[scratchmassive]

Will it be possible to change the Penrose ear pads to a set without the blue/green stripe? The Mobius carbon ear pads would be perfect if they would fit, but the Audeze site doesn't mention any ear pads specifically for Penrose.

Also, will there be international distribution of ear pads? The Mobius ear pads seem to only be available on the Audeze site, but shipping to Australia is expensive.

 

[trellus]

I intend to use these not for gaming at all but as no-compromise work headphones that have the benefit of being wireless and closed - that’s how they differ from my typical setup of LCD-2 Fazor with Audeze’s microphone cable (which comes stock with the GX and can be purchased as an accessory). I need a decent microphone for frequent Zoom calls but I also listen to music during my work sessions and my ATH-W1GL are lackluster for music enjoyment.

Being able to also wirelessly take phone calls from my iPhone is just a tremendous bonus but I would have bought these even if they didn’t have that feature.

 

[dekaay]

I intend to use these not for gaming at all but as no-compromise work headphones that have the benefit of being wireless and closed - that’s how they differ from my typical setup of LCD-2 Fazor with Audeze’s microphone cable (which comes stock with the GX and can be purchased as an accessory). I need a decent microphone for frequent Zoom calls but I also listen to music during my work sessions and my ATH-W1GL are lackluster for music enjoyment.

Being able to also wirelessly take phone calls from my iPhone is just a tremendous bonus but I would have bought these even if they didn’t have that feature.

I'm in the same boat. I want a good sounding mic for those hour long conference calls, I want it to be wireless so I can sneak away from the screen to grab a fresh coffee from time to time, I need it to be comfortable enough to be worn for multiple hours (no buds sticking in my ears) and I prefer it to be closed back, because I'm not alone in the office and other people may be talking as well. I have absolutely no intention to connect it to the PC via BT. Why would I, when bandwidth is so much better via WiFi. However. At this price point, with this kind of technology at hand, it feels really wasteful to me not be able to use this headset as an awesome headphone for listening to music from my phone or tablet Yes, SBC will do, no, a high quality codec as it comes with the Mobius would not have been useless to me. YMMV, obviously.

 

[amoeba1126]

To chime in here, I personally think people focusing on BT features here are missing the mark a bit. These cans are primarily for gaming, hence the focus being 2.4 GHz instead of BT. I used the Mobius for gaming when it first released. Wireless over BT absolutely sucked, which is why I am so excited about Penrose. If you are looking for wireless multimedia headphones, I would honestly take a really hard look at Panda THX or 1000XM4.

 

[trellus]

I'm in the same boat. I want a good sounding mic for those hour long conference calls, I want it to be wireless so I can sneak away from the screen to grab a fresh coffee from time to time, I need it to be comfortable enough to be worn for multiple hours (no buds sticking in my ears) and I prefer it to be closed back, because I'm not alone in the office and other people may be talking as well. I have absolutely no intention to connect it to the PC via BT. Why would I, when bandwidth is so much better via WiFi. However. At this price point, with this kind of technology at hand, it feels really wasteful to me not be able to use this headset as an awesome headphone for listening to music from my phone or tablet Yes, SBC will do, no, a high quality codec as it comes with the Mobius would not have been useless to me. YMMV, obviously.

I may also casually use them with my phone occasionally wirelessly for music and other media consumption, but that won't be my main use case, but I think for that purpose, AAC will be very acceptable, that's what I am limited to right now with Mobius when using it with my iPhone wirelessly, and I find that to be very good, really.

But they are not my absolute favorite BT <-> iPhone headphones for that purpose, I have better sets with longer battery life and other features that make them more ideal for "out and about" general Bluetooth usage, including my AKG N700NC M2 and Master & Dynamic MW60 and even my Bose QC35.

 

[dekaay]

To chime in here, I personally think people focusing on BT features here are missing the mark a bit. These cans are primarily for gaming, hence the focus being 2.4 GHz instead of BT. I used the Mobius for gaming when it first released. Wireless over BT absolutely sucked, which is why I am so excited about Penrose. If you are looking for wireless multimedia headphones, I would honestly take a really hard look at Panda THX or 1000XM4.

