Here's the AirPods Max portion from the keynote:

"Next, with an exceptionally crafted over-the-ear design, there's AirPods Max, which people around the world absolutely love. Featuring the highest-fidelity sound quality and amazing Active Noise Cancellation, AirPods Max deliver the ultimate personal listening experience. We're excited to introduce beautiful new colors in Midnight, Blue, Purple, Orange, and Starlight, along with USB-C, making AirPods Max even more convenient to charge. And with iOS 18, the listening experience gets even better with Personalized Spatial Audio for music, movies, and games. AirPods Max are still $549. They can be pre-ordered today and will also be available on September 20."

Besides USB-C and new colors, the only thing they mention here is Personalized Spatial Audio. According to the Apple support page, it's available on any AirPods Max (so presumably the original Lightning-port ones as well), with iOS 16(?) or later. So there doesn't seem to be a physical change in the new USB-C AirPods Max that enables this feature.

So I think this can resolve No. Do people agree with my reading?

@yetforever Yeah that seems right. Pretty disappointing

Clarifications:
- aesthetic changes other than color would count?
- if also available to current/prior version, would a firmware update that improves any aspect of performance would count?
- if NOT available to current/prior version, would a firmware update that improves any aspect of performance count?

@thatMikeBishop Updated the description: "Any physical change including updated chips or minor cosmetic changes would resolve YES"

I only plan to resolve based on the hardware, so a firmware update wouldn't resolve it YES on its own even if the update is only available in new models.