- It's been eight months
since Apple released the AirPods Max
and at that time I had zero interest
in spending $550 on headphones.
In fact, I refused to watch any of the early reviews
because there was just no way I was going to spend $550.
So I stuck with my $20 AirPods Skullcandy's
and went about my business.
That is until the AirPods Max started going on sale.
Hey, I'm Jerry and yes, in the last few months
I finally broke down and picked up a pair of the AirPods Max
and saved $100 in the process.
A few months ago leading up to my family trip to Hawaii
which I was going to have to endure a seven
and eight hour flight,
I started looking around for new headphones
to take on that flight.
I have some old wired Bose QC20s, but they are wired
and some cheap wireless
TaoTronics noise canceling headphones which are bulky.
Have iffy noise cancellation and pretty bad audio lag.
The AirPods Max started going on sale
for about $100 off not too long ago
and then I debated all day
and then the deal expired and I lost it.
Couple days later, they went on sale again,
so I finally decided to pick up a pair
and since they keep going on and off sale,
definitely check out the links in the description
for the best price
if you're looking to pick up some of these AirPods Max.
The first adopters of the AirPods Max
had a number of issues with battery and connectivity,
but Apple's released a number of firmware updates
to address those issues.
So let me tell you about my experience
getting these just recently
and whether or not I think they're worth it
at this point in 2021.
The packaging for the AirPods Max
is exactly what you expect from Apple.
Very basic, very plain and on the inside,
you get the headphones, a little bit of paperwork
and a basic USB-C to lightning cable.
The headphones themselves feel premium.
They feel like they're made extremely well
with aluminum on the outside,
some kind of rubber coating and mesh headband
and of course, you've got some really cool slick buttons
that are reminiscent of the Apple Watch.
Then of course, there's that infamous
purse case looking thing,
which we'll get to in just a moment.
Strangely enough, the first thing that I noticed
about the AirPods Max was the smell.
There was actually a pretty pungent odor
that these headphones carried
pulling them brand new right out of the box.
You know what?
I bet if I get the box, I can still smell it.
(inhales)
Oh, yeah, it's still in there.
It's a pretty potent stench,
but luckily, that smell does go away from the headphones
after just about a day,
so I didn't notice it at all
after the first day that I had these.
The outside of the ear cups are aluminum
and they're in typical Apple fashion,
a nice, smooth, machined aluminum.
They feel good, they look good.
The buttons on top I am really happy with.
One of the things that I was going back and forth
with on a number of different headphones
I was looking at was the buttons.
Some of them just had swipe controls on the side.
Some of them had other weird buttons
that did like three or four different things
with one button and I didn't like that.
I like the idea of having a physical volume button
and then of course having the button
to actually change the modes between transparency
and regular noise canceling is really nice as well.
The volume button digital crown thing itself
is in particular really good.
It's super granular when you're trying to change the volume.
If you imagine changing the volume on your iPhone or iPad,
there's big jumps in the volume level
when you press those buttons,
but when you change the volume with the AirPods Max,
it's in much smaller increments, it's very granular.
So you can get exactly the right level of noise
or sound that you're looking for.
The ear cushions on the AirPods Max are actually removable
and I believe you can actually buy different colors
if that's what you're looking for,
but I purposely went for black
or space gray or whatever color these are
because I would be concerned about some kind of oil
or something getting on these ear cushions
and kind of staining them over time
or making them look dingy or gross.
So I purposely went for black just for that reason,
but the air cushions are just held on with magnets
which is really nice,
so they're super easy to change or clean
if that's something you need to do.
The headband itself is aluminum with a rubber coating,
kind of like the magic keyboard case for the iPad Pro
and then there's a mesh on top
to kind of just rest on your head
and the mechanism to extend those headphones out
is actually very smooth.
That one was stuck for just a moment,
but normally it's very, very smooth
and it feels really good and of course, premium.
And then around the top,
you have a couple of microphone ports
on each side for noise canceling
and then you have your lightening port for charging.
So one of the biggest criticisms about the AirPods Max
from other people was the case
and the case is a little different, right?
