**AirPods Max Review: A Compelling Package with Some Caveats**

I spent some time with Apple's latest wireless over-ear headphones, AirPods Max, and I have to say that I'm thoroughly impressed. These earcups are designed for music listening, and they deliver a very pleasing experience for most people at volumes below 50. The sound is still very clean but kind of dull at the same time - you don't get nearly that same vibrance at lower volumes that you get from other headphones in this price bracket. The low end is especially dull at lower volumes, but at 80 volume and higher, the bass will literally cause the entire pair of headphones to start rumbling depending on the track you've got playing.

One thing that surprised me was how well these headphones perform with extremely bass-heavy tracks - I tried using them with some hip-hop tracks and was thoroughly surprised with the bass response. The youngsters who love listening to rap and hip-hop should enjoy the experience on AirPods Max. Of course, there's also a wired mode that takes us a bit further. Depending on the device you've got it connected to, you can definitely achieve a higher maximum volume using these in wired mode - not substantially louder, but noticeably louder for sure. The bass response is definitely improved in wired mode and I can hear all the little nuances in certain tracks just a little bit clear.

I have to say that I'm not blown away by the high fidelity detail that you get from Tesla-powered headphones or other audiophile-centric products - absolutely not. But for most people who use AirPods Max, especially with Spotify, SoundCloud, Apple Music, and so on, these headphones deliver a very pleasing experience. The sound is still very clean but kind of dull at the same time. You don't get nearly that same vibrance at lower volumes that you get from other headphones in this price bracket.

One thing I did notice was how the AirPods Max handle bass - particularly at lower volumes. At 80 volume and higher, the bass will literally cause the entire pair of headphones to start rumbling depending on the track you've got playing. And that's definitely something that surprised me - I tried using these with some extremely bass-heavy tracks and was thoroughly surprised with the bass response.

I also want to bring up some other little tidbits and bugs I experienced with AirPods Max. Firstly, when using AirPods Max with my M1 Mac Mini and wireless mode, I did experience some frequent split-second drop-offs this issue isn't exactly consistent and it could just be my M1 Mac Mini's poor Bluetooth performance but this isn't an issue I had with my AirPods Pro with my M1 Mac Mini so I'm not exactly sure. I will say though that general reliability and connectivity with devices is much better on AirPods Max than on AirPods Pro every now and then when using AirPods Pro trying to switch between devices I would have to tap on it twice for it to connect but with AirPods Max that hasn't been an issue at all just one tap and I'm connected in the Bluetooth settings.

In terms of features, AirPods Max has a bespoke menu where you can adjust certain things like button cycles and spatial audio. You've also got a toggle to switch the way in which the volume goes up and down with the digital crown - this is a really nice touch overall. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, these headphones are priced like headphones made for audio files but they're far from it. In my experience, these have best-in-class active noise cancelling and transparency modes but other than that AirPods Max aren't exactly the best at doing anything specifically.

Overall, I think Apple has created a really compelling package with AirPods Max. They combine amazing features like spatial audio, active noise cancelling, and transparency mode with a great form factor and excellent sound quality. If you're an Apple user, especially one who's already invested in the ecosystem, these headphones are definitely worth considering - they're not just for audiophiles but for anyone who wants to enjoy high-quality music on the go.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, AirPods Max is a really enjoyable pair of headphones that are designed with music listening in mind. They deliver a very pleasing experience for most people at volumes below 50, and their performance with bass-heavy tracks is impressive. While they don't quite reach the level of fidelity detail offered by more expensive audiophile-centric products, they're still an excellent choice for anyone who wants high-quality sound on the go. With their features like spatial audio, active noise cancelling, and transparency mode, these headphones are a great addition to the Apple ecosystem - even if they're not necessarily worth the full $550 price tag.

**Recommendation**

If you're in the market for a new pair of wireless over-ear headphones and you're an Apple user, especially one who's already invested in the ecosystem, I would definitely recommend considering AirPods Max. They offer a really compelling package with great sound quality, excellent features like spatial audio and active noise cancelling, and a comfortable design that's perfect for long listening sessions on the go. Just be aware of some minor caveats, like the potential for drop-offs in wireless connectivity or inconsistent bass response at lower volumes - but overall, I think these headphones are well worth the investment.

