// 9TO5GOOGLE — MOBILE & WEB
Audeze is quietly becoming a dominant force in gaming audio
Many know Audeze as an audio company that started developing audiophile-grade headphones nearly two decades ago, creating planar magnetic headphones like the LCD-X and LCD-2 that have grown to become absolute cult classics in the head-fi space.
In 2018, Audeze brought its audiophile prowess into the gaming market with the introduction of the Mobius, a beloved gaming headset and then took everything it learned from the Mobius and poured it into the Maxwell which, in 2023, became its best-selling product ever. Now, after successfully releasing a sequel, the Maxwell 2, in early 2026, Audeze has announced its new flagship, and an acknowledgment of its competitive lead: the Maxwell 2 ANC.
An enormous amount of work went into building noise canceling technology that works well with full-range planar drivers. In most other headphones, noise canceling can change the way they sound. This is particularly true of planar drivers, which tend to be larger and less efficient, but output a smoother bass response and better overall sound in return.
The Maxwell 2 ANC, thanks to careful measurement and tuning, boasts a frequency response that’s nearly identical whether ANC is on or off, a massive accomplishment and a unique differentiator across the industry.
In fact, you’ll want to enable ANC all the time because it’s so good. I’ve spent the last few days using the Maxwell 2 ANC to play games, listen to music, and everything in between, and I’ve found them comfortable to wear for long periods, particularly with the ventilated headband and plush earpads. The company’s own lab measurements show the headphones beating rivals like the Razer BlackShark 5 and SteelSeries’ Elite in the low-mids, and staying competitive with more audio-focused headphones like the Sony WH-1000XM6 and Bose QuietComfort Ultra.
The “ANC” moniker is not just a checkbox feature paired with a price bump. “Our customers loved the Maxwell 2, but they kept telling us they wanted to completely block out the world without sacrificing our signature planar sound,” said Sankar Thiagasamudram, CEO of Audeze. “With the Maxwell 2 ANC, we’ve achieved the holy grail of gaming audio. We didn’t just add noise cancellation; we engineered a system that maintains absolute acoustic precision whether ANC is on or off. Whether you’re competing on a noisy esports stage or mixing spatial audio in a studio, this headset delivers total immersion without compromise.”
Back in 2018, the gaming headset market was wide open and Audeze, which had been building high-end audiophile headphones that often crossed the $1,000 mark, saw its opportunity to bring its planar magnetic driver tech down to a more accessible price point, and to a whole new demographic: gamers.
The Mobius was designed with similar planar magnetic drivers to those in the company’s much more expensive and high-end headphones. These drivers pass electric signals through a circuit over ultra-thin film diaphragms suspended in a powerful magnetic field to produce sound waves. The difference here is in how bass is accurately generated, without much of the distortion you get with traditional dynamic drivers.
On top of that, stuffing planar magnetic drivers into a pair of closed-back gaming headphones seemed like an unexpected move, but it’s one that immediately set Audeze apart from every other gaming audio company.
Audeze hasn’t exactly stopped evolving its approach to gaming audio. In 2020, the Penrose added wireless connectivity, running lossless low-latency audio over a 2.4GHz dongle with optional Bluetooth, crossing over to the console space with official Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox support.