It’s subjective, I agree. But the market in which the AirPods Max have been placed sets them out as being far more expensive than the alternatives (many of which sound better and have more convenient features such as USB-C charging — oh, and far better cases!).

£550 is a lot of money for most regular consumers when it comes to headphones. $2,000 for reference headphones might be an entirely reasonable investment for a professional user.