Yesterday I wrote about a deal on the Nothing Headphones (1), a superb pair of active noise canceling headphones that rival some of the best options available at a fraction of the price. For those who don’t want to compromise and already own Apple devices, I also found a juicy discount on Apple AirPods Max. That’s right, Apple’s biggest and baddest headphones are marked down to just $400 at Best Buy and Amazon.
Even for the high price, the audio quality of AirPods Max is simply incredible. When WIRED writer Parker Hall first reviewed them, he called them “the best-sounding wireless headphones.” [he’s] never heard, and by a significant margin. Even up against the big names of Bose and Sony, they have an incredibly open soundstage, letting details shine in every genre, from highly produced pop to soft jazz. Active noise cancellation is also extremely powerful, with a crisp and clear pass-through mode.
As long as you’re in the Apple ecosystem, these have an impressive level of functionality and excellent coordination between devices. Like most AirPods, just hold them near your iPhone or iPad and they’ll connect immediately, without extensive pairing or app installation. Because they’re always operating in a low-power state, you can take them out of their little case or put them on your head, and they’ll connect to the nearest iOS device and start playing. It’s a neat trick, but it still drains the battery slowly, so you might find them dead if you don’t use them for too long.
While there have been occasional discounts on the headset, to my knowledge this is the lowest price ever for the updated USB-C model. This is matched only by a similar discount on the older version of the Lightning port in July 2024, just before the update, although this time there appear to be no rumors of another update. While your availability may vary by location, as I write this, all five colors are in stock and discounted at Best Buy, but Amazon is sold out of orange.
