Over the years, it's shocking how many headphones we end up buying. The pair we use for video calls. The pair we use for reference monitoring. The pair we keep for gaming at the end of the day. The Bluetooth pair we take on our commute to catch up on podcasts. Why so many? Well frankly, because if you're particular about audio, you can tell the difference between each of them – and they all do different things for different tasks.
Sankar Thiagasamudram, though, thinks this is a bad situation to be in. The CEO of Californian audio company Audeze, known for its planar-magnetic headphones, such as the MM-500, says he's working hard to make multiple headphones unnecessary with the Maxwell gaming range.
His pitch, in short, isn't: "buy these headphones, they sound amazing". It's, "buy these headphones, and then you won't need three other pairs... (and also they sound amazing!)"
Understanding the market
To those of us who enjoy listening to quality audio, it can seem puzzling why our friends and colleagues put up with crappy cans. But Sankar takes a bird's eye view.
"High-end audio on its own is a tough sell to a mainstream market if it comes with compromises," he reasons. "To capture a wider audience, a product must first satisfy modern lifestyle requirements: comfort, industrial design, wireless stability, active noise cancellation, and multipoint connectivity. Once those baselines are flawlessly covered, you can layer a premium, audiophile-grade sonic experience on top."
In other words, he's less interested in impressing you during a three-minute trial in a shop, and more interested in headphones that will get you through all-night edit sessions, endless client calls, and a weekend of kicking back with your friends gaming, with high quality sound.
Built for workflow
Audeze's willingness to build around people's actual day-to-day habits is no accident. It's how their pro-audio line originally came about.
"When we launched the LCD-3 in 2011, we noticed an influx of studio engineers adopting it," Sankar recalls. "However, delicate wood rings aren't practical for rugged, day-to-day studio handling, and the original impedance required heavy amplification. So we developed the LCD-X specifically for creators, swapping wood for durable, matte-finished aluminium rings and re-engineering the drivers to be easily driven by a laptop, mixing console, or dedicated amp." This is the exact approach that Audeze took to the recent MM-520, and MM-500 before that.
To my mind, that's pretty significant. Audeze didn't set out to capture the creator market; it simply noticed creators were already using its headphones and adapting them to their work. It's the same instinct that's since shaped Maxwell 2 ANC, and it show how good Audeze is at listening to how people actually use its products, rather than hoping they might.
No need to swap
When focussing in on the Maxwell range (above photos), one practical payoff is its ability to handle game and chat audio as separate audio streams. "A great example is Maxwell's hardware-level game and chat mixing," Sankar explains. "When connected via USB or our ultra-low-latency dongle, the host system recognises the headset as two distinct audio endpoints. This allows seamless on-the-fly mixing."
You don't need to be a gamer to appreciate the broader idea, either. In theory, a single pair of headphones could handle a Zoom call, a reference mix and casual listening, without forcing you to constantly switch between different sound signatures.
Of course, there's a difference between being capable of handling all these jobs and being the absolute best tool for each one. A dedicated studio monitor, gaming headset or ANC travel headphone will still have advantages in particular situations. But Sankar's argument is: if one pair can do all those jobs well enough, why keep buying different headphones for each one?
Then there's Audeze's SLAM technology, which stands for Symmetric Linear Acoustic Modulator. According to Sankar, it began as an attempt to solve a mundane problem: a crinkling noise in the company's electrostatic headphones caused by air pressure around the ultra-thin diaphragm.
The solution turned out to have an unexpected benefit, helping Audeze extend bass response and reduce distortion across the wider frequency range. It's a good example of how solving one practical problem can lead to an unexpected improvement elsewhere.
Key takeaway
The practical benefit for anyone editing audio or video is a headset that renders low-end detail more accurately without relying as heavily on EQ. It's a small thing, but it's the sort of small thing that saves you second-guessing your mix on a different pair of speakers later. So maybe it's a big thing, really.
None of this means the Maxwell will replace a studio monitor set-up for serious mixing work. But as one pair of headphones that can cope with calls, casual reference checks and your gaming needs, Sankar makes a persuasive case.
"Our North Star will always be uncompromised audio," he stresses. "If delivering the next generation of acoustic performance or computational audio requires us to integrate advanced sensors, bio-metrics, or new physical architectures, we'll absolutely do it. We don't view tradition and technology as opposing forces; we look to merge them."
