Apple AirPods Max (2024) review: Luxury headphones with great sound and ANC

In the market for ultra-premium over-ear wireless headphones, there isn’t as vast a quantity of models available as in the mid-range segment, making it somewhat easier to navigate the selection. Besides models from established audio manufacturers such as Bose, Sennheiser, or Sony, there is also a very specific choice particularly suitable for iPhone owners. Apple has also been offering a top-tier headset under the name AirPods Max for many years. It focuses not only on quality sound but also aims to stand out with seamless connectivity to other devices in the Apple ecosystem and a unique, yet clean and luxurious design. 

This spring, Apple released AirPods Max 2, which, thanks to a new chip, bring even more effective active noise cancellation and new software features. However, all of this comes with a higher price. The new model costs 13,990 CZK, while the original generation, updated two years ago, could recently be purchased on Alza for 9,390 CZK. I was also lucky and bought AirPods Max (2024) with USB-C on sale at Datart for less than 7,000. After a few months of use, I am now providing their detailed review – I believe that there may still be interest in the older series precisely because of the price.

Design, Build Quality, and Comfort

AirPods Max are an absolute unique in terms of their craftsmanship. One of the characteristic features is the oval earcups, which are covered externally by anodized aluminum. The metallic surface with a metallic finish looks much more luxurious than ordinary plastic and is pleasantly cool to the touch, though it does leave some fingerprints. Some may be surprised by the inner side, as instead of classic leather or synthetic leather, Apple opted for breathable mesh and memory foam.

The headband with a rubberized surface forms a stainless steel frame, which is completely exposed where the band connects to the earcups. Again, I consider this a clever way to give the headphones a more expensive feel. Flexibility is provided by extendable arms, which hold their position very well but are not difficult to adjust. The widest part of the headband, which is also filled with mesh, often receives criticism. In the world of over-ear headphones, you’ll hardly find this on another model, and many find it an unusual solution, especially due to its appearance. However, I personally like the idea and even welcome it from a design perspective.

AirPods Max (2024) are quite comfortable on the head, but I cannot use them for more than two hours continuously without a break – after that, both my ears and head need at least a few minutes of rest. I attribute this primarily to their high weight, which is 386.2 grams. For comparison: Sony WH-1000XM6 weighs 254 g, BOSE QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen) weighs 260 g, and for the Sennheiser MOMENTUM 5 Wireless model, the manufacturer states 290 g. So, compared to the competition, they are seriously heavy. 

Apple simply decided to sacrifice comfort for premium feel. The headphones fascinate me with their appearance, and I’ve completely fallen in love with them. I have a smaller head and never thought over-ear headphones would suit me at all. However, I’m not ashamed to wear AirPods Max (2024) – quite the opposite, I’m happy to show them off. I could probably wear the significantly lighter Sony headphones for three or four hours, but visually, they certainly wouldn’t appeal to me as much.

Control Buttons, SmartCase, and USB-C

Integral to the AirPods Max body are the control elements. You’ll find them only on the right earcup, specifically a slightly raised button and a more prominent Digital Crown, which can not only be rotated like on a watch but also pressed. Again, this is a unique element not found on Sony, Bose, or Sennheiser, and in practice, it’s very useful. By rotating the Digital Crown, you can very easily and precisely adjust the volume, and by pressing it, you can pause playback, skip a track, or answer and end a phone call (and even mute the microphone during the call).

The standard button then serves to initiate pairing and switch noise control modes. From active noise cancellation, you can easily switch to Transparency mode, which, conversely, lets ambient sounds into the headphones. It can also be set so that the button can activate a neutral mode, meaning turning off noise control completely. However, I honestly don’t recommend this, as you essentially get something between ANC and Transparency mode, and it’s not very useful for everyday use (by default, this option is therefore disabled when connected to an iPhone).

You won’t find any other buttons on the design. So, if you’re wondering how to turn off the headphones… the answer is: you don’t. Neither the Digital Crown nor the standard button will turn off the headphones. For AirPods Max to enter the so-called ultra-low power mode, you must place them in the SmartCase, which sends them a signal using magnets.

As for the case itself, I don’t find it particularly intelligently designed. No offense to Apple’s design team, whom I otherwise highly respect. It only protects the earcups, and seemingly only from scratches, but that’s where it ends. The headband remains exposed to the environment. I have to restrain myself from comparing it to trying to treat an open fracture with a blister plaster. Not to mention that the outer rubberized side gets dirty easily, and crumbs, lint, and dust get caught in the something-like-suede interior. I can at least appreciate the small cutout for the USB-C connector, which means I don’t have to remove the headphones from the case when I want to charge them.

