Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iFixit AirPods Max 2 Teardown: Same Design, Same Repairability Issues

What changed? They put a 2 behind it and the chip series so they could continue 2 charge chumps $549 for obsolete technology for at least 2 more product cycles.

And good for Apple, I guess, if they can separate fools from their money and make enormous margins on the product and invest that in other innovation, great!
 
  • Like
  • Disagree
  • Haha
Reactions: marte91, jbachandouris and Ael_MR
Never owned a pair of headphones that I had to repair. Broken or not. Why is this a thing? I literally have 4 pairs of headphones in arms length of where I am sitting. 4 completely different headphones. These are just mine. My wife has 3. My son has 2 (old one replaced by beats). I'm not even considering repairing any of these if they break.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: marte91
nickbatz said:
Both my and my daughter's AirPod Max had the same total failure requiring a $200 repair (they just replace the right cup). Anecdotally, the people at the Apple Store told us they get them in all the time for the same thing, sometimes when they're almost new and sometimes when they're four years old.

I like the headphones very much for their intended purpose - meaning for applications that don't require the kind of accuracy you need for music studio use - and was willing to pay a lot for them. But headphones this expensive need to be built better.

This is totally out of character for Apple products. I've bought about 25 Macs over the years, and only had one failure, which was covered under warranty (a PowerMac G5 with leaky coolant). The only other failures were AirPort routers, which had a maximum 4-year lifespan.
Click to expand...
I just purchased the Max 2. Normally, I wouldn't bother with AC+ but, for $30 a year, I am going to in case I have any problems.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Student of Life
kirk.vino said:
I got the original version when they launched, but I haven’t even touched them once since I got my AirPods Pro 2.
Click to expand...
I've seen many people comment that their Airpods Pro are essentially the equivalent of their Airpods Max. I've got Airpods Pro 2 too, and the original Airpods Max, and when going back and forth between them, I definitely find the Max headphones sound much better than the Airpods Pro.

kirk.vino said:
The Max are so uncountable to wear for more than 45 mins and that mesh has all stretched out that it provides zero support now. I like their sound profile, but comfort is a strange notion for these.
Click to expand...
Yup. After the mesh band stretches and flattens out, the pain one experiences from the two steel bands dropping down and pressing into the flesh of one's scalp and producing long, deep dents in it can get excruciating, but since this pain can increase gradually during longer wearing sessions, it's sometimes like a frog in a pot of water on a stove. At least it helped me realize how thick the scalp is, and how much effort tribes that used to take scalps actually had to go through to do that.

I got tired of pondering that, and bought a foam-lined headband cover that zips in place over the headband, and now I'm no longer worried about feeling like I'm being scalped (except maybe by the price).
 
FattiesGoneWild said:
Ok then. Let’s just ignore like they sold zero already. 🤦‍♂️🙄 It’s never a fact until it is a fact, right?!?!
Click to expand...
Like ignoring the fact that “they” might improve repairability just so they can repair their products quicker and lose less money in warranty cases without any relation to more or less customers buying their products.
Btw when a sentence ends with signs of unrest like “?!?!”…well, you know…
 
Was not expecting anything to change as it is a minor update with only new chip providing better audio quality. Good to see the teardown.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mganu
Cable flex fail and condensation issues are inherent fundamental design flaws they’ve known about for 5 years now. Unconscionable for Apple to not address, never mind fail to introduce any other updated practical features or design cues.

You can get a great pair of (best in class NC) Bose QC Ultras for 100 notes cheaper (200 less if you spring for the first gen) or if you want premium materials AND unparalleled audio quality, stretch for the B&O H95s.

Plenty of other alternatives too but personally, I have the former for travel/flights, the latter for home/sofa, and a pair of transparent Studio Buds + for sports/gym. Have had ZERO reliability issues with any of them.

Buying the AirPods Max is akin to buying a Land Rover/Range Rover. Sure, they’re recognisable/look nice but you really need 2 of the things for when one of them has invariably broken down or is in the shop for repairs. It’s not a matter of IF but WHEN.
 
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: marte91, maxsi and bmustaf
I had this issue where they just wouldn’t connect to my devices anymore. I found out that I could put them in the freezer for 24 hours and that fixed the issue for me. I used this solution 3 times since I bought them in 2022 and they still keep working lol. We’ll see if the freezer method will work or not the next time they stop working.
 
I can see, just looking at the internals, how the flex cable issue could be possible but I have had a launch pair that is treated really really rough and they are still ticking. Them and a ATV remote are the last veterans of the lightning cable war in our house.

Not enough of a reason to upgrade to these for me though.
 
I still have my original day one pair, aside from the mesh they are in great shape...until they aren't. Thankfully I have not had the issue that apparently plague these but I don't leave the house with them.

They'd be much better without the mesh, an actual power button or at least if they turned off when rotated and obviously more durable/repairable.
 
It’s too bad they didn’t fix the condensation issue. Me and my family had 3 pairs of these since they first launched, a couple were given as gifts, and we all loved the sound and noise canceling. I didn’t mind the weight of them at all and the case didn’t bother me. The only thing was that the originals used that old lightening apple cable port to charge.

However. After 3 years, all of them failed due to an ear disconnecting or crackling. Every one I took the headphones off the headband and they had a lot of corrosion on and around the 3.5 mm headphone jacks. All were bought at different times and from different batches over 2 years. I wanted to buy them again once they went usb c but I just couldn’t pay out that amount of cash to have them fail again. Sad to see this is still the case. I will stick with Sony or Bose until they address this.
 
spamabyss said:
I always found them ridiculously priced and didn't like the design all that much. Then I made the mistake to try them in store and to my ears they just sound so much better than the other ones I tried and owned, including Bose 700 and Sony WH1000XM3. And non of their newer models sounded as good to me when I tried them as the Airpod Max do. Which is a bit of a pity because now there's a very expensive set of headphones on my list that absolutely wasn't on my radar before. Even more of a pity that they didn't at least fix some of the design flaws these seem to have.
Click to expand...
Repair flaws rather than design flaws. At least the hinge isn't likely to break like the XM3/4's
 
Apple_Robert said:
I just purchased the Max 2. Normally, I wouldn't bother with AC+ but, for $30 a year, I am going to in case I have any problems.
Click to expand...

You shouldn't need to do that! Also, do we know that they haven't fixed the problems causing the failures?

But there's a larger picture, namely that it's not worth it. If having AC+ makes you feel better, that's one thing, however the odds of any extended warranty paying off are stacked way in favor of the house - or they wouldn't offer it. My golden rule of insurance is only to cover what I can't afford to pay out of pocket.

Obviously it can and does pay off sometimes, in which case you're glad you had it. But you're betting $60 that you won't need a repair that costs more than $60 in the second year you own the headphones! (The first year is covered anyway, so you're paying $60 for the second year.)

I believe I bought my AirPods Max four years ago. Four years of AC+ would have been $120 (leaving aside inflation), so I would have saved $80. Cool. But spread that across every extended warranty ever offered to me in my lifetime - which I've refused every time - and this is the only one that would have paid off!

At some point something may well need an expensive repair, and I'll still be miles ahead.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back