They are big and expensive, but Apple's AirPods Max headsets are impressive with their sound quality and the same extra features as AirPods Pro.

AirPods Max is suitable for a variety of head types.

When Apple first showed off its new AirPods Max noise-canceling headphones, many people naturally hesitated about its $549 price tag (£549 in the UK and AU$899 in Australia) and the strangely shaped Smart Case. Personally, I am not surprised by their high price-yes, for most people, it is high. That’s because as early as January, I heard from reliable sources that, over the years, engineers and designers engaged in Apple’s long-running over-ear noise-canceling headset project had produced some "spectacular" prototypes. Prototype, the manufacturing cost is too high to charge up to 1,000 US dollars. Therefore, when I heard that they were 549 dollars, I shrugged a little, thinking that there would still be a lot of people buying them anyway. So they have: all five color options of the first batch of AirPods Max are sold out, and the online waiting time has been extended to three months or more. (However, it may be luckier in individual Apple Stores.)

Read more: AirPods Max: 8 things new users need to know

Are they worth $549? Ultimately, this will be up to you. All I can do is describe my experience of using them and let you know that they are excellent (though not perfect) headphones, with first-class sound, rock-solid wireless connection and noise reduction, which can be said to be better than you. Find a better high-end competitive model. 

I can also show you how they compare with the same headphones (especially Sony WH-1000XM4 and Bose Noise Cancelling Headphone 700 and some other high-end Bluetooth headphones). But in a world where Audeze, Grado, and Focal (just to name a few) long-time audiophile headsets cost more than $1,500-few people are angry that the latest Adidas Yeezy sneakers cost $200 or more- —I don’t think it’s fair to be too excited about the price of AirPods Max. Based on the information they obtained on reseller websites such as eBay and StockX, they also seem to be becoming status symbols. 

This review is based on a few days of headphones. I am still evaluating battery life and wired audio performance (among other things), which may or may not change the final rating.

Read more: AirPods Max: 14 tips for mastering Apple’s latest wireless headphones

When you open the box, the first thing you notice is that their manufacturing quality is different from any product between US$300 and US$400. Well, there is something close: Bowers and Wilkins PX7 (from a $400 list price to $340) is rugged and has an eye-catching design. I also like Sennheiser's Momentum 3 because of its manufacturing quality (from the $400 list price to $280). Master & Dynamic’s MW65 is currently priced at US$400 (list price US$500), has a unique appearance and is made of high-quality materials. All these models have powerful sound quality, but are slightly inadequate in noise reduction performance.   

One thing people might encounter is the weight of AirPods Max. These are definitely heavy headphones, weighing 385 grams (13.6 ounces). In comparison, the Sony WH-1000XM4 weighs 254 grams, while the Bose noise-canceling headset 700 weighs 249 grams. Huge gap.

On the streets of New York City. 

They have a lot of metal-stainless steel frame and aluminum earmuffs, reminiscent of Apple's MacBook-and metal is heavier than plastic. I didn't drop them because you can avoid dropping the $549 headset, but if they fall on the sidewalk, they are likely to leave dents (they may be fine on the wooden floor). Of course, you don't want to drop any earphones on the sidewalk. 

They are very comfortable for heavy headphones, but I don't think they are very comfortable for everyone, especially those with neck problems. Personally, I think it would be good if they were 20% lighter, but the design of the headband, with a mesh top, can reduce the pressure on the top of the head, although I did find that I did a small adjustment, The belt moved forward away from the top of my head. Although they are large-some people just don't like to wear big headphones-they seem to fit a variety of head shapes. 

Their memory foam ear pads, which are almost like gel, also stand out. They are magnetically attached to cover Apple's custom 40mm drive and have a fabric overlay, which makes them more breathable than the typical leather or artificial leather ear cushions on the Sony WH-1000XM4. Therefore, in a warm environment, your ears will reduce steam. You can replace these ear pads for $69 (yes, this is also expensive), and the AirPods Max battery should also be replaceable, although you have to let Apple do it.

Finally, not to mention fashionable design styles, such as telescopic arms and flexible rotating hinges. There is no plastic creaking here. This is a well-lubricated machine, minus the oil.

Bose noise-canceling headphones 700 (middle) and AirPods Max next to Sony WH-1000XM4 (left).

Are they as comfortable as Sony WH-1000MX4 or Bose noise canceling headphones 700? In many ways, yes. Like any headset, some people may have questions about the wearing of Sony or Bose, but most people find them very comfortable. I can wear AirPods Max as long as these two earphones are not a problem for an hour. But you know that you are wearing a pair of sturdy headphones on your head. On the bright side, I do think that fabric ear cushions do provide an advantage for AirPods Max, preventing your ears from being transpired, and they can also be used as ear muffs in cold weather, even though the aluminum feels cold to the touch. 

