Audeze Mobius Review / Preview - Head-Fi TV

[sxr71]

Smyth A16 should be along these lines with cables required.

Am looking forward to trying it with the Senn RS185 wireless cans (hooked into the A16 via Toslink) - uses "Kleer" rather than blutooth - less latency, higher quality etc.

Will still require the thin cable for the headtracker (will have a play/look for a RF 2.5/3.5mm option to bypass the wires when the unit is out), but should give me an extra degree of freedom than a cabled headphone would.

Ah I see so the head tracker is wired. It’s all adding up for me now.

Yeah you could get a really long thin 2.5mm cable and just not worry about it. Maybe keep a couple around in case you break one.

 

[MICHAELSD]

The Möbius does not upmix at all. It simply applies HRTF from Waves NX. What that means is that simply tries to take the soundstage out from inside your head and tries to put it in front of you.

If you apply it on a two channel signal it will try to make it sound like you have two speakers in front of you. If you apply it to a 5.1 signal it makes it seems like there are 5 speakers around you.

That is all it does. And the head tracking just makes it so that if you turn your head the speakers stay in the same place as actual physical speakers would.

Please look for the Waves NX app on iOS and I believe they have it for Android. Try them. That is the exact same processing these headphones have built in.

I just tried just now. I don’t want say what I think about it. Just try it yourself. The app has the exact same measurements the Windows app for the Möbius has. The app allows you add their head tracker.

https://www.waves.com/nx

Take a look. It’s exactly the same just built into these phones.

One does not work without the other because the head tracking just adjusts the HTRF processing to keep the speakers in place.

Atmos headphone does it’s own HTRF. You cannot use the head tracker to control the HTRF of Dolby Atmos.

So? Especially if you considered the $99 cost of adding head tracking to another headphone, $399 is still a great value for Mobius even if it didn’t have the head-tracking features.

 

[raband]

To get away from all the he said, she said commentary has anyone got an opinion on a shower thought of mine?

HTPC (or even the desk pc etc) with SPDIF in.

Xbox/PS4 etc
Video => HDMI => TV
Audio => Toslink => HTPC (multichannel audio)

Mobuis => USB => HTPC for the multichannel audio and all the goodies we want.

Any holes in this idea?

 

[mashuto]

To get away from all the he said, she said commentary has anyone got an opinion on a shower thought of mine?

HTPC (or even the desk pc etc) with SPDIF in.

Xbox/PS4 etc
Video => HDMI => TV
Audio => Toslink => HTPC (multichannel audio)

Mobuis => USB => HTPC for the multichannel audio and all the goodies we want.

Any holes in this idea?

Doesnt surround sound over toslink have to be encoded first? So you would then have to decode the audio, and essentially just set the input to playback through the mobius... might work. If you already have the setup (minus the mobius) you could essentially try it out and see if you can get regular multichannel sound on the PC to playback through any other audio device on the PC.

 

[raband]

Bitstream dolby digital I think?

I think I have a soundcard lying around somewhere I could find to put in to try it - just wondering if there are any glaring flaws before I go hunting through the cupboards and boxes etc

 

[mashuto]

Right, you would just need to decode it somehow before you can use it. And I am not sure exactly what form that would take on a PC. You might also potentially be able to get an HDMI capture card and then have the full surround PCM directly into the PC. Of course, this whole thing is a lot of extra steps just to get surround working for a console, when the HTPC will be able to do everything the console could anyways (other than the console gaming).

 

[MICHAELSD]

An elaborate setup to get 5.1 to the headphones from other sources sounds good in theory but when using with a home theater in 2018 you would probably want to go wireless. Plus how many of you right now are using headphones with your home theater? I’ll definitely try with my Mac but I feel like convenience will win and I’ll end up using a 3.5mm from my Xbox and if I switch to an Apple TV would end up using Bluetooth AAC.

 

[raband]

Of course, this whole thing is a lot of extra steps just to get surround working for a console, when the HTPC will be able to do everything the console could anyways (other than the console gaming).

Yeah,

Have got PC, PS4, xBox One, Cable Box, BluRay player, nVidia Shield etc at one end of the lounge (close to the seating position) and the TV/projector screen at the other end.

Most have optical out, so (if it works) it could bring 3D headtracking to the Mobius for pretty much the entire ecosystem.

Bluray and Xbox both have HDMI passthrough - IF either allow toslink audio from them (not sure, probably a big "if") then I'll be able to include all the units that don't have SPDIF out as well.

If any of those options work then it could be a great workaround for those lamenting the lack of console support with the Mobius.

 

[mashuto]

An elaborate setup to get 5.1 to the headphones from other sources sounds good in theory but when using with a home theater in 2018 you would probably want to go wireless. Plus how many of you right now are using headphones with your home theater? I’ll definitely try with my Mac but I feel like convenience will win and I’ll end up using a 3.5mm from my Xbox and if I switch to an Apple TV would end up using Bluetooth AAC.

