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I’m fortunate. I get to check lots of the finest gaming headsets on the market for my job. That means I actually receives a commission to play video games and hearken to music. Yes, I do know I’ve one of the best job on the earth.
Naturally, I have to do fairly a little bit of analysis round all of the merchandise I check. I don’t learn different publications’ opinions earlier than writing my very own. But, the place doable, I search for on-line discourse to examine for any widespread points customers are experiencing. Myself and different reviewers usually don’t have the posh of utilizing merchandise for lengthy durations of time, so we will typically miss persistent points that most people will find yourself having a way down the road. This isn’t all the time doable, after all, as we’re usually testing merchandise earlier than or simply after launch.
Games performed for this check
Case in level: I not too long ago put the brand new Audeze Maxwell 2 to the test, and had a scour of Reddit to see what users were thinking; it had been out for a few weeks, so were there any pain points I needed to devote time to investigating?
During my research, I noticed a fair number of comparisons being made between today’s ultra premium headsets. The Maxwell 2 was repeatedly being weighed up against the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite and, interestingly, the much cheaper Fractal Design Scape — which often made discussions thanks to its excellent sound quality.
Well, it just so happens that the bulk of my headset testing takes place at the ultra-premium end of the market, including all of the above. So I thought I’d put together a rundown of my comparisons of them all. I added in another contender, though — the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro, which offers many of the Elite’s benefits at a much lower price.
Without further ado, here are some of Reddit’s favorite ultra-premium headsets compared and, most importantly, my winner.
The contenders
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Pete Wolinski
This test includes four high-end gaming headsets. The audiophile-geared Audeze Maxwell 2; the extravagantly-priced SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite; the ultra-premium SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro; and the beautiful Fractal Design Scape.
I’ve tested all of these headsets extensively. See that dashing gentleman in the image gallery above? Yeah, stop swooning. That’s me! Wearing each of these headsets. I’m Pete, senior reviews editor here at Tom’s Guide. I’ve been a PC gamer for well over two decades, so I’ve used more than a few headsets in my time.
Price
First, let’s talk about money. And there’s a clear loser here: the Arctis Nova Elite, which costs a whopping $599. As I mentioned in my SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite review, while it’s a brilliant headset with some awesome features, there’s no way it’s worth that money.
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In the middle are the Nova Pro and Maxwell 2, and both are solid in terms of bang for buck — especially the Nova Pro, which can be found for around $299 at Amazon as I write this. From these two, it’ll be right down to what you need: extra connectivity options and punchier bass from the Nova Pro and its dynamic drivers; or a extra refined, audiophile-esque sound from the Maxwell 2’s planar magnetic drivers.
If finances is your major concern, the Fractal Design Scape takes the cake. It has its points, as you’ll see all through this text, but it surely affords sound high quality corresponding to the Nova Pro and Elite at a way more palatable value (I received’t say reasonably priced, as $200 remains to be objectively some huge cash). In different phrases, it’s punching means above its price ticket.
Winner: Fractal Design Scape
Comfort
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Three of the headsets right here make the most of suspended inside headbands, which means they simply come out on high. Unfortunately, the Fractal Design Scape makes use of an old school single padded headband, which began to dig into my head throughout testing. It’s a disgrace as a result of the earcups are very comfy.
The Maxwell 2, whereas that includes a much-needed earcup redesign from its predecessor, the OG Audeze Maxwell, remains to be the largest and heaviest of the headsets by far. And it encompasses a very restrictive adjustment mechanism with solely three ranges. It’s comfy however annoying to put on, and its massive curb weight means it falls off simply in case you tilt your head downwards.
The Arctis Nova Elite and Nova Pro are basically the identical headset of their core design — the variations between them nearly all relate to inside {hardware}, connectivity and options, with one exception that I’ll cowl beneath.
