Apple’s over-ear AirPods Max: Great but outdated

When the AirPods Max hit the market almost four years ago in December 2020, they were controversial: Apple wanted to see an incredible 613 euros for the over-ears at the time and, as we wrote at the time, went “upwards for the first time for the open category of premium headphones”. The price is now on sale Significantly lower (from €484.99) And you often see headphones, especially in big cities, on trains, planes and even during sports. It has been shown that users want an alternative to the earbuds in the AirPods Pro series, with which the Max is best comparable due to the integrated noise cancellation (ANC). The problem: Apple neglected its greatest headphone models, introduced them and has continued to sell them unchanged since then. Will that finally change in September?

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What users would like

It would actually be very easy for Apple to take AirPods Max to the next level, friends: the company would only have to slightly improve the ANC functions, otherwise bring the features up to the level of AirPods Pro 2 (including answering calls by shaking your head and the new voice isolation) and implement USB-C instead of the old Lightning – done. Only Apple’s accessories team knows why this hasn’t happened yet.

The AirPods Max have good bass. They’re comparatively compact for over-ears, extremely stable thanks to the aluminum and metal, and last a long time thanks to the replaceable ear cushions. Sound and noise cancellation are in the top league, even if the AirPods Pro 2 have now surpassed the latter. But it’s also clear that it’s not really worth buying a pair of Max at the moment – who wants to carry around old cables when even Apple subsidiary Beats is fully committed to USB-C?

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Rumors are high in the direction of the plug

While it was said in the spring that Apple would release a variation of the AirPods Max in September or October in addition to new headphones, things have been pretty quiet lately in terms of over-ear speculation. Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman, typically accurate, recently reported that alongside the iPhone 16, as a replacement for the older AirPods 2 and AirPods 3, new “AirPods 4” will appear in two versions: with and without ANC.

This would mean that the AirPods 4 would compete with the AirPods Pro 2 internally, however, will likely not be updated before next year. Gurman did not provide any further information about the Max in August. Hope dies eventually for audio fans.

(B.Sc.)