The Apple AirPods Max 2 are Apple’s flagship over-ear headphones, and this generation swaps in the H2 chip that’s been sitting inside the AirPods Pro for a while now. That chip’s the reason the noise cancellation is up to 1.5 times more effective than it was on the first AirPods Max, and it also brings over a stack of features the smaller AirPods have had for years. Battery life comes to 20 hours with noise cancellation and Spatial Audio both switched on. There are nine microphones in the headphones, and the USB-C port handles lossless audio at 24-bit and 48kHz as well as charging.
Head over to Amazon to get the Apple AirPods Max 2 for just $449, down from their usual price of $549. That’s a $100 discount and 18% off.
Over-the-ear headphones with bumping sound and thumping bass
Eight of the nine microphones are dedicated to noise cancellation, and Apple measured the result at up to 1.5 times better than the original, which you’ll notice most on a plane or a train where the drone is constant. Adaptive Audio is the new part, and rather than making you pick between cancellation and Transparency, it moves between the two on its own depending on how loud the room around you gets. Conversation Awareness works alongside that, dropping the volume of whatever you’re listening to the moment you start talking to somebody.
Live Translation is the feature Apple leads with, and it needs an iPhone with Apple Intelligence turned on. You press and hold the listening mode button, and the headphones translate whatever language the other person’s speaking into yours in real time. Apple still has it in beta, and not every language or region is covered yet.
Sound comes from an Apple-designed dynamic driver along with a new high-dynamic-range amplifier. With lossless playback via USB-C, you get 24-bit at 48kHz instead of a compressed Bluetooth stream. Personalized Spatial Audio with head tracking is also available here, and it’ll need an iPhone with a TrueDepth camera to create an ear scanning profile before use.
Studio-quality audio recording is aimed at podcasters and anyone recording vocals, and the camera remote lets you press the Digital Crown to take a photo or start recording video from across a room. The frame keeps the knit-mesh canopy and memory foam ear cushions from the original, and there are five colors this time around: midnight, starlight, blue, purple, and orange.
Apple headphones don’t get discounted often, and the Apple AirPods Max 2 came out in spring 2026, so $449 rather than $549 on a set this new is unusual. Do note that these still don’t have any sweat or water resistance rating, which is worth thinking about if you were planning on wearing them at the gym.