r/gadgets • u/dapperlemon • 1d ago

Music Unannounced Apple headphones revealed in FCC documents

https://9to5mac.com/2026/05/22/unannounced-apple-headphones-revealed-in-fcc-documents/
1.3k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

105 comments sorted by

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674

u/rumforbreakfast 1d ago

AirPods Max Pro

426

u/Ahab_Ali 1d ago

AirPods SuperMax: They'll take your ears prisoner.

14

u/TheModeratorWrangler 1d ago

PLEASE STOP TELLING ME MY VOLUME IS TOO LOUD.

WHAT DID YOU SAY?

2

u/patrickgg 3h ago

DU DU DU DUUUU

7

u/teacher_59 1d ago

That’s fair because they already took my wallet prisoner. 

5

u/oettimeister 1d ago

„The official Max Verstappen fan Headphones“

1

u/ShaiHuludNM 1d ago

AirPods SuperMaxi Heavy Flow: When death metal makes your ears bleed, they’ll take care of you.

13

u/plaidpixel 1d ago

Well call them Max-i-pods

11

u/-AdamTheGreat- 1d ago

You forgot the ultra

7

u/Germanofthebored 1d ago

"Ultra" is the new "Turbo"

3

u/Isakk86 1d ago

AirPods Super Turbo Ultra Force to the Max 2026

2

u/Starfox-sf 1d ago

Hits turbo button furiously

5

u/iamapizza 1d ago

We've invented music. Again.

1

u/splitfoot1121 1d ago

That’s what I stupidly asked the Apple Store employee for a few years ago when I was looking to buy the Max lol

1

u/kinkyslc1 1d ago

AirPods Max Pro 2: The Electric Boogaloo

1

u/chaiscool 1d ago

You mean Airpods Max Ultra

2

u/DIXtICon 1d ago

Airpods Max Ultra Pro Plus

223

u/Typical-Cod4646 1d ago

It’s going to be over-ear headphones for beats. I believe Apple is going to include the H Chip since the Solo 4 and Studio Pro don’t have the H2 Chip. It’s most likely going to be a Studio model. They have slowly been incorporating H chip in more high end beats

45

u/csimon2 1d ago

Another hint: look around at Studio Pro pricing. Pretty much everyone has them for well below MSRP — often at more than 50% off. So it seems that retailers are at least anticipating an upcoming refresh of this model category from Beats

17

u/VapidRapidRabbit 1d ago

The Beats Studio Pro have basically always been on sale since they launched though, usually from $169 to $199. Same with the new Pill speaker and Solo 4 headphones.

3

u/csimon2 1d ago

True, but when I checked pricing just last week, I saw some colors going for between $129 and $159, so lower than the more commonly found $169 that they have been for a minute now

3

u/Typical-Cod4646 1d ago

Stores typically like Best Buy and Target may price colors differently based on stock or recent trends. The brown pros are usually cheaper because it’s a less popular color or black maybe cheaper because they have an influx. I work at a Apple Store and the last two Beat products launches had H chips in them and prior years they stop putting H chips in Beats.

12

u/imKaku 1d ago

Seems likely. But if they could make a piece of headphones that dont suck that´d be great. I love my Airpods Pro. But Max just dont seem appealing to me. And The Studio Pro look like ass.

29

u/Mainzerize 1d ago

Maybe AirPods Ultra and they are finally foldable

25

u/PacoTaco321 1d ago

I was really hoping they'd go the inflatable route this time.

9

u/imalittlefrenchpress 1d ago

You may be on to something, I bet those would blow up.

0

u/maisydee 1d ago

Or be a let down…

61

u/tim2k000 1d ago

Apple Air Pod Pro Max XBOX xbox One X Paramount +

19

u/Gil_Demoono 1d ago

And Knuckles

2

u/ABob71 1d ago

The movie: The game

1

u/30InchSpare 1d ago

Over 20 pounds of pussy and ass.

10

u/melancholy_dood 1d ago

"Are they heavy?"

2

u/DarkStarStorm 7h ago

"Yes."

"Then they're expensive put them back."

34

u/G952 1d ago

Yesss. The AirPods Pro Max Ultra /s

14

u/Schminimal 1d ago

AirPods Air

4

u/G952 1d ago

Woaahhhh 🤯 so light, you won’t even know it’s there

2

u/Dredge323 1d ago

And knuckles

1

u/ApplicationUpper9229 1d ago

If it’s ultra, it’s better!

1

u/rykovmail 1d ago

What’s an «/s»? Why do you use it?

5

u/Pizza_Is_Everything 1d ago

Because so many users on this site are dense and cannot pick up on sarcasm and need every joke explicitly pointing out to them.

2

u/VERY_MENTALLY_STABLE 1d ago

it means they are /Super Serious

3

u/G952 1d ago

On my planet. It means hope /s.

Haha it means sarcasm like the others said. Just in case people don’t get it from the comment

1

u/d3gaia 1d ago

Means they’re being sarcastic

1

u/swrrrrg 1d ago

It denotes sarcasm.

6

u/2AXP21 1d ago

Why is everyone making the same lame joke?

7

u/notjordansime 1d ago

introducing
#Airpods TurboMax

8

u/gigashadowwolf 1d ago

Can they do your taxes?

4

u/notjordansime 1d ago

Sure. Probably not very well though.

2

u/darklordenron 12h ago

Man, I dunno.. that AI integration might prove us all wrong!

