Audeze

Case had sticky residue on hinges

Excellent customer service, the techs were particularly knowledgeable. However, when I initially ordered the headset it took over a month to get to me and ended up more fragile than I expected.

I really like these headphones. Having a good-quality headset be wireless and have such a long-lasting battery life puts these in the upper tier of gaming headphones. The Maxwell Wireless proves that Bluetooth headphones can compete head-on with wired headphones in sound quality. The only area in need of immediate improvement is the quality of the microphone. Perhaps there are technical limitations preventing Audeze from making the microphone quality crisp and clear for those who hear your voice, but as for everything else, you couldn't find a better gaming headset.

It took a while to get the headphones shipped, but Audeze was upfront about it when ordering, so it was understandable. Other than that, brilliant service and product.

After some frustrations with my Turtle Beach I decided to cough up the extra to try the Maxwell. At first I wasn't amazed by the audio as it sounded a bit flat to me though after creating a custom EQ that boosts both the low and high end it sounds amazing and very immersive and I now think it is the best sounding headset. There are a few frustrations though: 1) The earcup padding needs to be thicker/deeper. I don't have huge ears, but I can feel my ears touch the speaker sometimes. 2) The sidetone is terrible. If there is nothing going on I can hear my voice through the sidetone, but when playing a game like Fortnite I end up feeling like I need to yell or that other people can't hear me because during times when the game gets loud I can barely hear myself, if at all. I am hoping this can be fixed in a future update. The mic sounds great and clear for the people on the other end, but with the poor sidetone it is a bad experience for me. This is the case no matter which EQ setting I choose and with sidetone turned up to Max. 3) The mic sounds great to people on the other end, but the boom is flimsy and terrible. It droops down lower and lower under its own weight. If the boom arm is going to be so thin it could probably be half as long and be far better. I saw there is a different mic that Audeze sells, though not sure if it would be better and I don't want to cough up the money for it after spending a premium on the Maxwell. 4) Being unable to use bluetooth and the dongle at the same time is annoying. There are times where it is useful to be able to play a game while taking a phone call through the headset, but that isn't possible with the Maxwell. I read somewhere that this feature was left out to keep the cost down. Overall it is a great headset and one of the best sounding ones. The connection works clearly whether using the dongle or bluetooth and I don't notice any drops. If it had some of these annoyances fixed it would be my go to for everything, but for now I use it for solo games and TV/Movies and use the Turtle Beach for anything requiring the mic.