They’re each exceptionally comfy: the low weight and suspended inside headband permit them to sit down like feathers in your head, and the earcups are extremely comfy. The Nova Elite pads use a barely softer-touch fake leather-based. But is that value the additional $220? Nope.
Winner: SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro
Sound high quality
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This is a very difficult one. All of those headsets supply glorious sound high quality. It seems like a cop out, however this’ll kinda depend upon what you need. The Scape’s sound high quality is unbelievable, with sturdy tonal separation, luggage of readability within the treble and mids and decent-enough spatial audio. Plus there’s a 5-band parametric EQ to play with. Its frequency response vary is slightly shorter on the low-end than the opposite headsets right here, stopping at 20Hz. Unlike the opposite headsets, it’s lacking the tremendous low 10-20Hz frequencies which you can really feel (reasonably than hear) throughout gameplay — the rumble of tanks and artillery in conflict video games, for instance.
Both the Arctis Nova Elite and Pro sound comparable, though the Nova Elite undoubtedly edges it, due to its upgraded carbon fiber drivers and brass help ring for higher management over bass frequencies. Still, each headsets are actually very bassy. For gaming, that is nice — luggage of punchy bass right down to 10Hz make for an immersive expertise. For music, you’ll have to mess around with EQ to cease bass overriding all the pieces — particularly in mid-heavy music like rock or steel. Both headsets have sturdy readability up high although, particularly the Nova Elite, and excellent directional sound to assist with enemy detection in aggressive or stealth video games.
In my opinion, although, the Audeze Maxwell takes the victory right here. Its planar magnetic drivers can begin and cease vibrating a lot sooner than dynamic drivers, leading to a cleaner, crisp sound with excellent readability, particularly in excessive and mid frequencies. The commerce off is a scarcity of energy in decrease frequencies — bass lacks thickness, so to talk, whereas sub-bass lacks that skull-shaking rumble. Numerous this may be addressed through EQ, although. In a phrase, the sound is extra refined than the remainder, making this the headset for audiophile avid gamers.
Winner: Audeze Maxwell 2
Microphone
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Unfortunately, gaming headset producers routinely low-cost out on microphones, leading to tinny audio. I can kinda see why — in any case, a headset mic primarily must transmit your voice in sport chat, which doesn’t should be glorious high quality.
But in case you’re a streamer (and excessive finish headsets are generally geared toward streamers), you’ll want a lot better high quality. Unfortunately, neither the Fractal Design Scape, Arctis Nova Pro or Nova Elite will ship that. In my testing, their mics all sounded tinny, fuzzy and much from professional-/broadcast-quality.
The clear winner is the Audeze Maxwell 2, whose microphone sounds glorious — adequate for streaming (though nonetheless inferior to a devoted broadcast mic just like the Shure MV6). Its microphone noise cancellation affects audio quality significantly, but that’s common with noise cancellation. And besides, if you’re streaming, you’ll likely be in a quiet environment.
Winner: Audeze Maxwell 2
Features
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The Maxwell 2 is the weakest in this regard, with little in the way of additional features except for its microphone noise cancellation, 2.4GHz dongle and companion app (which hosts the equalizer).
The Fractal Design Scape has some very interesting features, including a stand/charging dock that doubles as a pass-through port for the 2.4GHz dongle. There’s also a companion app with a 5-band parametric equalizer, and microphone noise cancellation (via the app).
On the features front, there’s no doubt that the two SteelSeries headsets offer the most. Both feature ANC and MNC; each comes with a USB hub/DAC for 2.4GHz connection, high-res audio streaming, device control and spare battery charging; and each pairs with both the SteelSeries GG/Sonar desktop app and the SteelSeries Arctis smartphone app.
The Nova Elite comes out on top, though, as its USB hub offers more connectivity than the Pro, with 3x Wi-Fi channels (2x PC + 1x console/PC) in addition to the headset’s Bluetooth channel. The Nova Pro, meanwhile, offers only 2x Wi-Fi channels (1x PC + 1x console/PC) and a Bluetooth channel. Again, if that’s worth $220, fair enough, otherwise the Arctis Nova Pro will suit you just fine.