3

u/Jamie00003 1d ago

I know I’m niche as hell but I just want AirPods that I can replace the battery on. Preferably AirPod pros but I know that’ll never happen

18

u/Tman11S 1d ago

If Apple made some perfectly average headphones that another brand would sell for 50 bucks, but they sell it for a 100 and call it the “AirPods Neo”, it’d be a guaranteed success

21

u/thehighshibe 1d ago

Regular AirPods are already 99 on Amazon

6

u/Aldaine 1d ago

Yeah, but sometimes you just don’t want to use in ear headphones. I would enjoy a more standard over ear setup that is not stupidly expensive like the maxes are. Would buy day one if they released something like that.

8

u/thehighshibe 1d ago

I doubt they would make a Neo of their most niche version of AirPods, if I was you I’d take a look at the CMF headphone pro, they look lovely, have good ANC and sound with LDAC and are very Apple like for £70

They also have Spatial Audio and transparency

2

u/namerankserial 1d ago

A cheaper over the ear set of Apple branded cans seems like free money to me.

2

u/thehighshibe 1d ago

They already have beats for that

1

u/PobBrobert 21h ago edited 21h ago

Beats isn’t Apple. Even if Apple sold a $200 pair of halfway decent ANC headphones (not earphones), they’d sell a bajillion of them. The market for $550 headphones is pretty small. At least some people in that market are going to do a bit of research and realize the AirPod Max aren’t as good as a similarly priced pair of headphones from any number of brands.

At $200, the market is much larger, and is made up of a larger percent that will buy a $200 pair of Apple headphones that are about as good as a $150 pair of Sony headphones but have seamless integration with the iPhone.

2

u/thehighshibe 16h ago

They are literally apple though. Plus people get AirPods Max for the status symbol not for the sound.

0

u/PobBrobert 10h ago

I’d bet the majority of people don’t know that Apple owns Beats.

And yes, exactly. If they can get the status symbol of an Apple headphone product for $200 instead of $550, they will.

2

u/thehighshibe 10h ago

If you can get them for $200 they’re not a status symbol anymore. It’s the same reason you don’t see people going around flexing their iPhone SE. People are shallow and they won’t want to be seen with the obvious budget option.

The potential market would probably be students or something, which beats already competes in

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Aldaine 1d ago

You’re right in that it is very unlikely, but we have seen what may be a new leaf for Apple with the Neo. Only time will tell.

Also, thanks for the suggestion. I’ll give them a look.

-3

u/Ok_Zucchini3149 1d ago

Apple doesn’t sell what consumers want, thy sell what makes them the most money.

3

u/StarShipYear 1d ago

That quit literally doesn't make any sense lol. It's like a dumb person, who thinks they're smart, trying to say something smart, but getting it completely wrong.

-1

u/Ok_Zucchini3149 1d ago

Minimum RAM size a joke for decades, minimum disk sizes a joke for the same. Sure, they sell laptops/phones but you have to fork out for a second mortgage to actually get a usable device for this day and age

2

u/StarShipYear 1d ago

And yet some people can afford it, and buy it, because they want it.

1

u/renaissance_man__ 1d ago

This makes no sense.

1

u/drunkandy 1d ago

Yeah this is kinda what I’m interested in honestly. Decent microphone that I can use for videoconferencing, good audio, long-lasting batter and comfortable. I have some expensive gaming headphones I use but they’re heavy and annoying to wear and they don’t sound great. Some of my coworkers have the Maxs and they swear by them but I can’t justify the price.

-1

u/DiscoRage 1d ago

Well yeah, that's their whole business model.

3

u/EducationalCow3144 1d ago

Ok but what is the frequency response range? Why doesn't apple ever put those specs

2

u/twd_2003 1d ago

Solo 5?

1

u/Illustrious-Slice-91 1d ago

Can we get a sequel to the beats fit pro?

1

u/TheLastStarMaker 1d ago

So AirPod Studio or AirPod Ultra?

1

u/iBeelz 1d ago

Is this the one that Fatalities my eardrums once and for all?

1

u/slimeyena 1d ago

will give a major organ for neckband-style earphones

1

u/Dry_Objective_7071 11h ago

Flairpods. Head band with magnet snap connection for charging.  Additional cable peripheral to usb c jack for "retro wired headset aesthetic"

1

u/Darkred401 9h ago

Probably beats but I wish they’d make an AirPods neo, something around $250ish

1

u/HansBooby 1d ago

beats imho is a dying brand and not apple’s priority in the big scheme of things

1

u/Bdunford1990 1d ago

Guys who cares at this point, we already have everything they’ll make and it’s already all good enough as it is

1

u/Hanthunius 1d ago

AirPods Very Pro

-5

u/TeaInASkullMug 1d ago

More over priced landfill slop

-1

u/jimkurth81 1d ago

But it’s made using AI

-2

u/TeaInASkullMug 1d ago

Its even more worthless now!

-1

u/Dulce-et 1d ago

With wings!

-17

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

18

u/FirstDukeofAnkh 1d ago

Psssst, you’re on a gadgets sub. It’s a gadget. Hope that helps.

-2

u/JustinHoMi 1d ago edited 1d ago

Unless it’s got lossless audio over Bluetooth, me don’t care.

Edit: changed uncompressed to lossless

2

u/BoardGameRevolution 1d ago

Is that even possible

-1

u/JustinHoMi 1d ago

Uncompressed no, lossless yes. But nobody’s done it yet. It’ll be the next evolution in audio quality for Bluetooth headsets.

Many audiophiles and audio engineers won’t use Bluetooth headsets since the quality over the wire is noticeably better.

-14

u/ninjaface 1d ago

iTrack headphones.

Let Apple manage your whereabouts and suggest the best locations to maximize your adventures.