many of the everyday noises I've encountered: snowblowers, stove fan, microwave, dishwasher (I have an offensively loud dishwasher), voices some distance away, & even most of a screaming baby in the next room (you can’t put a price-tag on that), etc. I imagine they’ll also probably be great at blocking out airplane noise, but since I’ve said that, I now need to add the obligatory and long beaten-to-death “whenever we can travel once again” cliche.
By this point in the discussion, knowing that the vast majority of people aren't going to buy four sets of headphones and blindly test drive them, other aspects, including brand, design, and comfort, will become critical factors in your decision.
Brand
AirPods Max are available in Space Grey, Sky Blue, Green, Pink, & sure-to-be-cheeto-orange-in-due-time Silver.
Once we've established that the sound quality is there, we look at other aspects to sway our decision. For me, the Apple brand played a significant role. I wasn't currently in the market for a set of over-ear headphones, so if these exact pair of headphones were released by Bose or Sony a few weeks ago, I honestly doubt I would have dropped the money and picked up a pair as soon as I did. But these were Apple headphones, and I happen to like Apple stuff, so there was a lot of appeal in owning Apple's first pair of headphones.
Having owned a few Apple products by this point, I can say from experience that you generally know what you're going to get from Apple hardware, which added a lot of confidence to my decision to purchase the $549 AirPods Max. I knew I'd get premium build quality, I felt confident that I'd get great sound, and I knew I'd get good support should an issue arise in the future. So while brand loyalty biased my decision to pick these up, it wasn't without merit.
Part of Apple's brilliance, like some pyramid scheme, is that the more you lock yourself up in their ecosystem, the more benefits you'll uncover. At their core, these are a basic pair of Bluetooth headphones. But it's when you begin interacting with other Apple hardware that you significantly elevate the quality of the experience you'll have. This includes features like instant pairing, seamless audio switching, spatial audio, sharing audio, always-on Siri, and computational audio through Apple Music to make sure each song is equalized to sound its absolute best through the AirPods Max. These conveniences matter a great deal to me, so much so that I'm willing to pay a premium to buy these headphones then I would be to buy a competing pair that didn't have these technologies.
"The ability to just pick up the headphones, have them instantly pair to my device, & start listening without hitting a single button made the experience of using them superior to other wireless headphones." - Brand Ranj, Rolling Stone
Design
Nearly a decade & a half separate these two incredible designs.
My thought process upon seeing these headphones was trying to decide whether their design was modern or retro-inspired. They feel both simultaneously very modern, but with a nod to a more retro design that you won't see in products like Beats, Sony, or Bose. Like the famous old/young lady illusion, the AirPods Max seemed to straddle these two states simultaneously, so let's call it a timeless design.
I'll mention three other design features I've loved about the AirPods Max. First is the simplicity of magnetically removing/swapping ear cups. This implementation aids in cleaning, makes accessorizing with different ear cups a breeze, and when the time comes, it will make replacing my older ear cups seamless. For Apple, the interchangeability also adds the option of adding new materials (just like Apple Watch bands) to the ear cups without requiring the purchase of a new set of headphones. The second is the thin telescoping stainless steel arm. Not only do these look stunning, but by maintaining their position, the Max eliminates the need to adjust and reset your fit each time you put them on. And finally, as much as I cocked an eyebrow to learn that Apple was reusing the Digital Crown, I've grown to love the very precise volume and control adjustments that wouldn't have been possible with a traditional button setup.
My one concern is how my Silver AirPods Max will hold up across time, particularly the canopy and silicon headband. Heads are notorious for being sweaty, oily places, so I'm cautious about how these will look across time. I imagine some people will opt for the Space Gray or Sky Blue anticipating this. At the same time, another group of you may have gotten Silver but are less neurotic about this sort of stuff, but I fall into the third camp of highly neurotic people who want the most pristine-looking thing but who also never want it to show wear. This might make me more reluctant to use it on a hot day or if I'm wearing some product in my hair.
Comfort
We'll start with a basic Physics 101 primer: Headphones stay on your head by exerting a downward force to the top of the head, wrapping around the sides, and exerting an inward pressure against the sides of your head. They're sound vices, and how comfortable you find a specific pair can be blamed in part on your parents (i.e., how big your head is), your use case (stationery, moving around, worn for minutes v. hours), and personal preference (how much pressure is created for you, and how much that bugs you).
Apple's choice of materials doesn't do them any favours from a weight perspective. While stunning from a design perspective, their use of aluminum ear cups and stainless steel in the telescoping rod elevate these headphones' premium feel; these materials dramatically add to the weight of the product. Apple's mesh canopy distributes the weight across a larger area, and I've found their ear cups to be the most comfortable cushions I've used to date, neither too dense nor suffocating to cause my ears to feel sweaty and overheated.
So while I can't speak to how comfortable you'll find them, I will say that I have found the AirPods Max to be the most comfortable over-ear headphones I've worn. But saying that, they still begin to become uncomfortable after several consecutive few hours. I'll comfortably wear these for 4-5 hours at a time, but they do begin to fatigue my head after that. By contrast, my spouse, who is relatively diminutive, can't stand the feeling of any over-ear headphones for any length of time. After years of drifting using on-ear headphones, I've learned that there's a period of acclimatizing to the pressure and weight. Historically, this feeling tends to go away within a matter of days. Keep that in mind if you pick up a pair and are less familiar with over-hear headphones.
