I Finally Bought the AirPods Max. Here’s Why.

I once said that justifying purchases was my superpower, and never has that been more true than with my latest splurge. After months of saying I didn’t need them, I was finally able to justify the purchase of a pair of Space Gray AirPods Max. Here are my top reasons.

Travel

While I’m certainly not traveling as much as I did a few years ago, I just moved to Colorado about 3 months ago and have already flown back to Orlando twice to visit. As restrictions continue to ease and vaccines get jabbed into arms, I know I’ll be itching to travel more, so this was my number one justification for getting these giant headphones.

I’ve loved having the AirPods Pro on flights because of their great noise cancellation and their tiny size. They’re unnoticeable in my carry-on and easy to keep in my pocket when I’m on a plane. The size, though, is also a bit nerve-racking because I’m always afraid I’m going to drop one of the buds into the seat. They stay in my ears just fine but handling them is precarious, and if I happen to doze off, there’s no telling what might happen.

Obviously, the size of the Max will present the exact opposite scenario. Their greater size and over-the-ear design offer much better noise cancellation, and I’ll never be afraid of losing them, but they certainly won’t be as discrete in my carry-on. I’ll just have to see which trade-off suits me better.

The other travel-related perk of the AirPods Max is the fact that they have a Lightning port. With a Lightning-to-3.5mm cable, you can plug directly into an audio source, which will be very useful on any flight that offers seatback entertainment. I mostly fly United, which has leaned heavily on personal-device entertainment, but there are still lots of planes that have seatback systems, and there are rumors that United is going to start rolling out more of them to offer customers more flexibility. The ability to use a seatback system while retaining the noise cancellation of the Max will be a huge benefit.

Spatial Audio

Earlier this month, Apple added Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio to Apple Music for no additional cost. Rather than being presented in traditional left-right stereo, audio that’s mixed in Dolby Atmos can sound like it’s coming from all around you. The tracks I’ve tested have been hit or miss, but when it’s done well, it’s amazing.

You can listen to Atmos tracks in Apple Music with any headphones, but of course, you get the best experience if you use AirPods/Pro/Max or recent Beats headphones. While I can say that the experience with AirPods Pro is very good, I’ve heard from multiple people that it’s a lot better with AirPods Max. The combination of better noise cancellation and much larger speakers makes for more immersive spatial audio that I can’t wait to hear.

Of course, Dolby Atmos isn’t only an Apple Music feature. Apple’s TV app supports it, so most of the movies and shows I download to my iPad offer spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, which shifts the audio back and forth if you turn your head. It gives the sensation that the audio is actually coming from your device, which has caused me to remove my AirPods a couple of times to make sure what I’m hearing is actually in my headphones and not blaring out of the device in front of me. I’m excited to experience this with the Max as well.

Co-Working

Moving across the country presented a bit of a compromise as we downsized from 3 bedrooms to 2. That means we’re sharing an office now, and while we’ve both been very flexible, sometimes I want to work at my iMac while she’s on a work call. Again, the AirPods Pro work fine to block out noise and let me focus, but I’m excited to see how much better the noise cancellation is with the Max.

Price Drop

This was the final nail in the coffin of my questioning. Amazon has been toying with the price of the AirPods Max, dropping it to $529 or $499 for some of the colors while keeping the rest at the regular $549. I kept an eye on them for a couple of weeks and told myself that, if the Space Gray gets discounted, I’m diving in. I also wanted to stick to Amazon because I have their Prime Rewards credit card, which offers 5% back on any Amazon purchase. The Apple Card only offers 3% back, so this was a no-brainer. 

This morning, Amazon and Best Buy both discounted a bunch of tech gear for Father’s Day, and to my delight, the Space Gray AirPods Max finally got the $50 price drop I was hoping to see. They’re still pricey, but 5% back helps a little, and I’m telling myself it’s a Father’s Day gift (being a pug dad counts, right?).

Wrap-Up

Those are my main justifications for dropping a bunch of money on some headphones. Do I need them? Absolutely not. This is a “treat yo-self” moment for me, and I can’t wait to try them.

I’ll write up a review once I’ve been able to use them for a bit. My main concern is comfort, as most over-the-ear headphones don’t feel great on my oddly-shaped ears. I’ve heard a lot of people say that they’re more comfortable than any other headphones they’ve tried, so I’m optimistic. We’ll see.

What are your thoughts? Do you already have them, have you been curious about them, or is the price an absolute non-starter? Let me know in the comments!