In a shock launch on Monday, Apple unveiled the AirPods Max 2, the long-awaited successor to its premium headphones that launched in 2020.
The Max 2 price $549, and have lively noise cancellation, Apple’s audio-specific H2 chip, help for stay translation, higher sound high quality, and extra. The headphones will probably be accessible for preorder beginning March 25, in midnight, starlight, orange, purple, and blue colours, and will probably be accessible early subsequent month.
Apple says the brand new headphones’ lively noise cancellation (ANC) is as much as 1.5x more practical than their predecessor. And the Adaptive Audio function lets the headphones routinely modify the degrees of ANC and Transparency primarily based on the consumer’s environment to optimize the listening expertise.
The corporate says Transparency mode is now extra pure, due to a brand new digital signal-processing algorithm optimized for the H2 chip and the AirPods Max microphone array, so customers can keep conscious of their environment and the individuals round them.

The headphones include Stay Translation, which helps customers talk throughout languages in particular person. In addition they function voice isolation, which makes use of “superior computational audio” to prioritize your voice throughout calls and block out ambient noise.
Apple says the AirPods Max 2 has a brand new, high-dynamic-range amplifier for cleaner audio, and Spatial Audio is alleged to be higher, with improved localization of devices, higher bass response, and pure mids and highs.
The headphones additionally help Digital camera Distant, a function that permits you to set off the iPhone or iPad’s digital camera shutter from a distance. On the Max 2, you press the Digital Crown to take a photograph, or begin and cease video recording within the Digital camera app, or suitable third-party digital camera apps on iPhone or iPad.
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco, CA
|
October 13-15, 2026
Moreover, Apple says the headphones’ Loud Sound Discount function helps shield customers from loud environmental noise whereas preserving the sound signature of what they’re listening to.
Apple says the headphones’ mic permits interviewers, podcasters, singers, and different creators to seize content material with higher-quality audio and extra pure vocal texture.
The AirPods Max 2 help 24-bit, 48 kHz lossless audio when used with the included USB-C cable.
The Airpods Max 2 will probably be accessible in additional than 30 nations and areas.