You Can Stop Waiting for the ‘AirPods Max 2’ Thanks to This DIY Mod

If all the reports are to be believed, Apple will release a new set of AirPods Max this year, but they won’t be anything to write home about. The most optimistic view is that they could get a boost with Apple’s latest H2 chip, but even that’s in doubt.

There’s a good chance we’ll get a USB-C port, some new colors, and… nothing else. Insiders speaking to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman have said that the premium cans simply “don’t sell well enough for the company to invest in entirely new hardware or software features.”

That means likely the same battery life and the same sound quality and active noise cancellation (ANC). The current generation of AirPods Max were released in late 2020, nearly two years before Apple unveiled its second-generation AirPods Pro with a new H2 chip that noticeably improved ANC and paved the way for exclusive new Adaptive Audio features in iOS 17. Those got a USB-C refresh last fall to match the iPhone 15’s switch to USB-C, but other than the USB-C case and some new lossless audio features for Apple’s Vision Pro, they’re essentially identical to the 2022 Lightning originals.

So, if the rumors are true, the most significant change in this year’s AirPods Max will be the switch to a USB-C port. If we’re lucky, that might add lossless digital audio, but even that’s up in the air right now.

However, the good news is that you won’t have to wait for the new AirPods Max to appear later this year if all you really want is a USB-C port. Hardware prototyping consultant and engineer Ken Pillonel has just crafted a do-it-yourself mod to convert the AirPods Max from Lightning to USB-C — and it’s surprisingly easy to do for anybody who’s comfortable taking their $549 headphones apart.

The best part of this is that, unlike most of the old iPhone USB-C mods we’ve seen, this isn’t just an interesting proof-of-concept. Pillonel has built a new custom printed circuit board (PCB) that he’s making available to anybody who wants to ditch Lightning on their own AirPods Max.

The PCB can be purchased from his website for 39.90 CHF (around $45), and he’s provided detailed installation instructions for those brave enough to make the attempt.

To be clear, this isn’t for the faint of heart, but it’s also not too difficult for anybody who has a bit of experience working with electronics. There’s no soldering involved, as Pillonel’s USB-C PCB is designed to replace the Lightning PCB entirely, which is attached using a board-to-board connector and ribbon cable.

Nevertheless, like most Apple products, the AirPods Max aren’t designed to be user-serviceable, so there’s a fair bit of unscrewing and prying involved in getting inside them in the first place. That’s the part of this mod that’s actually the most challenging; once everything is exposed, the board swap is relatively straightforward.

Sadly, Pillonel’s kit only provides USB-C charging. He said he considered adding USB-C audio but would have needed a special Apple chip to make that happen. The chip could apparently have been added to the kit for around $35, but implementing it would have been tricky as it’s a proprietary Apple chip rather than an off-the-shelf component.

This makes the modification of interest only for those AirPods Max owners who are really desperate to eliminate the last traces of Lightning from their lives. Further, despite the rumors that USB-C will be the only new thing about this year’s new AirPods Max, it would be very surprising if Apple didn’t offer pass-through digital audio over USB-C, considering that’s something even the more affordable Beats Studio Pro can do.