**Rating**

I'd give AirPods Max 4.5 out of 5 stars - they're a really enjoyable pair of headphones that deliver excellent sound quality and features, especially with music listening in mind. While they don't quite reach the level of fidelity detail offered by more expensive audiophile-centric products, they're still an excellent choice for anyone who wants high-quality sound on the go.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up guys miles here with 905 mac i've been using the airpods max all week and i've got a lot of thoughts but my biggest takeaway so far is that yes these headphones are definitely overpriced i like them a lot for various reasons but they are 1 000 overpriced the same reason you would buy this pair of headphones could be quite similar to the reason someone spends 500 plus dollars on a pair of shoes that likely cost 30 to manufacture it's just cause you like what you like and you want what you want and while 550 is a lot of money i feel like the vast majority of the demographic these headphones are catered to are absolutely going to enjoy these headphones and here's why the unboxing experience is extremely familiar with these headphones you've got your standard apple all weight packaging with the headphones inside the case wrapped around in this paper material that was kind of weird to get off but right away when getting my hands on the headphones i gotta say these are some of the most solid headphones i felt in the hand under the 600 price point the design alone definitely doesn't command a 550 price tag and i'm really curious and more so skeptical as to how this rubberized material covering the band is going to hold up over time especially in the white colors but we'll just have to see other than the headphones in the bra you get some documentation in addition to a lightning a type c cable for charging no power break as far as how they look well i think it's a perfectly apple product as far as the design you probably already had your mind made up before clicking on this video and like i mentioned earlier i'm much more curious on how this design is going to hold up over time durability wise with continued usage but overall i think this blue color is cute or whatever and i don't think i look that stupid with these on my head the headphone cups rotate with the swiveling mechanism and i gotta say getting used to this on the airpods max has been extremely awkward for me and that's because apple did this thing that of course is just weird and different because apple has to be weird and different for the sake of being weird and different you see with any typical pair of headphones with a swiveling mechanism usually they're allowed to rotate so that the inner ear cups are facing you some headphones let you do it both ways but generally speaking headphones swivel so that the inner cups are facing you right but of course airpods max are naturally reversed they only let you swivel them away from you and so getting used to this after using headphones that aren't like this for my entire life has kind of been an awkward transition it's not like a deal breaker per se but it's definitely something i noticed and because of this hinge i feel as though these headphones should not be in the hands of toddlers or small active children i feel as though the hinge isn't fragile per se but just based on the way i've used these normally i wouldn't trust these around kids who are potentially rough with their tech just some food for thought comfort is one of the more interesting aspects of airpods max because these headphones are using stainless steel and aluminum materials for the build and so these headphones are naturally a bit heavier than the competitors from sony and bose who are all for the most part using plastic on their headphones they don't feel heavy on the head per se more so just very firm i feel as though all the weight from the materials just caused the headphones to feel very firm on your head and so there's no slippage issues or anything like that but to get the perfect fit for me i had to extend these arms all the way out to get the best comfort experience but i'm sure this is going to vary per user the max uses this meshy memory foam material for the ear cups which i'm kind of indifferent on it definitely doesn't feel better on my ears than like a soft leather material that headphones in this price bracket are known to have but i think the potential silver lining here is that the ear cups are removable via magnet you just pull them off and boom i think this will make these headphones a lot better for long term usage compared to other headphones in this price point but hopefully a third party manufacturer can make some magnetic leather ear cups that feel much better that i can buy to use instead that would be freaking awesome as far as the button placement i know a lot of people said they would have preferred for the buttons to be placed on the bottom but i think for this design putting the buttons on top makes much more sense especially for interacting with the digital crown here the buttons feel and response are all exceptional as well especially the digital crown just like with the apple watch you can hear little clicks uh when adjusting the volume it's quite nice let's talk about the active noise canceling i will say that coming from the airpods pro the acting was cancelling here is much more effective and i'm sure the larger drivers in the over ear design has a part to play in that but this is a much more isolating experience than what you get on the airpods pro you get a slight active noise cancellation hiss but it is super faint you pretty much have to be looking for it like audibly and something that airpods max does much better than airpods pro is maintaining a clean sound when listening to music and fighting off loud environment noise like wind noise or a moving train or something like that getting lots of distortion in my music when using the noise cancellation mode in my airpods pro was probably my biggest long-term complaint with those headphones and the airpods max have definitely