AirPods Max Wireless Over-Ear Headphones, Pro-Level Active Noise Cancellation, Transparency Mode, Personalized Spatial Audio, USB-C Charging, Bluetooth Headphones for iPhone - Starlight

I’ve been using the Apple AirPods Max for a while now, and they truly feel like a luxury pair of headphones. From the moment you take them out of the box, the build quality stands out. The aluminum ear cups and mesh headband feel incredibly premium, and everything about them looks and feels high-end. Sound quality is the biggest highlight. The bass is deep and controlled, the mids are clear (especially vocals), and the highs are crisp without being harsh. The soundstage is wide and immersive, which makes music, movies, and even gaming feel more cinematic. The active noise cancellation is excellent—it blocks out background noise like traffic, airplanes, and people talking. Transparency mode is also very natural, so you can hear what’s going on around you without taking the headphones off. If you use an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, the Apple ecosystem integration is amazing. They connect instantly, switch between devices automatically, and Spatial Audio with head tracking makes movies and music feel like surround sound. Battery life is solid at around 20 hours with noise cancellation on. They’re also very comfortable, though they are heavier than some other headphones, which you might notice during very long listening sessions

My girlfriend really loves these AirPods Max. The sound is fantastic, and the noise cancellation works exactly as advertised. Transparency mode sounds a bit more digital compared to the APP2 or APP3, but it’s still very useful. The build quality is excellent, they’re comfortable for long listening sessions, and the wireless connection is solid. Overall, great headphones if you want pro-level audio and comfort.

They work very well, audio quality is high, battery is long lasting, very light weight and comfortable, noise cancellation is top tier, and the physical controls on the top beat all of the stupid motion and tap controls of other headphones. Only worth it if you have an iPhone, the integration is flawless.

I am a certified audio engineer for music/films so this review is coming from that perspective. EXEC SUMMARY: if this fits in your budget or you can stretch these, GET THEM! Omg! The sound. The comfort. The battery life. Wow. Now onto the specifics. I’ll start with the one negative I’ve consistently read/heard from reviews: the weight. They are noticeably heavy taking them out of the box. BUT- not a worry. You will never feel this weight wearing them b/c they are SO COMFY. You actually do forget that there is even a headband (probably the biggest reason they are so comfy, but the extra large cans also as it never interferes with your ear). As i write this now I’ve been wearing these for 18 straight hours. Still don’t feel them or am cognizant of them being on beyond the sound coming into my ear (and especially with Spatial Audio since it mimics the audio as if it’s coming from your surroundings). CLARITY: We’ll start with the sound first (why we buy these things right?) UNREAL. As a certified audio engineer i can’t believe this sound is possible from headphones. Imagine the best surround sound experience in a theatre you ever experienced- believe it or not this is even better than that. The sub-woofer effect is better than any sub-woofer experience I’ve had regardless of form or venue or location. That’s “holy cow how is that possible” component #1. #2 is the spec i read that convinced me to get these- automatic multi-band compression. This is stuff only the most advanced audio engineers do but so complicated and easily F’s up your mix even if everything else is perfect. Basically different components to sound are where different things sit mostly, like vocals, high ends, sub-woof rumbles, filler/thickness of sound. Those are what the “bands” mean. To automate and smooth out each band/category so it’s always at the optimal level is just… freaking next level. Most audio engineers dont’ even touch this (myself included) it’s so intricate. THESE HEADPHONES DO IT AUTOMATICALLY! And yeah.. wow. The cleanest, clearest, yet deepest, thickest, intricate sound I’ve ever experienced. CONNECTIVITY: can’t speak for droids as i am apple ecosystem. It auto detects if you put these on or not and that’s better than the earbuds who connect as soon as you take them out of the case/charger. it immediately disconnects and stops when yo lift them off your ears. Nice. FUNCTIONALITY: Apple ecosystem-ish here too. I prefer HEY SIRI which I’ll explain later. One weird thing is this. Sometimes when I’m playing a DOLBY ATMOS or surround selection, the settings say “SPATIAL AUDIO NOT AVAILABLE” and is greyed out as if it’s off, yet it’s actually clearly working and on. So if you’re a Spatial Audio person and turn it on, just know it is always working when anything is actually mixed to be so- no worries. CONTROL BUTTONS: The one gripe i have is here. The volume scroll button is way too easy to accidentally touch and thus I’ve turned up the volume quite a bit many times not meaning to. HEY SIRI works great so i just do that instead. 2 buttons: operation (scroll wheel for volume that is also a button for music/phone control- start/stop/forward/back or answer/end/hold, etc), mode button (noise cancellation enable/disable/off <- to save battery). But everything except Spatial Audio (that i can tell) can be done via HEY SIRI. DURABILITY: obviously i can not test this having these for less than 24 hrs but what I CAN say is what everybody else has said- the quality of build and materials is OBVIOUS. No plastic. The fabric/flexi headband is not only comfortable but also won’t disfigure or crack or break. Other parts are metal so will hold up better also. And because it’s so comfy you won’t need to be adjusting or moving it like you do most other ones (or at least i do) so less touching and adjusting means less human wear and tear. Oh and i love that the actual ear pieces are magnetic which means if either ear piece/speakers go bad, it probably means we can buy replacements and keep these going as long as we want without needing to buy a whole new set down the road. LOVE IT! SUMMARY: yeah. If you can afford or splurge- so way and above better than anything else I’ve tried. And I’ve tried a lot over the years (mostly earbuds). My go to previous to this (and will now use as my gym set) are the Bose QuiteComforts. They don’t even compare in sound, comfort, battery life, controls, build quality, noise cancellation/isolation, and just that “it factor” in experience. IMMEDIATELY noticeable. And that’s from a certified audio engineer of music/film perspective. WHO WON’T LIKE THESE: those that want boomy boomy heavy bass (as most people do). These are just as deep and thick, but tighter and cleaner so you can “hear the frequencies better” rather than have any frequencies “muddy” up other frequencies and cross lines. It’s’ an audio engineering thing. lol. But even those people may appreciate just how awesome these sound in the low end especially come movie watching time (you can still clearly hear vocals and high end without the boomy bass muddying what people are saying).

