Audeze Mobius Review / Preview - Head-Fi TV

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Aug 8, 2018 at 2:43 AM Post #4,441 of 7,693
I've had my headphones for two days now. I've now used them to play video games, music, and a movie.

For video games - I used mine connected via AUX to the XBox controller. There's a more noticeable noise floor here while nothing is on, although once the game starts up, I didn't notice it. I played Rocket League and PUBG. Rocket League sounds fantastic. I could hear cars wherever they were supposed to be and the head tracking was neat. PUBG was a bit of a bust, but it was more because the player that I was playing with had a mic that exerted a lot of feedback, so although I could hear him like I never had before (he sounded like the voice of God), I could also hear his static. I tried both footsteps and ballistic mode, but could not discern a difference. I'll try again without him so that I can get a true experience playing that game.

I tried it with music and a movie via my MacBook Pro connected via USB. There was a very subtle noise floor here, but even with nothing playing it was hardly noticeable. I changed the advanced audio settings to a 7.1 surround and watched The Dark Knight. It sounded fantastic. I played through the very first scene (the bank heist) and everything was crisp and clear through all 7 virtual channels. It was hard to not move my head in amazement. For music, I'm a hip-hop head, and listened to three samples - the Mac Miller Tiny Desk concert through YouTube, a Statik Selektah album through iTunes and a Jay-Z album through iTunes. I was extremely impressed with how the music sounded. Don't Run has a lot of clean, thumping bass, and the headphones reproduced it perfectly. Most of the time, this is where I see headphones not live up to my standards - hip-hop seems pretty tough to reproduce the right way due to the 808's.

Overall I really love these headphones. They're really comfortable and they look great. The controls and the learning curve around them is solved pretty quickly - after one or two times through the dial I was all set. The only way I did not test them was via Bluetooth...because I'll be using these almost exclusively at home, I won't really use Bluetooth to listen to much on them.
 
Aug 8, 2018 at 4:08 AM Post #4,443 of 7,693
Thanks for the offer:) will have to track someone with a win laptop I guess

I know most Macs have had the ability to install windows on them natively with the built-in Bootcamp software for over a decade now. That would be a super simple solution. Otherwise, you can find super cheap Windows laptops on ebay for under $50.
 
Aug 8, 2018 at 4:11 AM Post #4,444 of 7,693
I know most Macs have had the ability to install windows on them natively with the built-in Bootcamp

First thing I do when I get a Mac that I want to actually use :p
 
Aug 8, 2018 at 4:58 AM Post #4,445 of 7,693
I know most Macs have had the ability to install windows on them natively with the built-in Bootcamp software for over a decade now. That would be a super simple solution. Otherwise, you can find super cheap Windows laptops on ebay for under $50.
I know about bootcamp but that defeats the object of having a Mac:) yes I could get a cheap laptop but even super cheap ones are a waste of money just to get the full use of something.
 
Aug 8, 2018 at 6:09 AM Post #4,447 of 7,693
I know about bootcamp but that defeats the object of having a Mac:) yes I could get a cheap laptop but even super cheap ones are a waste of money just to get the full use of something.

Go to some tech store/computer store and have a chat with them and see if they'll assist you. Bring the .exe on a usb and headphones with you and I'm sure they'll help you out. Bring some donuts as a bribe. :D
 
Aug 8, 2018 at 6:52 AM Post #4,449 of 7,693
This just gave me a whole other way to mess around with these when they arrive. For those of you with the Creative X7. I wonder if turning the room emulation on the Mobius down, and then turning the X7's SBX surround setting to different variations, would merge to create a decent effect with SBX, HRTF and head-tracking.?!?

I would be interested if messing with both the mobius settings and X7's settings would mix well, or create lag and make a mess out of the sound. Someone with an X7, please try this and see what the results are for you. If this works decent it might be a good way to play PS4 games with features from both.

Tried it, sounds terrible. The X7 is sending virtualized 5.1 as 2 channel audio so not only does it already sound unconvincing with the mobius' Hrtf/crossfeed doubled on top, as soon as you move your head, any actual illusion of surround sound is gone. It's like playing the x7 over speakers, it doesn't make sense and certainly doesn't work well.

You can still do x7 into the Mobius' aux and just turn off 3D mode. Head tracking just plain sounds bad with SBX with the output being 2channel.
 
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Aug 8, 2018 at 7:50 AM Post #4,450 of 7,693
This just gave me a whole other way to mess around with these when they arrive. For those of you with the Creative X7. I wonder if turning the room emulation on the Mobius down, and then turning the X7's SBX surround setting to different variations, would merge to create a decent effect with SBX, HRTF and head-tracking.?!?

