Amazon officially launched Black Friday last Thursday, November 20th, when the AirPods Max dropped from $549 to $479, surprising everyone since Apple rarely discounts premium products. This Thanksgiving Thursday brought an even more aggressive markdown as Amazon pushed these flagship noise-cancelling headphones down to $399, down from $549, representing nearly 30% immediate savings.
At $399, these over-ear headphones have hit an unprecedented record-low price that shatters all previous discounting patterns for Apple’s premium audio hardware.
Noise cancellation at the pro level
The active noise cancellation can get rid of up to twice as much background noise as previous Apple models: This is because eight microphones work with the H1 chip to sample ambient sound and create precise anti-phase waves. The computer audio processing happens all the time, every microsecond and it changes to fit the noise level as you move from one place to another or as the sounds around you change.
The transparency mode lets ambient sound through with little processing latency which makes people more aware of their surroundings: This lets people talk without taking off their headphones or missing important environmental cues. The mode uses the same microphone array and computational audio pipeline as ANC to process outside sound which keeps the sound quality instead of just lowering the cancellation.
The iPhone’s TrueDepth camera scans your ears to figure out their shape, and then personalized spatial audio adjusts the sound delivery to fit your body so that you can hear it in the best three-dimensional way. Directional audio cues are great for movies and TV shows because they keep dialogue in the middle of the screen while sound effects move left and right, and this makes the experience much more immersive than flat stereo. Dynamic head tracking keeps the audio in the same place as your connected device so when you turn your head, the soundstage doesn’t change.
The acoustic-first design philosophy puts sound quality first by using custom 40mm dynamic drivers that give you high-fidelity audio across the entire frequency range. Deep bass reproduction goes all the way down to sub-bass frequencies without distortion. Midrange clarity makes sure that vocals and instruments sound natural instead of colored. Treble detail shows subtle differences in recordings that headphones that are compressed or poorly tuned hide.
The computational audio uses the H1 chip’s processing power and advanced algorithms that change the sound in real time based on how well it fits, how loud it is, and what type of content it is. The system keeps the sound balanced at any volume by changing the frequency response as you change the volume. It also makes up for changes in the seal as the cushions compress or move, and it processes music, movies, and podcasts differently based on their content.
When you integrate your ecosystem with your iPhone, iPad, and Mac, you get seamless experiences because your devices switch automatically and follow your attention without having to pair them manually. Start music on your iPhone while you’re on the bus, switch to your Mac for work without changing any settings, and then switch to your iPad for streaming in the evening: Your headphones will automatically connect to the devices that are currently in use.
If you want Apple’s best audio quality with unmatched noise cancellation, this record-low deal makes premium over-ear headphones accessible without the usual premium pricing.
