Although I own the AirPod Pro’s which has excellent noise cancelling I made the decision that I wanted to upgrade to AirPods Max so I thought that it would be good to write a review on my experience to date with them.
Comfort:
You might think that they look a bit bulky and would be heavy but I can’t stay that I find them heavy. The headband is quite big but has a kind of mesh that it is made up of so it’s not solid so I think you notice it less than other over-ear headphones. The ear cup headphone thing is pretty big so it covers your ears easily so there is no pressure on your ears which makes them really comfy when you are wearing them for long periods of time.
Looks:
You might think that they look a bit bulky and would be heavy but I can’t stay that I find them heavy. The headband is quite big but has a kind of mesh that it is made up of so it’s not solid so I think you notice it less than other over-ear headphones. The ear cup headphone thing is pretty big so it covers your ears easily so there is no pressure on your ears which makes them really comfy when you are wearing them for long periods of time. There is also the digital crown that looks great and works brilliantly on these headphones. You use the crown to switch between noise cancelling and transparency mode by pressing down. The other function of the crown is for turning up and down the volume.
Sounds and Audio Quality:
I use these for both listening to music and for conference call, I will cover off sound quality first. I am not a sound buff but these give a really good music listening experience, the sounds is really crisp and clear. They also offer spatial audio but I havent really experienced it enough yet to really comment but there are more albums in spatial audio available now. Then there is transparency and noise cancelling modes which are so good. I thought that this was great on the AirPods Pro but it feels like they have gone up a level on the Max.
Noise cancellation & Transparency mode:
These are great features and as mentioned already a step up from the AirPod Pro’s which are brilliant. I am going to talk about the noise cancellation first as is this is what I use the most. When this is on there is pretty much no background noise that you can hear which when you spend most of your working day on conference calls is great. It really does allow you to immerse yourself into whatever you are doing whether that be exercising, Working or just listening to music. Transparency mode on the other hand allows some of that back ground noise through so you can hear more of what is happening around you. This is great when you are out walking and need to be aware of what’s around you or in my case waiting for the kettle to boil to make a cuppa.
Price:
The AirPod Max’s are not cheap by any stretch of the imagination. They will set you back £549 which is a hell of a lot of money and I do go between thinking its worth it and not. My thoughts are that they are worth it if you are in the apple ecosystem as they will work seamlessly with your devices and if you really need good noise cancelling. I also think that the AirPod Pros do a decent job on all of the above points and are a good cheaper option if you want to go with Apple.
So my conclusion on these headphones are that they are great, still not sure they are £500 + worth of great but still I would not get rid of them. I think that there are other good over ear noise cancelling headphones out there that are cheaper e.g. Sony (which I also have) but these are just that bit better in my opinion.