Apple’s release of its refreshed AirPods Max over-ear headphones in September 2024 wasn’t exactly thrilling, with the new pair merely a ‘soft’ update on the originals that launched in 2020. Sure, it brought USB-C to the table (necessarily bringing its proprietary Lightning connector ever closer to extinction) and introduced a handful of new colours that are, in my opinion, swankier than the original’s choice of finishes. But we didn’t get anything on our AirPods Max 2 wishlist – better battery life, an improved foldable design and case or improved Android support, to mention a few.
Actually, no design or specification upgrades were anywhere to be seen, which was perhaps a pity considering the age of the originals, but certainly not the end of the world considering how strong Apple’s headphones remain across the sound quality, noise-cancelling performance and physical design departments. That they still hold up pretty well in those respects – and against handfuls of rivals that have arrived in the years since – is indeed a testament to that original design.
But only several weeks after the 'AirPods Max 2' announcement, in the lead-up to Christmas, did I begin to suspect that Apple had actually downgraded one aspect of the headphones. One of the features near the top of our wishlist for next-gen Max was the ability to listen to the Max wired even when the battery is dead.
If you wanted to use the original (Lightning) AirPods Max in a wired capacity, the only way to do so was using Apple’s Lightning-to-3.5mm cable, and even then it didn’t work in passive mode: if their battery was dead, the headphones were useless. I should say that this is the somewhat impractical case with other wireless headphones, such as the Focal Bathys and Bowers & Wilkins Px7, which too have been designed so that the drivers require power to work regardless of whether the headphones are being used wirelessly or wired. (If you’re interested, you can read why some adopt that method here.) Related, I also would’ve liked the AirPods Max to support hi-res audio through its cable, not least considering the Apple Music service supports lossless streaming – but that’s another thing entirely.
Not only did Apple not bless the Max 2 with either (in my mind) improvement – fair enough, to some extent – but it seems to have made wired listening worse. How? By possibly getting rid of it altogether. That’s right, as it stands, you cannot listen to the USB-C AirPods Max wired directly to either 3.5mm or USB-C sources. Not fair enough, to any extent.
I had reasonably presumed that, similar to how you would listen wired through the outgoing Lightning model, you could simply use a USB-C-to-3.5mm cable. While Apple doesn’t currently make one (it did make a Lightning-to-3.5mm cable one), they do exist and are even supplied by other wireless headphones such as the Sonos Ace and JBL Tour Pro 3. When my Max 2-toting colleague tried one such cable between the new Max and a MacBook Air, selecting the latter's “External Headphones” option in the sound settings (so it does recognise that something is plugged in), no music came through the headphones. Apple makes a USB-C-to-3.5mm jack adapter that I thought would also be handy for wired listening, and then there's the double-ended USB-C charging cable that comes with the Max. But nope, no audio that way either.
How about (and this really would be a faff!) a Lightning-to-3.5mm cable attached to a Lightning-to-USB-C adaptor? Admittedly a mislaid adaptor has prevented me from trying that one out, but my hopes are slim considering the results of the above experimentation.
There’s no mention of wired audio on the official product page, nor can I find any similar USB-C version of the wording of this statement on Apple’s support page: “You can use your AirPods Max with a Lightning port to connect to analogue audio sources such as the in-flight entertainment system on a plane: Plug a Lightning to 3.5mm Audio Cable into your AirPods Max to use them in wired mode.”
In the switch from Lightning to USB-C, has Apple actually detached the charging port from the audio circuitry?
Following similar efforts themselves, some people have taken to Reddit and other forums to express their frustration, with more than one reporting that Apple Support has confirmed to them the lack of compatibility. Naturally What Hi-Fi? has reached out to Apple to clarify the situation, but we are yet to receive an answer on that particular matter. I will update this piece as soon as we do.
An imperfect workaround
The hope is that this isn’t a hardware limitation and Apple hasn't wired the USB-C port solely to the charging circuit. Might Apple then be able to rectify this backwards step through some sort of software update or by launching its own magic (!) USB-C-to-3.5mm cable?
The question is, even if Apple was able to re-furnish the Max design with wired listening, would it... well... bother? For one, I wouldn’t imagine the lack of wired listening is a deal-breaker for the majority of owners – many will likely not have even realised. Also, despite the proven quality of the AirPod Max’s drivers and engineering, the company hasn’t exactly prioritised top-level audio at every turn, what with the aforementioned matter of its Lightning-to-3.5mm audio cable not supporting lossless audio, plus the fact it has chosen not to support higher-quality Bluetooth codecs (only the standard AAC).
For now at least, there is a workaround that, while far from ideal, will allow you to listen to a plane’s in-flight entertainment system or another legacy audio device through your AirPod Max 2, and that is to purchase a Bluetooth transmitter, like the Twelve South Airfly, which is actually sold on Apple's online store (and other retailers). That would plug into the 3.5mm device and wirelessly send its audio signal to the AirPods Max via Bluetooth, just as any Bluetooth-toting source device would. It would solve the AirPod Max’s incompatibility with such devices, although it isn’t much of a silver lining for owners who care for wired listening due to the improved sound quality a direct wired connection can bring.
Before Apple moves any further forward with its AirPods line, I really hope it addresses this uncharacteristic backward step. Because while the AirPods Max remain brilliant wireless headphones in many respects (sound, build and ANC), they do now lag behind in some areas (battery life) and without wired listening, aren't even the complete package they were four years ago.
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