Our own review gave the Audeze Maxwell 2 four stars, but it's such a brilliant gaming headset that I would have given it five | Tech Radar
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Our own review gave the Audeze Maxwell 2 four stars, but it's such a brilliant gaming headset that I would have given it five
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I test a whole heap of gaming headsets, and have done so for nearly a decade now. I've also worked with a whole load of excellent freelancers who offer brilliantly clear, thoughtful, analytical, and fair takes on the products we test as a collective.
And I've agreed with every single review we've published in my time here at Tech Radar Gaming — up until now. While very accurate and full of great advice, especially when the headset launched, I think my writer Phil's (who is one of the best in the business) review of the Audeze Maxwell 2 scored the gaming headset too low with a four-star rating.
Simply put, it is the best-sounding gaming headset I have ever used. After using it for a few months as a daily driver, nothing has come close before or since — even some of my absolute favorites can't hold a candle to it on sheer audio quality, detail, richness, and balance.
As a result, I have been recommending the headset at every opportunity possible. For anyone looking to upgrade their audio and take a step up, no matter your platform, this is absolutely worth the price tag — even at full price.
This is such a fantastic headset; I cannot recommend it more, even at its list price. If you have been thinking about upgrading to something more premium for this generation of gaming, on whatever platform, then this is a belter. It's not seen any price cuts yet, but it could do now given Prime Day, and competing retailer events are on this week.
This is a great price for the headset in the UK, as it can often be seen for comfortably north of the £300 mark. Upgrade your audio and never look back again.
The whole audio spectrum is served so well by the Maxwell 2's 95mm planar magnetic drivers and design that I have been immersed further into my games, picked up details I didn't realise were there, and been blasted by a full-bodied richness that's just so dang enjoyable.
Further backing this up was my recent visit to Audeze in California, where I got to see the magic, science, and philosophy up close and personal. Hearing the approach that Audeze takes to audio, as well as learning about the planar magnetic tech under the hood, including the patented SLAM technology too, only cemented my newfound opinion on this quality set.
No headset is perfect, of course, and folks will point out that its mic is just OK, or that it's weightier than other headsets — though I think we all have a tendency to be too afraid of heavier headsets, or think that heavy = bad — but the default audio quality, out of the box, is so good that it definitely, absolutely, categorically outweighs all of the potential negatives.
At launch, Phil pointed out the fact that the original Maxwell was still available and this posed a bit of a problem for the Maxwell 2, as it offered also-excellent audio but was much cheaper. However, there are genuine improvements over the Maxwell 1 that the 2 offers (like SLAM), and now, a few months after release, the OG model is harder to find, making the case for going to the Maxwell 2 even stronger.
If you want premium gaming audio, then there is none better on the market right now.
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Rob is the Managing Editor of Tech Radar Gaming and Streaming, a video games journalist, critic, editor, and writer, and has years of experience gained from multiple publications. Prior to being Tech Radar Gaming's Managing Editor, he was TRG's Deputy Editor, and a longstanding member of Games Radar+, being the Commissioning Editor for Hardware there for years, while also squeezing in a short stint as Gaming Editor at We PC just before joining Tech Radar Gaming. He is also a writer on tech, gaming hardware, and video games but also gardens and landscapes, and has written about the virtual landscapes of games for years.
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