There's slight static from the drivers when connected via analog, and the mic can pick up the feedback, though. The Maxwell features soft, foam, leatherette-covered earpads that are contoured to fit the curvature of your skull. Test recordings sounded mostly clean with a strong dynamic range, though I picked up a touch of fuzziness in the higher frequencies. There's also a noise filter you can access at the press of a button, which will help with background noise. That said, they can reduce some ambient chatter and do a significantly better job of cutting down the high-pitch whirl of computer fans.

It’s an active headset with an internal DSP and a built-in DAC, so it will need to be powered on even if you’re using a wired analog connection. However, the SteelSeries have a fair noise cancelling system, which can be handy if you like to game in noisy environments. As a gaming headset, the Audeze Maxwell has almost everything you could want from such a product: it’s compatible with any device, high-end planar magnetic drivers, and a proprietary dongle that enables low-latency wireless connectivity and Bluetooth. In addition, there's some feedback present when using the analog cable, and the mic can pick it up, which is a little disappointing. Different genres of games will put you in situations where hearing certain things is critical to your performance, for example, footsteps in deathmatches or low rumbles in some RPGs.In fairness, Audeze has already created such a gaming headset in its Penrose, but it lacked either the battery life or the high-res audio chops of this new updated Maxwell design. The earpads have generous amounts of soft memory foam wrapped in supple, surprisingly cool faux leather.

The leather headband has a limited range of adjustment due to it only having three levels, making it difficult to get a good fit during our human passes.

The display of third-party trademarks and trade names on this site does not necessarily indicate any affiliation or the endorsement of PCMag. The substantial ear cups and the relatively firm clamping force applied to your skull mean these headphones will seal reliably.

I’m all for simpler designs that aim to eliminate sources of frustration, but this needs a trip back to the drawing board because of long-term durability concerns.I have a lot of thoughts on this, but we’ll dig deeper into it in the Battery Life and Wireless section. Shut out the world around you with class-leading passive noise reduction from the reinforced dual-chamber earcups. The Maxwell is an active headset with an internal DSP and a built-in DAC, so it will need to be turned on even if you’re using a wired analog connection.