It doesn't fully cover the AirPods
and when they sit in here,
it kind of looks like a little purse.
Now, in person, it wasn't really as weird
or distracting as I thought it might be.
It's actually just fine.
The case does not do a good job of protecting AirPods.
You can see down here that there's cutouts around the side
and of course, you got to cut out for the lightning port
and then the headband is not covered at all.
But of course, one of the reasons you need the case
is because as good as the buttons are on the AirPods Max,
there is no power button.
So you need a case that has magnets
built inside down in here
that tells the AirPods to go into a lower power state.
Now, because I was going on such a long trip to Hawaii,
I didn't want to risk damaging my brand new AirPods,
my brand new expensive AirPods,
so I actually picked up this other case.
This is the Intelli CarryOn Max case for AirPods Max
and you can see that they are custom built
for the AirPods Max.
You have a spot right here for the headband
and you have individual spots right here
where the ear cup set
and of course, this does have magnets
built in here with this little fin
just like Apple's original case
so that it does put the AirPods into the low power mode.
So when you press them in here, you're set,
they're sturdy, they're not going anywhere.
The case is rigid on the outside
to give you a bit more protection
and they go into low power mode was saying.
The case also comes with this little nice cable caddy thing.
So I actually got the Apple lightning to 3.5 adapter
to go ahead and keep it here
and I'm also gonna throw a lightening cable here
just in case for charging.
This case is pretty good.
It folds up nice, zips, it's rigid on the outside,
but it is a bit bulky, right?
It's a bit more bulky than that
and it's also quite a bit bigger than the TaoTronics case
for my other wireless headphones and my Bose QC25.
So it is a rather large case,
but if you're looking for something
a little bit better protective than the original Apple case,
this Intelli case is pretty good.
So how do these sound?
I'm not an audiophile by any means,
but I can tell the difference
between a good quality audio file
and a bad quality audio file.
Difference between good digital audio and a tape
and to my ears, these sound really, really good.
Now, whether it was sitting on a plane
for seven or eight hours flying back and forth to Hawaii
or sitting on the couch playing a game,
the sound coming from these kind of blows me away.
It's extremely clear and loud without distortion
and the bass just feels good.
You know when you get bassy headphones
that just have a thump but you don't really feel it,
these kind of make you feel it
without being overly aggressive.
Not something that you can't listen to
for a long period of time, right?
You can really hear that bass thump
when you hear that Netflix don don sound
or in the buildup of a dramatic scene.
Like for example, I was watching "Mosquito Coast"
on the airplane and it's a pretty dramatic show
and there's times where there's just a buildup
of this music, this kind of low hum
that just gets louder over time
and this thing just sounded amazing.
It felt like it was coming through me
like I could actually feel the bass in my whole body,
but not aggressive
and then listening to some decent quality music
on Spotify and Apple Music,
there's just a good separation
between the different instruments
and the different sounds coming into your ears.
I just think it does a really good job of presenting
all of the different parts of audio to my ears
and I've really enjoyed listening to them
over the last few weeks.
Now, when I talked earlier about the buttons,
this one switches between transparency mode
and noise canceling mode
and after having used different noise canceling headphones
on airplanes like the QC25, those audio techtronics
whatever that I used
I've used a couple of different Sony ones,
this is by far the best noise canceling experience
I've had on an airplane yet.
It just does an extremely good job
of blocking out that low-level hum from the airplane,
all of that noise.
You're still gonna hear people kind of talking
and coughing and sniffling around you,
but for all of that stuff that's just a constant noise,
it does an amazing job of blocking that out.
Then there's the transparency mode
which really kind of brings in the outside world
into your headphones.
So you can still listen to your music,
still here it nice and loud and clear,
but you can clearly hear what is going on around you.
Whether that's a car going by on the street
if you're walking or the person next to you talking.
You can actually have a conversation
while playing audio with these in transparency mode on.
John Gruber on his website and on his podcast
has said that it's uncanny
and that is really the best word
to how this transparency mode works on these things.
