AirPods Max 2 are the surprise update to Apple’s premium over-the-ear headphones. Now offering feature parity with the regular AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 3 — thanks to the H2 chip inside — the headphones’ $549 price tag makes some kind of sense.
The design and controls remain unchanged from the originals, for better and worse. That includes the silly “Smart Case.” But the signature beautiful, booming sound and excellent noise cancellation are better than ever. If you’ve never tried AirPods Max before — only the lesser AirPods and maybe a few pairs of cheaper headphones — you are well and truly unprepared for the remarkable music these cans will pump into your ears.
You don’t need to be a big audiophile to love the AirPods Max 2. But considering how Apple has mistreated the product line so far, you have to be a little bold to buy them yourself.
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AirPods Max 2 review
Powered by the H2 chip, AirPods Max 2 delivers improved high-fidelity audio with deep bass, expansive mids and crisp highs for an unparalleled listening experience.
Up to 1.5x more active noise cancellation than the previous generation, fully immersing you in every sound.
- Excellent audio quality and ANC
- Same exquisite design as before
- Advanced software features like Adaptive Audio and Live Translation
- Same horrible Smart Case as before
- Don't fold up for travel
AirPods set the format for modern wireless earbuds in 2016. They instantly pair to your iPhone, then sync and seamlessly switch between all your devices. AirPods Pro later introduced active noise cancellation, and AirPods Max brought the same awesome technology to full-size headphones.
But in the years since, Apple barely touched AirPods Max. While updates to Apple’s earbuds added smart features like conversation awareness, adaptive audio, voice isolation and personalized volume, the AirPods Max stayed stuck on the H1 chip, which couldn’t power any of that. A very minor revision in September 2024 switched up the colors and connector, but with none of the new guts.
We now know that this is the real AirPods Max 2 — with the H2 chip and all. These are properly new headphones. But was it worth the wait?
Table of contents: AirPods Max 2 review
Design
Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
The AirPods Max design remains absolutely exquisite. Just as with the signature look of Apple’s white corded earbuds, there’s no mistaking them for anything else when you spot someone wearing a pair.
The cans take the form of big, clean, unadorned, rounded rectangles. The sleek design draws your attention to all the headphones’ other details.
The ear pads flex Apple’s incredible fabric knitting tech — an underrated piece of the company’s manufacturing prowess. The “R” and “L” designating right and left aren’t printed in white. Instead, Apple knitted the letters into the ear cups with a denser texture.
The bottom of the headphones look a little busy — you have the USB-C port, light, a few microphones and a thin plastic line that’s probably some sort of antenna opening. The cans themselves are a bit thicker than the product photos suggest; those rounded corners are slimming.
A polished, hinged stainless steel arm connects each ear cup to the center headband. The ear cups swivel and rotate like a joystick. When you stretch them out to take the headphones on or off, they make a nice click as they bottom out. The steel arms slide out to adjust length. There’s no awkward clicking; it’s all perfectly smooth.
The headband is made of the softest, smoothest rubber you will ever feel. Its mesh netting on the inside has just the right amount of give — but concerns that it’ll stretch over time are probably valid. Time will tell if that’s any better on this revision.
AirPods Max color options remain the same
Image: Apple/D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
AirPods Max 2 come in the same five colors as the prior USB-C version: midnight, starlight, blue, purple and orange. On a scale of color vibrancy, these fall in the middle between the MacBook Air (barely a color at all) and the iPad 11 (undeniably bright and vibrant). I’d lump the AirPods Max color palette in with the MacBook Neo. The orange looks more peachy, and not as vibrant as the cosmic orange iPhone 17 Pro. The purple looks really good.
Comfort and weight
Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
The AirPods Max ear pads are the most comfortable I have ever felt, bar none. I have big ears and thick glasses, so headphones that don’t squeeze me into a headache after a full workday are hard to find.
Each side rotates all around and swivels up and down, so they snugly fit your noggin. The pads are very pillowy, thick and plush around your ears. They cushion around my glasses without pinching them into my head.
