I love the AirPods Max as a product.

Here’s a brief review I wrote elsewhere:

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Apple AirPods Max: These are both overrated and underrated at the same time. On one hand, you have non-audiophiles who may believe these are some of the best sounding headphones around, due to their price tag and the fact that Apple makes them. But then on the other hand, you have people people trying to write them off as merely a gimmick from a consumer tech company. Both of those views are wrong. Can you find better sounding headphones for $550? Absolutely. If your one and only concern is sound quality, there are better options out there. But these are absolutely audiophile grade headphones. They sound excellent. The sub-bass is the real star. It’s powerful and very present without feeling bloated. The bass is good, the mids and highs are decent, and the soundstage is pretty good for a closed back. I find the instrument separation is quite good and the dynamics are excellent, although the detail retrieval is merely okay. The best way I can describe it is that in a multilayered track, you can hear every note, but some of those notes may not have the kind of texture you’d hope for in this price range. The way I’d put it is that the detail is good but the microdetail is merely okay.

Of course, that entire description is missing half the puzzle. Aside from sounding good, the APM are wireless, they’re fantastically built, they have the best noise cancellation and transparency modes in the industry, they’re comfortable, and they have all sorts of other great features like ear detection, auto-switching, spatial audio and so on, if you’re in the Apple ecosystem. So if you think about these as a $550 audiophile headphone, there are better options out there. But if you think of these as a $300 audiophile headphone with $250 in awesome and highly useful smart features and convenience factors, these things are incredible. I highly recommend them to anyone in the Apple ecosystem who has the budget.

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Of the ~13 or so mid-fi headphones I own, the AirPods Max are easily in the top 5 for sound quality. For example, I’d put them ahead of my M50, SR60, and A900, but behind my 6XX, Grado Hemp, and K702.

And in terms of actual usage, the AirPods Max might spend more time on my head than any other headphone I own. Convenience really matters. 7.5/10 sound with great convenience factors beats 8.5/10 sound without.