Here's my quick review of the Maxwell, after upgrading from the Penrose. Most of it won't be surprising to people around here, but I thought it's worth weighing in on the smaller things that makes it worth the upgrade.
- I'm far from the discerning audiophile, but sound quality is just as excellent as the Penrose. I did feel the Penrose was harsh at high frequencies so I had to EQ that down, however no such problem with Maxwell.
- Both Penrose headsets I owned had an intermittent wooshing sound in the left ear at quiet volume levels. This was infuriating, so I'm very glad they designed the Maxwell to fix this.
- Build quality seems really good. My Penrose cracked at the typical place on the plastic joint, and I'm glad they seem to have addressed this. This and the wooshing sound were my biggest gripes for the Penrose.
- I didn't expect any differences to the mic, but my gaming mates noticed that the mic was much clearer, before I told them about having a new headset. Also love the noise suppression feature.
- The sidetone feature is worse, unfortunately. When enabled, there is a white noise sound that is a bit crackly, whereas on the Penrose it was much more subtle. Also, when the mic is switched to mute, the sidetone is not disabled like on the Penrose - I found this useful to remind me when I was still on mute.
- Range and connection are massively improved. I can go anywhere in my place without disconnecting, where before I could only go as far as one room away. Also, the Penrose would sometimes take a few tries before it would connect - not anymore.
- Battery life also massively improved, although I did get used to just leaving my Penrose on charge after every session.
- Comfort is so much better. I had to mod the Penrose headband because it put a lot of pressure at the top of my head, whereas the Maxwell balances out really well even though it is heavier. It's a little tight but again, nowhere near as severe as the Penrose. I also really like the much wider earcups, maybe I have big ears but they feel much more spacious.
- Volume control is now linked to Windows volume, this is a great QOL improvement that I didn't expect to see.
- I also didn't expect iOS support because it was not a Penrose feature, but very excited for that to land.
- Kinda wish the controls weren't so sensitive, because I find that I'm accidentally toggling things when I go to take off the Maxwell.
- Voice cues - minor in the scheme of things, but they now sound nice and consistent. In the Penrose, the "2.4 and bluetooth" voice cue was so jarring because it sounded like it was recorded by two different voices!
So overall huge improvements almost all round. Hats off to Audeze, I am a huge fan of the Maxwell and I have been recommending it to friends - something I couldn't do unconditionally with the Penrose.