So took delivery of the AirPods Max today. Have only had them out of the box for less than an hour so very initial impressions:
- Terrific fit, finish and feel. The materials used feel very premium and even things like the sliding of the arms and articulation has weight and purpose to it. Button and digital crown have very solid movement and click action.
- They’re noticeably heavy compared to other popular options (I have had a couple of Sony models including the latest XM4, Bose QC35 II, and Beats Studio 3). It’s understandable considering the competition are nearly all plastic but again, it‘s obvious the first time you handle them. That being said, I didn’t find them heavy or unwieldy when wearing them. Of course, I’ll have to test wearing them for longer periods to see if that changes over time.
- I found them to be really comfortable. They don’t squeeze hard on my head and the mesh band at the top does a surprisingly good job of distributing that weight across your head.
- Sound qualiy—far too early to tell but the first handful of songs I tested sounded quite good. And even though I’ve used it a few times on my AirPods Pro, Spatial Audio is quite cool and messes with your mind. When noise cancellation is active, I can’t really even hear my own voice when speaking—also, quite wierd.
- The case is just stupid. It looks just as dumb in person and feels very much like the same material used on the iPad keyboards, which means it’s going to smudge and attract oily spots that don’t clean off super easily. The fact that you have to put them back in the case (use that term quite loosely as it really doesn’t cover much of the headphones, and does nothing to protect the most vulnerable parts) to put them to sleep is a really poor choice by Apple. They could‘ve kept this functionality if they wanted to put absolutely should have added one more button—a power button to be able to shut them off entirely. And unlike most other headphones, they don’t fold up to any smaller of a footprint. If I do end up keeping these, I’m going to have to find an appropriate size soft bag to slide them into if they’re going in my backpack or messenger bag.
I’ll test them more thoroughly over the next few weeks as I have until January 8. They feel really nice, appear to offer very good sound quality but the form factor is very much a possible deal breaker. And even with the 25% discount I was able to use, they’re really pricey.