The AirPods Max 2 has been a long time coming. The distinctive look and sound quality of Apple’s first-generation over-ear headphones quickly made them one of the most popular wireless active noise-canceling headphones on the market, and have remained exactly the same for five years. Sure, there was a small refresh in 2024 to swap out the Lightning connector for USB-C, but that wasn’t exactly a proper successor.

Despite the long wait, the AirPods Max 2 is not exactly a monumental leap. Under the hood, it swaps in the Apple H2 chip found in AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods 4, which leads to enhanced sound quality and noise cancelation. The result is a minor refresh that does just enough to make sure it’s worth an above-average $549.

That said, the AirPods Max 2 is still a great pair of headphones. After a week with the new over-ear AirPods, including a couple of long flights, I would recommend them for a few specific groups of people, including frequent fliers and, of course, die-hard Apple fans.

The most substantial improvements to the AirPods Max 2 improve its active noise-canceling (ANC) capabilities. Thanks to the H2 chip, it is better at helping you tune out ambient distractions than the original Max.

I found that it can generate what feels like almost complete silence in most scenarios, which makes me feel a lot better about the AirPods Max’s higher-than-average price. For the best ANC headphones, such as the Sony WH-1000XM6, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Gen 2, and now the AirPods Max 2, turning on noise cancelation is the equivalent of pressing a mute button for the world. A lot of headphones have ANC these days, but few actually achieve this level of quiet.

On two transatlantic flights, the AirPods Max 2 let me completely retreat into my music, helped me rest, and drowned out my fellow passengers while I focused on work (which included writing this review). With the volume set to 50 percent, the only way I could tell I was flying at 600 miles per hour was the occasional vibration in the cabin. The engine noise? Gone, aside from a subtle hum that I could only hear when I paused my music.

Introduced with the AirPods Pro 3, Adaptive Audio is also available on the new AirPods Max, allowing the headphones to seamlessly adjust their noise-cancelation settings based on your surroundings. That lets you stay aware of important announcements on the road or zone in on your work at the office. It pairs well with the “Conversation Awareness” feature, which dials down the audio when you need to take a quick pause, but don’t necessarily want to take your headphones off.

For some folks, including frequent fliers, Conversation Awareness and Adaptive Audio single-handedly make the upgrade. It’s very convenient to have your headphones adjust to changing conditions without having to switch between ANC and transparency modes.

The AirPods Max 2 sound excellent. Every track from my carefully curated, multi-genre audio test playlist sounded detail-rich and supremely enjoyable on the cans, even without spatial audio. The harmony among deep bass, vibrant treble, and a smooth midrange was instantly discernible.

With optional dynamic head tracking—a longtime AirPods staple—spatial audio makes live albums particularly entertaining and true to life. Once again, the core functionality is available even on audio content without Dolby Atmos.

All of this, however, is par for the course. It was present in the AirPods Max, and now it’s back for the sequel. The Max 2s sound a tad livelier thanks to the improved performance from the H2 chip, an upgraded amplifier, and revamped audio drivers. The bass was a tad more pronounced without being overwhelming, and, more importantly, the vocals sounded more detailed.

In addition to streaming lossless content over its bundled USB-C cable, the second-generation AirPods Max also offers Adaptive Audio and Conversation Awareness in wired mode. Of course, going wired also lowers latency between the cans and the linked device, making the Max 2 great for gaming and audio editing.

The H2 chip also adds Live Translation and head-gesture controls to the AirPods Max 2, superior audio recording capabilities, and the option to use the headphones’ Digital Crown as a camera remote.

Impressively, the artificial intelligence-powered Apple Live Translation is available even without an internet connection, similarly to the AirPods Pro 3. All I had to do was download a language pack in the Apple Translate app to have constant access to it during a brief trip to Spain.

Both of these—and really most of the new features here—were introduced with the AirPods Pro 3. It’s good to see the AirPods Max 2 offer them as well.

And, setting aside the lack of an upgrade that would make the AirPods Max 2 stand out, there are still a few things Apple didn’t fix or improve compared to the original Max. The much-maligned carrying case for the AirPods Max returns unchanged and still feels like an incomplete solution. It reliably safeguards the headset’s aluminum earcups, but it leaves the headband and its mesh canopy fully exposed.

The above quirk means you’ll always need to be mindful of how and where to place the headphones in a bag with objects that could damage the canopy. Luckily, the Max 2 is the same size as the original, so there are plenty of third-party case options out there.

The Max 2’s Achilles’ heel—like the original Max—is its weight. At close to 14 ounces, these cans are noticeably heavier than many other elite ANC headphones I’d recommend, and you can start to feel that extra heft when you wear them for hours on end. Meanwhile, both the Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2s and the Sony WH-1000XM6s weigh around 9 ounces, without sacrificing performance or battery life.

Lastly, the AirPods Max 2 gets up to 20 hours of battery on a single charge, the same as its predecessor. Again, that pales in comparison to my top recommendations: The Bose headphones I mentioned can last up to 30 hours between power-ups.

The AirPods Max (both 1 and 2) are excellent headphones, with amazing sound quality and rock-solid noise cancelation. At the same time, both are expensive compared to their qualitative peers, and the design still has a few kinks to work out, even in version 2.0.

Still, for Apple devotees and folks who care about headphone style as much as audio fidelity, they remain as irresistible as ever—a bona fide status symbol. And, as with all AirPods, Apple’s quick pairing and effortless switching between devices that use the same iCloud account remain indispensable perks.

If you rely heavily on Apple gear in your day-to-day life and have a big audio upgrade budget, the AirPods Max 2 are a solid investment, so long as you don’t mind occasionally taking them off to give your neck a break.

More specifically, if you’re a longtime AirPods Max owner still rocking the original model with a Lightning port, I’d recommend updating now. That said, there’s no rush if you’re happy with the USB-C version of the first generation you’ve got.

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