I did some more testing with my Penrose.
First off, I used two different USB extenders with my PS5 and Switch. Neither one fixed the unreliable connection or the crackling issue. I am not going to buy a powered USB extender, as these dongles should work with the PS5 naturally as they are advertised for the PS5. No matter what, I still get intermittent crackling or slight dropouts, and about 5-6 true drop-outs (followed up with a CONNECTED shout) every hour. Sometimes more - last night in a span of 5 minutes I was disconnected 4 times while playing Miles Morales. Extremely frustrating experience. I didn't try using the rear USB ports since that's where I connect my PSVR box and camera, but I'll try that tonight.
Playing on Switch was much better! I still got a couple dropouts, but probably only twice in about an hour of play. The crackling wasn't as noticeable, though I did hear it every now and then. This was a much more pleasant experience though.
Bluetooth allowed me to truly enjoy the audio quality of these headphones though. Without the dropouts and crackling, I could appreciate a lot of my favorite songs, from Jizue to Danyka Nadeau, sprinkled with some game OSTs (Sayonara Wild Hearts is beautiful). I compared with my Momentum 3.0's and definitely prefer the sound signature and clarity of the Penrose over the Sennheiser - the low end is deeper and less muddy and vocals sound a bit clearer to my ears as well. However, since I'm using these as a pair of bluetooth headphones on my mobile device, I admit I don't notice the difference as much when I'm walking around the house. I still prefer my Sony MDR-Z1R and Focal Clear when I'm sitting at my desk/computer, so I'm not sure I'll be able to appreciate the aural quality of the Penrose for most music (since that's not what I bought these for anyway). Also, I don't really find them as uncomfortable as I feared - they are only about 50g heavier than the Momentum (356g vs 309g) and honestly both have similar clamping force. Maybe I could wrap a ZMF focus pad around the headband to get rid of the hotspot on my crown though. Bluetooth range seems much better than the wireless dongle as well, as I could move to the kitchen to get a drink with no issues. Also, unlike a previous poster, simply connecting the Penrose to my phone via Bluetooth immediately reduced the volume coming from the PS5 dongle, even if my phone was not playing any audio. Odd.
I also tested my Momentum 3.0's on my PS5 and Switch using my Genki aptX LL USB adapter. I experienced absolutely zero disconnects with the headphones after about an hour of play with both the PS5 and Switch, though I did still notice a BIT of crackling on the PS5 (but much less common than with the Penrose). When A/B'ing them immediately like this, I could tell the Momentum had a muddier low end that exaggerated certain impacts (or the "drop" when you start swinging in Miles Morales), but overall this was a much more enjoyable experience as I didn't have to worry about losing audio at key moments. I could even walk to the kitchen to get a drink, which is impossible with the Penrose.
Overall, I still think the Penrose are good headphones crippled with some major UX issues. I'm unsure if the firmware will fix the bad connection issues, but I really am rooting for them and I hope it will, because the audio quality is definitely there. However, I did not purchase these to be bluetooth headphones first and foremost - they were meant to be my primary gaming headphones with occasional use case as a bluetooth headphone. For this use case, these are unusable for me, but I hope this will be fixed with this week's firmware.
Also, my Arctis 7p just came in this morning, so I'll do some more testing with these tonight.