Consumer headphones have been steadily rising in complexity and connectivity for a while now, with increases in price to match. Ten years ago $300 was the price for very good consumer headphones that’d last you ages, but recently Sony, Sennheiser, Bose and others have pushed the price to $500 for the latest and greatest.

But with the $899 AirPods Max, Apple may have gone too far. I have a couple of pairs of headphones in my collection that would have cost around that amount at retail, and I’ve certainly drooled over pairs that cost up to $25,000, but this is a new upper limit for "mainstream” headphones. The feature set may be impressive but, especially in the middle of a recession / pandemic double whammy, it’s hard to understand how Apple thinks a decent market of people will pay that price.

The AirPods Max are spectacular headphones to be sure. Aside from the truly hideous and unprotective case, I love that Apple is taking risks with the design and changing up how headphones can look. Their aesthetic is not my taste, but it’s a space that is in desperate need of innovation, and I’m willing to take anything at this point. They also have the best on-ear controls of any headphones I’ve ever used. I was sceptical about the digital crown at first, but now I curse any headphones that don’t have one.

Unlike the regular AirPods with their glued, unrepairable parts, these aren’t destined to be garbage. For $900, I’d probably want to be able to hand them down to future generations, which isn’t really possible for Bluetooth only headphones, but at least these are fully repairable.