You are probably right. These certainly aren't meant to be musical BT headphones first. But I can't completely shake the feeling that they had the potential to be that as well I don't know about the XM4s, but I had a pair of XM3s, and those _certainly_ couldn't do double duty as a headset for conference calls. That mic was... puh. So, having a nice sounding wireless mic alone makes the Penrose a strong contender for many jobs, imo

 

[C_Lindbergh]

This is a wireless gaming headphone focused on lossless, low-latency audio for gaming consoles and PCs. Lossless, low-latency audio is not possible with current Bluetooth technology. Bluetooth 5.2 and LC3 don't change that, they only purport to improve low-latency, lossy audio at low bitrates, which is not helpful for audiophiles or for the gaming features the Penrose focuses on. Driving up the costs with additional Bluetooth codecs and possibly additional hardware would be completely beside the point. Bluetooth here is mostly just so you can connect your phone while you're gaming, SBC and AAC are just fine for that.

I'm just saying with the absolute latest technology they could be more than a pair of gaming headphones, they would also be a decen't pair of wireless headphones for music. I'm fully aware that that's not their primary purpose. And I also see that you're slighlty missinformed about Bluetooth Codec, LC3 will be a standard codec from the Bluetooth SIG, which will replace SBC, so there wouldn't be any additional charges from the codec itself.

But my only real issue is that they can't connect to another USB adapter, I would use these on both my console and PC, would be awesome if you could buy 2 USB adapters and switch easily between them, AAC on my phone is quite decent actually, at least compared to SBC.

 

[trellus]

You are probably right. These certainly aren't meant to be musical BT headphones first. But I can't completely shake the feeling that they had the potential to be that as well I don't know about the XM4s, but I had a pair of XM3s, and those _certainly_ couldn't do double duty as a headset for conference calls. That mic was... puh. So, having a nice sounding wireless mic alone makes the Penrose a strong contender for many jobs, imo

Absolutely, a higher end variant of this could be really a compelling buy, in my view -- but it would have to come at a higher price, IMO, because at this price point, there is just no way to make an excellent gaming / non-BT, zero-lag wireless experience AND be an excellent general purpose Bluetooth wireless headphone for $299 and certainly not for the $249 pre-order price I paid -- the market barely has offerings at that price that do ONE of these things well, much less one that excels equally well at both use cases.

I'd pay an additional $200 easy for one that did both and had the battery life to go with it.

 

[HipHopScribe]

I'm just saying with the absolute latest technology they could be more than a pair of gaming headphones, they would also be a decen't pair of wireless headphones for music. I'm fully aware that that's not their primary purpose. And I also see that you're slighlty missinformed about Bluetooth Codec, LC3 will be a standard codec from the Bluetooth SIG, which will replace SBC, so there wouldn't be any additional charges from the codec itself.

But my only real issue is that they can't connect to another USB adapter, I would use these on both my console and PC, would be awesome if you could buy 2 USB adapters and switch easily between them, AAC on my phone is quite decent actually, at least compared to SBC.

I'm sure Audeze will offer a music focused BT headphone at some point. I don't see LC3 as particularly useful for audiophile grade headphones in terms of music, but maybe they'll include it. It will be useful for mobile gaming where latency matters. But really, this isn't the headphone for that, and if you're adding features you're adding more to the price, which would probably push this headphone out of the sweet spot for a feature the majority of users don't need. Right now the Mobius is a better buy for someone looking for music listening over Bluetooth for Audeze, but it costs a lot more.

 

[C_Lindbergh]

I'm sure Audeze will offer a music focused BT headphone at some point. I don't see LC3 as particularly useful for audiophile grade headphones in terms of music, but maybe they'll include it. It will be useful for mobile gaming where latency matters. But really, this isn't the headphone for that, and if you're adding features you're adding more to the price, which would probably push this headphone out of the sweet spot for a feature the majority of users don't need. Right now the Mobius is a better buy for someone looking for music listening over Bluetooth for Audeze, but it costs a lot more.

