[Mad Lust Envy]

@Mad Lust Envy would you put the 3D stereo sound over something like Dolby headphone/ Atmos or DTS headphone X? Since 3d stereo is all that console gamers are able to get, I wondered where that stands quality wise compared to other VSS solutions?

I wouldn't even compare the 7.1 surround on a comparable level to good surround implementations like Creative SBX, Dolby Atmos, Sennheiser GSX. To me, those do a better job at putting more distance in rear positional cues than the Mobius implementation of 3D. However, I'd still say it's a pretty solid effort by Audeze which still works fine. Also, this could be addressed in the final product where the surround processing can be tweaked for bigger sense of space etc. I don't wanna pass final judgement until the final version, since it's still a work in progress. I recently experienced a lot of VSS solutions, and I feel most do well in surround emulation with the difference being how well they can do rear positional audio with varying levels of 'distance' between you and the cues. That and the tonal balance, which are very different with each VSS solution. I still think SBX is overall the best.

As for 3D in STEREO, well, it's actually BETTER to my ears than those previously mentioned virtual surround solutions in STEREO mode for me. VSS solutions tend to sound overly processed and just blows out the left/right channels. 3D stereo on the Audeze is literally like having two virtual speakers in front of you without too much processing in the sound, at least in direct comparison. I'd still choose plain stereo/3D off if all I got was a stereo feed, but there are times when I enjoy the feeling as if I'm just listening to front speakers instead of headphones. The headtracking also helps with this 'faux' sense of having speakers in front of you.

 

[Levanter]

I can compare the two once we have a production unit. The prototype we received was a pre-production unit.

We’re you able to compare them based on the pre production unit? Even if by memory?

Btw the Moebius is foldable for storage right?

 

[Azurik]

I wouldn't even compare the 7.1 surround on a comparable level to good surround implementations like Creative SBX, Dolby Atmos, Sennheiser GSX. To me, those do a better job at putting more distance in rear positional cues than the Mobius implementation of 3D. However, I'd still say it's a pretty solid effort by Audeze which still works fine. Also, this could be addressed in the final product where the surround processing can be tweaked for bigger sense of space etc. I don't wanna pass final judgement until the final version, since it's still a work in progress. I recently experienced a lot of VSS solutions, and I feel most do well in surround emulation with the difference being how well they can do rear positional audio with varying levels of 'distance' between you and the cues. That and the tonal balance, which are very different with each VSS solution. I still think SBX is overall the best.

As for 3D in STEREO, well, it's actually BETTER to my ears than those previously mentioned virtual surround solutions in STEREO mode for me. VSS solutions tend to sound overly processed and just blows out the left/right channels. 3D stereo on the Audeze is literally like having two virtual speakers in front of you without too much processing in the sound, at least in direct comparison. I'd still choose plain stereo/3D off if all I got was a stereo feed, but there are times when I enjoy the feeling as if I'm just listening to front speakers instead of headphones. The headtracking also helps with this 'faux' sense of having speakers in front of you.

Thanks for your reply!

I wonder how it sounds if I was running Dolby Atmos for headphones via Xbox controller fed into the mobius via 3.5 jack? I guess you haven't had the chance to test this exotic combo?

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Thanks for your reply!

I wonder how it sounds if I was running Dolby Atmos for headphones via Xbox controller fed into the mobius via 3.5 jack? I guess you haven't had the chance to test this exotic combo?

I have heard Dolby Atmos and really like it. Personally, I would turn off the 3D audio off the Mobius, and enable Dolby Atmos on the X1X. That will get the ideal virtual surround off your controller. If you turn on 3D audio, you'll essentially be double processing, which IMHO is not what you wanna do.

 

[evernessince]

I have heard Dolby Atmos and really like it. Personally, I would turn off the 3D audio off the Mobius, and enable Dolby Atmos on the X1X. That will get the ideal virtual surround off your controller. If you turn on 3D audio, you'll essentially be double processing, which IMHO is not what you wanna do.

I have tried Dolby Atomos on my ATH A2000Zs and it didn't really do much. If anything the audio sounded more muddy. I didn't get the sense that I could tell exactly where the sound was coming from. The virtual barbershop, on the otherhand, is on a whole other level.

What I'm wondering is how good the sound localization on the mobius is going to be. Are we talking virtual barbershop level or dolby virtual surround level? I have tried many Virtual surround technologies and none of them made the experience better.

 

[Ted23]

I have tried Dolby Atomos on my ATH A2000Zs and it didn't really do much. If anything the audio sounded more muddy. I didn't get the sense that I could tell exactly where the sound was coming from. The virtual barbershop, on the otherhand, is on a whole other level.

