Apple Unveils AirPods Max 2 With Live Translation, Adaptive Audio, And More

Apple today announced AirPods Max 2, the latest iteration of its over-ear ANC headphones. The new headphones add features like adaptive audio and live translation, among other things, thanks to the addition of Apple’s H2 chip.

The new AirPods Max 2 headphones will be available for order starting March 25 in midnight, starlight, orange, purple, and blue colors. Availability will begin early next month, but Apple is yet to confirm the exact release date.

“With the incredible performance of H2, AirPods Max are upgraded with up to 1.5x more effective ANC for the ultimate all-day listening experience,” said Eric Treski, Apple’s director of Audio Product Marketing. “The sound quality is remarkably clean, rich, and acoustically detailed — and when combined with capabilities like Personalized Spatial Audio, AirPods Max 2 deliver a profoundly immersive experience.”

Apple says the new AirPods Max 2 offer 1.5x more effective ANC, reducing noise from the surroundings like airplane engines and similar sounds. But the real story is the addition of the H2 chip, which brings a raft of new features to the headphones, including:

Adaptive Audio adjusts the levels of ANC and Transparency in response to the environment automatically to optimize the audio experience.

Conversation Awareness helps lower content volume and reduce background noise when a user starts speaking to someone nearby.

Live Translation, powered by Apple Intelligence,³ helps users communicate across languages in person.

Voice Isolation uses advanced computational audio powered by H2 to prioritize the voice during calls, while blocking out ambient noise.

Other features worth calling out include being able to activate an iPhone or iPad camera using the Digital Crown as well as support for loud sound recognition that prevents those sounds from damaging the wearer’s ears.

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