addressed that to an extent is the active noise cancelling in these headphones substantially better than over ear headphones that cost half the price no not really but it's definitely an improvement from the airpods pro and definitely some of the best noise cancelling i've experienced transparency mode on the airpods max is probably the more impressive experience though the nine microphones placed on the ear cups are extremely effective in giving a truly transparent audio experience i could have music playing at 75 percent in transparency mode on and i can still clearly hear my keyboard as i'm typing on it and my keyboard is not loud at all by the way the closer the sound is to the microphone the clearer it will sound in airpods max obviously but overall i'm extremely impressed with transparency mode it's extremely reliable i could feel confident having these on playing music on with transparency mode and i wouldn't be afraid of missing the doorbell or something like that the way the microphones on airpods max pick up sound for transparency mode is pretty interesting too and i thought playing drums would be a rather aggressive but effective way of demonstrating that with playing with these on i've kind of realized that all nine microphones aren't being used in the same capacity simultaneously at least in scenarios like this where you've got really loud audio being pumped into those microphones into the speakers and the headphones you see i can start playing on the left like this and everything will sound fine and then if i start playing on the left side right here and then switch to the ride the left side kind of sounds a little bit muffled they're not exactly how it should sound and same thing if i'm playing on the ride here and then i switch to the snare the snare kind of sounds a bit muffled as soon as you start bringing it in it kind of adjusts after a second this microphones thing is really inconsistent but overall that's just something i've noticed when using these for trying to play drums would i use these for drumming consistently it kind of depends i think for just fooling around i think transparency mode would be absolutely fine but for more professional uh related purposes absolutely not i would not use these because it does kind of mess up the sound to an extent when it comes to the wired experience with these headphones i will say that it isn't nearly as limiting as i thought it would be firstly in wired mode you still have access to noise cancellation and transparency modes as well as using the digital crown to adjust volume but you can't pause or skip tracks using the button and obviously no siri functionality but the head detection auto pause functionality still works in wired mode which is actually quite surprising i didn't expect that to work in wired mode but it's nice that it does we'll get into how wired sound quality compares to the wireless sound quality a bit later the fact that these headphones use a lightning port while not surprising is pretty silly i understand that in theory if you have a lightning port on these headphones if you have other earpods that you carry around with you you would only need one cable to charge them all but apple literally could have used usbc to make these headphones better the execution of usbc would determine how much better it is but apple could have definitely implemented some sort of hi-fi mode when using these through usb type-c that would have been really cool but a totally missed opportunity so yeah i think the lightning port on these is another reason why i believe these are overpriced i also must say that this cable doesn't come with the airpods max but this 35 lightning the 3.5 millimeter cable is what apple expects you to use for the wired experience with these headphones and cables can be far more expensive than 35 dollars but even for 35 bucks this is absolutely pitiful it's too short it's flimsy and i'm always one accidental snag from having to buy another one i understand that apple accessories and more specifically apple cables are not meant to last but for 550 dollars they definitely could have included a nice lengthy braided color matching cable to use for the wired experience that would make the wire experience so much better but hey this is why the third-party accessory market will always thrive it's just a shame that we always have to look to the third party accessory market to pick up apple's slack battery life on the airpods max is good but definitely not the battery champ compared to other over ear headphones with anc i have some sub 200 audio technica headphones with noise cancelling that can easily outperform these as far as battery life now granted i have been doing some heavy stress testing with these pretty much using them all day every day for majority of the week but overall i'd say these float around the 15 to 20 hour range as far as battery life if you're using these headphones non-stop all day with active noise cancellation on you can definitely get close to killing them and using the apple 20 watt power adapter it took about an hour to fully charge them up from 15 which isn't amazing but it's perfectly fine for my usage if you're the type to only use headphones for an hour or two in the day at most then these are definitely headphones that you could reliably use all week without having to charge up if your usage is pretty light but they're definitely not the best in the battery department for 550 or even 300 i don't want to talk about this case but i guess we have to let me start off by saying that there's absolutely nothing smart about this case in the sense that we know the word smart to be used in tech product names this is a flimsy cover with some magnets in it that's it there's no charging port no battery inside to extend the battery life it's literally just a headphone bra the case is meant to put the headphones into a low power state that prevents idle battery drain but it's been confirmed by apple that the headphones will do this on their own after five minutes of being idle so this case truly is purposeless if these headphones