CES 2026 is almost over, and we’ve seen some truly amazing tech come out of the woodwork these past few days, such as the Audeze Maxwell 2 gaming headset. The original Audeze Maxwell headset ended up being our favorite gaming headset to use due to its unrivaled realism and capability to push out sound that leaves next to no detail on the table. The Maxwell 2 headset looks to provide the same experience but better, thanks to improvements made to key design elements and some finetuning to the featureset that were revealed at CES this week. This is why we decided to give the Audeze Maxwell 2 the Best of CES 2026 Award .
Audeze improves the Maxwell 2 with big changes to comfort
The original Audeze Maxwell headset is pretty comfortable, especially after it’s been broken in, but the Maxwell 2 is bound to be even more comfortable thanks to changes that Audeze made to the head strap and the ear pads. The head strap is now wider than before, and it has several perforations to boost the airflow. This will help with temperature management. The strap is also more pliable and less stiff.
As for the ear pads, on the comfort side of things, the holes in the middle where your ears go are bigger, so there’s more room for your ears to fit in there. This wasn’t an issue for everyone on the older headset. However, those with bigger ears are going to find this to be a pleasant upgrade. The ear pads are also now magnetic. You can simply pop them off and reattach a new pair pretty effortlessly. The old ear pads you had to twist and pop off, which was a little more cumbersome and took extra time. These quality-of-life improvements are a big win for the Maxwell 2.
It has the same great battery life and fast charging support
One of the best things about the Maxwell 2 is that it supports a playtime of up to 80 hours. Just like the original model. So you can game with this headset for several days, or weeks, depending on how often you use it, before you need to plug it in. This is a game-changer in many ways. And we’re glad to see that this hasn’t changed. This and many other reasons, including the ones above, are why we gave the Audeze Maxwell 2 the Best of CES 2026 Award.