Yea personally, my home theater is almost never going to be used with headphones (after I build it that is... moving on Saturday). But I intend fully for these headphones to be used with my PC setup and maybe occasionally as wireless cans for listening to music. I do understand though why everyone would want those extra features, and hopefully some day there will be a way to achieve it, even if it has to be a with v2 mobius.

Yeah,

Have got PC, PS4, xBox One, Cable Box, BluRay player, nVidia Shield etc at one end of the lounge (close to the seating position) and the TV/projector screen at the other end.

Most have optical out, so (if it works) it could bring 3D headtracking to the Mobius for pretty much the entire ecosystem.

Bluray and Xbox both have HDMI passthrough - IF either allow toslink audio from them (not sure, probably a big "if") then I'll be able to include all the units that don't have SPDIF out as well.

If any of those options work then it could be a great workaround for those lamenting the lack of console support with the Mobius.

You should be able to test it soon then if you already have the hardware for toslink in on your PC. You can hook any of those up and see if you can get multichannel sound going in the PC. If you can, then I see no reason why you wouldnt be able to get the mobius to work, at that point it should just be a matter of taking that audio input and redirecting it to the mobius virtual sound card.

 

[raband]

Plus how many of you right now are using headphones with your home theater?

Plenty.

Will be the main reason I'm in for the Smyth A16.

Lots have wives, children, housemates, neighbours etc who can be impacted using the "home theatre" with a decent volume.

Many have a place that doesn't allow for a decent speaker layout

Many just use the inbuilt TV speakers.

Many prefer headphones

 

[sxr71]

So? Especially if you considered the $99 cost of adding head tracking to another headphone, $399 is still a great value for Mobius even if it didn’t have the head-tracking features.

Yes I must admit.

Yeah,

Have got PC, PS4, xBox One, Cable Box, BluRay player, nVidia Shield etc at one end of the lounge (close to the seating position) and the TV/projector screen at the other end.

Most have optical out, so (if it works) it could bring 3D headtracking to the Mobius for pretty much the entire ecosystem.

Bluray and Xbox both have HDMI passthrough - IF either allow toslink audio from them (not sure, probably a big "if") then I'll be able to include all the units that don't have SPDIF out as well.

If any of those options work then it could be a great workaround for those lamenting the lack of console support with the Mobius.

I bet you can get it to work. But I suspect you’ll suffer from latency. The one thing about keeping everything within HDMI is that HDMI keeps video and audio in sync.

I suspect an hdmi capture card could output and keep everything in sync.

Plenty.

Will be the main reason I'm in for the Smyth A16.

Lots have wives, children, housemates, neighbours etc who can be impacted using the "home theatre" with a decent volume.

Many have a place that doesn't allow for a decent speaker layout

Many just use the inbuilt TV speakers.

Many prefer headphones

I was hoping this would be useful for media player also. Because I have never built a multichannel speaker system. It difficult and expensive enough to build a good 2 channel system.

So I was hoping to get 5.1 through headphones from Apple TV with these. I guess I’ll just wait.

 

[MICHAELSD]

I was hoping this would be useful for media player also. Because I have never built a multichannel speaker system. It difficult and expensive enough to build a good 2 channel system.

So I was hoping to get 5.1 through headphones from Apple TV with these. I guess I’ll just wait.

It could be possible with an AirPlay receiver. AirPlay streams lossless 5.1.

 

[sxr71]

It could be possible with an AirPlay receiver. AirPlay streams lossless 5.1.

Really? I had no idea. Airplay or airplay 2?

But still if you get the stream to a receiver you still need it in USB form to work with the Möbius right?

My understanding is that once video audio are separated in HDMI the audio/video sync is lost.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Really? I had no idea. Airplay or airplay 2? But still if you get the stream to a receiver you still need it in USB form to work with the Möbius right?

Just standard AirPlay 1.0.

You would still need USB to output 5.1 to Mobius.

I haven’t looked too deeply into it but you may be able to accomplish this by AirPlaying the audio from Apple TV to a third-party receiver app on a Mac.

 

[sxr71]

Just standard AirPlay 1.0.

You would still need USB to output 5.1 to Mobius.

I haven’t looked too deeply into it but you may be able to accomplish this by AirPlaying the audio from Apple TV to a third-party receiver app on a Mac.

I had no idea. What is the use case for airplay 5.1? Are there audio receivers that accept 5.1 from an Apple TV?

Anyway yes I suppose you can airplay the whole signal to a receiver app on a Mac and then tap the USB output. I always thought an Apple TV received Airplay. I had no idea it could send airplay.

I know now that it can send airplay audio to an AirPod but it’s still in beta.

Found this: https://www.5kplayer.com/airplay/airplay-5-1-surround-sound-apple-tv432.htm