[Merranza]

I have the habbit of scrolling the mic volume wheel max until I hear multiple bleeps when I unmute myself. I don't mind the feedback of my own voice: it tells me that if I hear that, the other will as well. I like the sidetone !


Update on the cracking of the yoke:
After emailing Audeze the only suggested option is *again* returning the pair to the US.
They had me check if I had the latest reinforced yoke and I do ( I think it's standard on the Carbon one. )
I don't see the advantage of sending it back only to get exactly the same model again.

Due to how manufacturing is set up, Audeze can not provide the parts to fix it.
So yes, a completely new headband with yoke and swivel from another heaphone brand is in order.
I need to check if Beyerdynamic or Focal would do with a 3D printed adapter.
Though, with the energy I have right now, I wonder if I ever will complete that idea.

We'll see.

Ah! Now that's interesting So Audeze is kinda confirming they did some improvement on the yoke. Goes along my observation that less Carbon variant were affected by the broken yoke situation compared to Copper and Blue (also goes along with what @jlambvo said about a stealth change).

 

[Trancefreak]

The following was in the email:
- Thanks for reaching out. Unfortunately we're not able to replace the pads on those headbands, due to the complicated nature of the interior construction.
We added reinforcement ribs to the yokes in recently produced Mobius, to reduce the occurrence of this issue (all Penrose units also have them). The ribs are visible inside the yokes like this:

Mobius produced with these reinforcements should be substantially stronger than the previous units.


So yes, this confirmed it.

 

[Merranza]

The following was in the email:
- Thanks for reaching out. Unfortunately we're not able to replace the pads on those headbands, due to the complicated nature of the interior construction.
We added reinforcement ribs to the yokes in recently produced Mobius, to reduce the occurrence of this issue (all Penrose units also have them). The ribs are visible inside the yokes like this:



Mobius produced with these reinforcements should be substantially stronger than the previous units.


So yes, this confirmed it.

Ah bummer, I don't have them on mine (Carbon). It's unfortunate too because I had a second pair I bought too because I wasn't happy with the sound of the first one and not knowing this, I didn't check if that other pair had those ribs on the yokes.

Let's hope if something happens to mine, Audeze will be professional enough to send me a replacement with those ribs.

The pair I kept though are much more "relaxed" on my head. I can feel the tension is much less pronounced than on the other pair I had (which is much more comfortable too). Maybe this will also play in favor of not breaking... We'll see.

Edit: In fact, Audeze should honor a timeless warranty for that sole problem (crack on the yoke only). Since they added ribs on newly produced Mobius unit, they recognize a defect on their product. For everything else, no problem with the 1 yr warranty they offer, it was part of the deal when purchased. But this should be covered whenever it happens. I know Audeze has been pretty serious up to now and sent replacement to some people even after 1 yr of purchase... let's hope it keeps going that way.

 

[Trancefreak]

Yes, lets, because I need a new one every year . I'm one of the Indigogo backers and this *would* be my fourth.
To be honest: they should skip the plastic on their own brand and go with spring/plate steel and/or aluminium.
It deserves it with the old €350 pricepoint if Beyerdynamic can do it for €150.

 

[Genaro]

Ah bummer, I don't have them on mine (Carbon). It's unfortunate too because I had a second pair I bought too because I wasn't happy with the sound of the first one and not knowing this, I didn't check if that other pair had those ribs on the yokes.

Let's hope if something happens to mine, Audeze will be professional enough to send me a replacement with those ribs.

The pair I kept though are much more "relaxed" on my head. I can feel the tension is much less pronounced than on the other pair I had (which is much more comfortable too). Maybe this will also play in favor of not breaking... We'll see.

Edit: In fact, Audeze should honor a timeless warranty for that sole problem (crack on the yoke only). Since they added ribs on newly produced Mobius unit, they recognize a defect on their product. For everything else, no problem with the 1 yr warranty they offer, it was part of the deal when purchased. But this should be covered whenever it happens. I know Audeze has been pretty serious up to now and sent replacement to some people even after 1 yr of purchase... let's hope it keeps going that way.

Wow, thanks I just first noticed that my second pair has those ribs, nice to know, but will they last? has anyone broken those?

 

[jlambvo]

The following was in the email:
- Thanks for reaching out. Unfortunately we're not able to replace the pads on those headbands, due to the complicated nature of the interior construction.
We added reinforcement ribs to the yokes in recently produced Mobius, to reduce the occurrence of this issue (all Penrose units also have them). The ribs are visible inside the yokes like this:

Mobius produced with these reinforcements should be substantially stronger than the previous units.

