They are my happy place. I put them on and the cacophony that is the world goes away.
I love the blue color.
I have skin issues, and they initially irritated my skin a bit, but not now. I can wear them for 8 hours or more at a time with minimal discomfort. Sometimes I need to tuck my earlobes, but that’s about it.
Cons
$600
Bra/case
Context: previously owned Bose QC-25 and QC-35. The noise canceling and sound quality, battery life, etc. are all better on the AirPods Pro Max.
I have the Sony 1000mx3. The one thing I don’t like about them is that I can’t connect them to more than one device without first disconnecting. What I like about them is the fact that I can connect via a wire to IFE when I fly and they work if the battery goes dead.
Anybody switch from Sony to Apple and have an opinion to share?
I also love mine. I don’t use them anywhere near as much as my AirPods Pro though.
Out of interest, those that are using them for calls, do you have them in transparency, noise cancelling or off mode during the call?
A bit of additional experience: Today was my first day in the office with someone sitting at an adjacent workstation. When he was on a video call the AirPods Max’s noise cancelling did a good job knocking down his end of the conversation, even though I wasn’t running any music or white noise through them at the time.
Noise cancelling mode.
Just posted this
I always have then on Noise Cancelling mode unless I’m talking to a person in front of me.
I will try it with some calls tomorrow. I just find I sound funny with NC on when in calls which has put me off previously
I usually have them in NC, but did try Transparent mode, and I think it was some better. With NC on, it sounds like you have a pillow over your head. (which would be noise canceling :-))
Thanks to all for your thoughtful replies. I think they will work well for my use-case. Will use these for 1-2 hours at a time while reading, so battery life and weight (hopefully) shouldn’t be a problem. I am easily distracted so the noise cancellation should help. Also have significant tinnitus. Will listen to a lot white noise, nature sounds, bells, and instrumental jazz/classical, etc. Can’t listen to vocals while reading or even instrumentals where I know the words to the songs; I end up hearing the words instead of what I’m reading. I will probably purchase through Adorama for the $100 off (thanks @DannyR for linking this). Trying to decide between blue and green. Again, my thanks.
Why has no one brought up the real benefits?
Neck strength.
My trapezious is beefy now.
I kid, but there actually is a really cool feature no one has mentioned: “Hey Siri, turn on noise cancelling.”
Switching from nose cancelling to transparency mode with just my voice has been invaluable while taking care of my now-10-month-old. My hands are often too dirty or full to tap the headphone buttons, much less interact with my phone.
Two complaints about the Max, though.
First, HomePods tend to hear the commands I mention above and, obviously, they have no idea what to do with it.
Second, mine quit on me every once in a while. The phone will think it’s playing (e.g., the track is counting down in Music or podcasts) but no audio is playing. After disconnecting and reconnecting a few times, this resolves. Not unexpected, I suppose; bluetooth audio has always been fraught. But unfortunate for such expensive headphones.
I gave the AirPods Max a real go. twice actually:
December 2020:
March 2021:
On both occasions, because of comfort reasons, I returned them.
A few months later, I bought them again. I also have stretched them out using my Sonos One box and its bearable now. With that said, I only use them a few hours a day at best because my AirPods Pro are more comfortable. But the Max sound AMAZING. So its a compromise but worth it for the sound stage. Recently, have used it for movies as well and they work well with the ATV.
Its expensive. I get it. And in my right mind, I know I can live without it. But I just enjoy the experience it provides so much that I made peace with it.
BTW, I also got Apple Care for these. because of the way batteries work, I am sure the battery life will degrade over time. I intend to get it replaced under Apple Care before my 2 years expires.
This is an issue for me as well. One workaround that I found has been working well for me is to listen to music with vocals in a language I don’t speak. Spanish, Portugese, French, Dutch and German all work fine, and the language itself becomes a melody. Also a fun way to find new artists.
Weridly, Italian does NOT work for me. Possibly too much passion 
I actually switched from the XM3 to the AirPods Max and like some others I bought them two times 
.
First experience with the Max was very uncomfortable: the clamping was way to strong for me and they seemed too small, so I couldn’t wear them for longer times … personally I found the XM3 to be uncomfortable as well compared to my wifes Bose QC35 and could not wear them for longer times. Also at first I didn’t quite like the sound of the Max compared to the XM3 and so I returned them. Apples lossless and 3d Audio then didn’t impress me with my XM3 and I bought the Max again when they were on offer at Amazon with the intention to return them - just so I would know. And this pair of Max was definitely more comfortable to wear and with a little box-force I find them pretty comfortable now. They don’t get as warm for me as the XM3, the mesh to me is way more comfortable than the soft-padding of the XM3 and then with the sound in lossless and 3d Audio it honestly felt like a little revelation to me. Yes there was way less bass compared to the XM3 but therefore I could hear much more detail. It was like „wait a minute, I can actually hear the type of instrument? And has this Instrument/layer always been in this song?“ 
. To me it felt like wearing glasses for the first time and being able to see sharp - unless you don’t know you may be fine but once seen you cannot go back .
Yes I dislike the weight (it has grown on me) and that they don’t fold up nicely like the XM3. With the additional cable (that should have been included) and possibly adapter you can use them for IFE on the go. Wearing them across the neck isn’t as comfortable as with the XM3 and the cups/cans (don’t know what they are exalted in English 
) turn upside down which I don’t like. What I really love about the Max is their instant on and source switching - this got me really annoyed with my XM3 and I found myself going for a wired connection so I didn’t have to do the Bluetooth switching stuff. As for sound I am really impressed with the Max compared to the XM3 and like it a lot better by now - my wife too and she wants to use them from time to time as well
I tried my AirPods Max on a zoom call today, were working great until my wife rang me and they switched to my phone, when rejected the call they did not reconnect to the mac so had to scramble to talk on the call again, need to figure out what went wrong
Thanks for the detailed feedback. I think I’m going to wait for V2…
This is likely on the Mac side. I’ve noticed that the Mac doesn’t handle reconnect handshakes from bluetooth devices as good as iOS devices do.
This is my impression as well. AirBuddy can help with this. That said, on a few occasions, I’ve had to reboot my AirPods Max to get them to repair with macOS.
Thanks for the advice, I am using AirBuddy. Might try it again, but for an internal meeting rather than a client facing meeting.
I picked up a pair about 6 months ago when the first $100 price drop wars started with Best Buy and Amazon. I also have AirPod Pros, which are my go to for calls, as I mostly just use one at a time and when the battery gets low I swap. For music listening I have portable wired DAC and headphone amp with really good headphone where I hear things I’ve never heard before because of the detail (particularly with Apple Music Hi-Res Lossless tracks). But, I also bought the AirPod Max, which are the best sounding wireless headphones I’ve run across and have really the best noise cancelling for over ear headphones I’ve used.
I sometimes listen to music on them, but I get far more detail and sound staging than the AirPod Max with Spacial Audio.
But, where I absolutely love them and why I bought them is watching tv and video at night with Apple TV. I don’t have a great space to watch music and have my sound system properly setup and have neighbors. Watching a broad range of video from sports (hearing in game conversations in the background is amazing and something I miss from have a well setup surround sound system), movies that are quiet as well as loud with low rumbles, and shows with good ambient sounds. The Max are brilliant for this and sound for visual isn’t as precise and demanding as music, these are perfect. I also love that they are wireless so I can get up and walk around any where in my home and have great sound for video.