were 250 dollars my opinion on this case would be different if these headphones were 350 dollars my opinion on this case would be different but for 550 dollars this is an absolute spit in the face honestly and it's crazy because apple could have made this case a highlight feature for these headphones they could have implemented a battery so that you can charge your airpods max up with the case like the regular airpods do they could have allowed the case to connect to the headphones in a way that provided faster charging all these different things they could have done but instead apple gave us this joke the only positive thing i'll say about this case is while i don't like it at all i do not it still matches the airpods max very well aesthetically speaking it's a stupid case but it doesn't feel out of place now the most important part of these headphones the sound quality let me preface this by saying i'm not exactly an audiophile and i think that's perfectly fine because these headphones are not made for audio files even if they do sound better than every other pair of headphones in this price bracket fundamentally these are not headphones for audio files flat out these do not sound like 550 headphones but i do think airpods max does a good job of delivering an overall clean sound in both wired and wireless mode they get very loud so you should rarely need to put these at over 80 volume and i feel as though all the frequencies have a very consistently clean presence are you getting that insane high fidelity detail that you get from tesla-powered headphones and other audiophile-centric products absolutely not but i feel as though given the way most airpods users consume music and audio which is through spotify soundcloud apple music i feel as though you should deliver a very pleasing experience for most people at volumes below 50 the sound is still very clean but kind of dull at the same time you don't get nearly that same vibrance at lower volumes that you get from other headphones in this price bracket the low end is especially dull at lower volumes but at 80 volume and higher the bass will literally cause the entire pair of headphones to start rumbling depending on the track you've got playing and at those higher volumes the bass distortion is really minimal and that's definitely something that surprised me i tried using these with some extremely bass heavy tracks and i was thoroughly surprised with the bass response all the youngsters these days like listening to the hip hops and the rapping and i think the majority of the people who are into that genre of music and alike should enjoy the experience on airpods max the wired mode definitely takes us a bit further though depending on the device you've got it connected to you can definitely achieve a higher maximum volume using these in wired mode not substantially louder but noticeably louder for sure the bass response is definitely improved in wired mode and i can hear all the little nuances in certain tracks just a little bit clear it's not better to the point of me feeling like the wireless experience lacks in comparison but the wired mode is better overall for music listening these headphones are very enjoyable for me they're not 550 dollars enjoyable but very enjoyable for me honestly i will say though that these are probably some of the most capable wireless headphones i've tried for media consumption and a lot of that is due to the spatial audio feature this is something found on the other airpods models but this essentially gives you that surround sound feel when watching videos and movies even content without official dolby atmos support i watched some dolby atmos content and some movies with 8d audio and the experience for that kind of stuff is really really solid watching content with this feature enabled can make the experience noticeably more immersive than without spatial audio and over ear form is a really nice experience and i think these are nearly the perfect headphones to watch an airplane movie on i want to bring up some other little tidbits and bugs i experienced with airpods max firstly when using airpods max with my m1 mac mini and wireless mode i did experience some frequent split second drop offs this issue isn't exactly consistent and it could just be my m1 mac mini's poor bluetooth performance but this isn't an issue i had with my airpods pro with my m1 mac mini so i'm not exactly sure i will say though that general reliability and connectivity with devices is much better on airpods max than on airpods pro every now and then when using airpods pro trying to switch between devices i would have to tap on it twice for it to connect but with airpods max that hasn't been an issue at all just one tap and i'm connected in the bluetooth settings just like the regular airpods you've got this bespoke menu where you can adjust certain things like the button cycles and the spatial audio but you've also got a toggle to switch the way in which the volume goes up and down with the digital crown which is a really nice touch overall like i said airpods macs are priced like headphones made for audio files but they're far from it i would say that in my experience these have best in class active noise cancelling and transparency modes but other than that airpods macs aren't exactly the best at doing anything specifically but when you combine all these features that the headphones have to offer from the amazing transparency mode to the awesome spatial audio features you've overall got a really compelling package for apple users it's an experience that's worth 550 dollars i say no and i think most people would say no but now that the damage is done and i've got them in my hands i personally don't see myself using any other headphones for non-pro related audio use case scenarios i like using them overall and i think anyone who's already invested in the apple ecosystem should enjoy the experience out of these i'm just really looking forward to third-party manufacturers making better earcups and better cables for this thing but that's it that's the airpods max review if