AirPods Max are wireless over-ear headphones designed by Apple Inc. They were released on December 15, 2020. They are not cheap at $549.00 but are my go-to Bluetooth headphones at home. My pair of AirPods Max were a gift from my parents for my birthday in July 2021. The AirPods Max are my favorite over-ear headphones, hands down, because they allow me to remain focused, their sound quality, and all-day usage.
I have a severe case of ADHD, which means that I’m easily distracted, and when I get distracted, it can take several minutes or hours to get back on task. I use music as a stopgap that allows me to focus on the music for a few seconds and ignore most distractions. Read my article here on how I cope with ADHD. I know it’s a little confusing that I allow a small amount of distraction caused by the music to cope with distractions, but it is a technique that took me several years to perfect. When I feel my contrition is slipping, I focus on the music with my eyes closed for a few seconds and then refocus on the task I was working on. This is why I have to have noise-canceling to cut out as many of the outside distractions as I can. The AirPods Max have nine microphones array located in the cups to detect outside noise and cut it out. Also, due to the size of the AirPods Max, everyone close to me can quickly tell when I’m listening to music, and they know my rule that when I have headphones on, I’m not to be distracted unless it’s an emergency.
The sound quality is much cleaner than that of Apple’s Beats lineup, with a more flatlined bass, matching that of the other AirPods lineup. Some users complain about popping or a hum in the audio due to the noise-canceling, but I don’t hear it. I have tried much more expensive headphones in the past, but for my money, the AirPod Pros generation 2 and AirPod Max give them a run for their money. Are they going to beat a pair of studio monitors? No. They are not as clean of a signal, and due to the limitations of Bluetooth, they just can’t beat a much more expensive wired studio monitor system. That is the trade-off of convenience. If you want kick-butt wireless headphones, you will sacrifice something.
I use the AirPods Max all day while working and relaxing at night. I average ten to twelve hours a day. Whereas they are not as convenient as the AirPod Pro generation 2, which will be on my list of favorite things sometime soon, they are more comfortable than the in-ear AirPod Pro generation 2. Also, unlike their smaller brothers, the AirPods Max can easily sustain my music addiction all day long. No matter what AirPods you choose with iOS 17, the device switching ability of the AirPods line has been sped up drastically. It’s like magic working listening to music on my iPhone and then opening a website on my iPad that has video, and with handoff, the AirPods switch sources on the fly, then when I go back to the iPhone, they just seamlessly switch back. It’s a fantastic technology that puts working in the Apple ecosystem ahead of the competition.
The AirPods Max are my favorite over-ear headphones, hands down, because they allow me to remain focused, their sound quality, and all-day usage. What devices do you use to fight distraction? Have you tried the AirPods Max?