I would be interested if messing with both the mobius settings and X7's settings would mix well, or create lag and make a mess out of the sound. Someone with an X7, please try this and see what the results are for you. If this works decent it might be a good way to play PS4 games with features from both.

You definitely dont wanna do this. You will be applying double HRTF's. The first one will simulate 3d sound, then the second will only see that it is getting fed 2 channel sound, even though those 2 channels already have the processed 3d info in it. It will sort of be like if you fed an hrtf processed signal to a pair of speakers. It wouldnt make any sense to do that.

Edit: I see Kazekeil posted the exact same thing above me an hour earlier. Hah, well, ignore me, its really early in the morning for me and im tired.
 
Aug 8, 2018 at 8:16 AM Post #4,451 of 7,693
The latency was known for me beforehand, had been cool if it also had aptX like I mentioned beforehand due reasonable latency and wide compatibility. aptX Low latency is the fastest codec still today (20~30 ms delay or thereabouts) that would be ideal for movie watching, I've pre ordered a Aiwa Bluetooth headset with aptX LL support that I will use with my TV together with a aptX LL compatible bluetooth transmitter. If using Mobius I think it will only be decent with LDAC but even that is greater than 30 ms but don't know exactly but I remember it as aptX LL > LDAC ~ aptX HD > AAC > SBC

If Audeze has ability push out some sort of universal LDAC supported bluetooth transmitter+reciever it might be a good thing but it can be a Sony royalty issue I suppose. I'd easily pay at least $50 for one.
 
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Aug 8, 2018 at 8:17 AM Post #4,452 of 7,693
I know about bootcamp but that defeats the object of having a Mac:) yes I could get a cheap laptop but even super cheap ones are a waste of money just to get the full use of something.

@Azurik If you're willing to sacrifice a few GB of drive space, you could try installing Windows 10 onto a virtual machine with Virtualbox and then passing the Mobius through to the virtual machine just when you need to configure the Mobius. There's no guarantee that it'll work with these headphones, but I think it's worth a shot. If you're not sure, I'm happy to try it after mine arrives and let you know how it goes.
 
Aug 8, 2018 at 9:33 AM Post #4,453 of 7,693
Tried it, sounds terrible. The X7 is sending virtualized 5.1 as 2 channel audio so not only does it already sound unconvincing with the mobius' Hrtf/crossfeed doubled on top, as soon as you move your head, any actual illusion of surround sound is gone. It's like playing the x7 over speakers, it doesn't make sense and certainly doesn't work well.

You can still do x7 into the Mobius' aux and just turn off 3D mode. Head tracking just plain sounds bad with SBX with the output being 2channel.
Will it be the same conclusion using the Dolby Atmos program on the Xbox and the Mobius? Because that’s still double dipping I’m guessing?
 
Aug 8, 2018 at 9:42 AM Post #4,454 of 7,693
Will it be the same conclusion using the Dolby Atmos program on the Xbox and the Mobius? Because that’s still double dipping I’m guessing?
Yea. Anything that does its own virtual surround sound is processing 5.1 content and outputting two channels. So if you run those 2 channels to the mobius it's essentially like 2 speakers playing the processed content. Meaning the headtracking is essentially useless and the competing HRTFs and crossfeed are going to generally screw up positioning across the board.

I'd either play 2 channel direct from your console +3D mode on the mobius OR output Dolby Atmos, SBX, whatever into your mobius with headtracking/3D off. You cannot cheat out proper 5.1 virtualization with headtracking on consoles.

Basically it's best to think of the Mobius with 3D on as a speaker system. If you fed Dolby Atmos Headphone or SBX headphone virtualization out to a speaker system, they would not work as intended.
 
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Aug 8, 2018 at 11:19 AM Post #4,455 of 7,693
Yea. Anything that does its own virtual surround sound is processing 5.1 content and outputting two channels. So if you run those 2 channels to the mobius it's essentially like 2 speakers playing the processed content. Meaning the headtracking is essentially useless and the competing HRTFs and crossfeed are going to generally screw up positioning across the board.

I'd either play 2 channel direct from your console +3D mode on the mobius OR output Dolby Atmos, SBX, whatever into your mobius with headtracking/3D off. You cannot cheat out proper 5.1 virtualization with headtracking on consoles.

Basically it's best to think of the Mobius with 3D on as a speaker system. If you fed Dolby Atmos Headphone or SBX headphone virtualization out to a speaker system, they would not work as intended.
Dangit. I paid for Atmos headphone a few weeks ago. I bet the hive mind will come up with a solution for console gaming.
 

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