I purchased and returned a pair of the AirPods Max, with the discomfort being the deciding factor in me not keeping them.
I was mostly impressed with the audio (although the spatial audio didn't really resonate with me, pardon the pun), but they were not comfortable and after an hour I wasn't able to keep them on for longer. This is primarily due to the very narrow focus of clamping pressure at the top of the earcups where the headband is joined by the ball joint.*
The bluetooth was a little unreliable too, even with me trying them exclusively with an up-to-date iPhone/iPad Pro.
I ended up getting a pair of B&W PX7s instead which feel and sound about as premium, but for half the price after a Boxing Day sale (although many people will perceive the carbon-composite construction to feel cheap due to its weight).
I put some of my thoughts along with a diagram showing the pressure issue in a blog post when I returned them last month: https://mrkw.se/posts/airpods-max
* The pressure may have improved with time as the headphones loosened, but with the 14 day return period I wasn't confident enough to chance it.
I was mostly impressed with the audio (although the spatial audio didn't really resonate with me, pardon the pun), but they were not comfortable and after an hour I wasn't able to keep them on for longer. This is primarily due to the very narrow focus of clamping pressure at the top of the earcups where the headband is joined by the ball joint.*
The bluetooth was a little unreliable too, even with me trying them exclusively with an up-to-date iPhone/iPad Pro.
I ended up getting a pair of B&W PX7s instead which feel and sound about as premium, but for half the price after a Boxing Day sale (although many people will perceive the carbon-composite construction to feel cheap due to its weight).
I put some of my thoughts along with a diagram showing the pressure issue in a blog post when I returned them last month: https://mrkw.se/posts/airpods-max
* The pressure may have improved with time as the headphones loosened, but with the 14 day return period I wasn't confident enough to chance it.