In April I sent my Audeze Maxwell 2 back for a refund. Great sound, ruined by a constant hiss that Audeze support told me was the “inherent noise floor” of the amp. I wrote about it at the time: why I returned them, and later, how I eventually got rid of the hiss.
In between I bought a SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro. Fine headset. I just never liked it as much, and I kept thinking about how the Audeze sounded. So when the Maxwell 2 ANC came out in July, I decided to gamble on it once more, hoping to land a pair without the hiss. I picked up the PlayStation version from Verkkokauppa on 6 September for 499 euros. That’s a lot of money to spend on a headset you’ve already returned once.
First thing I checked: the hiss
Before pairing it with anything, I powered it on in a quiet room and listened. Nothing. Silence. The thing I’d spent weeks trying to fix on the first unit just wasn’t there.
Same 90 mm planar drivers, same always-on DAC and amp. So whatever causes the hiss, it isn’t the design. It’s the unit. Other owners still report hissing on some ANC units, so I don’t think the ANC model is a guaranteed fix. I got a good one this time. If you get a bad one, return it. That’s the only advice I have that actually works.
To be clear about one thing: with ANC switched on, there’s the faint hiss that every ANC headphone makes. AirPods Max do it, Sony does it, Bose does it. That’s normal and it disappears the moment you switch ANC off. The hiss on my first unit was there with everything off, from the second it powered on, and it never went away. Different thing entirely.
What the ANC version actually adds
Since the price jumped by $100 in the US, and a fair bit more here, I went looking for what else changed. Audeze’s own spec sheet says everything about the sound is the same as the Maxwell 2. What’s new:
- Active noise cancelling, rated at up to 35 dB, plus a transparency mode.
- Dual audio, so you can listen to a wired source and a Bluetooth source at the same time.
- Battery life drops from a rated 80 hours to 40 with ANC off and 35 with it on.
- About 60 grams more weight, 560 g in total.
So it’s the same headset with noise cancelling bolted on and a smaller battery. If you don’t need ANC, the original is the better buy at $329, as long as the unit you get doesn’t hiss.
Using the ANC
I’ve only used it at home, and honestly I don’t need it there. It’s nice when the TV is on in the next room and I want it gone. That’s about it. If you game in a quiet room, you’ll turn it on once to try it and then forget it exists.
Where I can see it earning its price is travel. A headset you can wear on a flight or a train without a second pair of noise cancelling headphones in the bag. That was never an option with the original.
Battery
Audeze rates it at 40 hours with ANC off and 35 with it on. That’s less than half the original Maxwell 2’s 80 hours, which is the real cost of the ANC chip. A 20-minute charge over USB-C is supposed to get you back about 25%.
I haven’t measured it myself. A week in, I still haven’t had to charge it once, so 35 to 40 hours feels about right for normal evening use.
Sound
This is the best gaming headset I’ve tested for immersive sound. Better than the SteelSeries, and it’s not close. Explosions have weight, quiet scenes have space, and music sounds like music rather than a gaming headset doing its best.
I run two EQ profiles. An immersive one for single-player and anything where I just want it to sound big. And a separation-focused one for competitive play, where the point is hearing footsteps and knowing where they’re coming from. Switching between them is quick, and both are worth setting up on day one.
Comfort
It’s heavy. 560 grams. It doesn’t bother me at all, but I came from AirPods Max, so I’m used to a heavy headset. The weight makes it feel expensive rather than tiring.
What I noticed more is how well it stays put. The SteelSeries would slip and open little gaps between the cups and my head when I talked. This one doesn’t move. That, more than anything, made the SteelSeries feel cheap by comparison.
Mic
I use the built-in mics rather than the boom. Decent quality. People hear me fine and nobody has complained.
That’s a bigger deal than it sounds. On the Logitech G Pro X 2 Lightspeed I had before, friends kept telling me my mic sounded horrible, and when I recorded myself I heard it too. Coming from that, “fine” is a relief.
I don’t use sidetone.
Verdict
The Maxwell 2 ANC is the Maxwell 2 with noise cancelling and half the battery, for $100 more. The sound is the reason to buy either one. So the question is only whether you’ll use the ANC.
If you travel with your headset, or game somewhere with background noise you can’t control, get the ANC. If you game at home in a quiet room, the original does the same job for less.
Either way, test it the moment it arrives. Quiet room, low volume, ANC off, before you pair it with anything. If you hear white noise under the silence, that one goes back.
