Even in 2025, the Audeze Maxwell Remains One of the Best Gaming Headsets Available

I’ve reviewed a lot of headsets in recent years; some great and some not so great. They’ve tended to prioritize certain aspects over others in order to stand out, with a few being solid jacks-of-all-trades that find their way into my list for best gaming headsets. But even after putting all those through their paces, high-end or otherwise, few come close to a long-time favorite – I’m talking about the Audeze Maxwell.

I’m revisiting it since it has been one of my top recommendations for quite some time (especially for PS5 owners) and to see how it holds up in 2025. While newer headsets have more refinements and/or sophisticated features, very few come close to the Maxwell in terms of pure audio performance, as it’s built like a pair of audiophile-style headphones. That’s not to say it doesn’t do everything else right, because it’s still well-rounded with comfort, durability, and a solid mic. You’ll want to invoke some strict scrutiny when spending around $300 for a gaming headset, but the Audeze Maxwell still earns its stripes.

Audeze Maxwell – Design and Comfort

The first thing I noticed coming back to the Maxwell is just how hefty it is. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though – it’s built like a brick house and has been durable through the years, but it’s still the heaviest headset I’ve used, coming in at 490g. However, its weight never felt like it wore me down or made the experience uncomfortable. The headband, earcups, and forks are all solid aluminum to give it that high-end sturdiness, and there isn’t really any loud branding or outlandish stylization which keeps it looking sleek and understated in true audiophile style.

The Maxwell has thick, dense, and plushy foam earpads wrapped in leatherette with just the right balance between firmness and softness to provide long-term comfort. Clamp force is quite light as well, which is nice for your ears, but this means it relies a lot more on the headband to bear the weight on your head. While the Maxwell has a fairly basic design with a thin layer or foam between the steel headband and suspension strap, it’s sufficient for alleviating the pressure atop your head. That suspension strap is also how you get the headset to fit properly, and it’s one of the few shortcomings of the Maxwell – it snaps into a set of notches on the inside of the headset and it’s a pain to adjust. This doesn’t give you much room for finer adjustments, but once I found the right fit, I didn’t have to think about it again.

All the built-in controls for the Maxwell are on the left earcup. Alongside the earpad, you’ll find the master volume wheel and the in-game volume/chat mix wheel next to each other – you can easily mix these up at first, but I got used to distinguishing the two with enough time. There’s also a 3.5mm audio jack in case you want to use it as an analog wired headset, a USB-C port for charging and connecting to devices, and the port for connecting the detachable microphone. On the outer side of the left earcup are the power button on the lower end and microphone-mute toggle on the upper end. These are large, hard-to-miss buttons that are easy to use and thankfully don’t get lost in the jumble of controls on the earcup.

The detachable boom mic can twist and form to get in the right position near your mouth, and it comes with a pop filter. But the real stars of the Maxwell are the 90mm planar magnetic drivers – while bigger driver size doesn’t always mean better sound quality, this is one case in which the headset lives up to those expectations. I get into the details later on when talking about sound quality, but it’s worth mentioning here since it is the main thing that stands out on the spec sheet.

Audeze Maxwell - Software, Customization, Battery Life

I wouldn’t have necessarily called it a drawback when it first came out, but the Audeze HQ software support is quite primitive. Thankfully, it’s more simplistic rather than being bloated or convoluted. There just isn’t much to configure other than EQ settings, but among the pre-made options available (which are intended to be suited for specific scenarios), none of them sounded quite right. That is until I tweaked the first customizable preset to find the right balance within its 10-band equalization – a little boost on the low-end and high-end helped bring out the best in the Maxwell. Once I locked in this preset, it became the only EQ setting I’ve used and it’s been wonderful for every scenario, gaming or otherwise.

There are a few other options you can tweak like microphone sidetone (to get feedback of your voice), the auto-shutdown timer, and volume of the headset’s voice prompts – you can also manually change the chat mix volume in the software as well. It keeps things simple, but when you see something like Turtle Beach’s Swarm II software or SteelSeries Arctis app, I do wish I could fine-tune things a bit more to dial-in microphone performance, for example.

Audeze HQ is how you monitor battery life, which you probably won’t have to worry about often since the Maxwell is among the best in this area. It’s able to last around 80 hours from a full charge, and since using it for four days straight for roughly 10 to 12 hours a day, it still sat at about 50% charge. Gaming headsets in recent years have made strides when it comes to battery life (some of which also hit 80 to 100 hours off a full charge), and the Maxwell still stands with them, as I would expect from a headset as hefty as this.

Audeze Maxwell - Sound Quality and Performance

Sound quality is where the Audeze Maxwell shines brightest. With the aforementioned EQ settings, I found balance across all frequencies. And even at high volumes, none of them sounded grating whether I was listening to the layered J-pop tunes of Yoasobi, the chaos of a Final Fantasy XIV raid, or the gunfire of a competitive Counter-Strike 2 match while paying attention to subtle audio cues. It felt like having a home theater setup blasting into my ears with punchy bass, clean highs, and clear mids with a spacious delivery to create a rich audio profile that few headsets can match.

Those qualities also let it shine when it comes to positional/directional audio, and it’s the thing I always harp on with headsets for competitive gaming. In my handful of ranked matches in Counter-Strike 2, I was able to pluck out those specific sounds to anticipate enemy activity whether it be footsteps from a certain direction, them reloading so I can get the jump, or firefights off in the distance so I can rotate position on the map promptly. In all my recent headset reviews, I always give FFXIV a whirl and do my daily/weekly activities to test things out because it can be a very busy audio experience. The Maxwell is able to cut through the distinct sounds of spells casting, abilities going off, voice lines, and the soundtrack blaring – lesser headsets would crunch these sound effects, making them blend with each other and/or sound harsh.

Since the pair I have is also designed for PlayStation, it’s able to take advantage of the PS5’s Tempest 3D audio. It’s a proprietary spatial audio program and can make certain games sound like they’re being played over a home theater setup. I’m usually hesitant to use virtual surround sound options since they can sound artificial, but having used Sony’s Pulse 3D headset, Tempest 3D is a smart implementation. You get that same level of quality for surround sound out of the Audeze Maxwell – and I would hope so given how much more expensive it is, even compared to the higher-end Pulse Elite. It’s a nice bonus is you’re a PS5 owner, because single-player experiences can really come to life in a unique way – I don’t usually like describing things as “immersive” as it has lost some of its meaning when it comes to audio gear, but it does feel that way with headsets like the Maxwell.

While it’s not necessarily among the best in terms of clarity, the microphone quality itself is good. However, it stands out for its great noise isolation, which is certainly the best I’ve tested in recent years. The Maxwell has AI-based noise reduction, and with it on, the clack of my mechanical keyboard and other background noise would be blocked out. Even while talking and making noise on purpose, it’s able to focus on my voice and barely pick up anything else. The only mark against the Maxwell in this regard is that the static from sidetone is quite loud, more so than other headsets. It’s a minor gripe for an otherwise solid mic.

Looking to upgrade your PC setup?