The weight isn’t as big a problem as I’ve been led to believe, having heard others complain about it since 2020. Sure, the aluminum is heavier than plastic, but the headphones doesn’t make my neck hurt. The mesh headband distributes weight over a really large surface area. It’s no Vision Pro.
If anything, the weight means the AirPods Max jostle around on my head a lot if I’m anything more than stationary. Walking around, or running up stairs, I can feel them sliding backward. In those instances, I need to constantly readjust them.
Sound quality
Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Many people have wondered what it would be like if Apple made a full-size camera. It’s remarkable what the iPhone can do with such a tiny sensor — imagine if Apple had a full-frame sensor to play with.
What’s the audio equivalent of that? Well, in my AirPods Pro 3 review, I wrote that “the audio quality is beyond excellent for tiny ear buds — it’s excellent, period.”
The AirPods Max are to the AirPods Pro 3 what the imaginary full-size Apple camera is to the iPhone.
Put on the AirPods Pro 3, and you will experience an impressive range and sound stage. And then you put on the AirPods Max, and you’re blown away.
It doesn’t matter what kind of music you listen to. I rocked out to Driftless Pony Club and The Beatles. Head-banged my way through Lady Gaga and Lizzo. Contemplated the classical music of Gustav Holst and Wynton Marsalis. Cried softly in a corner to Ethel Cain.
The sheer clarity across the entire sound spectrum is unparalleled. Tracks you’ve listened to literally hundreds of times will have a little extra detail. And that’s before you plug in the AirPods Max via the USB-C cable for lossless audio quality. The headphones sound simply stunning.
Controls
Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
AirPods Max 2, just like their predecessor, come with a Digital Crown and a second button.
The crown, which controls volume, also clicks to play/pause/skip media. Just as with the Apple Watch, you click and hold the crown to trigger Siri (if you really want to). Clicking and holding the other button puts the AirPods Max into Bluetooth pairing mode for a PC, Android device or Nintendo Switch.
When you want to change listening mode, you simply click that button. A single click on the AirPods Max is fast, and the big button is easy to find. The equivalent click-and-hold gesture on AirPods Pro 3 takes a little too long, especially if you have to hold it multiple times in a row.
About that Digital Crown
The AirPods Max’s Digital Crown, however, seems really annoying.
It’s not obvious which way you rotate the crown to adjust volume. Unlike the Apple Watch, where the placement of the Digital Crown makes it obvious which way is up and which is down, the unique interface sits sideways on the AirPods Max. You can adjust in Settings whether you want to increase volume by turning the crown “Back to Front” or “Front to Back,” whatever that means. It’s about as useful as deciding whether a coin should be heads or tails before you flip it.
When you turn the Digital Crown, you hear a clicking sound that indicates the volume is changing, but the clicking doesn’t get louder or quieter, so you don’t actually know which way you’re going until the next sounds you hear are either barely audible or deafeningly loud. Unlike with AirPods Pro, the Mac doesn’t show the system volume indicator when you’re adjusting it.
The Digital Crown also seems far too sensitive. On the Apple Watch, you must spin the crown a few times to make big adjustments to volume. It’s a safety measure — the Digital Crown is a small, precise dial; you don’t want to butterfinger your way into deafening noise. While the AirPods Max 2 packs a slightly bigger Digital Crown, it goes from mute to max in a single 360-degree rotation.
If you hastily click the dial, you may accidentally spin it a little bit, too.
I just hit the trusty volume buttons on my keyboard and iPhone.
Smart features
Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Thanks to (finally) receiving the H2 chip inside, the AirPods Max 2 can pull off all the same tricks as AirPods Pro 2 and Pro 3, as well as AirPods 4.
Adaptive audio has become my favorite mode most of the time, so having it on the AirPods Max 2 is a real treat. The head gestures for responding to Siri are also a real gem.
