Let's get straight to the point: if you have the money to spend and want the best sound quality, I'm going to tell you to go with the Audeze Maxwell 2. It's like having a home theater strapped to your head, and nothing sounds as good when it comes to gaming headsets. But there's more to picking out a gaming headset, right? Something like the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Omni has a much wider range of features that turns a gaming headset into an all-in-one audio setup for every device you have. Still, not everyone has the money to blow on these state-of-the-art headsets, so I explored many more options below.
I've been reviewing gaming headsets for nearly a decade, putting them through their paces and breaking down sound quality, comfort, and all the other ridiculous features that manufacturers have packed in over the years. That includes my time here at IGN, having written full reviews of the headsets I'm recommending here alongside 120+ hours of additional side-by-side testing for this guide. With that hands-on experience, I've compiled a list of the best gaming headsets for all price ranges, as well as some alternatives, with all the reasons why you should pick one or the other.
TL;DR: These Are the Best Gaming Headsets:
How I Test Gaming Headsets
The time spent with these headsets for this guide is in addition to the time I spent during their initial review periods to make sure I refreshed my memory, determined if they've held up since then, and got more direct comparisons to make sure I picked the right one over another. To paint a more detailed picture of how I made these picks, here's a breakdown of my selection criteria:
- Audio quality – The expectation is a high-end audio experience that is fine-tuned to games with great positional audio and clarity across all frequencies. Music performance needs detailed sound incrementally pushed with higher volumes. A few exceptions can be made at lower price tiers, but it should not compromise an enjoyable listening experience.
- Comfort – Headsets must be wearable for at least four hours without a break; exceptions for a little sweatiness for leatherette earpads. High clamp force is taken into consideration, but this must be offset by padding that holds up for long sessions.
- Additional factors – Battery life, microphone clarity, and intuitive controls (both onboard and in software) are also factors in the selection process where applicable. Extraneous features such as 3D audio, active noise cancelling, scenario-based sound profiles, or simultaneous Bluetooth are considered as well, and could give the edge to one headset over another, but these are not required features for making the selection.
- Price tiers – There are so many headsets to choose from, so breaking them into price ranges helps 1) you navigate this guide, and 2) create an even playing field for the bevy of headsets that are worth their respective price tags. The following are the price ranges I considered for each category of gaming headset:
- Best Wireless/Overall: $300 to $400
- Best Wired: $200 to $350
- Best Mid-range: $150 to $200
- Best Budget: $50 to $120
Regardless of how much you're willing to spend, there's a gaming headset that will match your budget without having to sacrifice much on quality. But how did I come to these conclusions? Well, I tested more than 20 headsets, of which I selected a total of 12 for this guide, and used each for a minimum of 10 hours in-game across three different games to gauge their audio performance in various gameplay scenarios: Counter-Strike 2 ranked matches for positional sound in competitive gaming, Final Fantasy XIV raid instances for a "busy" sound experience, and The Last of Us Part II for cinematic single-player games. I also created a playlist on Spotify to hear how different music genres sound on each headset using the new Spotify premium lossless codec available to paying subscribers. This will give you a holistic perspective to cover the bases no matter what kinds of games (or use-cases) you need your headset for, and it's my basis for which all headsets have been equally tested on.
Best Gaming Headset
Audeze Maxwell 2
Our Top Pick
Audeze Maxwell 2
The Audeze Maxwell 2 offers unmatched sound quality, with 90mm planar magnetic drivers and top notch build quality.
It's tough to pick a favorite at the high-end, but if I had to put one feature above anything else, it’d be sound quality; and Audeze is unmatched in this department. After using the original Maxwell as my go-to on PS5 for the better part of a year before moving onto the Maxwell 2, it's hard to go back to other wireless headsets.
