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Probably unintentional, but still, somewhat cruel of MacRumors to use a photo featuring one of the only colorways that can't receive this update (silver). There are some of us who refuse to upgrade to USB-C because it has never been made available in silver.

Starlight is NOT the same.
Honestly you should be happy it comes in different colours at all. AirPods only comes in white
 
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I'm in Europe. Left mine overnight (Mon-Tue) connected with cable and connected with bluetooth to my freshly updated iOS 18.4 iPhone Pro Max. Nothing.

Now they're sitting next to me connected as well with phone close. Nothing.

Maybe the update will be available later today (Tuesday April 1) ?
 
Seems MacRumors have jumped the gun with this article.

Nothing in any of the press releases mentioned a firmware updated for AirPods Max, and nobody is able to download it.

The last official word from Apple was a few days ago when they just said it would be available in "April", without a date.
Apple's own firmware website says that 7E99 is the latest for AirPods Max, but I can't get mine to update either.
 
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I was hoping Apple would try something new in the design of the cans. Said for audio engineers working in immersive audio, the powerful clamp of these closed headphones does not translate the Spatial Audio. It's too damn close to the ears. I guess the AirPods Max are like the cheap design of the Apple mouse. For the most successful tech company, this is unacceptable. They should be an open cans option. Like the AI bubble exploding in the face.
 
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Call me crazy, but I just bought the silver lightning model the other day even when I knew of this feature coming. That’s how much I hate the new colors. 😅
Definitely crazy. Unless you got a good deal.
 
The new colors are spectacularly awful. Where did you get the Silver Lightning model? I’d like to buy a pair.
Love my silver lighting APM. Only downside is that the initially pristine white headband yellows and discolours a little with use/over time. Will likely go for a black/darker grey option if I need to replace my current pair.

Amazon warehouse or similar might be the best place to start looking for a pair of silver lightning APM.
 
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Did they software update the ergonomics such that you don’t get a headache after a half hour of wear?
 
Why not for lightning version? Same hardware apart from the port
💵... gotta squeeze all the juice from the lemons (oh wait did that part of the email get out?! Correction... because the signal voltage crosstalk on the connection pins difference in lightning vs. USB-C wouldn't allow us to do it... you can't understand that jargon? Great, yeah, yeah, that's the ticket!)
 
Lossless is important for us producers working on a laptop. The lighting version also did lossless but the D/A conversion is in the cable. Not ideal. I presume the USB c is digital all the way through till the usual conversion in your cans. Almost zero latency too which is important.
 
So why isn’t this supported on lightning model? 480 Mpbs USB2.0 is still enough bandwidth to support this! Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Blu-ray 4k 144 Mbps, so surely lossless audio can/should be supported by USB?! This just goes to show that Apple should’ve adopted USB-c on its products long ago, instead of continuing to ram lightning down our throats.
 
So why isn’t this supported on lightning model? 480 Mpbs USB2.0 is still enough bandwidth to support this! Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Blu-ray 4k 144 Mbps, so surely lossless audio can/should be supported by USB?! This just goes to show that Apple should’ve adopted USB-c on its products long ago, instead of continuing to ram lightning down our throats.
The limitation is with the lightening port. When using a wired connection with the lightening models, the audio signal undergoes multiple conversions: from digital to analog by the source device, and then back from analog to digital within the headphones. It’s near lossless, but the process results in some loss of audio fidelity, meaning the playback isn’t truly lossless.
 
USB 2.0 can support 48 kHz 24 bit lossless audio.

USB 2.0 can handle 48 kHz lossless audio without any issues. USB 2.0 provides a maximum data transfer rate of 480 Mbps (megabits per second). Lossless audio at 48 kHz with 24-bit depth in stereo typically requires around 2.3 Mbps. Even if you have multiple audio channels or higher sample rates, USB 2.0 offers more than sufficient bandwidth for lossless audio streaming.

It's worth noting that USB 2.0 is widely used in professional audio interfaces and equipment.”
Stop making sense. Apple want you to shelve your old ones and buy the new shiny shiny ones.
 
Apple's own firmware website says that 7E99 is the latest for AirPods Max, but I can't get mine to update either.
The update file that tells your Mac or iPhone where to download the update from has not been released by Apple yet, which is causing the issue.

But in general, to “force” your iPhone or Mac to check if an update is available for your AirPods:
  1. Make sure you’re not wearing them and they’re charging out of their case
  2. Go to Bluetooth settings
  3. Click Disconnect
  4. Click Connect once disconnected
It immediately triggers an update check.
 
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How many updates until it sounds better than my wired Meze 99 Classics?
Let's wait and see, but having these, my bet is that once wired, they will sound better than your Meze 99.
However, some people here are randomly saying the Focal Bathys (MG and non Mg) will sound better when both are wired. For sure they will - I have these - they are in a different class - and you can really easily her the lossless versus non-lossless when you compare it on them. They are at a different price point though. And do have some disadvantages though. Not sure why all the hate and random comparisons. It's like someone just gave us a feature on a Toyota Lexus and everyone is complaining it's not a Porsche Cayenne.
 
How many updates until it sounds better than my wired Meze 99 Classics?
I don't think they sound better than my wired open backs either, but I can't imagine another pair of overear wireless headphones I'd rather own, and they're amazing for everything I can't or don't want to do wired.
 
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im willing to bet noone on macrumors (likely over the age of 35 on average) will be able to tell the difference.
I'm 60 and can tell the difference between low and high quality streams on my hifi (Wiim Pro Plus streamer with q acoustic M20's); I can even hear the difference streaming a better mastered track on Qobuz to HomePods compared to Apple Music to the same HomePods and same technical stream quality. So if you would like to put your money where your mouth is we could arrange a blind test if you like 🤣 (I'm not specifically having a go at you, it's just there are a lot of comments on the Internet about older people not being able to hear HQ music and I wanted to push back a little)
 
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Seems MacRumors have jumped the gun with this article.

Nothing in any of the press releases mentioned a firmware updated for AirPods Max, and nobody is able to download it.

The last official word from Apple was a few days ago when they just said it would be available in "April", without a date.
The update is out, just seems to not be installing properly. MacRumors waited until the update actually came out
 
Will this help with gaming? I tried using them for gaming but the mic wouldn't work. Unless you switch to phone quality and then it sucks
 
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