Winner: SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite / Pro
Styling & build quality
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All four of these headsets offer sublime build quality, using high quality materials and premium finishes. You shouldn’t have a problem with any of them in this department. The only let down is the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro, whose dials are the same cheap plasticky components found on the $199 SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Gen 2 — they don’t befit a $199 headset, let alone a $379 one. The Arctis Nova Elite, by contrast, features milled metal dials which are much nicer in look and feel (and I’d bloody hope so, given it costs $599).
The Fractal Design Scape easily takes home the victory here, though. The Scandi-style design looks gorgeous and is complemented by subtle, diffused RGB (which is customizable in the web-based companion software). The materials are super high quality, too, like the metal volume dial on the left earcup. On its charging dock, it just looks so good slotted into place on my desk — it’s a sure fire upgrade to any setup.
Winner: Fractal Design Scape
Battery life
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This is another tricky one, because it depends on how we define battery life. Do we mean the hours of play we get from a single charge; or do we mean how much life we get before we’re forced into downtime for charging? Both Arctis Nova headsets come with a spare battery that charges in the USB hub while you play, so when one dies you simply switch out and you’re back to playing — no downtime, despite comparatively weak battery life on paper.
I’m going to judge this section on pure battery life, full to flat. In reality, most people game at home near a power source and don’t play for +18 hours at a time (the weakest of these headset batteries lasts 18 hours — the Nova Pro). As long as a headset lasts 8-16 hours, you won’t run out during even the longest sessions and can simply charge up when you go to bed. The Fractal Design Scape’s wireless charging stand makes that especially easy.
However, battery life matters most, in my opinion, if you’re gaming on the move — when traveling, for instance. In that case, it’s all about pure runtime. The Scape’s battery lasts 40 hours with RGB off (20 with it on); the Nova Elite’s batteries last 30 hours each, 60 in total; while the Nova Pro’s batteries last around 36-44 hours total, according to SteelSeries, although, in my testing, it’s definitely on the low side (I was literally watching the battery life go down on the SteelSeries GG app, and after 3 hours of mixed use had lost 25%).
The Audeze Maxwell 2, by contrast, has them all well and truly beat, offering 80 hours — it was actually a challenge to drain the headset in my battery testing.
Winner: Audeze Maxwell 2
Reddit’s favorite premium gaming headsets: Result
Victor: Audeze Maxwell 2
We have a winner! The Audeze Maxwell 2 comes out on top with three wins versus two for the Fractal Design Scape, two for the Arctis Nova Pro and one for the Arctis Nova Elite. I honestly went into this thinking the Nova Pro would clinch it — it costs a similar amount of money as the Maxwell 2 but has that super useful USB hub and excellent sound quality.
Of course, I seriously doubt you’d have many complaints about the Nova Pro, as it’s fantastic. The Scape is also excellent for the money, with crystal clear sound and that handy charging stand, but is slightly let down by its outdated headband design and crappy mic.
The only headset I wouldn’t recommend you buy over the others is the Nova Elite. Yes, it has the most features. Yes, it sounds great. Yes, it’s very comfortable. But is any of that worth nearly $600? Not if you ask me.
The Audeze Maxwell 2’s victory is well-deserved. Sound quality is, for many, the most important aspect of a headset, and the Maxwell’s planar magnetic drivers really deliver here. Its mic is fantastic, it’s comfortable, and (although this is kinda crazy) it’s the second cheapest on this roundup. As I pointed out in my Maxwell 2 review, if you already own the OG Maxwell, there’s no need to upgrade. Otherwise, the Maxwell 2 is the best of the high-end bunch.
Disagree with me? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Or, if you have any other headsets you’d like me to compare, I’d love to hear about those too! You can find full reviews of these headsets linked below.
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