Windy AirPods Max

We ordered our AirPods Max on the day of the announcement… but they don’t arrive until Friday for the White/Silver pair (David’s) and 2 weeks for the Blue pair (mine). But they actually went on sale today in-store across the country, and I’m sure some folks who got in early online also received theirs today via post.

In true fashion for this household, we don’t like to wait for things, so we jumped on the Apple website this morning at 6am (when they update their stock levels) and ordered a couple of pairs to pick up early. We’ll cancel our online orders.

Well we went and got them this morning at 9:15 at Apple Highpoint. We also got to checkout the other colours and while I had first wanted the blue headphones, in person, and as I feared, the blue is a little to pale for my liking. So I went with the Space Gray version and once back at the car we unboxed them and put them on our heads. They feel nice and comfy. The Apple AirPods Max encapsulate your whole ear so there is no pressure on the ear itself, which is better than the on-ear variety that tend to press your ears to your head.

In the car on the way home I had my pair on my head for a time and in the right side a noise like wind started to form. I thought maybe it was just the environment. We had the radio on, the aircon on full, and there was road noise too.

But sadly, after being home it wasn’t any different. The noise was persistent. Again, it starts off with nothing and just gets louder. I tried David’s set on and it wasn’t an issue and thankfully it alleviated the concern that it could have just been my ear reacting to the noise cancellation. Maybe something is misconfigured with the microphones in this set and they are feeding back on one another until there’s more noise on the inside of the cup than outside.

Any way, I have called the store and they have put a new set aside for me to pick up later today to replace these. I didn’t want to risk there being no more stock if I just rocked up.

I did try to contact Apple Support but man, the lady I was typing with via the chat took so long to respond, it was frustrating because I’ve just spent $899.00 on these things and they aren’t working right. Certainly not what one expects from Apple.

Also a tip, while we have a Business Account with Apple we didn’t buy these on the business account, don’t ask, their business systems for purchasing are the worst. But when I rang the store the RVA (recorded voice announcement) says press 3 for business, press 5 for all other enquiries. Being good, the first time I pressed 5 because I didn’t buy these through the business… but after waiting on hold for over 5 minutes I had to disconnect because the Apple Support Chat person was asking me to unpair and repair the headphones. After being unsuccessful with the Support person I called the store again, this time pressing 3 and getting the call answered immediately. Frustrating that “regular” people have to hold for however long but business gets answered right away.

So hopefully, fingers crossed, I will be picking up a new set this afternoon and they will work awesomely.

Meanwhile, given the coverage they have had on news and with vloggers I don’t think we really need to talk about the purse, or is it a bra, these things come with as a case? It’s made of silicon and it’s a bit smelly when you first get it out of the box and it does look weird. But it fits the headphones snuggly. Not sure how much protection it would provide, and that’s kind of what you expect from a case. But the AirPods Max case also puts the headphones into a low-power mode to conserve battery during transit.