Audeze Maxwell

Bringing planar magnetic drivers to gaming

- SAM LEWIS

WHEN AN AUDIO POWERHOUSE like Audeze comes along with a gaming headset offering, it’s hard for us to not want to get our hands on it as soon as possible. With peripherals such as the Penrose and Euclid impressing us massively, when the Maxwell was released we wanted to see what impact this could have in the gaming sphere. The Maxwell features a more minimalistic design than the previous Penrose gaming cans before it, without the typical gaming-related design queues you get with headsets. Is this more serious and high-end step forward equally impressive?

The Maxwell leans on a more circular design with huge, deep ear cups. The construction feels incredibly durable and premium, with minimal creaking from its steel and aluminum chassis. To the touch, it feels even more expensive than its price tag might imply, but that might come down to the weight, coming in at over 1lb, though that’s not to say it’s uncomfortable. This is one of the comfiest pairs of headphones we've tested. It features a similar ski-band style headband found on SteelSeries' headsets, which we're a huge fan of. This evens out the weight across your head to avoid areas of increased pressure over long durations. It also has three levels of adjustment, which we found to be plenty considering the band has some stretch in it anyway. Aside from the headband, the earcups are incredibly plush and large enough to completely swallow a range of ear sizes. After a long session of gaming, they barely caused any discomfort.