AAA aren't cheap. More importantly, they are annoying to replace all the time.

$79 every few years on a $500 set of headphones sounds plausible, the battery alone would probably be $40-$50 retail anyways; I'm just getting someone at an Apple store to replace it for me.

More concerning is that a set of new ear muffs costs $69. I've already replaced the ones on my QuietComforts two times ($20 using clones on Amazon), so that is going to add up a bit.

I said replaceable AAA batteries. I should've said rechargeable.

You can buy a pack of 12 rechargeable AAA for less than $10. A charger is $5.

Ya, I tried going this route for toys. Frankly i gave up after a few months because they didn’t last as long as the real pain is battery replacement (which requires a screw driver these days because....rules).

Alkaline AAA batteries in Bose QCs old enough to have them have a claimed life of up to 35 hours. (Newer Bose QCs have glued-in rechargeable batteries just like the AirPods Max, because very few people actually prefer replacing batteries every “up to 35” hours to needing to plug in to recharge every “up to 20” hours)

You could use rechargable AAAs with an integrated charger, and when those wear out, swap them. I had some wireless headphones like that, and the charger was a nice stand to rest them on.

You're implicitly assuming that the AirPods Max could also run on one or two AAA batteries -- an assumption that may well be false depending on the energy consumption and voltage required.

You can run laptop cpus today on 1.2V, I doubt that would have too much of an issue powering over-ear headphones with 2.4V-3V of two AAAs in series.

Plus, it doesn't really matter the type of battery. You can find pretty much any of rechargeable battery (3.7V, 7.4V, nickel, Li-ion) for less than $15, retail. It's mind boggling to think that people on Hacker News (of all places) think that is sensible to subject yourself to something as anti-consumer and as environment-unfriendly as what Apple offers.

We will have to wait to see if they are really servicing ( replacing battery ) or just give you a new pair for $79.