AirPods Max sounds really impressive, just like high-end headphones, with tight bass, natural midrange, crisp treble, and a wide sound field suitable for closed headphones. Apple does have EQ settings (under "Music" in "Settings")-which works for Apple Music anyway-you can make some slight customizations to the sound profile. But I mainly use the default sound profile across multiple music services, which suits my eclectic taste in music. 

The purpose of Apple's launch of AirPods Max is to provide a "high-end" audio experience, or at least a similar experience. Of course, the problem is that serious audiophiles often don't bother wireless Bluetooth headsets or noise-canceling headsets. Over the years, Bluetooth streaming has become better and better, and the impact of noise reduction on sound is almost not as great as before. But to obtain the most accurate and purest sound, this is the ultimate goal of high-end headphones. Wired headphones plus a properly amplified source that can play lossless audio will enable you to enter the real paradise. 

AirPods Max lacks some audiophile features. They currently only stream AAC instead of aptX, aptX HD or Sony's LDAC codecs, which are mainly compatible with Android devices. In the future, support for other codecs and other functions may be added through firmware upgrades, but currently only AAC is available. This is great for owners of Apple devices. These headphones have been optimized for these headphones, but although Android devices support AAC streaming, there are reports that they do not handle as well as iOS devices. These do apply to Android phones and Bluetooth-enabled devices, but you will lose some extra features-more in a minute.

In other words, many $50 earplugs support aptX, and it doesn't make much sense to just list it as a specification. There are other factors that are more important for producing good sound, but if the $549 headset does support more codecs, that would be great. For now, Apple has something called "Apple Digital Masters" in Apple Music, which can provide the best audio quality. Many popular songs in Apple Music are created under this program. When listening to the same track (at the highest bitrate) in Spotify and Apple Music, you may be able to recognize very subtle differences, but most people cannot, or the differences are not enough to care. 

The sound of AirPods Max is easy to distinguish from the sound of Sony WH-1000XM4 and Bose Noise Cancelling Headphone 700, both of which are wireless noise canceling headphones with excellent sound quality. Bose actually has more fanfare image than Sony. Its balance is better, the sound is smooth and uniform, and the bass is firmer. Sometimes I like it better than Sony. But Sony has a lot of energy in bass, and this energy works better in certain tracks. 

What you get with AirPods Max is clearer and more refined sound, and there is basically no distortion at higher volume-please note that although they play a lot of sound, they are not loud. I'm not ready to say that the sound can reach the level you get from a pair of high-end wired headphones, say something with a flat magnetic drive (for example, a jar from Hifiman, the best of which is the open and leaky sound than AirPods Max, the latter did leak some sound at higher volume). But in terms of clarity, it is definitely better than Sony and Bose. They are more enlightening and clear headphones. After switching back and forth, I sometimes feel that I am listening on a Sony screen. The sound of AirPods Max is also more open-I mean it has a wider sound field.

Now, as I said, for some tracks, you might prefer the sound of Sony to AirPods Max, which has all the energy in the bass, even if it lacks some clarity. If you listen to a lot of hip-hop, electronic music, and other popular songs, you really don’t need AirPods Max. This is not to say that the bass of AirPods Max does not have a lot of energy-you can sometimes feel it in the form of vibration-but if you are used to more powerful bass and like the sound of a warm earphone, Sony looks great.

AirPods Max is more similar to Beyerdynamic Amiron Wireless, but with more bass. Amiron Wireless also sells for about $500, but it has no noise reduction function. AirPods Max sounds richer, but Beyerdynamic has good tonal balance and good Bluetooth clarity. It has been improved with some firmware upgrades, but it sounds a bit too neutral to some people.  

If you choose a track like Kane Brown's Be Like That, you will immediately notice that the bass on the Sony WH-1000XM4 dominates the track. Compared with the bass on AirPods Max, it sounds more grand. Now, if you like bass, that might be a good thing. But this track appears more balanced and detailed, more open and textured on AirPods Max.

AirPods Max has only two buttons, neither of which is a power button nor touch.

Billie Eilish's single Bury a Friend has a very deep bass. Similarly, Sony has a lot of energy, but compared to AirPods Max, the bass feels a bit loose. 

With high-end headphones, you will find yourself imagining your fingers plucking a guitar string and you can clearly hear the sound of each instrument. With AirPods Max, you will get more feeling, and a more intimate sound, I mean you feel closer to music. This may not be everyone’s favorite cup of tea, but you can hear the difference in tracks such as Bob Dylan’s Man in the Long Black Coat, Marvin’s Gaye’s Inner City Blues, and Stereolab’s Metronomic Underground. I found AirPods Max to be more suitable for rock and roll headphones: Take the Power Back from Rage against the Machine and Everlong from Foo Fighters sound cleaner and more textured.  