Taking off AirPods Max to pause media doesn’t react quite as quickly as pulling an AirPod out of your ear. That’s forgivable, since the headphones don’t have a sensor directly touching your ear. What’s kind of annoying is that every time I put them back on, I hear the bladoop! sound effect, even if it’s only a few seconds later.
Active noise cancellation of AirPods Max 2 versus Apple earbuds
Apple only gives vague, relative comparisons on active noise cancellation between models and across generations:
- AirPods Pro 2 deliver twice the ANC of AirPods 4 and the original AirPods Pro.
- AirPods Pro 3 manage twice the ANC of that, so we can infer it’s four times stronger than AirPods 4.
- Apple says AirPods Max 2 feature 1.5 times the “Pro-level Active Noise Cancellation” of the prior AirPods Max. But we don’t have any comparison point between that and the earbuds.
Anecdotally speaking, ANC on AirPods Max 2 feels a little more powerful than on AirPods Pro 3. For maximum performance, you can wear both at once, connected to two separate devices (after fighting with the automatic pairing).
Charging ‘case’
Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Everyone complains about the weight of AirPods Max, which I don’t have a problem with at all. So, is the Smart Case — the other major complaint about Apple’s headphones — as bad as everyone says?
Yes.
For starters, it’s barely a case at all. It’s a floppy and flaccid layer of faux leather. You open the magnetic flap, slide in your AirPods Max, and snap it shut. It’s faster than unzipping a case, but at what cost?
Does the “case” actually protect the headphones? It covers the already sturdy aluminum cans with a thin felt layer, while the most delicate-looking part, the mesh headband, stays completely exposed so it can be punctured by something sharp in your bag. And the case doesn’t even cover the entirety of the aluminum muffs; the corners remain exposed.
The Smart Case is made of a single piece that’s cut and folded over into its shape like origami. It’s only impressive if you work in the fields of manufacturing or topology. Otherwise, it’s just strange that it has a big crack in the front and an ugly crease in the back.
The felt inside and the faux leather outside feel nice to the touch. But the edges where they meet look like they’re fraying, like a manufacturing defect. The edges actually feel sharp.
It would be a clever bit of design for a cardboard cover or wax paper wrapping. It simply doesn’t work as a case.
Buy a real case on Amazon for less than $40. Or get a premium one from Waterfield Designs.
Conclusion: AirPods Max 2 review
★★★★☆
AirPods Max 2 headphones sound absolutely exquisite. They deliver all the smart, convenient features you’re used to on AirPods, in a form factor that can really let the audio quality shine and speak for itself.
But as good as they are, Apple’s prior treatment of the AirPods Max does not instill confidence. This big internal update with the H2 chip comes three and a half years after the chip debuted in AirPods Pro 2. Late enough for there to be credible rumors of an H3 chip coming later this year. Will these be outdated in the next seven months, and then whither away for the next five years again?
If you’re interested in AirPods Max 2, get them now while the getting’s good.
Price: $549
Buy from: Amazon
Buy from: Apple
Powered by the H2 chip, AirPods Max 2 delivers improved high-fidelity audio with deep bass, expansive mids and crisp highs for an unparalleled listening experience.
Up to 1.5x more active noise cancellation than the previous generation, fully immersing you in every sound.
- Excellent audio quality and ANC
- Same exquisite design as before
- Advanced software features like Adaptive Audio and Live Translation
- Same horrible Smart Case as before
- Don't fold up for travel
D. Griffin Jones is a writer, podcaster and video producer for Cult of Mac. Griffin has been a passionate computer enthusiast since 2002, when he got his first PC — but since getting a Mac in 2008, he hasn’t turned back. His skills in graphic and web design, along with video and podcast editing, are self-taught over 20+ years. Griffin has a bachelor’s degree in computer science and has written several (unpublished) apps for Mac and iOS. His collection of old computers is made up of 40+ desktops, laptops, PDAs and devices, dating back to the early ’80s. He brings all of these creative and technical skills, along with a deep knowledge of Apple history, into his work for Cult of Mac.