you enjoyed make sure to give this video a thumbs up and subscribe for future content like this because we've got a bunch more stuff on the way thank you all for watching and i will talk to you guys in the next one youwhat's up guys miles here with 905 mac i've been using the airpods max all week and i've got a lot of thoughts but my biggest takeaway so far is that yes these headphones are definitely overpriced i like them a lot for various reasons but they are 1 000 overpriced the same reason you would buy this pair of headphones could be quite similar to the reason someone spends 500 plus dollars on a pair of shoes that likely cost 30 to manufacture it's just cause you like what you like and you want what you want and while 550 is a lot of money i feel like the vast majority of the demographic these headphones are catered to are absolutely going to enjoy these headphones and here's why the unboxing experience is extremely familiar with these headphones you've got your standard apple all weight packaging with the headphones inside the case wrapped around in this paper material that was kind of weird to get off but right away when getting my hands on the headphones i gotta say these are some of the most solid headphones i felt in the hand under the 600 price point the design alone definitely doesn't command a 550 price tag and i'm really curious and more so skeptical as to how this rubberized material covering the band is going to hold up over time especially in the white colors but we'll just have to see other than the headphones in the bra you get some documentation in addition to a lightning a type c cable for charging no power break as far as how they look well i think it's a perfectly apple product as far as the design you probably already had your mind made up before clicking on this video and like i mentioned earlier i'm much more curious on how this design is going to hold up over time durability wise with continued usage but overall i think this blue color is cute or whatever and i don't think i look that stupid with these on my head the headphone cups rotate with the swiveling mechanism and i gotta say getting used to this on the airpods max has been extremely awkward for me and that's because apple did this thing that of course is just weird and different because apple has to be weird and different for the sake of being weird and different you see with any typical pair of headphones with a swiveling mechanism usually they're allowed to rotate so that the inner ear cups are facing you some headphones let you do it both ways but generally speaking headphones swivel so that the inner cups are facing you right but of course airpods max are naturally reversed they only let you swivel them away from you and so getting used to this after using headphones that aren't like this for my entire life has kind of been an awkward transition it's not like a deal breaker per se but it's definitely something i noticed and because of this hinge i feel as though these headphones should not be in the hands of toddlers or small active children i feel as though the hinge isn't fragile per se but just based on the way i've used these normally i wouldn't trust these around kids who are potentially rough with their tech just some food for thought comfort is one of the more interesting aspects of airpods max because these headphones are using stainless steel and aluminum materials for the build and so these headphones are naturally a bit heavier than the competitors from sony and bose who are all for the most part using plastic on their headphones they don't feel heavy on the head per se more so just very firm i feel as though all the weight from the materials just caused the headphones to feel very firm on your head and so there's no slippage issues or anything like that but to get the perfect fit for me i had to extend these arms all the way out to get the best comfort experience but i'm sure this is going to vary per user the max uses this meshy memory foam material for the ear cups which i'm kind of indifferent on it definitely doesn't feel better on my ears than like a soft leather material that headphones in this price bracket are known to have but i think the potential silver lining here is that the ear cups are removable via magnet you just pull them off and boom i think this will make these headphones a lot better for long term usage compared to other headphones in this price point but hopefully a third party manufacturer can make some magnetic leather ear cups that feel much better that i can buy to use instead that would be freaking awesome as far as the button placement i know a lot of people said they would have preferred for the buttons to be placed on the bottom but i think for this design putting the buttons on top makes much more sense especially for interacting with the digital crown here the buttons feel and response are all exceptional as well especially the digital crown just like with the apple watch you can hear little clicks uh when adjusting the volume it's quite nice let's talk about the active noise canceling i will say that coming from the airpods pro the acting was cancelling here is much more effective and i'm sure the larger drivers in the over ear design has a part to play in that but this is a much more isolating experience than what you get on the airpods pro you get a slight active noise cancellation hiss but it is super faint you pretty much have to be looking for it like audibly and something that airpods max does much better than airpods pro is maintaining a clean sound when listening to music and fighting off loud environment noise like wind noise or a moving train or something like that getting lots of distortion in my music when using the noise cancellation mode in my airpods pro was probably my biggest long-term complaint with those headphones and the airpods max have definitely addressed that to an extent is the active noise cancelling in these headphones substantially better than over ear headphones that cost half the price no not really but it's definitely an improvement from the airpods pro and