The USB-C connector is the main difference between the updated (2024) version and the original AirPods Max from 2020, which featured Lightning. Right next to the port is an LED indicator serving as a power, battery status, or ongoing pairing indicator.

Sound Quality, ANC, and Spatial Audio

Few people expect poor sound from ultra-premium headphones costing thousands of crowns. The good news is that AirPods Max are among the absolute best in this area. They provide truly excellent audio and have the potential to please even audiophiles. Personally, it also seems to me that, unlike Sony headphones, the sound is tuned to suit everyone more. It’s enjoyable and playful, not overly specific, so there’s no need to get used to it, and it genuinely suits everyone. Thanks to low harmonic distortion, the sound also remains accurate even at high volume settings.

An interesting feature is adaptive equalization. AirPods Max (2024) can adjust the audio output in real-time based on how they fit on your head. You won’t even notice it yourself, and that’s the essence of the whole trick. The headphones use inward-facing microphones to measure the sound reaching your ears and automatically adjust low and mid-frequencies accordingly. The result is primarily faithful, balanced, and consistent audio, so if you don’t notice any change, that’s a good thing. The brain of the technology is the Apple H1 processor, located in each earcup. Since the audio is processed this way directly in the headphones, adaptive equalization is not exclusive to iOS connectivity and will work even if you connect the headphones to an Android phone.

Supported Codecs and Lossless Audio

For wireless audio transmission via Bluetooth, AirPods Max (2024) support only two basic codecs. The first and default for Apple devices is AAC (Advanced Audio Codec), but if you connect the headphones to a device that does not support AAC, they will switch to SBC.

In other words, AirPods Max (2024) headphones do not support any advanced wireless codecs with higher data rates, such as LDAC, LHDC, or aptX. 

To achieve the maximum possible audio quality, it is necessary to connect AirPods Max (2024) to a device using a USB-C cable. In such a case, you can get lossless audio in 24-bit / 48 kHz quality (the headphones can process the original lossless ALAC format).

Spatial Audio: What makes it interesting and why I don’t use it

However, I haven’t quite managed to get along with spatial audio. Apple approaches the feature itself innovatively – it even offers personalized customization using an iPhone camera to scan the shape of your head and ears. At times, I wasn’t sure which way to turn my head more to complete the scan, but after a while, I got the result. Spatial audio has two modes: head tracking, where you hear sound coming from the location of your iPhone (so if you turn your head to the left of it, you’ll hear music coming from the right), or fixed, with which you’ll always hear the music the same way. 

Spatial audio generally degrades the quality of played music, but with some tracks, the resulting effect sounds at least entertaining. However, with bass-heavy genres of electronic music, the tracks ultimately sound as if you were listening to them in a drainpipe. The sound is tinny, and you’d rather turn off spatial audio after a few seconds. Since I primarily listen to hard subgenres of drum and bass, the feature is essentially unusable for me.

Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency Mode

Active noise cancellation is the second reason, right after sound quality, why I bought these headphones at all. I was looking for a model that would significantly dampen the Prague metro, and AirPods Max (2024) do an excellent job of that. For ANC itself, the headphones use eight of the nine integrated microphones and the aforementioned Apple H1 processors, whose task in this case is to instantly process captured ambient noise. 

In a normally loud public transport vehicle, you will hear practically nothing with ANC enabled. If fellow passengers are talking in hushed tones, you won’t even notice them, and if they speak at normal volume, you’ll hear them only minimally. Perhaps the only exception during my testing was an older, probably hard-of-hearing gentleman who was talking on the phone on a train one seat behind me – him I heard quite clearly.

ANC is so effective that when I cross a pedestrian crossing, I prefer to switch to Transparency mode so I can fully perceive the traffic situation. And I would advise you to do the same – use noise cancellation only when you truly don’t need to fully concentrate on your surroundings. 

Transparency mode, on the other hand, uses microphones so you can hear your surroundings well even with the headphones on. You can easily have conversations with people without having to take the headphones off your head. Compared to Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 earbuds from Google, however, I perceive that Transparency mode sometimes unnecessarily accentuates some higher tones (for example, the rustling of a potato chip bag) and therefore generally works a bit worse. 

Connectivity, Head Detection, and Other Features

AirPods Max (2024) work completely naturally with an iPhone. Just take the headphones out of the case, and an animation for quick setup immediately appears on the display. I was a little disappointed that the headphones don’t appear in the window in the same color as the model itself (I have a dark ink shade, but it shows up as starlight white). Soon after connecting, a quick guide on how to control the headphones appears, along with a window informing about support for wired connection with lossless audio.

