AirPods Max 2

[casperes1996]

They finally got an upgrade. I’m curious about the improved latency claim. Wonder if they’re good enough for wireless electric guitar recording in garageband. For now that only really works wired.

 

[RockRock8]

Apple has surprised announced a brand new second generation of their highest end headphones: AirPods Max.

AirPods Max 2 is big leap for active noise cancellation, audio quality, and innovative features only Apple can provide, powered by the revolutionary H2 chip, and it has a great 20 hour battery life even with Active Noise Cancellation and Spatial Audio enabled, at $549.

AirPods Max 2 has 1.5X more active noise cancellation, an increased separation of instruments and increased naturalness of sound via a higher dynamic range amplifier, and innovative features like lossless playback, enabling AirPods Max 2 the only headphones in the world that someone can create and mix Personalized Spatial Audio with head tracking. Wireless connection is also improved for even lower latency.

Further features include Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Live Translation, Voice Isolation, camera remote, Loud Sound Reduction, Personalized Volume, and Siri Interactions. This brings feature parity with AirPods Pro 3, while extending AirPods Max 2 feature set to offer only something AirPods Max can do: studio-quality audio recording, and lossless playback via 24 bit 48 KHz audio.

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I was about to post this lol.

This is a massive surprise. Bloggers, including Mark Gurman, can eat dirt.

No one saw this coming. And I'm really happy. this is awesome

Surprise and delight

 

[RockRock8]

Apple introduces AirPods Max 2

Apple announced AirPods Max 2, bringing even better ANC, elevated sound quality, and intelligent features to the iconic over-ear design.

www.apple.com

 

[Cmaier]

I was an avid Max user but switched to Pro’s. We have 4 Max’s, and they all, at one point or another, stop working to the point where i have to put them in the freezer to get them working again. Too much of a pain.

 

[RockRock8]

I was an avid Max user but switched to Pro’s. We have 4 Max’s, and they all, at one point or another, stop working to the point where i have to put them in the freezer to get them working again. Too much of a pain.

Interesting. Well, with new speakers and new chips and microphones I'm sure they redid the logic board. Hopefully that doesn't happen again in future if you use them!

 

[casperes1996]

I was an avid Max user but switched to Pro’s. We have 4 Max’s, and they all, at one point or another, stop working to the point where i have to put them in the freezer to get them working again. Too much of a pain.

Yeah I've heard you've had issues. Quite a shame. Mine have worked flawlessly throughout the whole time I've had them, which id about 5 years. I only really like over-ear headphones. Fortunately they've never had any issues for me, but it sucks that all of yours have shown problems.

 

[japanime]

I wonder if the new model fixes the issue with the headband canopy disintegrating after a couple of years. I'd be fine with buying a new headband, as wear-and-tear is something I can accept. But up till now, Apple has offered no replacement of that part alone.

 

[Andropov]

We have 4 Max’s, and they all, at one point or another, stop working to the point where i have to put them in the freezer to get them working again. Too much of a pain.

Lightning or USB-C versions? I had my Lightning ones fail with that exact failure mode you're describing. I wonder if they fixed it on the USB-C version (or in the AirPods Max 2).

 

[Cmaier]

Lightning or USB-C versions? I had my Lightning ones fail with that exact failure mode you're describing. I wonder if they fixed it on the USB-C version (or in the AirPods Max 2).

All lightning. USB-C may well have fixed it. Thing is, now that I’m used to just always having airpods in my pocket, would be hard to go back to over-ear other than for sitting at my desk, anyway.

 

[casperes1996]

All lightning. USB-C may well have fixed it. Thing is, now that I’m used to just always having airpods in my pocket, would be hard to go back to over-ear other than for sitting at my desk, anyway.

All lightning. USB-C may well have fixed it. Thing is, now that I’m used to just always having airpods in my pocket, would be hard to go back to over-ear other than for sitting at my desk, anyway.

Mine that have been perfect since I bought them are the lightning model.

 

[Cmaier]

Mine that have been perfect since I bought them are the lightning model.

What I found is that it gets into some locked up mode if I don’t use it for a few weeks and leave it plugged in in its case. Other times I’d use it every day, grab it and head out somewhere, and it wouldn’t connect to anything unless I plugged it in and out again, so I got in the habit of having to test it before I left my office. My wife and kids have had the lockup problems with their’s, too, but freezing them solves it. Something going on with the charging circuitry, I think.