So yes, this confirmed it.

I'm also curious if this change has carried over to the HyperX Orbit S? I'm assuming they have the same supplier(s).

 

[Trancefreak]

Wow, thanks I just first noticed that my second pair has those ribs, nice to know, but will they last? has anyone broken those?

Yes, I have. Well, not the hinge/swivel like many with the copper/blue had ( my prev2 had this ) but now the corners of the yoke connecting to the swivel.

 

[Genaro]

Yes, I have. Well, not the hinge/swivel like many with the copper/blue had ( my prev2 had this ) but now the corners of the yoke connecting to the swivel.

Have a pic, for reference?

 

[jlambvo]

FYI, I pulled the trigger on a set of the HyperX Orbit S based on the sale. At $200 it is much more palatable risk than $400, so I thought I'd at least give it a spin. I can confirm that the carbon color trim set I received has the reinforced ribbing as pictured above on the Mobius. We'll see how it holds up and, probably, how good HyperX's customer support will be if and when plastics go on this one.

That aside, first impression from just ra few minutes of listening was simultaneously a WOW, along with a mental nod to my trusty ATH-M50x: although these are a noticeable improvement and I look forward to doing more direct comparison, it's interesting to see how you do start to hit diminishing returns per dollar these days if you favor a neutral profile.

The biggest thing that's kind of a wet blanket is definite noticeable background white noise when they are powered on regardless of configuration or connection. On the one hand it's reassuring to know my hearing isn't completely shot, and it's really not detectable with any source material so far, it's a little nagging and can see it interfering with some high dynamic range material. I'm wondering if this is universal on these sets or bad luck of the draw.

 

[Genaro]

FYI, I pulled the trigger on a set of the HyperX Orbit S based on the sale. At $200 it is much more palatable risk than $400, so I thought I'd at least give it a spin. I can confirm that the carbon color trim set I received has the reinforced ribbing as pictured above on the Mobius. We'll see how it holds up and, probably, how good HyperX's customer support will be if and when plastics go on this one.

That aside, first impression from just ra few minutes of listening was simultaneously a WOW, along with a mental nod to my trusty ATH-M50x: although these are a noticeable improvement and I look forward to doing more direct comparison, it's interesting to see how you do start to hit diminishing returns per dollar these days if you favor a neutral profile.

The biggest thing that's kind of a wet blanket is definite noticeable background white noise when they are powered on regardless of configuration or connection. On the one hand it's reassuring to know my hearing isn't completely shot, and it's really not detectable with any source material so far, it's a little nagging and can see it interfering with some high dynamic range material. I'm wondering if this is universal on these sets or bad luck of the draw.

white noise is common, even more with the mic on, so I would suggest to turn off mic if not in use.

 

[Trancefreak]

FYI, I pulled the trigger on a set of the HyperX Orbit S based on the sale. At $200 it is much more palatable risk than $400, so I thought I'd at least give it a spin. I can confirm that the carbon color trim set I received has the reinforced ribbing as pictured above on the Mobius. We'll see how it holds up and, probably, how good HyperX's customer support will be if and when plastics go on this one.

That aside, first impression from just ra few minutes of listening was simultaneously a WOW, along with a mental nod to my trusty ATH-M50x: although these are a noticeable improvement and I look forward to doing more direct comparison, it's interesting to see how you do start to hit diminishing returns per dollar these days if you favor a neutral profile.

The biggest thing that's kind of a wet blanket is definite noticeable background white noise when they are powered on regardless of configuration or connection. On the one hand it's reassuring to know my hearing isn't completely shot, and it's really not detectable with any source material so far, it's a little nagging and can see it interfering with some high dynamic range material. I'm wondering if this is universal on these sets or bad luck of the draw.

As above, yes the hiss is a known problem. I suggest updating your set asap, because there was a firmware update for it that...lessens it.
I barely hear it since 1. it's never really quiet here and 2. my hearing IS quite shot ^^.

The pic of the cracked yoke will follow as soon as I have good daylight.

 

[DaOchin]

Damn my replacement set doesn't have that design. Mine didn't crack there even so but I hope that means they made improvements to the slider arm also cuz that's where mine cracked.

 

[Audeze]

Well I’m in conflict regarding that matter. I mean I heard some incredible recordings of penrose mic. It’s literally like podcast level high quality audio recordings which made me wanna grab them when they release it separately on their website however there are other recordings which are awful it’s like unbearable to listen the audio coming from the damn mic. They must have solved the issue by now but yeah I’m also confused about that. I think they were app related problems for example it would sound bad only on discord for some reason but good on other party chat apps.Maybe @Audeze can clarify the mic issue for us as there are so many people looking to get their hands on them.