Product Specifications
Connectivity
USB-C/3.5mm wired, Bluetooth, 2.4GHz wireless (USB-C dongle)
Drivers
90mm planar magnetic
Battery life
80+ hours
Weight
560g
PROS
Clear, spacious, and rich sound quality
Best-in-class battery life (upward of 80 hours)
Plushy earpads suited for long sessions
Clean microphone
CONS
Heavier than every other headset at 560g
Incremental improvement over previous Maxwell model
No one does sound quality like Audeze, and the Maxwell 2 is a prime example. The 90mm planar magnetic drivers stand out, and although bigger drivers don't always mean better sound, Audeze made great use of their capabilities. Yes, the Maxwell 2 has fantastic sound quality in a tier of its own with clarity and detail in all testing scenarios, but it has a distinguishable spaciousness to its audio profile that other headsets don't have. This also translates to more room for the details of its positional audio to shine. Plucking out distance and direction of sound cues in Counter-Strike 2 is crucial to staying competitive, and the Maxwell 2 doesn't have to artificially boost the corresponding frequencies to help identify these effects in the heat of a ranked match.
While the Maxwell 2 sounds great out of the box, tweaking the frequencies a bit through the easy-to-use Audeze desktop app will help you get a lot more out of the low-end. With a little bass boost, the Maxwell 2 really shines for prestige-style games and music. This was most evident in playing through the opening hours of The Last of Us Part II where scenes had a distinct depth and distance. My lossless playlist sounded fantastic as well, giving the feeling of fullness without sounding artificial (and without needed virtual surround).
The Maxwell 2 outshines its contemporaries in battery life by a long shot, too. Back when I reviewed the headset, I went through an entire week's worth of testing (roughly 40 hours of total use) and only at the end did it dip to about 40% battery leftover. Audeze claims the Maxwell 2 can hit upwards of 80 hours from a full charge, and I'd say that's accurate. That's likely the necessary trade-off for a hulking headset that weighs a whopping 560g, however.
It’s comfortable, despite its weight. The Maxwell 2 is on the heavier side, but that weight is balanced with enough clamp force to keep it in place, plushy earpads that make sure it's comfortable to wear all day, and an extra-wide headband on top to keep the headset in place and alleviate pressure from the top of your head. In my testing, I wore the Maxwell 2 for sessions of about four to five hours at a time, and I never felt like the headset was bothering me or weighing me down. Now, this isn't the kind of headset you'd also use a pair of headphones on the go because of its weight and build, but as a gaming headset, I don't find it a problem. Aside from a slight adjustment around my ears every now and then, I didn't have to think about the fact I was wearing a big ol' headset, and that's a testament to its comfort and ergonomics.
Build quality is top notch. There's very little plastic used on the Maxwell 2 – the frame and the earcups themselves are built with a durable aluminum and I can handle the headset as a whole with confidence. This also contributes to its weight, as I discussed above, but the trade-off is a well-constructed headset that's built like a tank. In my usual flex test to see how much the headband will bend without giving too much tension, I wasn't worried about the structural integrity of the Maxwell 2, and I never felt like I had to be gentle when putting it on or taking it off (although it's an expensive headset, take care of your stuff!).
Connectivity options are solid. The Maxwell 2 comes with a wireless USB-C dongle with a toggle for native PC or PlayStation connections. If you want to use it for Xbox, be sure to get the specific model that's compatible with Xbox's wireless protocol. Otherwise, it can run a wired 3.5mm analog or direct USB connection. It has Bluetooth capability as well, and I've grown to love simultaneous 2.4GHz and Bluetooth of more sophisticated headsets – the thing with the Maxwell 2 is that you can only do simultaneous Bluetooth with it when using a wired connection.
It has a clean and clear microphone with solid noise isolation. From a pure sound quality point, the Maxwell mic offers decent clarity. It won't be mistaken for a standalone mic, but my voice comes out clean and that's primarily what I look for in a gaming headset. The impressive part is its noise isolation, however. Clacking keyboards, chaotic ambience, and what not, the Maxwell 2's mic filters these out extremely well without clipping, severely compressing, or "digitizing" my voice. I tested this by recording myself through Audacity while typing on a mechanical keyboard to hear if 1) it would pick up the keyboard on its own and 2) if it would clash with me talking once it picked up my voice – in the latter case, it was barely a faint tapping from my keyboard. While there are some headsets capable of this as well, I can rely on the Maxwell 2 being that good, too.
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