 

[Roller]

I was an avid Max user but switched to Pro’s. We have 4 Max’s, and they all, at one point or another, stop working to the point where i have to put them in the freezer to get them working again. Too much of a pain.

Did you listen to Coldplay after taking them out of the freezer?

 

[casperes1996]

What I found is that it gets into some locked up mode if I don’t use it for a few weeks and leave it plugged in in its case. Other times I’d use it every day, grab it and head out somewhere, and it wouldn’t connect to anything unless I plugged it in and out again, so I got in the habit of having to test it before I left my office. My wife and kids have had the lockup problems with their’s, too, but freezing them solves it. Something going on with the charging circuitry, I think.

All I can say is I'm happy I have a golden unit, sucks with the problems, hope it's fixed

 

[Cmaier]

Did you listen to Coldplay after taking them out of the freezer?

I literally change the station when Clocks comes on the radio.

 

[swk9]

My Lightning model is luckily still going strong and I actually like the case and the fit.

However I wish we had a real EQ on all Apple platforms as Apple's house sounds is a bit too treble-recessed for my taste, and you can now get cheap $10 Chinese brand in-ears with a great tuning for average populace. We can control color profiles for displays, why not have more customization for sound.

 

[swk9]

https://archive.ph/kqDKM

Apple’s AirPods Max 2 Blurs the Lines Between Marketing and Innovation

The lines between marketing and innovation are clearly blurring. Like the earlier USB-C refresh, this update feels designed to sustain sales rather than push the product forward. The profitable, $549 AirPods Max sit in an awkward middle ground — not popular enough to justify major investment, but too visible and culturally embedded in gyms and on TikTok for Apple to discontinue.
.....
And yet, consumers keep buying. That’s the part worth paying attention to. With Apple, it’s increasingly not about how much changes — it’s about how the changes are framed. The brand carries enormous weight, and the company’s marketing engine does the rest. Imagine if the recent product updates themselves were as impressive as the advertising.

It feels odd because I thought Gurman would have some insider info related to the product but I don't see anything. It reads as if he was caught by surprise by the release and while he says "consumers keep buying", he doesn't provide any actual information on the sales figure or the future of the category, except "not popular enough to justify major investment, but too visible and culturally embedded in gyms and on TikTok for Apple to discontinue". I'm constantly reminded how bad of a pundit Gurman is when he doesn't have insider info.

But the really intriguing part to me is how little we had heard of the new version before the launch. What was done differently with the development and launch of the AirPods Max 2 that none of us heard of it coming and all the leakers missed it? Other relatively minor hardware updates such as the regular iPad still get leaked.

 

[RockRock8]

.

I'm sick and tired of this asshole's bullshit. He's all upset because Apple keeps making him look like an idiot, which he is. He spent so long spinning narratives for all of them to fall apart. And now Apple surprise launches a product that he said they wouldn't.

His job is falling apart. Bloomberg clearly iced his dumb ass between the Srouji "story," which is a generous term for complete bullshit fabrication, and his "story" hyping up something he knew wasn't coming in order to write a hysterical narrative piece later.

Not to mention John Gruber has now written that in his own discussions with Apple team members and executives that this story wasn't true, like at all. Not even a little.

How is he not fired is a testament to Bloomberg's ability to blow bullshit all over the place. Even they have their limits, and I suspect he knows that

 

[RockRock8]

.

 

[RockRock8]

Here's what Gruber said:

And then there’s the Srouji thing, which was reported only once, by Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, and then effectively retracted two days later after Srouji shot it down with a meant-to-leak memo to his staff. My own reporting, talking to several sources close to and in some cases within Apple’s executive ranks, is that there is no truth to Gurman’s Bloomberg report that Srouji threatened Tim Cook that he was considering leaving Apple for a competitor.

 

[swk9]

Part of it might just be that Gurman is really good at his job of getting leaks and making noises. We might dislike him for his tone and the lack of insight but it's probably true that he's been the most reliable leaker on average.

Back to the AirPods Max. It seems people really hate the case. I actually like the case but I also like the Magic Mouse more than anything Logitech makes and don't mind the charging port which is apparently a hot take.