Having now lived with them for over a month, I am really excited to be sharing my experience of Apple’s AirPods Max over ear headphones!

Yes, they’re still sold out, you cannot get them for at least 3-4 weeks… but luckily I found a way to get my hands on a pair in early January.

When these were first announced there was no big lead up, they just dropped like the first Tuesday in December I think, or maybe it was the end of November. Normally I’m the first one to pre-order a new Apple product at launch but when I saw the price tag on these I thought I’d give them a pass.

But as the weeks went on and the more reviews I saw online (many great, some sort of meh) I started to feel like I wanted to give them a shot.

I have owned SO MANY earphones and headphones. My in-ear journey took me from the AirPods Pro to the B&O E8s to the Sony WF-1000MX3 right the way back to the AirPods Pro again… the only reason I wasn’t getting on with AirPods was that my ears are the sort of shape that the buds just don’t want to stay in… but I’ve sort of solved that with some memory foam ear tips.

Back to the AirPods Max – I like to have a set of over ears around. For travel it’s great on planes, and some days when I’m working away in the studio and just need to focus, I love to shut the outside world out with a great pair of over ear cans.

The problems I have though are mostly down to comfort…

I have owned the Sony WH-1000MX3s, I’ve had the Beats Studio Wireless 2, the Wireless 3s TWICE, I’ve had Bose, I’ve had Seinheisser, I’ve had B&Os… Nothing has done it for me so far.

So I was really excited to give these a try and see if finally, my search is at an end.

The Magic of AirPods

Apple describes the AirPods Max as “a perfect balance of exhilarating high-fidelity audio and the effortless magic of AirPods. The ultimate personal listening experience is here”.

And personal is the key word here – Apple’s goal is to want you to feel locked away, immersed in whatever it is you’re listening to. Starting with the fit through to the sound that is pumped from these things into your ears.

Any reservations I had about this product fell away the first time I put them on.

Firstly, the fit. These are the most comfortable over ear headphones I have ever worn. The mesh head band really helps them to fit perfectly across the top of the head, and that aids the weight distribution.

When you first pick these things up out of the box the instant reaction is woh, heavy. And that’s no surprise because you have these beautiful earcups crafted from aluminium, combined with the stainless steel frame and these telescopic arms that stay exactly where you set them so you can play around and get the perfect fit.

But for me personally, they don’t feel heavy at all. Every single pair of over ears I’ve owned in the past I’ve barely used for 30 minutes at a time. They get hot, they get heavy, they slip around, they press against my head and ears… The AirPods Max on the other hand? I’ve worn these for HOURS at a time with no problem.

The earcups help with this in a massive way. The shape of them, this sort of rounded corner rectangular shape, means they fit OVER my ears completely so that eliminates any unwanted pressure from the pads pressing.

The fabric material is much cooler and comfortable to wear, probably far more breathable too than the leather type materials other headphone brands use.

So whether I’m wearing them at my desk, or while I’m on a long walk with my dogs, they feel great, almost effortless to wear compared to all the previous over ears I’ve owned.

The Apple AirPods Max Ear Cups are easily removable & very comfortable

The ear pads themselves are easily removeable, held in place magnetically. And the advantage of this is when they eventually wear and tire, you can easily get replacements and change them in seconds.

My Beats Studio 2s needed an earpad change and I remember having to fiddle around with 3M tape and a few attempts to replace the ear pads perfectly, but these – as you can see, zero effort.

While we’re talking about the physical characteristics of the AirPods Max, I may as well show you the buttons on the outside for control.

The Digital Crown makes it easy to control volume, skip tracks and summon Siri

The AirPods Max have a digital crown which looks like a carry over from the Apple Watch, and this allows you to control the volume, skip tracks, answer phone calls and call Siri. I’ve never used it to summon Siri because I just use the “Hey Siri” command – that works well most of the time and it’s easier than fiddling around.

The button here is used to switch between listening modes – so you start either with noise cancellation on or off depending on your preference, and then tap to turn on transparency mode, tap again to go back to normal listening or noise cancellation.

Noise Cancellation & Transparency Mode

Noise cancellation on these is probably the best I’ve ever experienced. It really does a great job of sealing the outside world – especially when you’re listening to music. I’ve had colleagues trying to talk to me literally a feet or two away and I’ve not been able to hear them.

I’ve not been able to try these out on a plane due to the pandemic, but I’m looking forward to doing so when we’re able to travel again.

