Apple's Airpod Max are very good over-ear true wireless headphones. Provided you're listening to AAC files, the soundstage and fidelity they offer are pretty nice. But they're far from the best headphones in their price range and they're sorely in need of an firmware update. The last time Cupertino paid them any mind was back in September 2024. It was a minor change to the headphones' specs: a move from using a Lightning Connector to charge in favor of USB-C.
According to The Verge, the long update drought for these expensive cans could be about to come to an end.
Apple is bringing higher-fidelity audio to its AirPods Max headphones in April, the company announced today. When the $549 headphones switched to a USB-C connector last year, they lost support for wired audio playback — but Apple is about to rectify that with full lossless support, which even the prior Lightning model technically lacked.
"With the included USB-C cable, users can enjoy the highest-quality audio across music, movies, and games, while music creators can experience significant enhancements to songwriting, beat making, production, and mixing," the company wrote in a press release on Monday. "With this update, AirPods Max will unlock 24-bit, 48 kHz lossless audio, preserving the integrity of original recordings and allowing listeners to experience music the way the artist created it in the studio." Lossless support "extends to Personalized Spatial Audio," Apple noted.
You can read the full press release, here.
We can expect to see the firmware update hit the headphones at some point, later this month. Given that Apple Music offers 100 million lossless audio files to sic on your ears, it's about frigging time.
Previously:
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• M4 MacBook Air comes in 'Sky Blue'