What I'm wondering is how good the sound localization on the mobius is going to be. Are we talking virtual barbershop level or dolby virtual surround level? I have tried many Virtual surround technologies and none of them made the experience better.

It depends what you tried it with. Dolby Atmos and Windows Sonic don’t create 7.1.4 surround sound. They output it properly through headphones but the audio needs to be recorded properly in the game as well. So a lot still has to do with how well the game does the audio component. Many are starting to focus more and more on audio so things are looking bright for he future. Hellblade: Senuas Revenge for example is a new game coming out recorded with bineural audio setup and they are saying you should just be listening to that in stereo. Anyway just something to think about when using this technology.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I have tried Dolby Atomos on my ATH A2000Zs and it didn't really do much. If anything the audio sounded more muddy. I didn't get the sense that I could tell exactly where the sound was coming from. The virtual barbershop, on the otherhand, is on a whole other level.

What I'm wondering is how good the sound localization on the mobius is going to be. Are we talking virtual barbershop level or dolby virtual surround level? I have tried many Virtual surround technologies and none of them made the experience better.

I'd stay on topic about the Mobius here.

Probably should ask about these things on my headphone gaming thread.

In any case, make sure your in game settings are also proper. I dunno how the X1X does Dolby Atmos, but with other virtual surround technologies, games must be outputting 5.1/7.1 in their 'Home Theater' defaults, NOT any Headphone preset. Headphone presets are for those without any sort of surround tech.

 

[evernessince]

I'd stay on topic about the Mobius here.

Probably should ask about these things on my headphone gaming thread.

In any case, make sure your in game settings are also proper. I dunno how the X1X does Dolby Atmos, but with other virtual surround technologies, games must be outputting 5.1/7.1 in their 'Home Theater' defaults, NOT any Headphone preset. Headphone presets are for those without any sort of surround tech.

I should have mentioned, it was specifically Dolby Atmos for Headphones in Overwatch.

On topic, what happens with the mobius when the game doesn't support surround sound setups? Do they loose their spatial sound? That can't be completely right though, I remember reading an earlier post that stated the mobius's sound localization would work with even stereo audio.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

The Mobius 3D audio in its optimal form works ONLY via usb when it picks up a 7.1 signal. If it's not receiving a usb 7.1 signal, you're gonna get stereo in a virtual room type sound. Like being in a virtual room with two speakers in front of you that with headtracking, does have spatial sound in the same way a room with two speakers reflects sound off its surroundings. If you turn 180 degrees around with the Mobius with 3D on in this instance, the two 'speakers' will literally sound off as if they're behind you, etc.

In terms of Xbone one use (without Dolby Atmos), you're getting THAT if you use 3D audio. That being said if you turn 3D audio off but have some surround device feeding virtual surround to a headphone jack, you'll get THAT devices virtual surround. No matter what you do, once virtual surround is introduced in the audio chain, it will always be in there. This is why you typically don't want to enable some exterior virtual surround WITH the Mobius 3D audio turned on, as that's two virtual surround processes embedded into the sound, which IMHO is not what you wanna do.

Like I said, I dunno how the XB1X does Dolby Atmos, but if it's in the mix, you don't wanna turn the 3D audio on, since you're then doing way too much audio processing that will sound wonky.

My experience with Dolby Atmos was through a PC plugin.

 

[Levanter]

@Mad Lust Envy
How does the Moebius compare with HD800 in terms of soundstage/spatial imaging?

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

@Mad Lust Envy
How does the Moebius compare with HD800 in terms of soundstage/spatial imaging?

I can't say as I never heard the HD800. I can for sure tell you it's not a fair comparison. You're talking closed vs open, warm neutral vs highly detail oriented. It's a very different presentation of sound.

 

[Zyker]

It's been 3 or 4 days since my last survey post... in that time, I've had an additional 41 respondents! Pretty good!

The numbers have been relatively stable after the initial influx of responses, with gaming/non-gaming taking the lead. I'm not surprised by the interest in a portable planar set of headphones, but I will admit that I'm surprised that so many want them mainly for gaming... just shows that we know what we like! The entries that respondents have made for that question are also interesting, with everything from movies to the DSP capabilities as reasons.

PC gaming is still totally dominating the gaming platforms. What makes this an interesting measure is that people can choose as many console as they want to use it for, yet PC is still so high up there... I always thought most people had both a gaming PC and a console, but this is showing that that's not true.

Finally, the copper has just dominated the final question. I would absolutely love to hear from Audeze about how the split on the official orders is, to see if we're representative of their Mobius-ordering population. Also, I just have to give props to whoever ordered both (yes, one person).

