[Scratchansniff]

Agreed! What the hell!

While we're nitpicking, the power off behaviour of the dongle is no good. Steelseries dongle exposes a device as long as it's connected. You turn the headphones off and the PC/console thinks it's still plugged in, so when you reconnect it is fast and all your settings are preserved.

Audeze dongle only turns on, from the PC/console's perspective, once the headphones are on. So you're reconnecting the device every time. Takes longer and volume resets.

I tried A/B testing with my Arctis 7 the other day for about half an hour, 5 mins with each headset at a time. By comparison the Audeze is heavy, hot and uncomfortable. Moving your head is annoying due to the added weight. The controls are more fiddly, for no good reason.

It's a shame these sound so good, because in every other category they're beaten by plastic cans at 1/3 the price. And I can't switch back, because I'll remember how good the Maxwell sounds! Awful!

In every other category what categories are you referring too?

 

[BCM88]

Another day practically gone by and silence from HFH in the UK regarding the dispatch of my order.

You'd think being Audezes main official reseller here they would have them first

 

[Helvetica bold]

So I have tried the new updated app it’s not working it just keeps crashing ti desktop can this company get anything to work at all.

Ditto, just downloaded can’t open, crashes immediately. I managed to open it for a split second once.

 

[WhiteHartMart]

Another day practically gone by and silence from HFH in the UK regarding the dispatch of my order.

You'd think being Audezes main official reseller here they would have them first

Frustrating ain't it - in fairness they told me they would have them today or tomorrow latest. I took that to be tomorrow then

Not sure how many they have to send out once received but hopefully means we can have them this week. Just hope I find the volume level acceptable, else they'll be going straight back!!

 

[Helvetica bold]

So I have tried the new updated app it’s not working it just keeps crashing ti desktop can this company get anything to work at all.

Edit! Pair your Maxwell via Bluetooth and the app will work. Received help from @GadgetryTech discord. Shout out to Lord Farquaad for the help of he’s here.

 

[Scratchansniff]

Ditto, just downloaded can’t open, crashes immediately. I managed to open it for a split second once.

We been talking on discord mate lord farquaad here

 

[BCM88]

Frustrating ain't it - in fairness they told me they would have them today or tomorrow latest. I took that to be tomorrow then

Not sure how many they have to send out once received but hopefully means we can have them this week. Just hope I find the volume level acceptable, else they'll be going straight back!!

Just dropped them an e-mail to see if they have a further update, I e-mailed 2 weeks back so seems fair

As of the last e-mail I received they were 'expecting to process all preorders' - so I guess they must have a decent stock allocation, although how many more were placed following reviews/info coming out we couldn't know.

Gotta say it's a bit concerning re: volume levels, not that I listen particularly loud, but based on what we've seen the overall volume seems very low vs expectation. Hopefully Audeze can comment, seems inconsistent across the various output sources.

 

[WhiteHartMart]

Ditto, just downloaded can’t open, crashes immediately. I managed to open it for a split second once.

I don't have a Maxwell yet but the app opens fine with nothing connected

 

[WhiteHartMart]

Android App update now live in the store

Can't test that either

 

[Scratchansniff]

Android App update now live in the store

Can't test that either

It’s buggy right now

 

[Rambone]

I’d just like to chime in and say that I too have an issue with the volume ceiling on the Maxwell. I’ve found them to be noticeable quieter than that of the Penrose. The problem was significantly inherent when I tried to watch the new episode of The Mandalorian with them. For whatever reason, programs on Disney plus are typically quieter than programs on other platform. However, this was never an issue for me with the Penrose, as the higher volume overhead just allowed me to turn the volume up to my liking. With the Maxwell, I found the program to be almost unwatchable. It’s hard to get immersed when you can barely hear anything.

Some games and media can drop volume by as much as -10dB, even with master volume controls up to 100% ingame or inapp. Star Citizen is a good example of this on PC, where you absolutely need to crank the volume up to compensate for this. When you have a headphone that has a low volume ceiling, the headphone can be as you say, 'unusable'. This would also be bad as it is unlikely certain frequencies can spike up past that max ceiling either which can degrade the quality of sound the closer to max you get which is why you want/need headroom even if the MAX amount of volume is 'loud enough', there is more to it as you do not want distortion even if that is low.

I can't measure, but the headphones do sound much louder plugged into the PS5 via USB. Max volume on console and headphones is too loud, when using a USB connection (good).

Looking at @Scratchansniffs measurements from the PS5, it's fairly easy to see why the Maxwell sounds much louder while plugged in via USB as the max output was at 79.4dB. Paste below for convenience.

Bluetooth: 63 DB
USB: 79.4 DB
Dongle: 59.7 DB

The USB output at 79-80dB is going to be loud and most will turn the headphone down from here and go between 65dB and 75dB with odd spikes in certain sounds which can hit the peak at 79.4dB at times at the loudest which is basically like a second or less.

As for the Bluetooth and Dongle, the max output on these at 60db and 63dB is just too low to be taken seriously as a $299 wireless headphone, absolute garbage. Hopefully this is all better on PC but on PS5, this is far from acceptable performance here.

On a side note, you do not need to wait for professional reviewers to do measurements. Decibel meters are cheap and even crude measurements taken from you cellphones mic sandwiched between the cups to get a seal from a program like Sound Meter on android are better than nothing and allow you to communicate your preference or the max output you achieved.

 

[TheStoka]

Just dropped them an e-mail to see if they have a further update, I e-mailed 2 weeks back so seems fair

Hopefully there comms is better thsn Scan's, they seem to spin the wheel on what random reason you get each week

 

[Akenrec]

So I have tried the new updated app it’s not working it just keeps crashing ti desktop can this company get anything to work at all.

I had this issue with the mac version of the app as well. Ending up having to update on the Windows version.

 

[BCM88]

Hopefully there comms is better thsn Scan's, they seem to spin the wheel on what random reason you get each week

Well, they responded pretty quickly, and they are dispatching their Maxwell pre-orders as of tomorrow! @WhiteHartMart tagged for visibility.

 

[Radic]

Maxwell with this very low maximum volume can get 80h battery life for sure but with higher volume probably will be much less than that.I remember my Penrose X where battery life should be 15h but I barely get 5-6h at 70% volume.And charging time should be 3h from 0-100% but real time was 7-8h.I hope Maxwell will be updated to „perfect working order” because this time Audeze got a great opportunity to deliver BEST GAMING HEADSET EVER
Sorry for my english.