definitely some of the best noise cancelling i've experienced transparency mode on the airpods max is probably the more impressive experience though the nine microphones placed on the ear cups are extremely effective in giving a truly transparent audio experience i could have music playing at 75 percent in transparency mode on and i can still clearly hear my keyboard as i'm typing on it and my keyboard is not loud at all by the way the closer the sound is to the microphone the clearer it will sound in airpods max obviously but overall i'm extremely impressed with transparency mode it's extremely reliable i could feel confident having these on playing music on with transparency mode and i wouldn't be afraid of missing the doorbell or something like that the way the microphones on airpods max pick up sound for transparency mode is pretty interesting too and i thought playing drums would be a rather aggressive but effective way of demonstrating that with playing with these on i've kind of realized that all nine microphones aren't being used in the same capacity simultaneously at least in scenarios like this where you've got really loud audio being pumped into those microphones into the speakers and the headphones you see i can start playing on the left like this and everything will sound fine and then if i start playing on the left side right here and then switch to the ride the left side kind of sounds a little bit muffled they're not exactly how it should sound and same thing if i'm playing on the ride here and then i switch to the snare the snare kind of sounds a bit muffled as soon as you start bringing it in it kind of adjusts after a second this microphones thing is really inconsistent but overall that's just something i've noticed when using these for trying to play drums would i use these for drumming consistently it kind of depends i think for just fooling around i think transparency mode would be absolutely fine but for more professional uh related purposes absolutely not i would not use these because it does kind of mess up the sound to an extent when it comes to the wired experience with these headphones i will say that it isn't nearly as limiting as i thought it would be firstly in wired mode you still have access to noise cancellation and transparency modes as well as using the digital crown to adjust volume but you can't pause or skip tracks using the button and obviously no siri functionality but the head detection auto pause functionality still works in wired mode which is actually quite surprising i didn't expect that to work in wired mode but it's nice that it does we'll get into how wired sound quality compares to the wireless sound quality a bit later the fact that these headphones use a lightning port while not surprising is pretty silly i understand that in theory if you have a lightning port on these headphones if you have other earpods that you carry around with you you would only need one cable to charge them all but apple literally could have used usbc to make these headphones better the execution of usbc would determine how much better it is but apple could have definitely implemented some sort of hi-fi mode when using these through usb type-c that would have been really cool but a totally missed opportunity so yeah i think the lightning port on these is another reason why i believe these are overpriced i also must say that this cable doesn't come with the airpods max but this 35 lightning the 3.5 millimeter cable is what apple expects you to use for the wired experience with these headphones and cables can be far more expensive than 35 dollars but even for 35 bucks this is absolutely pitiful it's too short it's flimsy and i'm always one accidental snag from having to buy another one i understand that apple accessories and more specifically apple cables are not meant to last but for 550 dollars they definitely could have included a nice lengthy braided color matching cable to use for the wired experience that would make the wire experience so much better but hey this is why the third-party accessory market will always thrive it's just a shame that we always have to look to the third party accessory market to pick up apple's slack battery life on the airpods max is good but definitely not the battery champ compared to other over ear headphones with anc i have some sub 200 audio technica headphones with noise cancelling that can easily outperform these as far as battery life now granted i have been doing some heavy stress testing with these pretty much using them all day every day for majority of the week but overall i'd say these float around the 15 to 20 hour range as far as battery life if you're using these headphones non-stop all day with active noise cancellation on you can definitely get close to killing them and using the apple 20 watt power adapter it took about an hour to fully charge them up from 15 which isn't amazing but it's perfectly fine for my usage if you're the type to only use headphones for an hour or two in the day at most then these are definitely headphones that you could reliably use all week without having to charge up if your usage is pretty light but they're definitely not the best in the battery department for 550 or even 300 i don't want to talk about this case but i guess we have to let me start off by saying that there's absolutely nothing smart about this case in the sense that we know the word smart to be used in tech product names this is a flimsy cover with some magnets in it that's it there's no charging port no battery inside to extend the battery life it's literally just a headphone bra the case is meant to put the headphones into a low power state that prevents idle battery drain but it's been confirmed by apple that the headphones will do this on their own after five minutes of being idle so this case truly is purposeless if these headphones were 250 dollars my opinion on this case would be different if these headphones were 350 dollars my opinion on this case would be different but for 550 dollars this is an absolute spit in the face honestly and it's crazy