I have many sets of headphones, some very nice ones, and these stand alone in terms of being something different - there is so much tech jammed into these, it makes them very different than anything else on the market. Sound - Sound quality on these is very good, very clean. Personally I'd like a lot more bass, but even someone who isn't a basshead would still probably like more bass. They're not weak or anything on the low end side, and booming bass is there, it's just too much in the background for my tastes. If stupid iOS just gave you an EQ, you could probably easily fix this, and some of the sound profiles you do get can hep, but for the love of everything, just give me a stupid EQ so I can choose the sound I want. In any case, again, the sound is very good, very clean. I'd say it's pretty easily better than my Bose QC25 but not on-par with my Beyerdynamic DT 990 open backed headphones (which I still think are the best headphones I've heard and I've compared them against sets costing well over $1k). But these headphones are about a lot more than sound, and that's why they go up to 5-stars... Sound Field/Stage - The sound stage on these, the openness of the sound, is amazing for closed back headphones. When you're playing music that supports Apples spatial sound (everything in Apple Music for example) it's incredible, it really feels/sounds natural a lot of the time. I've used other 'virtual surround' garbage, and it's terrible, but whatever Apple is doing, it works. My favorite thing is that you can set your phone in front of you, then walk around, and it sounds like the sound is coming from the direction of the iPhone, so it gives you this incredible sense of space (and it does not hurt the sound quality - for most music it sounds better in my opinion). This is something you really have to experience to understand as I don't know of anyone else that does this - and it's really impressive in person. Noise Cancelling - Absolutely top notch. Between the good fit of the headphones and the actual tech, you can block out a ton of stuff, they work better than my Bose QC25's, that still were best in class as of a year ago. Also, for the cry babies, I do not notice the pressure effect - it might be there still, but it's not nearly as noticeable as the Bose. Battery Life - Seems to be excellent. Only downside is it uses an iPhone plug, not USB C. I still have and need an iPhone plug so it's not a huge deal at the moment, but for the future, when it's all USB C, this is going to become a pain. Comfort - It's pretty comfortable. I heard lots of people say these are big and heavy and uncomfortable, and while they are big and heavy, for me at least they're pretty comfortable. Those Beyerdynamic DT 990 are amazingly comfortable, can wear them for hours, that's not the case here. But compared to my Bose QC25, I can wear the AirPods Max for longer without any issues. Still, it's not like the comfort of earbuds, which I can wear all day, but for big over the ear headphones, the Max's are pretty good. Build Quality - Top notch in my opinion, make everything else I've ever used, anything else I've ever even tried, feel plasticky and cheap. Wireless - No lag, no drops, works great. I wish they had upped the bandwidth so you could carry stuff like fully uncompressed audio, like blu-ray audio, but probably have to wait for V2 for that. With that said, I've never really noticed anything, everything sounds full with no compression. Obviously that isn't the case, but just saying, I do not notice any negatives as far as wireless goes. Overall, 5-stars. The sound, with less bass than I'd like and with no EQ in iOS, only gets 4-stars, but the other features make these unique and quite amazing. The spatial sound is what makes these special, and you can't get that with any other over the ear headphones, and it works remarkably well. I think it uses actual head movement for tracking, so it's not just a software gimmick they can do on any other headphones (I think that's the case), but it' something you need to hear in person to appreciate.

