Got mine yesterday. Tried 'em out for about a half hour before I had to leave for the day. First turned them on and plugged into my PC, I heard the whooshing noise everyone is describing. I downloaded the Audeze app, and plugged them in with the included USB cord. After my PC and the app both recognized the headphones, I turned the sidetone feature to off and these things went pretty much dead silent. I listened to a few tracks via Tidal, and the audio quality is very good. Later yesterday, I started playing Ghost of Tsushima on my PS4 and they sound good there, too. However, at the beginning of the game I kept getting static/crackling noises like they were having trouble getting the audio data or something. After a few minutes they shut off and reconnected. That lady is indeed very loud, and she actually scared me lol. Once reconnected, I don't remember having any more problems like that last night. I sit about 6-8ft from my consoles, and maybe 10ft from my PC.
Today, I played a bit more of the game, and while I did not experience the reconnecting issue, every now and then I hear like 1 or 2 crackles or pops. They would just come and go very quickly and randomly. Sometimes it's just in one ear, and it was mildly uncomfortable to experience. Anyone else hear anything like this? I stopped after a while to put them on the charger and take a break. I'll keep testing them throughout the week. I wanted to try them Bluetooth for walking so I can hopefully return my Sony XM4s if they sound good enough. Speaking of which;
While owning both right at this moment, I think the Penrose do sound a bit better right out of the gate. The Sony will sound their best plugged in via aux or using the LDAC codec, and when doing either they do sound pretty good. If you use the AAC or SBC codecs, the sound quality goes way down, though. I'm hoping the Penrose sound good enough with AAC. On the Sony, the stage is small, but the separation and timbre are both very good. Everything sounds as it should to my ears, though it doesn't really give me the same "feeling" that I get from the Penrose. The Penrose feel like they have slightly more texture, space, and detail in their sound. The Sony are more comfortable, however. I like that they come in a small form with a thin case that's easy to throw in my bag. I also really appreciate the sound-dampening feature with the XM4. It's so good for me as I have very noisy neighbors. I tried purchasing Bluetooth adapters for my consoles and PC, but the sound and connection quality were both terrible. The main reason I bought the Penrose was so that I could connect wireless and lossless to my PC, Switch, and PS4, while hopefully getting decent sound via Bluetooth on my phone. With a game or music playing, so far I haven't felt like I needed more outside sound reduction. My feelings on this may change as I use them more. These are just my first impressions. I would guess that I have 20-30 hours on the Sony, and maybe 3-5 hours on the Penrose so far.
