Audeze Maxwell Review

Design & Build Quality

Build quality

If the Mobius and Penrose were already nice headphones, in terms of build quality the Audeze Maxwell competes in a different league, offering an experience more in-tune with its luxury lineage. In fact, up to day, this is the most impressive gaming headset I’ve ever held, easily surpassing the likes of Logitech, Razer and Steelseries.

Sure, the Apple AirPods Max remains a few steps above in terms of engineering, but even compared to Bang&Olufsen HX, or Bowers&Wilkins PX8, the Maxwell has nothing to be ashamed of. Cups made of glass infused nylon that gives the same sensation as if they were made of metal, die-cast aluminum yokes instead of the old plastic ones for extended durability, improved steel headband with a replaceable suspension straps: head to toe, this is a much, much, better headphone in terms of construction. 

Something that you immediately feel once in hand, the Maxwell proving to be significantly heavier than its predecessor, with a measured weight of 490g – almost 200g more than the Penrose for comparison! And if that weight gives credibility to the whole package, we’ll have to see how that translates over long gaming/listening sessions, even if compared to before, this new design feels a lot more balanced, with an equal density on each side.

Last but not least, the earpads a now removable, giving you the opportunity to replace them when they get worn-out, which will inevitably happens with a headphone – especially with long-wear use like gaming sessions.

An impressive make-over through and through.

Inside the box

Once again, Audeze was surprisingly generous with the Maxwell, providing everything you might ever need to make proper use of the headphone.

Inside the box you have :

• the Audeze Maxwell
• a boom pole microphone (with the tiny Audeze pattern on the grill)
• a 3.5mm TRRS jack cable
• a USB-A to Type C adapter
• a USB-C to USB-C cable
• the new USB-C wireless dongle
• various papers

So everything you need to connect your Maxwell to any of your sources, from computers, to DAP and, most importantly, gaming consoles. Not that if Audeze offers two version of its headphone (Xbox or PlayStation) both comes with the same bundle.

Additional accessories

Honestly, there are no real improvements you can do regarding the Maxwell. You can plug your own jack-jack cable, but since the real deal would be to use the internal DAC, this won’t make a big difference.

What you can consider, however, is investing in a Dolby Atmos Renderer for your source to experience the enhanced head tracking support on a professional level. It’s somewhat expensive, priced at $299, but for those intrigued by object-based sound production, it’s an essential investment!

Sensitivity / Hiss

This is hard to measure as I mostly used the Maxwell in Wireless and USB mode. Even though, I never faced any issue regarding the hiss, nor did I encounter any residual noise, both in wired and wireless use. 

Sensitivity is pretty high and with the volume control, you can go very high, very fast. Remember that Bluetooth volume is capped though, but the Audeze dongle isn’t!

The review continues on Page three, after the click HERE or by using the jump below.