I recently visited Audeze’s HQ in California for a revealing behind-the-scenes look at how one of the most premium audio brands goes about its business, from the science and developments behind the tech to the philosophy, people, and culture driving it.
As someone who covers gaming hardware and tech, one of my most pressing lines of inquiry during my visit was to really nail down why Audeze believes that planar magnetic drivers are superior for gaming audio and in gaming headsets like the Audeze Maxwell 2.
And I got my answer: it’s the driver’s innate ability and technical functionality, but also what it allows a user to do afterwards.
All things transient
“Planar magnetic drivers have several fundamental performance advantages that benefit gaming,” Audeze marketing director Peter James tells me.
“One of those is better transient response … The driver is lighter, moves faster, reacts quicker to the changes in the signal, which means better precision and more realism.”
This can then equate to enhanced “immersion in a single-player game” or a “competitive advantage in a multiplayer game, where you're hearing more precisely and more quickly what's going on around you”, he says.
This is supported by the weighty opinion of Dragoslav Colich (or ‘Dr C’ for short), co-founder and chief technical officer of Audeze: “Transient response is much higher, so bass is much cleaner.”
If you’ve ever compared the likes of an Audeze Maxwell 2 to a competing dynamic driver gaming headset, then this is something you already know. I have had plenty of experience with overly muddy and thumping bass on many leading brands’ gaming sets, which are nowhere near as clean and detailed as the Maxwell 2’s.
Enhanced immersion and precision, regardless of whatever genre of game you're playing
The second major benefit of the drivers’ ability to offer lower distortion and the knock-on effects of that.
“Lower distortion, again, means versions of all those things you're hearing, [with] enhanced immersion and precision, regardless of whatever genre of game you're playing. But additionally, the low distortion enables better customization of the sound,” James argues.
This means planar magnetic drivers might not only sound better by default but can also allow you to tweak the sound profile more effectively than other sets.
“Because these drivers are so flexible and so low in distortion, they take EQ very easily and readily without creating even more distortion the way dynamic drivers often do, particularly when you boost bass,” he goes on. “This allows our headphones to be more customizable to people's individual tastes.”
So, better transient response for higher levels of precision and realism, lower distortion, and great flexibility in taking on EQs — and that’s on top of a level of audio quality that is, at least for me, incredible.
➡️ Read our opinion on the best audiophile gaming headsets going
1. Best overall:
Audeze Maxwell 2
2. The complete package
SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite
3. Best wired headphones:
Sennheiser HD 550
4. Best value:
Drop + Epos PC38X
5. Best wired headset:
SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro
6. A great open-backed option:
Beyerdynamic MMX 300 Pro
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