On the subject of needing to speak to people from time to time, transparency mode is amazing. It’s so hard to describe but transparency mode on the AirPods Max is like listening naturally with your own ears but even better. There’s no distortion and everything comes in crystal clear – on other headphones and even earphones, transparency mode isn’t something I’ve ever bothered using because it’s irritating. But it’s the complete opposite on the AirPods Max, whatever Apple have done, hats off to them because they have done a phenomenal job with this.

Call quality so far appears to be very good – I’ve chatted to a friend for an hour on an outdoor walk with no complaints. This is a friend who always criticises call quality when I call him hands-free so for him not to realise I was hands-free says something about these. Bear in mind that was on a calm day weather wise, I don’t imagine they’d fair well if it was a windy day outside but then what does?

I have been using the AirPods Max constantly for client calls, and I tend to be on the phone an average 2-3 hours a day, and they’ve been fantastic for that. I prefer them to my AirPods Pro for this purpose and it’s nice to have customer voices more focused in my head with no external distractions.

High Quality Audio

I listen to a lot of podcasts when I’m out walking the dogs and for podcast listening the AirPods Max are absolutely wonderful. It makes listening to anything spoken word a real pleasure.

And as for music – I’m no audiophile but I’ve been more than happy with the quality of the AirPods Max. There is no EQ setting so some fussy audio people will be disappointed about that, but then they would probably be the types of people who would spend much more than £549 on a set of headphones.

I listen to a wide range of music from rock to hip hop, RnB, pop, dance… the AirPods Max seem to handle everything I’ve thrown at them so far and tracks I’ve heard 100s of times seem to get a new lease of life when put through the Airpods Max.

The sound is really very very good – and I’ve heard very little difference between using High Fidelity Audio with TIDAL or just using Apple Music. The Airpods Max Computational Audio driven by an Apple H1 Chip in each cup seem to do a great job of sorting everything out, and everything just sounds stunning with a clarity that makes listening to music such a joy.

Watching movies and videos with the AirPods Max is also an experience when you view anything on an iPhone or iPad. This is where the Spatial Audio feature kicks in – and it’s much easier for you to experience Spatial Audio than for me to describe it, but let me try.

So when you watch a movie or video with headphones, the sound is all in your ears. So if you stepped away from your device and walked to the other side of the room, all the sound from the source would be all in your head.

But what Spatial Audio does is help the Airpods Max (and Airpods Pro incidentally) create a cinema-like surround sound experience. The AirPods contain gyroscopes and accelerometers that combined with your iPhone or iPad, track even the most subtle movements of your head. The sound from the your movie is anchored to the device so if you turn your head, for example your left ear moves further away from the device, the sound will focus on your right ear more. Watching movies with Dolby Atmos is a stunning experience and you really feel immersed in the action.

It’s just a shame that Apple hasn’t yet found a way to create a similar effect when watching movies through Apple TV on your big screen, since having such an amazing audio experience deserves the visual experience to go with it… but that’s just got me thinking about whether it’s time to invest in a couple of HomePods to take care of that particular issue. But that’s something to talk about another time…

So why would you buy the AirPods Max?

Anyone who uses and loves the Airpods or AirPods Pro should definitely consider these. They take everything that’s so grteat and magical about AirPods and put them in a bigger, classier package that’s just more comfortable to wear over longer periods of time.

So many of us are stuck on video calls and phone calls all day every day, I and some of our friends have mentioned that as great as Airpods are, they can irritate the inner ear after prolonged use. I really had some problems going on over Christmas and had to stop using the AirPods Pro as it was just too painful to put them in my ears.

If you are hooked into the Apple ecosystem and like the seamless way Apple products work together, that’s another reason to consider the AirPods Max. I can go from working at my MacBook Pro, to watching something on my iPad to taking a call on my iPhone without any effort as Apple’s auto-switching just works so well.

If you have been nodding your head at some of the frustrations I outlined with previous over ear headphones I’ve owned, that’s another reason to give AirPods Max a try. They are so comfortable – my wife hates headphones or earphones of any kind and when she tried them the first time she was really unhappy when I took them back from her! I’m probably going to end up having to get her a pair as she spends a lot of time on the phone throughout the day and I can see that practical use is going to be a huge benefit to her.

I’ve deliberately not talked about the price of the AirPods Max because I really wanted to talk about my experience first so you can get an idea of the potential value of this product.

