[proee]

I bought the AirPods Max 1 but had to return them because they felt like a vice and were too heavy. I ended up going with the Sony wh-1000xm5, which are much lighter. My only complaint on the Sony is the earcups are not deep enough for my big ears.

[rkomorn]

It's amusing to me how personal all this stuff is.

The XM5s were super uncomfortable to me (to the point I was relieved when they got stolen) and I ended up going back to Bose even though I liked the sound quality on the Sonys better.

[lurkingllama]

Same experience. Everyone raved about the Sonys and so when my Bose died, I tried them out. I can't stand them! They're way less comfortable and have worse noise cancellation. The lack of buttons drives me crazy. And worst of all - when on flights, the noise cancellation will randomly stop working. Despite flights being one of the main reasons I purchase noise cancelling headphones.

[_cenw]

I have the same issue with the shape of my ears not fitting any ANC headphones (and many larger over-ear ones). The only alternative to the APM I found that doesn't hurt after a few hours was the Sonos Ace. Which also have a price that hurts but at least they haven't broken yet while my APM kept breaking (and they're one of the few products where you can't infinitely renew Apple Care).

[yokoprime]

I had the xm6 but the combination of worse sound (for me at least) and shallow earcups which hurt my ears drove me back to airpods max