Apple AirPods Max Wireless ANC Headphones (Factory Reconditioned)

Okay, so let me begin by saying that I am a shameless Apple sheep, and buy most Apple products that come out. I have an iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPad Pro, MacBook Air, MacBook Mini, and I'm waiting on a Mac Studio to arrive. But for some reason I've resisted Apple's attempts to make a speaker, and I don't like to wear ear bud style headphones, so never purchased any AirPods. I've even experimented with non-Apple music solutions including Tidal, Amazon and Spotify among others. But with the recent price drop, and the fact that I fly a lot, I decided to give these headphones a try. I genuinely thought there was a 80% chance I'd return them, as I currently use the well reviewed Sony MX4s. The wow factor of these is unbelievable. Watching a movie or TV show on my iPad is incredible. I listened to the opening sequence to The Blacklist Season 1 Episode 1, which has some good audio. My wife, who is never that impressed with audio took a listen and was blown away. I got on board with Apple Music, and listened to the lossless music, and also the specially mixed spacial audio. Wow. Wow again. Yeah, I'd pay retail for these. I think the obvious gripes have been made already. The lightening port was a bad call, but I carry those cables for my iPhone anyway, so no biggie. Although I suspect these headphones will be the last of my devices to still require that plug. The case is idiotic, as is the decision to give me no manual control over turning them off. You seriously have to put these things in the horrific case to put them in low power mode, and there is reasonable question as to whether this case would provide any meaningful protection of these expensive headphones. Speaking of lunacy, the steps you have to take to coax the device into updating its firmware is also Apple arrogance at its finest. Why I can't have a standby switch or button and an update firmware option is beyond me. And again, I'm a fanboy here. It's also pretty sad that the design allows the cans to bang together if not handled carefully, which will surely result in scratches at some point. Oh, and want to listen with a wire, enjoy buying that $35 proprietary cable from Apple. Seriously. This is why people hate Apple. But despite these many very reasonable gripes, the bottom line here is that these sound better than every Bose pair I have owned, my Sony MX4s, and several Bang & Olufsen sets I've had. The seamless swiping between Apple products is also pretty sweet. The transparency mode is probably the best on the market too. There is no doubt I'd highly recommend them. Be aware of the need to bend a little to Apple's will, in several areas, but know that the pay off is some pretty stunning results. I'm actually looking forward to going back to work on Monday to hear how they do on the plane. Flying to New Orleans, so should be in the air for around 3 hours. *** UPDATE: Six months later... So these are great headphones. Unfortunately, after six months of use, it's hard to justify a five star rating. Background noise control is great, transparency mode is amazing, the sound quality is excellent. But, they are heavy, you have to plan your entire business trip packing strategy around lugging these heavy and inconvenient items around. I had to buy a third party case to protect them, and use it with the stupid Apple case. They take up a huge chunk of back pack real estate. Then, after five months or so, they started randomly disconnecting. More specifically, it seems like the sensor that decides if I am wearing them isn't functioning correctly. So if I scratch my head or move too suddenly, they shut off, disconnect, and then I have to pull out my iPhone or iPad, force them to reconnect, and continue. Given that these are heavy and not particularly comfortable, you find yourself trying to put off scratching an itch, just to avoid the hassle of reconnecting. My expectations rise with price, so at over $500, by far the most expensive travel headphones I've ever purchased, I do kind of expect flawless. For all their positives, there are a LOT of negatives, which is such a shame. I imagine that version 2 or 3 will be so cool. And, like a total sucker, I'll probably buy them. For now, I'm going to switch to the AirPod Pro 2s, while these headphones are at the Apple Store being repaired. I may even sell them at this point. Such a shame.