Audeze Maxwell 2

Sources split, with the lean side slightly heavier. One camp — PC Gamer, TechRadar, Headfonia, MajorHiFi and owners who updated the firmware — hears tight, fast, well-controlled planar bass with enough weight once EQ'd. The other — RTINGS, SoundGuys, StreamTech, Tom's Guide and a vocal group of Reddit owners — hears a low end that is clean but light, missing the rumble of explosions and the sub-bass of the original Maxwell. The split tracks firmware (launch units were leaner; a March update claims +6 dB at 20 Hz), seal (RTINGS finds the bass depends heavily on fit and glasses) and what the listener is coming from.

The clearest point of agreement. Voices and instruments are called natural, full-bodied and expressive — Headfonia hears the family resemblance to Audeze's wired LCD line — and nobody in the record calls the midrange recessed or shouty. A measured dip around 200 Hz keeps it clean rather than thick.

“Human speech sounds true-to-life, indicating a well-tuned midrange response”

Phil Iwaniuk, TechRadar

“It’s an authoritative midrange resposne that really elevates game audio and music listening equally.”

Alex Schiffer, MajorHiFi

Sources split, most of them on the positive side. Tom's Hardware, Headfonia, TechRadar, Tom's Guide and GamesRadar+ hear clean, airy, non-fatiguing highs; the two reviewers who measure most closely — SoundGuys and StreamTech — hear a sharp, sibilant edge on the stock tuning. The graph supports both: the treble is only slightly above target overall, but one firmware build shows a narrow peak near 8 kHz.

Sources split, mostly toward 'balanced'. RTINGS, Audio46, IGN, PC Gamer and many owners describe a balanced, neutral, faithful tuning that takes EQ well. A smaller group — SoundGuys, TechteamGB and owners coming from the warmer original or from bass-forward gaming headsets — hears the same balance as lean, bright or clinical: correct, detailed, and short on life. The lab comparison explains why: against the original Maxwell the Maxwell 2 trades a few dB of sub-bass for a few dB of presence.

Wide for a closed-back, and more spacious than the original Maxwell by most side-by-side accounts. The honest limit is depth: it spreads left to right convincingly but does not reach the three-dimensional layering of an open-back, and StreamTech calls it spacious for a gaming headset rather than wide in absolute terms.

“It has a naturally wide stereo field, separating the left and right channels with incredible grace.”

Alex Schiffer, MajorHiFi

“these sound much more spacious compared to how I remember the Maxwell 1 with directional cues very, very good also”

WhiteHartMart, Head-Fi

The reason most people buy it. Footsteps, reloads and gunfire place precisely and hold up in busy scenes — even the harshest critic in the record calls the directionality incredible. One owner found footsteps in Overwatch and CS2 harder to hear than on a bassier Sony headset, and RTINGS measured small left/right differences in the bass that are audible on test tones, but these are exceptions to a near-universal verdict.

“The Audeze Maxwell 2 has great separation and precise spatial depth for FPS shooters.”

Jhaycee Calvez, SoundGuys

“the directionality (even without faux surround sound) is incredible.”

TechteamGB

Near-unanimous: fast planar transients, excellent separation and resolution that stays clean when a match gets chaotic — the one thing even disappointed owners concede. The ceiling is the last bit of air and micro-detail an open-back planar would give.

“These have very fast transient response, excellent separation, and it stays crisp when a match gets chaotic.”

BadIntent, StreamTechReviews

“When I play Battlefield 6, I can hear every enemy very clearly and everything sounds incredibly detailed.”

RecentHistorian220, r/Audeze

Sources split, and it follows the bass. Headfonia, MajorHiFi, TechRadar and IGN hear quick, punchy, dynamic planar impact; RTINGS, StreamTech, Tom's Guide and owners who play immersive games miss the physical weight of explosions and artillery — 'I hear it. But I don’t feel it.', as one r/Audeze owner put it. Both sides agree it takes a bass boost cleanly.

Sources split almost evenly, and it is about weight. At 560 g the Maxwell 2 is 70 g heavier than the original; the wider perforated strap and roomier pads spread the load well enough that Tom's Hardware, IGN, Tom's Guide and GamesRadar+ wore it for four to six hours without trouble. RTINGS, SoundGuys, PC Gamer, StreamTech and Sound Approach found it fatiguing after one to four hours, and several reviewers note it slides off when you tilt your head because the clamp is light. Early units shipped with the old narrow strap; head size, heat and whether you swap pads or strap decide which camp you land in.

Sources split between two true statements. As an object it is premium — aluminium yokes, spring steel, magnetic pads and plates, no creaks — and Amazon owners rate the build 13 to 1. As a product it has a quality-control problem: a constant idle hiss that some units have and others don't (Audeze support called it the inherent noise floor of the always-on amp), planar crinkle and rattles, dead or failing channels after weeks or months, and dongle dropouts — enough that r/Audeze calls it a lottery and several owners went through three or four units. Reviewers' units were mostly clean; the problems live in the owner reports.

Sources split, mostly positive. Most reviewers find the sealed cups block everyday noise well enough that they did not miss ANC; RTINGS, the one source that measures it, rates isolation poor, blocking 'virtually no' low-frequency rumble. Both can be true: it muffles voices and high-pitched noise, not engines or air conditioning. There is no active noise cancelling on this model.

An even split. For RTINGS, IGN, Headfonia, MajorHiFi and satisfied owners it is the best-sounding wireless gaming headset at a price well under its nearest rival. For SoundGuys, PC Gamer, TechRadar, Tom's Hardware, StreamTech and TechteamGB it is a pricier, heavier 'Maxwell 1.5' that fixed neither of the original's big complaints — weight and the lack of simultaneous dongle-plus-Bluetooth audio — and now sits $100 below its own ANC version. With the original largely sold out, the 'buy the cheaper Gen 1' advice of early 2026 applies mainly to the used market.