My Reviews of Audeze Maxwell and Artic Nova Pro 2024 wireless headphones (not a gamer):
Audeze Maxwell:
Pros:
-Amazing sound detail, layering and resolution overall with good treble and bass.
-Durable and solid design
-2.4ghz Dongle had excellent latency and connectivity which was good for movie/video watching and music playback
-Excellent battery life
-Ok connectivity
-Comfort was good, my ears had a good amount of space to breath but the top of my ears did touch the inner top of the pads otherwise pads were comfy against ears/skin.
-BT performance was very good, tested it with LG C2 OLED, Nvidia shield pro, desktop PC with windows 11, Android 14 phone, mini pc, did not notice any
of the usual BT issues, audio was stable and clear.
Cons
-Weight, its a bit on the heavy side but you can get use to it
-Ear cups was too big, they stick outwards so its like 2 speakers against your ears these are tanks. Really only good for desk/home use. Forget about in bed use.
-Headband felt a bit uncomfortable on top, also if I move my head left to right they would wobble a lot but not fall off.
-LE audio with LC3 Codec still not available and probably will never get it
-Connectivity issues, since it relied on an single 2.4ghz or BT to connect, so if you have 3-4 devices your in trouble and have to disconnect and reconnect that 2.4ghz Dongle.
It also only supports 1 single 2.4ghz Dongle, you can't use a 2nd one.
The audeze Maxwells are tanks, durable and with big high resolution detailed sound but ultimately I found the lack off connectivity an issue. I do wish manufacturers understood no one has just 1-2 devices in their home more like 10. Its unacceptable to just be limited to one 2.4ghz dongle use, you would need several to cover all devices around the home. They were just too big and bulky, forget about portability and wearing them in bed trying to watch telly also. Much better suited for pure gamers sitting in an chair.
Artic Nova Wireless 2024
Pros
-Good sound quality overall, decent enough resolution and detail was heard and the bass was good. Overall a good improvement over the older Pro wireless
-Appeared Durable enough but at the same time was not premium and more plasticy.
-Ok Connectivity, it has a break out box with dual usb inputs (PC or PS has Xbox version) but xbox input limited to 16bit not 24bit and 3.5mm inputs. Fixed the hiss
-Latency was good, I would say similar to the Artic pro wireless headphones.
-BT performance was good and stable, but with the break out box you get 2.4ghz connectivity so a much better and stable connection for games/movies with better latency
-Ear pads and comfort was good, the pads were very soft against the ears and skin, felt pleather but higher quality at least.
-Less ANC bump on the inner drivers, your ears no longer touch the ANC mic bump.
Cons
-Sound has much less soundstage then the Artic pros, I prefered the more detail and closed in sound from the Novas over my Pro wireless though.
-Worse connectivity then the older Pro wireless break out box, lost the optical inputs so its much more harder to connect to say your TV to make life 10x easier. Also it lost the separate power input, so if you power down a console or device you lose power to the break out box ie no sound!
-Ear pads were very small, my ears rubbed around the edges of the pads and were very close to the driver unit but they did not touch the driver maybe 2-3mm away.
The Artic nova 2024 headphones were good but at the same time 1 step forward and maybe 2 steps backwards, they improved the sound quality well enough so well that I felt like my Artic pro wireless could be sold off (almost) but they then make the connectivity with devices even worse. Its the same issue as mentioned with the maxwells, 2 devices inputs is just not cutting it this aint 1993. And a 3.5mm connection is from decades ago also and contain a hiss.
, how's your new dongle performs in that area?
