Maxwell Wireless Gaming Headset

TBH, the Maxwell 1 is excellent already. If you want to save money, definitely go for it. Maxwell 2 is the option for those who want an updated product at a similar price to the first.

>Sony bought Audeze recently I had no idea about this. Thanks for sharing. I love the audio quality of my M1's, but so much of the rest of its engineering is really disappointing (weight, sidetone noise). Hoping Sony's engineers can teach them how to develop a product that doesn't have those issues but somehow maintains the same sound quality.

So I originally bought these for gaming and I'm about as far from a competitive gamer as you can get. I actively avoid pvp in games and don't like competing. These quickly transitioned from "I want a gaming headset" to "These are studio quality headphones that let me game with precision." As odd as it sounds, my use case for them has changed to music and audio much more than gaming. They game completely fine, sounds are deep, rich, and clear to the point where I have no trouble establishing direction, distinction, and clarity when gaming but these really shine for the music IMO. Experiencing music with such high quality is something I've never experienced before and they've frankly ruined me because they became the bar I judge everything else against.

If you want immersiveness in anything you are listening to regardless if it's a game, music or a movie, then sound quality is the key factor to portraying realism. When it comes to the advantages of Planr drivers, there's a lot of them. They're light compared to traditional dynamic drivers so they can move faster producing more detail and sense of space if they're implemented well. Like with any speaker regardless of if it's used in a 2 channel stereo setup or surround sound, if it's setup wrong it's going to sound like trash. The unfortunate thing about "audiophile" expectations and "normal/gamer consumer" expectations is that they are different. The normal guy trying to dip their toe into the audiophile world using the maxwells have a skewed view of what sounds good because they've been fed the belief that crap tons of bass and trebel are great from every mainstream manufacturer and that's what they're expecting. The Maxwell 1's were well received because they were able to produce deep head rattling bass if you boosted those frequencies which a lot of people did and cranked them to deafening levels(look at all the damaged driver complaints). The normal consumer is also not used to how fragile planar drivers can be. The Maxwell 2's have a lot of gripes because they are semi-open back thanks to that SLAM port technology they implemented to reduce pressue inside the headphone. It helps the driver move faster because it can now breathe but the trade off is that it is unable to produce the same energy at low frequencies as the Maxwell 1's. It still reaches down extremely low, but since its now semi open, it can't produce the same pressure at the ear giving the sense that it is lacking when it's not. The upside to that is that you can hear more texture in the bass over the maxwell 1's. The port also allows the headset to give a bigger sense of spaciousness as where the maxwell 1's were slightly more closed in. A lot of the early complaints you saw about the Maxwell 2's were firmware related so keep that in mind. This thing got long but I felt things needed explaining so you can make your decision with realistic expectations.

Simultaneous audio is a real game changer. I play on a PS5 Pro, and I used to avoid mixing game audio with music because it felt distracting. However, I found it incredibly useful to play games while listening to podcasts or watching YouTube. Recently, while playing Arc Raiders, I often watch YouTube videos for loot directions. With simultaneous audio, I can hear the game, a YouTube video, and communicate with my teammates at the same time; all clearly and without issues on my SteelSeries headset. I was interested in the Audeze Maxwell 2, but I can’t give up simultaneous audio. It’s a huge quality of life feature, one of those things you don’t fully appreciate until you experience it. I watched several reviews of the Audeze Maxwell 2, and it seems you can sort of use simultaneous audio but not when using the microphone. Simultaneous audio stops working as soon as you communicate with teammates in game or answer a call via Bluetooth. Hopefully, this can be fixed with a software update, but if that were possible, it raises the question of why the same issue wasn’t resolved on the original Maxwell.

Stop it. Yes, the Audeze Maxwell sounds better, but the SteelSeries does not sound like 💩. I’ve also seen people say the Maxwell sounds terrible and has a bad mic compared to some more expensive wired gaming headsets. I think we’d both agree that many people are willing to trade a bit of sound quality for quality of life features like wireless gaming. That’s the same way some people feel about simultaneous audio. I probably wouldn’t use simultaneous audio while playing a AAA, story driven game, but I absolutely would for an extraction shooter or while exploring an open world game. There’s so much content today and so little time to enjoy it. Being able to play a game while listening to a new podcast or a stream is a big plus for me. I understand where you’re coming from regarding immersive sound. I felt the same way until I actually experienced it. In the end, it comes down to implementation. SteelSeries does it well enough that you can genuinely enjoy simultaneous audio. People asking for this feature aren’t dumb. Honestly, I think simultaneous audio is a more valuable feature than ANC. The Maxwell is a gaming headset that will mostly be used in a stationary setup. When you’re stationary, it’s much easier to control your environment and deal with background noise. ANC matters far more when you’re mobile or on a plane, which really isn’t the main use case for gaming headsets.

I have pretty much all the higher end gaming headsets and Arctis Nova Pro were my least favorite for a whole host of reasons - it's sound was decent but it had a lot of QOL issues that annoyed the hell out of me. Wireless headset wise, if you're going to be mostly listening music and competitive/multiplayer gaming isn't that important to you go you'll probably like the Maxwells the most (I only have the 1's, can't speak for the 2's, but that apparently have less bass than the 1's and listening to bass heavy music is one of the only things I still use my Maxwell 1's for). If comp/multiplayer gaming is important to you, I'd go with the Astro A50 or Razer BlackShark V3 Pro.

I think you’ve got it backwards. The Maxwells actually have very bad audio imaging (detecting where noise is coming from in virtual 3D space). You can get $40 headsets that are much better for competitive gaming. What makes the Maxwell’s so nice is their planar magnetic driver’s ability to have crisp highs and punchy/full lows at the same time. Planar drivers can provide better range but the frequencies and timings between their L & R drivers tend to be much more varied and different than dynamic drivers are due to a more difficult manufacturing process. Those tiny differences in sound timing and frequency is how your brain is able to determine what direction sound waves are coming from. Good audio sims in games try to mimic these things to give directional sound through stereo headphones/speakers. The less the drivers are synchronized the harder it is to pinpoint the direction of the audio (especially when noise’s origins is more from the front/behind or above/below). This is why competitive esports gamers never use the Maxwells or other planar magnetic headset. If you only care about Immersion and non-3D sound quality the Maxwell’s are great (especially for music). Although they do lack a lot of QOL features that most other headsets in their price range have and their audio difference in less noticeable in-game than when listening to music at a high volume. A nice headset will essentially always be better for gaming than a sound bar. To be better than a headset you’d need a nice 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound system but unless you live in a big house by yourself and only play single player games by yourself, a headset is still going to be much more practical most the time. You can’t really bump an immersive war game like Squad at midnight if you live with others or in an apartment complex. Unless you want to be annoying AF you can play games with others either while listening to speaker because they will constantly be hearing your gameplay through your mic. Nice headphones will generally allow you to hear mute details and directional sound anyways (even though you only have L&R channels yours constantly rotating in-game which makes it more surround in a sense).

I have M1 with wicked cushions and A50, and i like them both, i can't say Maxwells are way better, in warzone I prefer overall the A50s. And I play back to back with them, one game with M1, another with A50. Both are good, strictly for gaming I prefer A50, better mic, lower weight. For music, maybe some advantage for M1 in some scenarios. A50 is with EQ, same with A50. Without Dolby, M1 is way too silent in warzone, i have 80% volume, vs 40% on A50. Last firmware on both.