I own a pair of AirPods 4 [Noise Cancellation] and love them very much! I use them when I travel somewhere or go to work because their tiny size and convenient carrying/charging case make it easy for me to slip them into a small pocket in my backpack or into a jacket pocket. I saw these and thought they would be perfect for at-home use. The price was concerning, considering they were $400 more than my AirPods 4. That being said, I really liked how they looked and have always preferred headphones to earbuds. And life is just too short not to treat yourself to something extravagant on occasions. I purchased these and was immediately in awe at the color. I got them in sky blue, so these would match my iPad and my MacBook Air. Everything has to match, right? These headphones are lightweight, easy to adjust, if need be, and connecting them to my Apple devices was practically effortless. Since I only have used them with Apple devices, I can't say how compatible they are with other devices. The craftsmanship is stellar - these headphones are quality made for sure. As soon as you put them on your head, they turn on and are ready for use. And they disconnect the moment you remove them. I can have my cellphone on the other side of the room and be seated on a couch on the other side and there is no drop in sound quality or connectivity issue. That's a range of about 10 feet. Now, there are some little complaints. The battery life, while not bad, could be better. I don't have to charge my AirPods 4 that often, probably once every 2-3 weeks, and I use them almost daily. These headphones, with regular usage, have to be charged a little more frequently. The battery life is satisfactory enough for me not to be annoyed. Also, it makes sense that these would use more juice considering they are bigger and more powerful. While the design is excellent, at around $500 in price, these need additional protection for me to feel at ease when using them or if I ever take them outside the home. I bought silicone coverings to put over the mesh cushioning and protect it from body or hair oils when wearing them. I also bought transparent coverings for both the ear coverings, a protective band for the mesh band on top and a carrying case to keep them constantly protected. All protective accessories are from 3rd party manufacturers. A smart case came in the AirPods Max box, but it's not the best. And a cable [without the wall adapter] is included.

Most all of my personal electronics are Apple devices, largely because of the quality and the ability to go from product to product with ease. I've also been sold on noise-canceling headphone listening since I first began with Sony XM noise-canceling over-the-ear phone years ago. But I switched to Apple devices some time ago. These headphones, oddly designated as AirPods Max (they don't seem to be Pods to me), are pricey, but elegant, comfortable, and convey the kind of sound beautifully for the music I like (largely classical and neo-classical). The noice-cancellation is outstanding, and comes with what is pretty much standard aspects including ambient sound options that I rarely use. They feel heavy when picking them up -- but I can wear them for an extended period of time without tiring, and they feel remarkably light. The design for me is the best i've worn or seen. Sleek, easy, with only two subtle buttons on the upper right side. There have been some complaints about the "case" -- there is only a kind of packet that contains most of the phones, but nothing that encases the entire headphones. I haven't timed the battery/usage, but they do seem to use it up pretty quickly. Other more tech-savvy users will have more data on this and other details. I've had these a few short months and have no real complaints. Price is price -- you pay it or you don't. But I like what I got, and would buy them again in a heartbeat.

It was between this and an switch2 and I Absolutely love them! Easy set up, fits comfortably, sounds amazing. Noise cancellation works a little too good. Way better quality than my old beats that my 5yr old now owns. Love them! My only thing is I got the color purple I wish the head piece and mesh was purple and not white.