[Oscar-HiFi]

Awesome news - thanks for keeping us updated! Looking forward to receiving these soon! Is there a possibility to upgrade the shipping by paying some more from my end?

The free shipping is usually a 48hr service but has been upgraded to a 24hr service for free for all customers - it's not a guaranteed next day service but you should get them fairly quickly. The orders should be going out in order of who placed theirs first.

 

[AshA]

Well the eagle has finally landed.

But again due to operational processing it'll take around 1-2 working days to dispatch all pre-orders - please keep this in mind.

Hey Oscar, I have the Penrose X on order from Scan.co.uk (sorry, I'd not heard of your company before joining this forum), however, they've been pretty dreadful at communicating with me regarding my order.

If I pre-order the Penrose X from you (I know you cannot say for certain), I assume I'd be down the bottom of a massive list of other pre-orders and may even miss the first batch?

 

[OJGloveless]

Edit: Nevermind

 

[zachwagon]

I've read the majority of this thread, and I'm not sure if I should cancel my Penrose preorder (from a local distributor) and get the Arctis Pro Wireless instead. I've been looking at the Penrose and APW because I needed a wireless headset, and those are very highly regarded. Ended up preordering the Penrose after lurking in the aforementioned subreddit, where the mod kept saying everything is garbage except for the Penrose.

Does anyone have both headsets and can provide some insight? I saw some comments comparing the Penrose to the Arctis 7 Wireless, but from what I understand the APW has better sound quality than A7W, so I'm interested that comparison instead. Is the sound quality difference that perceptible?

I think I value comfort pretty highly - I keep returning to my AKG K7XX just because they're so comfy (even when ignoring that they're open-back, just focusing on headband and earcup). I can practically wear them all day.

For context: Comfort is my number 2 priority behind wireless for my current use-case (playing PC games on my OLED TV ~12ft away) and I am likewise a bit apprehensive about my Penrose X pre-order due to comfort. At heart, I'm a speaker guy, but I've had a lot of the mid-fi cans (AKG, Beyers, Senns) over the years for gaming and still come back to my original X2s for gaming simply due to the long-term comfort (I have a giant ass head and game primarily in long binge sessions). I did own and use the K702s w/ flat band and 65th annie pads (similar to K7xx sound sig) for competitive gaming for a while and I really liked their imaging. Their fit wasn't for me but I get why you and others find them really comfortable.

While I haven't owned the Artctis Pro Wireless specifically...I have bought and used the Arctis 7 (which is very similar I believe) along with just about every other 2.4Ghz headset on the market (except Astros) at some point and they frankly all just sounded like crap. My close friend has the APW's for the battery swap feature and I've tried them at his place a few times. They sounded nearly identical to the Arctis 7 I had, to me. I would legitimately rather have a pair of $15 Koss KSC75 than any of the 2.4GHz headsets from HyperX, Arctis, Corsair, or others when it comes to SQ.

From a comfort perspective, the Arctis 7 I had last year were actually quite light with very light clamp force (they kind of just hung there from what I recall), but the pads were extremely itchy to me personally. I never looked into replacing the pads because of the sound quality issues, but if I were going to keep a pair of Arctis that would be a day 1 change for me. That said, I suspect that the lighter weight of the APW, the more breathable pads, and the headand will outclass Penrose for long-session comfort for most.

The problem from my perspective though is the price of the APW. I personally can't see myself spending APW kind of money for <$50 sound. Even if the Penrose end up squeezing my head and I return them, I'll use my BTR3k dongle for aptx-low latency bluetooth and get a mod mic wireless before I go with a different 2.4ghz headset. Now that I think about it, if I had known I would be PC gaming primarily from a couch and not at my desk a year ago, I would have bought a pair of RS 185 before they were discontinued and paired it with a mod mic wireless.

Headphone Manufacturers: if you are reading this, somebody please make us a pair of open-back RF wireless cans again. Also, use a tower transmitter like Sennheiser did with the RS series so we don't have to deal with poor connection from USB dongles.

 

[imac2much]

For context: Comfort is my number 2 priority behind wireless for my current use-case (playing PC games on my OLED TV ~12ft away) and I am likewise a bit apprehensive about my Penrose X pre-order due to comfort. At heart, I'm a speaker guy, but I've had a lot of the mid-fi cans (AKG, Beyers, Senns) over the years for gaming and still come back to my original X2s for gaming simply due to the long-term comfort (I have a giant ass head and game primarily in long binge sessions). I did own and use the K702s w/ flat band and 65th annie pads (similar to K7xx sound sig) for competitive gaming for a while and I really liked their imaging. Their fit wasn't for me but I get why you and others find them really comfortable.

While I haven't owned the Artctis Pro Wireless specifically...I have bought and used the Arctis 7 (which is very similar I believe) along with just about every other 2.4Ghz headset on the market (except Astros) at some point and they frankly all just sounded like crap. My close friend has the APW's for the battery swap feature and I've tried them at his place a few times. They sounded nearly identical to the Arctis 7 I had, to me. I would legitimately rather have a pair of $15 Koss KSC75 than any of the 2.4GHz headsets from HyperX, Arctis, Corsair, or others when it comes to SQ.

From a comfort perspective, the Arctis 7 I had last year were actually quite light with very light clamp force (they kind of just hung there from what I recall), but the pads were extremely itchy to me personally. I never looked into replacing the pads because of the sound quality issues, but if I were going to keep a pair of Arctis that would be a day 1 change for me. That said, I suspect that the lighter weight of the APW, the more breathable pads, and the headand will outclass Penrose for long-session comfort for most.