I agree in comparison to really superb headphones like the Sony XM4s or the Bose QC35s which can be found for around £250-£300, paying £549 for the AirPods Max is a bit steep.

But for me personally, having spent so much on headphones in the past and been repeatedly disappointed, the price isn’t so important when I’m getting so much value from these. As well as the comfort issues, those previous headphones were relegated to “listening to music only when on an airplane” headphones.

My Airpods Max on the other hand have been used every single day since I first got them out the box. I love them so much.

One word on colour – I’d recommend the Space Grey. Not only are they stylish and a little more understated, they’re also more practical.

I actually bagged a pair of the Silver at the beginning of January but within a week I was seeing signs of wear and tear being a real issue if I wasn’t careful. So I sold them and found a pair of Space Grey instead and there have been no worries about dirt and marks whatsoever.

Speaking of dirt and marks, I should talk about the case…

The Smart Case

The AirPods Max case has been the subject of much abuse – it looks like a bra, it doesn’t protect the headphones… ok so there’s some merit to the criticism hurled at the case but as I’ve lived with these headphones for over four weeks now, I can start to see where Apple was thinking with this. That doesn’t mean I think they couldn’t be improved but just hear me out on Apple’s possible thinking.

So the Smart Case puts your AirPods Max to sleep when they go in the case, and they wake up when you remove them. Pretty easy, smart and simple concept. The case sort of wraps around the ear cups of the AirPods Max giving them about 80% protection and forming what can only be described as a handbag.

I don’t think anyone in their right mind would carry these around and I certainly haven’t. When I leave home with these I take them out the case, put them on and if I need to take the AirPods Max off for any recently I just let them hang around my neck.

I wouldn’t throw these into a bag because I would just be so worried about them getting damaged – a stray pen for example could potentially do some real damage to the headband mesh or the ear cups themselves!

But I can sort of see Apple’s logic in going down this route – ignoring the faults of this system, they do make for a far more compact portable form. Other over ear headphones tend to fold into a case that makes them very large – so much so in fact that I very rarely would take my Sony, Bose or Beats over ears on a short trip as packed up into their protective case they would just take up way too much space in my luggage. And when you’re on a short trip luggage space in your carry-on is precious, trust me. So I’d always take my Airpods Pro instead.

But if I had to take these with me and I was brave enough to put them in my bag, look how little space they would take – they’d slot neatly into the compartment of an over shoulder bag no problem and not take up too much additional space.

There are so many third party protective cases on the market for the AirPods Max now that if this is a concern it’s a problem easily solved. I bought the ZtotopCase (available on Amazon for around £23), and it does an amazing job of protecting my AirPods Max whilst allowing me to carry a charging lead too.

The ZtotopCase is just one of many third party cases available for the AirPods Max

BUT look at the size of this thing – it’s HUGE! So I probably still wouldn’t take it with me in this case every day when commuting or on a short trip. Although it does have a very handy handle so… maybe that’s something to consider.

So Apple’s design choice when it came to the Smart Case seems to have been aiming to get the AirPods Max into a more manageable form factor for transporting around. Unfortunately it doesn’t practically work, but then as I’ve shown you neither does the big traditional protective type case either. Well at least it doesn’t work for me personally.

But when I’m able to short-haul travel regularly again – to Madrid to visit family or Frankfurt to see our customers out there, I WANT to take my AirPods Max with me. So maybe I’ll just have to be a little more careful with them rather than just throwing them in my bag.

I’ll check back with you on that hopefully later this year.

The ZtotopCase is well made and great value, providing 100% protection for the AirPods Max

Conclusions

So to summarise my thoughts and feelings after the first month of living with the Apple AirPods Max:

My Pros:

- They sound fantastic

- Super comfortable

- Brilliant noise cancellation

- Fantastic transparency mode

- Great for calls

- Wonderful design – they look very classy, and here at Roberto Revilla London we like anything that looks classy!

- Very good battery life, with the amount of use these get I’ve not been caught short yet

My Cons:

- The price might be one hurdle that you won’t be able to get over

- The jury is still out on the functionality and practicality of the Smart Case

And there you go – that’s my review of the AirPods Max. If you’re already in the Apple ecosystem or have had real problems finding the perfect pair of over ear headphones in the past, I’d strongly recommend checking these out.

I’d love to hear your thoughts so please tell me in the comments below what you think about the AirPods Max if you have them, and if you are thinking about purchasing the AirPods Max, feel free to ask me anything that’s on your mind.

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Apple AirPods Max Review