The issue with recordings are mostly codec related. Shure helped us design the microphone and it had very good frequency response. But not all channels have the capacity. For example if you have an incredible audio clip and listen to it on a a good headphone through a good amp, it will sound incredible. But if you take the sample clip, and convert it to a very highly compressed codec and then subsample it to 6 Khz and then listen to it with the same headphone, it won't sound similar tot he fist clip.
Something similar is happening when we use different codec etc.

- In Penrose using Analog (or with Mobius using USB or Analog), with the new microphone you get the full bandwidth signal.
- When using the mic with 2.4 Ghz low latency wireless (using dongle), the mic audio is limited to 7.5 Khz. This is a limitation of the wireless chipset. We have made some modification and are releasing a beta firmware for penrose later this week that has a tonne of improvement on mic sound quality over wireless.
- When using Bluetooth there are two BT profiles. A2DP and HFP. If you make a phone call (or Skype call), the Bluetooth codec automatically switches to SCO mode to reduce latency. The audio bandwidth over this mode is 6 Khz. So the audio quality doesn't sound similar to use case 1 or 2.
Then on top of it, Discord and other applications have their own settings, noise attenuation algorithms etc. You can also set change the audio quality settings.

But the microphone and the capsule itself are probably one of the best in any gaming headset. The microphones should be available to Mobius and LCD-GX soon. In those cases the variation will be less since the main use cases are wired.

 

[jlambvo]

Quick followup impressions after some more extended listening and playing with the features:

1. I've honestly gotten over the hiss already; the background noise floor present on most recordings exceeds it. I will still probably try to update the firmware to see if it improves, but it's not an issue.

2. The gap over my old ATs is widening quickly. I've been going back through my whole library and hearing things anew.

3. This is particular true after getting the Audeze HQ software set up and setting the sound profile to "flat" or "music." The detail, tone, and balance is really fantastic, and I'm not getting a hint of listening fatigue. I'm having to be careful watching the volume knob, something that I've always found a sign of great speakers. It doesn't seem that loud until you go to talk.

4. 3D sound. Usually the first thing I do when not gaming is turn off all these kinds of gimmicks or spatialization. But I am really surprised how much I enjoy listening to music with the 3D + headtracking mode. It really is uncannily convincing and doesn't adversely affect clarity or depth like most do. Depending on the material it can really have a you-are-there-live sensation. Listening to Kind Of Blue it felt like I was in the room and could literally look around at the musicians. That effect breaks down on other recordings. I also found that ensuring a good seal can make a pretty big difference with the imaging.

5. One small thing I appreciate is that unlike previous headphones I get just enough of my on voice come through while talking that I'm not elevating my speech, especially when talking on the mic.

 

[Trancefreak]

Quick followup impressions after some more extended listening and playing with the features:

1. I've honestly gotten over the hiss already; the background noise floor present on most recordings exceeds it. I will still probably try to update the firmware to see if it improves, but it's not an issue.

2. The gap over my old ATs is widening quickly. I've been going back through my whole library and hearing things anew.

3. This is particular true after getting the Audeze HQ software set up and setting the sound profile to "flat" or "music." The detail, tone, and balance is really fantastic, and I'm not getting a hint of listening fatigue. I'm having to be careful watching the volume knob, something that I've always found a sign of great speakers. It doesn't seem that loud until you go to talk.

4. 3D sound. Usually the first thing I do when not gaming is turn off all these kinds of gimmicks or spatialization. But I am really surprised how much I enjoy listening to music with the 3D + headtracking mode. It really is uncannily convincing and doesn't adversely affect clarity or depth like most do. Depending on the material it can really have a you-are-there-live sensation. Listening to Kind Of Blue it felt like I was in the room and could literally look around at the musicians. That effect breaks down on other recordings. I also found that ensuring a good seal can make a pretty big difference with the imaging.

5. One small thing I appreciate is that unlike previous headphones I get just enough of my on voice come through while talking that I'm not elevating my speech, especially when talking on the mic.

I feel the same way, they're fantastic, even coming from a (in 2014 ) highly praised Beyer MMX330-600 bought at the retail €300 pricepoint.
Tech and soundwise they're amazing value for money, I find. Very subjectieve, as they're the highest-end headphones I own.

I'm really REALLY thinking of going LCD-GX next with the Schiit Hel and WaveNX or Dolby Athmost plugin for windows for a secondary ' man-cave ' computer.
Either that or DT1190 and a boom mic... still pondering on it.