Faced with a possible renewal of the AirPods Mx, the main reason for thinking this is a lack of stock of these in many stores, the question may arise as to whether or not reconditioned AirPods Max are worth it, since they prices of these products are cheaper than the new ones. So in this post we are going to analyze it.
Are refurbished AirPods a good idea?
The truth is that AirPods are good headphones, but they are not headphones that, for what they offer and taking into account the competition, are worth paying more than 600 euros. At least in this first generation. These stand out for the construction quality of their materials , for their perfect integration into the entire ecosystem of Apple products and for the motion sensors and audio detection, which make listening to music with them a more immersive experience. These three points are the most positive of these headphones.
Now, the headphones, in addition to being comfortable and beautiful, have to be up to the task in terms of sound, for the price we are going to pay. And in the case of the AirPods Max, we’re paying a lot of money for headphones that are capped in that regard. So, maybe going for refurbished ones may be the question you ask yourself. But even so, there are many “buts”.
The Lightning connector is one of its great assets
We’ve known for a long time that the Lightning connector is a drag, for many reasons. But perhaps one of the most unknown is sound . And, being a digital and proprietary connector, it requires special adapters and cables to connect to other equipment. But that doesn’t stop there, it also affects the audio quality.
Studio headphones are designed to be able to reproduce audio of the highest quality. And although the AirPods Max reproduce high-resolution audio, they cannot reproduce it without loss, because information is compressed when transforming the Lightning to a mini Jack, so we will not be able to have very premium headphones, to listen to that very premium audio that Apple sells us together with Apple Music, in the same way as other streaming music services. And if we are people who love good audio, these headphones will fall very short when compared to the price they cost new.
And if we pay around 400 euros?
Refurbished AirPods Max range between 400 and 500 euros. And even within that price range, they’re not worth it. We are talking about a cut premium product, whose competition is less than half of what they are worth, even reconditioned, and with better features in terms of sound quality, port compatibility and function issues. Studio headphones with a mini Jack, and even with USB type C, do support lossless audio, we do not require proprietary adapters, and we have a much higher charging speed than the Lightning port offers us.
And if we take into account that we are facing a possible renewal of this product, we recommend waiting until we see what the second generation of AirPods Max brings us again. And therefore, we will see if the price we pay in exchange for what we get compensates us. That’s why, if you want to buy wireless headphones and don’t want to wait, we recommend looking at other wireless headphones.