Apple released a new set of AirPods Max at an event last week, with an updated USB-C interface and a new set of colors. Granted, the move to USB-C is a welcome thing, but Apple hasn’t made any other changes to them. This feels weird, right? What to give?
Apple’s high-end luxury headphones were impressive when they launched in 2020. They sounded great too – in fact, they still do! But the rest of the market isn’t sitting still. Alternatives from Sony, Bose, and more recently Sonos all offer similar features and sound – most notably, in noise cancellation (Bose does the best here) and transparency mode (AirPods Max still dominate) Both compete with the AirPods Max, but the Sonos Ace is close).
Despite being one of the most expensive headphones you can buy without entering ultra-high-end audiophile territory, the AirPods Max seem to have grown in popularity in recent years. Apple didn’t break out specific numbers for the headphones when it reported earnings, but they were everywhere in New York City and I even saw a lot of people wearing them in my hometown of Milwaukee. You’ll see them in airports, on airplanes, in city traffic, or while walking around the neighborhood. It once became a trend for people to share AirPods Max accessories on TikTok. My favorite things to crochet:
There is also a very clear market for “scammers” or counterfeits. They feature heavily on Reptronics, a 115,000-member Reddit subreddit where people share deals on cheap fake versions of popular products. (TikTok once again has tons of videos of people being scammed.)
27 minutes into episode 6 of this compelling Netflix series accidenta teenager wearing replica AirPods Max that I’m sure are the same pair I bought a few years ago. I gave mine to my kid and he broke them right away.
So why doesn’t Apple update AirPods Max? Is it because it focuses on Beats and doesn’t have time to consider AirPods Max? Does it just need to roll something out so the EU doesn’t criticize it for not switching to USB-C before the region’s December deadline? Did Apple think its first over-ear headphones were perfect right out of the gate, even with an H1 chip from a few years ago?
They’re very, very expensive, but they’re also a great pair of headphones and I love listening to music through them. The ecosystem benefits, like being able to pair them with my Apple TV to watch movies in the evening, or quickly switch them from my computer to my phone to my iPad, are great. Two years after I bought them, they still feel as solid as ever.
But in their initial iterations, they were very Apple-y—you needed a special cable sold only by Apple for wired listening, since they didn’t have a 3.5mm audio jack. They don’t have a power button, so you have to trust them to go into a low-power mode and be ready the next time you put them on. (This seems very inconsistent to me.)
Apple hasn’t changed any Of these, it’s hard to feel like they’re the most premium headphones in Apple’s lineup now, as the AirPods Pro H2 chip launched two years ago is conspicuously missing. Without it, they wouldn’t get features like Adaptive Audio or Conversation Awareness, or features that later came to AirPods Pro, such as doubling as hearing aids.
I wouldn’t upgrade these features, and I don’t think others necessarily should. But AirPods Pro are more “advanced” and will definitely take away the premium shine of AirPods Max, won’t they? It doesn’t help that the market has more or less caught up. All of this does make its $549 price tag a tough pill to swallow in 2024.
