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AirPods Max 1 vs. AirPods Max 2 Buyer's Guide: 25+ Differences Compared

This is a parity release basically then. It brings the max up to parity with the rest of the AirPods range.

Fair enough. I have a set of 1's and won't upgrade to these, but I highly doubt they were trying to entice people to do that. And to be fair, I love my 1's. I run in them in the winter and I wear them al the time to work. They aren't for everyone, but no product is.

And it's nice to see them no longer being the "Mac Pro" of the AirPods lineup. 🙂
 
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e1me5 said:
Oh man, where is the wireless looseless audio that it will make my life better? 🤣
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With the old crappy driver that makes the Max sound dated you'd gain nothing. The Max are fine with compressed MP3 files, if it sounds bad it's the Max not the source.
 
Koni17 said:
I wish they would come out with an "air" version, unfortunately I can't wear them for too long without my head hurting, either from being too heavy or having too much clamp force.
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Me too! Can't believe they're exactly the same design. The headaches they gave me were monumental.
 
Resident Guru said:
In what way does sound become dated? I'm curious.
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These types of headphones (closed back) have seen major sound quality improvements hence prices for good sounding headphones have come down over the past few years. Yet the Max 2 still use the same 5 years old design and presumably the same driver too but they charge more than what other 2025 high-end models cost like Sennheiser's newest flagship, the HDB 630.

I still think the Max have the edge in virtually everything else but at $500 and above one would expect to see Apple outshine the competition in sound quality or at least match current 2025 models. Yet all Apple seemingly did was update the electronics to include the new H2 chip.

There aren't even any battery life improvements like we just saw going from the Airpods Pro 2 to the Pro 3. Those actually saw a redesign that improved more than just the ANC. This is really adding insult to injury because 20 hours battery life for big headphones with no off switch is well below what headphones at half the price offer these days. For example the cheaper Momentum 4 headphones offer more than twice as much. (I have the Max and 20 hours means I charge them twice every week and still find them flat occasionally. It doesn't bother me on my old first gen lightning model but then why would I buy the new ones?)
 
okkibs said:
These types of headphones (closed back) have seen major sound quality improvements hence prices for good sounding headphones have come down over the past few years. Yet the Max 2 still use the same 5 years old design and presumably the same driver too but they charge more than what other 2025 high-end models cost like Sennheiser's newest flagship, the HDB 630.

I still think the Max have the edge in virtually everything else but at $500 and above one would expect to see Apple outshine the competition in sound quality or at least match current 2025 models. Yet all Apple seemingly did was update the electronics to include the new H2 chip.

There aren't even any battery life improvements like we just saw going from the Airpods Pro 2 to the Pro 3. Those actually saw a redesign that improved more than just the ANC. This is really adding insult to injury because 20 hours battery life for big headphones with no off switch is well below what headphones at half the price offer these days. For example the cheaper Momentum 4 headphones offer more than twice as much. (I have the Max and 20 hours means I charge them twice every week and still find them flat occasionally. It doesn't bother me on my old first gen lightning model but then why would I buy the new ones?)
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Thank you for the detailed response! I'm looking forward to reviews. The new high dynamic range amplifier has me intrigued. As an owner of lightning Max's I'll upgrade if there is a lift in audio quality. Especially since this is my last lightning device in use.
 
I'd still be using my AirPods Max 1 if the ridiculous webbing hadn't lost all of its elasticity, rendering the headphones to be utterly uncomfortable. I'm flabbergasted that they didn't change the design. Either they are not listening to their user base or they just don't care. Bought a pair of Sony 1000MX6s. $100 cheaper and way more comfortable, even compared to the Max pre-webbing failure.
 
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Finally H2. This should have been done 3 years ago.

In 2026 H3 chip would have been nice - maybe a smaller variant of N1 chip as well and maybe some new exclusive Max features along the H3 chip.
 
takeos said:
It's 2026 and there still isn't lossless audio without a cable? What am I missing?
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I think the issue is Airplay which still does not support lossless and is the main Apple transport system for audio. Apple seem in no hurry to add it as it is quite challenging to add it and maintain backwards compatibility.
 
okkibs said:
These types of headphones (closed back) have seen major sound quality improvements hence prices for good sounding headphones have come down over the past few years. Yet the Max 2 still use the same 5 years old design and presumably the same driver too but they charge more than what other 2025 high-end models cost like Sennheiser's newest flagship, the HDB 630.

I still think the Max have the edge in virtually everything else but at $500 and above one would expect to see Apple outshine the competition in sound quality or at least match current 2025 models. Yet all Apple seemingly did was update the electronics to include the new H2 chip.