because apple could have made this case a highlight feature for these headphones they could have implemented a battery so that you can charge your airpods max up with the case like the regular airpods do they could have allowed the case to connect to the headphones in a way that provided faster charging all these different things they could have done but instead apple gave us this joke the only positive thing i'll say about this case is while i don't like it at all i do not it still matches the airpods max very well aesthetically speaking it's a stupid case but it doesn't feel out of place now the most important part of these headphones the sound quality let me preface this by saying i'm not exactly an audiophile and i think that's perfectly fine because these headphones are not made for audio files even if they do sound better than every other pair of headphones in this price bracket fundamentally these are not headphones for audio files flat out these do not sound like 550 headphones but i do think airpods max does a good job of delivering an overall clean sound in both wired and wireless mode they get very loud so you should rarely need to put these at over 80 volume and i feel as though all the frequencies have a very consistently clean presence are you getting that insane high fidelity detail that you get from tesla-powered headphones and other audiophile-centric products absolutely not but i feel as though given the way most airpods users consume music and audio which is through spotify soundcloud apple music i feel as though you should deliver a very pleasing experience for most people at volumes below 50 the sound is still very clean but kind of dull at the same time you don't get nearly that same vibrance at lower volumes that you get from other headphones in this price bracket the low end is especially dull at lower volumes but at 80 volume and higher the bass will literally cause the entire pair of headphones to start rumbling depending on the track you've got playing and at those higher volumes the bass distortion is really minimal and that's definitely something that surprised me i tried using these with some extremely bass heavy tracks and i was thoroughly surprised with the bass response all the youngsters these days like listening to the hip hops and the rapping and i think the majority of the people who are into that genre of music and alike should enjoy the experience on airpods max the wired mode definitely takes us a bit further though depending on the device you've got it connected to you can definitely achieve a higher maximum volume using these in wired mode not substantially louder but noticeably louder for sure the bass response is definitely improved in wired mode and i can hear all the little nuances in certain tracks just a little bit clear it's not better to the point of me feeling like the wireless experience lacks in comparison but the wired mode is better overall for music listening these headphones are very enjoyable for me they're not 550 dollars enjoyable but very enjoyable for me honestly i will say though that these are probably some of the most capable wireless headphones i've tried for media consumption and a lot of that is due to the spatial audio feature this is something found on the other airpods models but this essentially gives you that surround sound feel when watching videos and movies even content without official dolby atmos support i watched some dolby atmos content and some movies with 8d audio and the experience for that kind of stuff is really really solid watching content with this feature enabled can make the experience noticeably more immersive than without spatial audio and over ear form is a really nice experience and i think these are nearly the perfect headphones to watch an airplane movie on i want to bring up some other little tidbits and bugs i experienced with airpods max firstly when using airpods max with my m1 mac mini and wireless mode i did experience some frequent split second drop offs this issue isn't exactly consistent and it could just be my m1 mac mini's poor bluetooth performance but this isn't an issue i had with my airpods pro with my m1 mac mini so i'm not exactly sure i will say though that general reliability and connectivity with devices is much better on airpods max than on airpods pro every now and then when using airpods pro trying to switch between devices i would have to tap on it twice for it to connect but with airpods max that hasn't been an issue at all just one tap and i'm connected in the bluetooth settings just like the regular airpods you've got this bespoke menu where you can adjust certain things like the button cycles and the spatial audio but you've also got a toggle to switch the way in which the volume goes up and down with the digital crown which is a really nice touch overall like i said airpods macs are priced like headphones made for audio files but they're far from it i would say that in my experience these have best in class active noise cancelling and transparency modes but other than that airpods macs aren't exactly the best at doing anything specifically but when you combine all these features that the headphones have to offer from the amazing transparency mode to the awesome spatial audio features you've overall got a really compelling package for apple users it's an experience that's worth 550 dollars i say no and i think most people would say no but now that the damage is done and i've got them in my hands i personally don't see myself using any other headphones for non-pro related audio use case scenarios i like using them overall and i think anyone who's already invested in the apple ecosystem should enjoy the experience out of these i'm just really looking forward to third-party manufacturers making better earcups and better cables for this thing but that's it that's the airpods max review if you enjoyed make sure to give this video a thumbs up and subscribe for future content like this because we've got a bunch more stuff on the way thank you all for watching and i will talk to you guys in the next one you\n"