Again, here's a link to the survey for anyone who hasn't participated, yet: https://goo.gl/forms/x5ococDGGXFIjRPx1

 

[subtec]

Looks like I'm a little late to the party. I was initially excited to hear about a new high end wireless gaming headphone, but after reading through the thread it looks like this isn't the one for me. For reference, right now I'm using HD650s driven by a Radsone Earstudio ES100 bluetooth adapter (supports AptX/AptX HD). Not perfect, but it gets the job done.

The Mobius looks to me like a fine wired gaming headset, and a fine wireless headphone, but it does not appear to be the hi-fi wireless gaming headset some are looking for. I'll offer my comments and suggestions:

- In my experience, the second you try to use the microphone for anything, bluetooth headphones automatically dump you down to a craptastic headset audio profile, and your $500 headphones might as well be $5 headphones. This makes them pretty much worthless as wireless gaming headsets, where you want high quality game audio and support for voice concurrently. The Mobius does not appear to offer anything better here (correct me if I'm wrong). Some bluetooth headsets do offer a voice back channel (e.g., some Creative products), but I believe it needs to be supported in both the transmitter and the receiver.

- The head tracking/3D positional audio stuff sounds interesting, but since it relies on 5.1/7.1 input it's moot for bluetooth (which lacks the bandwidth). I guess you can get a dumbed-down 2-channel version, but what's the point?

- The mic being detachable is a nice option, and hopefully offers decent voice quality. Again though, without proper support from the transmitter/receiver pretty much worthless in a wireless headphone.

- LDAC is somewhat of an odd choice, considering the complete lack of any kind of LDAC-supporting bluetooth transmitter for PCs. Hopefully we'll see something to fill the gap sooner or later, but for the time being AptX (-LL/-HD) would've made more sense.

- 10 hour battery life isn't amazing. For 1800 mAh I would've expected a lot more. I get a solid 12 hours from my Earstudio driving my HD650s, and it's tiny and only has a 350 mAh battery. 16-20 hours is common from other BT headphones, and some Sonys go up to 30 hours. Is it the DSP 3D spatialization stuff sucking up all the battery life? It'd be nice to be able to turn that off if there's a significant improvement - particularly when it's pointless in wireless mode to begin with.

- Swappable battery. If this were an option, it would relieve my complaint about battery life, and give me one more tick in the "pros" column for this headphone. If B&O and Steelseries can do it, I don't see why Audeze can't.

- Open back option, please. Personal preference here, but for longer gaming sessions my ears tend to get hot and open-back helps with that. I really see no point in the compromise of a closed-back headphone when you're at home in front of your own computer with no one else around and not a lot of external noise. If you're outside or at a LAN party or something, sure. Maybe a removable cover like the Hifiman Edition S to switch between open and closed? That may be a worst of both worlds solution though. Also I guess it may be more challenging finding space for the electronics/battery in an open-back design. Maybe move them to the headband like the AIAIAI TMA-2?

- Are the earpads removable? Didn't see anything about that. Would prefer velour here, again for long-term comfort. Edit: found the answer - earpads are user-replaceable per the FAQ

- Design. Again personal preference, but can you please offer at least one colorway/style that appeals to the minimalists out there? Just something with a neutral color scheme and minimal decoration/branding. I'd be happy with a completely matte black model, and would gladly choose it over the two options on offer.

 

[majnu]

Also it seems most PC gamers are lately playing PUBG which only has a stereo signal then is there no real benefit to using the Mobius? Instead just using the DSP on the GSX which does a pretty good job.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Even if I haven't heard them yet I feel confident in saying even at retail price this will be a superb buy and anything below $300 will be a steal (pricing feels pretty aggressive due it's "gaming" aspect where the market is much more price inclined as most gamers wouldn't spend more than 100-$200 or so on a good sounding headset and I get the feeling Audeze is well aware of this and will undercut themselves a bit in order to gain market share in this department).

- Planar Magnetic driver
- Bluetooth
- Head tracking technique

^ This already screams like a $499 package even if the sound performance would be less than stellar for a Planar (at $399 with all the functionality it offers, it wouldn't basically need to perform much more than roughly good sounding ~$200 headphones). New tech usually comes with a big premium, take Taction Kannon headphones with its unique high performance haptic driver costs even $499 yet the sound quality offered is nowhere near that price tag headphones, but it's besides the point as it's not its primary focus. The Mobius headphone again is like a swiss army knife, has all the 3 connectivity options (aux, usb + bluetooth), offers the convenience of Bluetooth which is an ever increasing market and can also function reasonably well for your high quality musical listening needs through AUX with the proved Planar technology and on top of that offers an entirely new feature (head tracking isn't new but integrating it into the headphone itself for total convenience has never been done before). It's hard to not like this headphone, it probably would fit a lot of people's needs (different needs but at least tick some of the boxes if not several of them)