There aren't even any battery life improvements like we just saw going from the Airpods Pro 2 to the Pro 3. Those actually saw a redesign that improved more than just the ANC. This is really adding insult to injury because 20 hours battery life for big headphones with no off switch is well below what headphones at half the price offer these days. For example the cheaper Momentum 4 headphones offer more than twice as much. (I have the Max and 20 hours means I charge them twice every week and still find them flat occasionally. It doesn't bother me on my old first gen lightning model but then why would I buy the new ones?)
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Im not sure that's fully right. Have you seen the price jump on B&O H100 and H95 or the new B&W PX8 s2 etc. Even the Sony XM6 are priced retail at 460 before sales etc. Overall I am curious to see what Apple has to offer sound wise and ANC to see if they justify getting these Airpod Max.
 
While there are significant improvements due to the new chip, can still recommend getting the 1st generation provided there are good discounts on it.
 
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One of the 25 changes is the release date, and another is the USBC cable (that was introduced in 2024)? Seriously MR, I know your short on content, but this story is ridiculous.

You can sum this up as 2 changes:
- H2 chip which brings the features from the old Airpods Pro 2 finally to the Max, including improved NC. Maybe a new eq profile.
- New colours.

I was hoping for a step forwards, maybe a focus on less weight, improved drivers, maybe wireless connectivity (similar to carplay) for wireless lossless. But just an H2 chip and the same thing otherwise. Disappointing.
 
whitby said:
I think the issue is Airplay which still does not support lossless and is the main Apple transport system for audio. Apple seem in no hurry to add it as it is quite challenging to add it and maintain backwards compatibility.
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AirPods don't use AirPlay, they use Bluetooth. AirPlay is a protocol that runs on IP networks and it has always supported lossless.

That being said, the fidelity gains from going lossless are so small that most people wouldn't even be able to tell. It's mostly a marketing excercise, really. People will probably comment that the difference is night and day, but I bet almost everyone would fail an A/B comparison.
 
martinlk said:
AirPods don't use AirPlay, they use Bluetooth. AirPlay is a protocol that runs on IP networks and it has always supported lossless.

That being said, the fidelity gains from going lossless are so small that most people wouldn't even be able to tell. It's mostly a marketing excercise, really. People will probably comment that the difference is night and day, but I bet almost everyone would fail an A/B comparison.
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My bad, you are absolutely correct. AirPlay 1 is lossless, AirPlay 2 can be either lossless or AAC compressed. Apple Music screws things up by taking lossless streams and converting them to AAC lossy compression for AirPlay, defeating the point of lossless audio streams when using AirPlay. The only way around this is to use a lossless stream and DAC that presents as an AirPlay 1 endpoint and feeding your audio to the headphones etc. with a wire.

Unless you use the improved codecs for BT (which Apple do not but are available on Android devices), BT is heavily compressed and of generally poor quality. Most high quality headsets use wired connections for this very reason with dedicated DACs.

I would agree that lossless v compressed is not distinguishable by a large percentage of the population but there is a fairly significant portion that can tell the difference and for them it is worth the effort. I include myself in this group, and we would just like to have the choice, including letting Apple Music stream using lossless on Airplay and having the improved BT codecs available in Apple devices.
 
whitby said:
I would agree that lossless v compressed is not distinguishable by a large percentage of the population but there is a fairly significant portion that can tell the difference and for them it is worth the effort. I include myself in this group, and we would just like to have the choice, including letting Apple Music stream using lossless on Airplay and having the improved BT codecs available in Apple devices.
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Apple encodes the stream as AAC around 256kbps. It's very close to transparent. Again, some claim it's "night and day," which is an exaggeration of epic proportions. Anyway, you're talking about AirPlay which is not relevant when talking AirPods.
 
martinlk said:
Apple encodes the stream as AAC around 256kbps. It's very close to transparent. Again, some claim it's "night and day," which is an exaggeration of epic proportions. Anyway, you're talking about AirPlay which is not relevant when talking AirPods.
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Correct. That referred to AirPlay which is not applicable to AirPods hence my comments later about BT which is again encoded using AAC by Apple.

Again I would beg to differ that AAC is indistinguishable from lossless. It is certainly not night and day which is an exaggeration but there is a significant difference for some people, including myself. AAC is fine for relaxed listening when using music as a background rather than a listening session and is perfectly adequate for pleasant sound. But it has issues that you obviously do not either hear or agree are present. That is your prerogative but do not assume it is always a fact for all.
 
If they reduced the weight, I would have been interested. Had to sell my first gen cause they were just too heavy for my head. Couldn’t comfortably wear them long enough.
 
stomachdoc63 said:
I'd still be using my AirPods Max 1 if the ridiculous webbing hadn't lost all of its elasticity, rendering the headphones to be utterly uncomfortable. I'm flabbergasted that they didn't change the design. Either they are not listening to their user base or they just don't care. Bought a pair of Sony 1000MX6s. $100 cheaper and way more comfortable, even compared to the Max pre-webbing failure.
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The webbing on my GEN ones also got soft.

I can’t imagine buying another set
 
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