Audeze Maxwell 2 ANC for Immersive Audio: Brilliant Headphone, Missing Integration

Few headphones have caused me as much frustration as Audeze's head-tracking line. I was backer number 19 of the original Mobius in 2018. Since then, I've exchanged, donated, given away, or returned four of their headphones: the Mobius's head tracking never worked as promised, the first Maxwell didn't fit my head, and the Maxwell 2 dropped head tracking altogether. Now the Maxwell 2 ANC brings head tracking back, and as a studio headphone for immersive audio, it is outstanding. It has excellent sound quality, a surprisingly wide soundstage for a closed-back design, a sound signature that stays identical with noise cancelling on or off, and sidetone, so you can actually hear yourself on calls.

The catch is software support. Audeze advertises two head-tracking integrations, but the Dolby Atmos Renderer integration doesn't work on recent versions of macOS. Embody Immerse Gaming Hive does work, but it's Windows-only, fiddly to set up, and limited to 7.1, with no height channels. Once I got Hive running, the wireless head tracking over the 2.4 GHz dongle was accurate and almost latency-free, which is why I'm keeping these. In the video, I explain who should buy the Maxwell 2 ANC today and why it's still a gamble if you need head tracking in your immersive audio production workflow.