As the pandemic wheezes on, noise-canceling headphones have gone from being a tool for jet-setting business types to a requirement for work-from-home sanity.
From the excellent new on-ear Beats models to the in-ear AirPods Pro (8/10, WIRED Recommends), Apple’s been making some of the best noise-canceling headphones for some time now. But in the tradition of a man named Jobs, some of the best won’t do. And so, with their bespoke aluminum ear cups, perfectly balanced volume knob—and $550 price tag—we are graced with the new AirPods Max.
The pair of ultra-premium headphones is meant to destroy the competition from Sony and Bose, and they quickly turned me from skeptic to true believer.
The AirPods Max are not without quirks, but in terms of sound, build quality, and features, they are the best noise-canceling headphones I’ve ever tested. It’s annoying for those of us with shallow pockets and partially compatible Android devices to admit, but Apple has once again proved its point: When you’ve got the best product, you can charge what you want for it.
Updated July 2025: We've updated this review with information on new features added to the USB-C Apple AirPods Max version, including testing the new lossless audio support.
Easy to Use
The thing people love about Apple's in-ear AirPods headphones is how well they work. Especially the pairing procedure. You pop open the case, put them next to whatever Apple-made device you’ve got on hand, everything syncs up, and you’re off to the races. That's also true here with the AirPods Max; after sliding the rounded rectangular ear cups out of their bra-like soft case, I had music from my iPad playing through them in seconds.
Photograph: Apple
But before I got them on my head to listen to Taylor Swift, I noticed another thing: They’re extremely well made. From the milled aluminum casing to the metal headband with mesh padding resembling the texture of a Herman Miller Aeron chair, the components all feel hyper-premium. They feel significantly nicer than Bose and Sony models, and they even best the equally pricey Montblanc model I fell in love with last year.
Even the folks at iFixit were impressed with the headphones' build quality—with everything from replaceable magnetic ear cups to screwed-in components, these appear to be among the only Apple products that are user-repairable.
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