But anyway that's another debate, all I'm saying is that these would be much more useful if they had next gen standardised codec. I do not think the cost would be that much higher since you wouldn't need to pay any licence fees to Sony/Qualcomm. However I very much understand why they have to launch the Penrose at this time since the next gen consoles will launch in about 1 month.

LC3 will prob be much more useful for Bluetooth headphones even for folks that likes great SQ, old gen codecs like LDAC and APTX HD will be severely limited in compared to LC3 and BT 5.2. If you idendify as a pure "audiophile" you shouldn't use Bluetooth headphones in the first place with the current tech.

Also Mobius are really horrendous Bluetooth Headphones, sure they sound really awesome (prob the best sounding wireless headphones I've heard), but the bad battery life's basically makes them useless as a BT headphones.

I just don't think you understand that the next gen Bluetooth protocol will be far superior to current gen, at no additional cost since it's all via the Bluetooth SIG. But future Bleutooth headphones from Audeze will most likely have all the new functionality of Bluetooth 5.2, no matter if they're focused on gaming or music

Further more, it isn't a cost issue since it's all from the Bluetooth SIG, it's a time issue, we'll most likely see products with next gen Bluetooth sometime early next year.

 

[Audeze]

LC3 will prob be much more useful for Bluetooth headphones even for folks that likes great SQ, old gen codecs like LDAC and APTX HD will be severely limited in compared to LC3 and BT 5.2. If you idendify as a pure "audiophile" you shouldn't use Bluetooth headphones in the first place with the current tech.

Further more, it isn't a cost issue since it's all from the Bluetooth SIG, it's a time issue, we'll most likely see products with next gen Bluetooth sometime early next year.

We do not expect mobile phones with LC3 support till late 2021 and more mainstream use-age till 2024. So LC3 use next year will be limited to dongle based connections.
Even with LC3 the latency will not be as low as dedicated 2.4 Ghz proprietary chip. The bigger problem is also consistent latency.
We also think with many headphones, you will see a 2 chip solutions (one for Bluetooth classic and one for BLE support).

 

[BCM88]

On a more positive note, we’ve taken this extra time to improve the amplifier circuit to be fully balanced. This means that Penrose now has double the voltage swing for dramatically increased dynamic range!

Dammit Audeze, I can only get so excited!!

This deal keeps getting better.

 

[jasswolf]

We do not expect mobile phones with LC3 support till late 2021 and more mainstream use-age till 2024. So LC3 use next year will be limited to dongle based connections.
Even with LC3 the latency will not be as low as dedicated 2.4 Ghz proprietary chip. The bigger problem is also consistent latency.
We also think with many headphones, you will see a 2 chip solutions (one for Bluetooth classic and one for BLE support).

Both the Snapdragon 768G and the 865+ have support for Bluetooth 5.2, though I note there doesn't seem to be any phones that currently support the technology. Are you suggesting it's a matter of certification and firmware updates for phones, or have they opted not to use the relevant connectivity chip in their devices?

Additionally: do you anticipate being able to backport LC3 to the Penrose?

 

[C_Lindbergh]

Additionally: do you anticipate being able to backport LC3 to the Penrose?

It's hardware dependent, Qualcomm annoced the new hardware for phones earlier this year. You'll need the right hardware for both the headphones and source.

https://www.xda-developers.com/qual...e-bluetooth-5-2-high-end-android-devices/amp/

So you should see it on most mid/high end phones next year

@Audeze

Have you got any information about LC3 Plus? I haven't seen any buzz about this codec from any OEM since it's announcement back in January. Reading the specs it looks like it could replace Wifi connections for low latency focused headphones in the future.

https://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/en/ff/amm/communication/lc3.html

 

[amoeba1126]

You are probably right. These certainly aren't meant to be musical BT headphones first. But I can't completely shake the feeling that they had the potential to be that as well I don't know about the XM4s, but I had a pair of XM3s, and those _certainly_ couldn't do double duty as a headset for conference calls. That mic was... puh. So, having a nice sounding wireless mic alone makes the Penrose a strong contender for many jobs, imo

I’m sure they can probably do it but then the device gets heavier, uses more power, becomes more complicated, and costs more. Why would any company want to do that?