No, AirPods Pro sounds good to most people—they are good but not great—but they are not in the same range. But they are obviously much more cautious and can be placed in the pocket, even in skinny jeans. 

I was a little sad on YouTube because it called AirPods Max the "King of Noise Reduction" without adding a question mark after the title. Many people don't believe that Max's noise reduction is better than Sony WH-1000XM4's noise reduction. I also announced that it is the king of noise reduction when I launched it earlier this year (no one seems to complain about that).

I will support this assessment. AirPods Max's noise reduction can be said to be the best I have experienced, and it is slightly better on Sony's WH-1000XM4 and Bose's noise-cancelling headset 700. To be clear, these are very subtle differences, and most of the time people don’t sit down to reduce noise without listening to anything. This is how you have to test noise reduction.

The three headphones are very close in terms of noise reduction performance. The slight advantage of AirPods Max lies in how much hissing noise they produce when eliminating noise. It just sounds a little cleaner. The faint hiss usually associated with noise reduction and AirPods Max are barely noticeable. I also think AirPods Max does a better job of reducing the stress that some people get through noise reduction. AirPods Pro do a good job in this regard-they relieve pressure by exhausting-and AirPods Max does the same. 

Another observation: AirPods Max adaptive noise reduction seems to be better than Sony's adaptive noise reduction. For Sony, I often switch to fixed noise reduction in Sony's companion app, because when the noise reduction mode is switched (adapted to your surroundings), this transition can be harsh and obvious. AirPods Max's adaptive noise reduction function looks smoother and has less interference.

Due to the pandemic, I didn’t use headphones in many environments (I haven’t been in a plane for a while), but I tested it on the streets of New York-yes, there is still a lot of street noise-and a loud one in my apartment Air conditioning unit, and tap water nearby. Again, Sony’s noise reduction is generally great, but from my testing, I’m a little bit of AirPods Max for reasons beyond their noise reduction capabilities.

If you want to know how noise reduction compares to the surprisingly excellent noise reduction on AirPods Pro, the difference is not as big as you think, but it is a significant difference-again, nod to AirPods Max-- I did use foam heads on AirPods Pro to try to get a tighter seal.

These controls are really well implemented. There are only two buttons, both on the right earcup. The front button allows you to switch between noise reduction and transparency modes, letting in the sound and making you feel like you are not wearing headphones. It sounds natural, similar to the transparent mode on AirPods Pro.

The second button is the digital crown on the larger version of the Apple Watch. You can use it to control the volume and click on it to pause music, answer and hang up calls, and then double click to advance the track. It's smooth and responsive. In cold weather, you don't have to worry about touch controls that are not always effective, but as I said, the aluminum on the earmuffs does feel cold to the touch. Apple doesn't list any waterproof ratings, but after I wore them in the snow for five minutes in the shower, they were still intact.

I will not go into the specifications in detail. You can read all of these on Apple's website. They have a total of nine microphones, two of which are in the earmuffs to evaluate how you wear them on your head, such as whether you wear glasses or not (noise reduction will be adjusted accordingly, which is a feature on Sony WH) -1000XM4). The ninth microphone is a beamforming microphone designed to pick up your voice with the other two microphones during a call.

They work very well as earphones and are particularly good at reducing wind noise (when I was on the streets of New York, the caller did notice some background noise, but it was not too disturbing, they could hear my voice very well). It is worth noting that when you are in headset mode, you can hear your voice in the headset, so you can adjust your voice without yelling. They are similar to AirPods Pro in this respect, although these smaller headphones may be more suitable for making calls, at least outdoors.

Optical sensor in the earmuffs.

There are sensors that can determine when you put on the headset, and automatically pause the audio when you take it off or put it on your neck. Many other headsets have this feature, including Sony and Bose headsets, but Apple's version seems very high-tech. Apple said that each earmuff of AirPods Max has an optical sensor, a position sensor, a housing detection sensor and an accelerometer, and there is a gyroscope in the left earmuff.

Like AirPods Pro, they are equipped with Apple's H1 chip, which can easily pair and automatically switch the iOS devices you have in your iCloud account, as well as the always-on Siri, so you can give voice commands without touching any buttons. Apple says that H1 has powerful processing capabilities that can be used for onboard adaptive noise reduction and make your digital music sound better. These are indeed paired with Android devices, but you lose some features, such as always-on Siri and Apple's spatial audio virtual surround function with head tracking. 

