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Bluetooth connectivity has also been improved, from Bluetooth 5.0 to Bluetooth 5.3. As anyone has experienced having 45 different strangers’ headphones on your iPhone at the airport, the improvement in connection stability is most noticeable in Bluetooth-heavy environments; I didn’t notice any leaks. You can also now connect headphones to your phone to reduce latency and improve sound quality, which is a bit useless for me considering I’m one of the vast majority for whom lossless sound doesn’t make any difference.
Regarding sound: These are some of the best headphones I’ve ever tried. (I compared them in listening tests with… Sonos Ace.) Anything with a big bass line sounds great with Apple headphones, and the famous “headbanger” intro to Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On” vibrates straight through my skull without sounding muddy.
Photo: Adrian So
The main criticism of the AirPods Max line in general is that the highs are painfully bright, but I didn’t notice that with Kacey Musgraves’ pure, clear vocals. “Everyone wants to be a cowboy”. I can also enjoy the full speed and subtle expression of Billy Strings’ complex fingerpicking. The dance music also sounds amazing, I loved the big brass instruments in La Roux Trouble in paradise I also found myself listening to a lot of Robyn’s work My existence. There’s still no manually adjustable EQ, so you better be happy with the way it sounds because you’re not changing it.
As with most Apple products, if you already own a pair of the OG AirPods Max, you don’t really need to shell out the money to upgrade. However, if you own an iPhone and are considering getting these, a Sony pair, or a Bose, you should probably just get them.
They look amazing. They prevent the hum of giant fan blades from dying and your kids screaming while playing Paper Mario In the next room. They now come with a whole new set of software upgrades that make them, along with the AirPods Pro 3, the most useful headphones for iOS.
And if this is important to you — and it probably is, since you’re reading this review — the AirPods Max 2 still sound very different from every other headphone around. Why mess with a design that someone can still see from 100 yards away? I hope they still come in green, though.