It really is just uncanny how it feels
like you're just not wearing headphones at all,
but you're getting the music,
you're getting the audio around you,
it's just kind of crazy.
Now, I'm not gonna get into the Apple lossless stuff
or spatial audio because it's just not something
I'm interested in,
but I will say that the lack of audio delay
is suburb as well.
I am super aware of any kind of audio delays
with lip sync and things like that
when you're watching a movie or a TV show
and any bit of delay drives me insane.
It just completely takes me out of the moment.
These have some of the lowest audio sync delay
that I've ever tried on a pair of headphones.
They work so good with an iPhone and an iPad and a Mac
that it's essentially not there at all
and I can completely watch a movie or a TV show
without even thinking about any issues with audio.
It just feels like I have a wired connection.
Now, probably even before audio quality,
comfort is gonna be the most important thing
when having a pair of headphones.
I have an inexplicably egg-shaped head
that's not very big
and it's to the point where I have trouble
finding eyeglasses that fit correctly or hats.
When I bought these,
I was a little bit worried that for the price
they just weren't going to fit me correctly,
but the good news is they do.
As weird as I look, they fit and feel really good.
As someone who's not very tall
and doesn't have a big head,
the headphones fit absolutely perfectly
when they're pushed all the way up,
so not extended at all on either side.
People have said that the headphones feel heavy
and maybe they are a little bit heavy when you compare them
to something like the older Bo QC25s,
but the fit is actually just so perfect
that the weight really doesn't matter.
It's distributed completely evenly across my head.
Compared to the Bose headphones that I have
and the Taotronics, these headphones fit me better
than any of the others.
They're not nearly as bulky as the others
and they just fit right.
They don't hang down too far on my head
and they just perfectly encapsulate my years
and if you're a glasses wearer like I am,
I found that these AirPods Max are the perfect combination
between cushiness of the ear cups
and the tightness of the headband
to not cause pain or fatigue
over many hours of wearing the headphones with glasses.
So fit wise, I'm really happy with the fit
and the feel of the AirPods Max
even after many hours of sitting on the couch playing a game
or many hours of sitting in a plane watching a movie.
Now, battery was one thing I was concerned about
just based on previous reports
that I've read over the last few months
and the good news is I've had no issues with battery.
It seems Apple has fixed all of those issues
with firmware updates.
Now, Apple says that you should be getting
about 20 hours of battery life with the AirPods Max.
Now you can see here on my iPad Pro that the AirPods Max
lost about a third of their battery life
after a seven hour flight
which lines up pretty well with Apple's numbers.
Now, the AirPods Max do have two different sleep modes.
When you take them off your head, they go into one mode
and then after a period of time,
they go into an even deeper sleep mode
and I have found that if I don't place them in the case
and I let them sit around for a day or two
and then I pick them up,
the battery is a bit lower
than I expect it to be after sitting idle.
That's one of the issues I have with the AirPods Max
is just not having a power button.
I think if Apple just added power button
or had a way to hold this button down
or hold both buttons down to turn the device on and off,
that would eliminate any bad battery issues
or complaints that anybody still has
following any of the firmware updates
that Apple has released.
So we're getting near the end of the summer of 2021.
Apple released these AirPods Max about eight months ago
and you can get these on sale frequently for $100 off
or sometimes even a little bit more.
Are they worth it at this point?
For most people, probably not.
If you are looking for a premium looking device,
something that feels premium,
something that actually feels premium when you wear it,
something that sounds premium
and something that works really well with Apple devices,
then these are definitely something to consider.
Are these the best noise canceling wireless headphones
out there that you can get?
I don't know, I haven't tried them all
and I'm not going to spend money on all of them to try them,
but I can say that at $450 or sometimes less,
these are very, very good.
So if you have the money, you want a premium device,
I definitely recommend you at least check them out,
try them at an Apple Store, try them at a Best Buy
or buy them and return them if you don't like them.
But for me, after saving $100,
I feel like I made a good decision.
They fit me really well.
They fit what I need to do with them really well
and I'm pretty happy with them.