The battery life is 20 hours (50% volume) and noise reduction is on, which is pretty good, but not great (if you play music loudly, it is expected to be more like 16-17 hours). It can be played for 90 minutes after 5 minutes of charging through the Lightning port. I kind of hope it charges via USB-C, but this is a minor complaint. Like Apple's iPhone, you now need to provide your own USB-C power adapter-not in the box.

My bigger complaint is that cables for wired use are not included. Just like what Apple did with the Beats Solo Pro, if you want a wired connection, such as using an in-flight entertainment system, you have to buy a lightning-to-3.5mm cable for $35. I did play some wired listening and plugged it into the Sony NW-ZX100 Walkman and Sony NWZ-A17 Walkman with high-resolution audio. The audio does look more "pure" and colorless (I mainly listen to the Beatles and Talking Heads tracks for comparison), but the headphones play louder in wireless mode, and the Walkman is more difficult to drive the headphones than I thought.

The easiest way to listen to high-resolution audio is to plug in a Mac or Windows PC and load some FLAC files, which is what I did. Obviously, you can also listen to streaming services in this way (and any other audio). The volume level of the MacBook Pro I am using is very high, and I did experience a subtle but noticeable increase in audio quality on the wired router. The more I plug in the device, the less I know that a cable is not included. The truth is that sometimes plugging in a device is easier than pairing wirelessly, especially if you don't have non-Apple devices in your iCloud account.  

Also note that even in wired mode, AirPods Max still requires battery power to transmit audio; there is no "passive mode" available here. In addition, the cable does eliminate any delay, which may be a factor when making games or music. When streaming wirelessly, I didn’t experience any delay while watching the video. 

Like AirPods Pro, they have Apple's spatial audio virtual surround sound function, with head tracking function, which can create an immersive feeling (this is not a true surround sound experience, but for artificial surround sound, it does a great job Well, it’s fun to try). Compared with the above-mentioned competitors from Sony and Bose, this is definitely an additional bonus and differentiating factor. They are more impactful than AirPods Pro, so the virtual surround experience seems more internal, but roughly the same. Spatial audio is still impressive, but disappointingly, it is not currently available for Apple TV-currently only available for iPad and iPhone.

I don’t know what to say about the protective cover that comes with the headset. The best part is that it is easy to remove the headphones and hardly increase their size-so yes, compared to the Sony WH-1000XM4, the headphones take up less space in the bag, which includes a traditional Hard shell. You can also charge the earphones in the earphone box, which is great. Finally, the magnet inside the buckle puts the headset into deep sleep mode to save battery life, although there is some controversy about the headset's lack of a power button to turn them off.

Some people complain that AirPods Max cannot be closed manually. However, as Apple pointed out, if you put AirPods Max down and let them stand still for 5 minutes, they will enter a low battery mode to maintain battery power (if you put them in a protective case, they will do this immediately). In addition, after the Smart Case is inactive for 72 hours or left for 18 hours, your AirPods Max will enter a low-power mode, turning off Bluetooth and "Find" to further save battery power. Apple didn't clarify all of this very well at the time of its release, but after I posted my initial review, I was directed to a web page with detailed information on "how to charge AirPods Max and understand battery life." This comment has now been updated to this information. 

This case does make your high-end headphones look like a purse or a futuristic bra — you may have seen memes by now — which is a bit strange, if you insist on protection, the mesh headband is still exposed. It is very sturdy Grid, but you may want to keep sharp objects away from it. I don’t hate this case like some people — remember, people make fun of the way AirPods were when it was first launched — but it seems to be easier to lose than the standard case, and I doubt we will see many third-party cases of alternatives.

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If you equate weight with value, which was once the case for audio products (especially speakers), then AirPods Max will definitely make people think they are more valuable than Sony or Bose. However, the weight of AirPods Max may also be regarded as their biggest weakness, even if, as I said, they may be the most comfortable heavy-duty earphones you try to use.

For most people, Sony WH-1000XM4 or Bose Noise Cancelling Headphone 700 is a more practical choice and better value, especially Sony, whose price is as low as US$278. Compared to AirPods Max, Sony is a warmer-sounding earphone, but they still have great sound (just like Bose), especially for wireless noise-canceling earphones. It is also lighter, and some people may find it more comfortable.

The same is true for AirPods Pro. A lot lighter. Although they sound inferior to AirPods Max and lack overall clarity and bass energy (with better clarity), they are still a better choice for most people. At least until Apple introduces more affordable over-ear noise-canceling AirPods models, it will inevitably do so, although it may take a while.

But if you are looking for a high-end experience, AirPods Max can provide it. Say what you think about the price, at least they are different and stand out in the very crowded field of wireless headphones. 

Editor's note, December 15th: This story updates the original hands-on impression posted here on December 10th, with more in-depth testing and full ratings.