AirPods Max 2 vs Pro 3: Which should you actually buy?

Published: Apr 6nd 2026 4:34am on 9to5Mac

I have avoided the AirPods Max since their original release in 2020. I could never justify the $550 price tag, especially when the AirPods Pro line was much cheaper, offered more features, and had a more convenient form factor. I knew there was a target customer for these high-end headphones, but at the time, it wasn’t me. Then Apple dropped the true successor to the Gen 1 AirPods Max and added a lot of the features and internal hardware that the AirPods Pro 3 received earlier in 2025. So I decided to pick up a pair, and while the AirPods Max 2 are objectively great headphones, what it truly did was show me just how incredible the AirPods Pro 3 are. Let me explain.