AirPods Max (2024) preferences can be easily adjusted directly in the Bluetooth settings by clicking on the headphones. You can adjust whether to increase the volume by rotating the Digital Crown from back to front or vice versa, or whether to mute/unmute sound during a call with one or two presses of the Digital Crown. 

If you have multiple Apple devices, the headphones can automatically switch between them. You can easily transition from an iPad to a MacBook without having to deal with connecting AirPods. If you want to watch a series with your partner on a train, the Audio Sharing feature is available. All your significant other needs is AirPods or one of the selected Beats models, and you can both watch content on one phone without disturbing other passengers. 

The head detection feature is also clever. As soon as you take off the headphones, playback pauses. The same happens if you just lift an earcup to listen to a colleague in the office. The delay between removal and content stopping is, in my opinion, ideally long – music doesn’t stop playing if you’re just adjusting how the headphones sit on your head, but you also don’t wait too long for it to pause when you actually take the headphones off.

We must not forget the possibility of integrating the headphones into the Find My network. For AirPods Max, this is crucial – if you lose them, you can locate them on a map and play a sound on them. By utilizing hundreds of millions of Apple devices, the chance of finding the headphones significantly increases. However, it’s worth noting that the headphones lack an ultra-wideband chip for precise finding.

Does it make sense to buy AirPods Max (2024) for an Android phone?

We are Svět Androida (Android World) and we primarily write about Android devices. Logically, the question arises whether it makes sense to purchase Apple AirPods Max (2024) for a phone without iOS and what our experiences are. 

I primarily use AirPods Max (2024) with a Pixel 9 Pro XL; I don’t typically use an iPhone and don’t plan to acquire one in the foreseeable future (though I naturally borrowed one for testing the headphones). I ordered the headphones despite this – I was primarily convinced by the low price at the time (I mentioned in the introduction that thanks to a discount at Datart, I bought them for less than 7,000), the desire for quality sound and ANC, and the design.

Apple AirPods Max (2024) can be connected with Android, but you will lose most of the smart features. The sound will still be excellent, ANC exceptionally effective, but simply don’t count on spatial audio, head detection, etc. I described which features you will lose and whether you will regret buying AirPods if you have an Android in a separate article on this topic.

Battery Life and Charging

According to the manufacturer, Apple AirPods Max (2024) with ANC enabled can manage up to 20 hours of operation on a single charge. In practice, this is more or less accurate; I charge the headphones approximately once a week, and I wear them quite often. 

Compared to the competition, Apple AirPods Max (2024) fare somewhat worse in this area again. Sony states 30 hours with ANC enabled for both the WH-1000XM5 and the newer WH-1000XM6 headphones, while Bose states 24 hours for the Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen) model.

Via the USB-C connector, they will charge from zero to 100% capacity in approximately two hours. Apple states that five minutes on the charger will provide an hour and a half of listening time.

Price and Availability

Apple AirPods Max (2024) can no longer be purchased directly from Apple; they have been replaced by the newer AirPods Max 2 model for 13,990 CZK. They are also gradually disappearing from the offerings of retail partners. Alza recently offered them for 9,390 CZK, but all color variants are now sold out. At Datart, they cost 9,890 CZK, but only in purple. According to Heureka, the price starts at 8,386 CZK, with Allegro marketplace being the first offer.

Verdict: Luxury Headphones with Marginal Flaws

From the preceding lines, it is clear, in my opinion, that Apple AirPods Max (2024) are excellent headphones with a number of shortcomings that, while disappointing, essentially won’t limit you in everyday use. These are essentially marginalities, perhaps with the exception of higher weight and the absence of better audio codecs. Their sound tuning will appeal to most listeners, active noise cancellation is highly effective, and if you have an iPhone or other devices from the Apple ecosystem, you will appreciate the superb and completely seamless connectivity.

However, the iPhone requirement is quite crucial. If you use an Android phone, you will lose the vast majority of smart features and won’t even find out your battery capacity. When you add the high price to that, the purchase seems almost nonsensical.

If you are used to paying extra for the Apple brand and reliability, buying AirPods Max (2024) will not be a mistake. That is, unless you want the latest generation with adaptive audio, which seamlessly blends noise cancellation with transparency based on the noise around you, conversation detection support, and other improvements.

Editor’s rating: 85 / 100 (for Apple ecosystem users)