Retailers continue their strange but welcome trend of discounting Apple products almost as soon as Apple launches them onto the market. The Apple AirPods Max 2 only just launched a month ago, but you can already score a $40-off deal on them, bringing their price down to $509.

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Calling them AirPods is a strange choice, given that the AirPods Max 2 are over-the-ear headphones, not teeny earbuds, but for the sake of rolling all of Apple’s in-ear/over-ear audio gear into one product line, I get it. The AirPods Max 2 are a major leap over the AirPods Pro 3 earbuds.

Nevermind that even on a deal you’re paying $509 for the AirPods Max 2 and $199 for the AirPods Pro 3 (which are also on a $50-off deal right now). You gain an audio quality boost at the expense of toting around a much larger pair of headphones that you can’t just slip into a pocket. But draping a pair of headphones around the back of the neck is in style right now, anyway.

Being closed-back, over-the-ear headphones, the AirPods Max 2 are better at blocking out noisy surroundings, whether it’s on an airplane or the living room where your kid plays their Xbox. Both they and the AirPods Pro 3 have active noise cancellation (ANC), but the former’s ear cups that fit over the ears do more to passively keep noise pollution from bothering you as you listen to your tunes, podcast, audiobook, or movie dialogue.

They’re also better at keeping your sound from leaking out, too. If you’ve ever noticed hard stares from people around you as you blared music into your skull through your earbuds, it’s because they can hear your audio and it’s annoying them (unless it’s your hygiene).

The AirPods Max 2 gain Apple’s H2 chip over the H chip of their predecessor, the original AirPods Max, for improved sound quality and a few new tricks, such as Conversation Awareness, which lowers volume when it detects people speaking to you, and Adaptive Audio, which automatically adjusts the ANC based on your surroundings.

The newer headphones also shift from a V-shaped sound profile to a more neutral-bright profile. The ANC is 1.5 times as effective as the old model, at least according to Apple.