The problem from my perspective though is the price of the APW. I personally can't see myself spending APW kind of money for <$50 sound. Even if the Penrose end up squeezing my head and I return them, I'll use my BTR3k dongle for aptx-low latency bluetooth and get a mod mic wireless before I go with a different 2.4ghz headset. Now that I think about it, if I had known I would be PC gaming primarily from a couch and not at my desk a year ago, I would have bought a pair of RS 185 before they were discontinued and paired it with a mod mic wireless.

Headphone Manufacturers: if you are reading this, somebody please make us a pair of open-back RF wireless cans again. Also, use a tower transmitter like Sennheiser did with the RS series so we don't have to deal with poor connection from USB dongles.

While I don't agree completely about the sound quality of other 2.4ghz headsets, I do agree that their fidelity in no way matches their price. If I had to listen to them for music, I'd return them immediately. I guess I'm just more forgiving when it comes to games, but I do wish there were better options out there for this use case. Penrose just doesn't do it for me with my disconnect issues and the extreme discomfort after about an hour.

What aptX LL transmitter do you use to go along with the BTR3K? I didn't know about that device so it may be worth a look so I can use one of my other cans for gaming. I'm currently using the Homespot BT5.0 transmitter (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L9SL7ZT) which is similar to the Genki switch dongle, and it seems to work fine with my Momentum 3.0. I did experience 1 disconnect after an hour of testing a couple nights ago, but maybe I just need to move it around a bit.

I do wish I tried the RS165 or RS185 headphones as well. I was super close to purchasing them last year but decided against it - had no idea they would be discontinued else I would have purchased them just to try them at least. Since I have no need for a mic, this may have been a good option for me. Oh well.

 

[Oscar-HiFi]

Hey Oscar, I have the Penrose X on order from Scan.co.uk (sorry, I'd not heard of your company before joining this forum), however, they've been pretty dreadful at communicating with me regarding my order.

If I pre-order the Penrose X from you (I know you cannot say for certain), I assume I'd be down the bottom of a massive list of other pre-orders and may even miss the first batch?

We should have enough coming to fulfil all pre-orders of the X, as with the normal Penrose we ordered more so we had some for stock too.

But with the Penrose X, we don't have an ETA from Audeze yet sadly, so I can't say when we will be getting them.

 

[RaMiGo]

Headphones sound much better after the update. Is there a running list of presets for Music, cinematic gaming single player, and games like COD where listening to footsteps is critical?
Would really appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction.

 

[MarkC303]

Been lurking on this thread for months, finally got a dispatch confirmation from Hifi Headphones!
@Oscar-HiFi Thanks for great comms on this thread, much appreciated.
Can't wait to put the Penrose through its paces.

 

[gmdoom]

Been lurking on this thread for months, finally got a dispatch confirmation from Hifi Headphones!
@Oscar-HiFi Thanks for great comms on this thread, much appreciated.
Can't wait to put the Penrose through its paces.

You know people will want to know date, time, shoe size when the order was placed

 

[BCM88]

Thanks @Oscar-HiFi for your help, had my dispatch e-mail!

Excited!!

 

[MarkC303]

You know people will want to know date, time, shoe size when the order was placed

I didn't want to cause trouble...

I ordered mid-September. Don't shoot me if you ordered before that and haven't received an email

 

[Metsuki]

Been lurking on this thread for months, finally got a dispatch confirmation from Hifi Headphones!
@Oscar-HiFi Thanks for great comms on this thread, much appreciated.
Can't wait to put the Penrose through its paces.

Can confirm. Ordered in July.

 

[zachwagon]

While I don't agree completely about the sound quality of other 2.4ghz headsets, I do agree that their fidelity in no way matches their price. If I had to listen to them for music, I'd return them immediately. I guess I'm just more forgiving when it comes to games, but I do wish there were better options out there for this use case. Penrose just doesn't do it for me with my disconnect issues and the extreme discomfort after about an hour.

What aptX LL transmitter do you use to go along with the BTR3K? I didn't know about that device so it may be worth a look so I can use one of my other cans for gaming. I'm currently using the Homespot BT5.0 transmitter (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L9SL7ZT) which is similar to the Genki switch dongle, and it seems to work fine with my Momentum 3.0. I did experience 1 disconnect after an hour of testing a couple nights ago, but maybe I just need to move it around a bit.

I do wish I tried the RS165 or RS185 headphones as well. I was super close to purchasing them last year but decided against it - had no idea they would be discontinued else I would have purchased them just to try them at least. Since I have no need for a mic, this may have been a good option for me. Oh well.

The primary issues with 2.4Ghz gaming headsets audio quality to me is: poor imaging, tiny soundstage, and bloated bass. I do however acknowledge that my ear is heavily biased after years of open-back competitive FPS gaming. My number 1 played game in the past few years is also Escape from Tarkov (pretty bad sound design tbh) which relies so heavily on intel from sound that I'm probably hyper-critical about it.

I use a PCIE wifi card with BT 5.0 on my PC to connect to the BTR3k (I think the BTR5 has come out now and is probably a better buy btw). Specifically, I have the Asus PCE-AC58BT. If I didn't have that card already, I would probably buy the Creative BT-W2 and stick it in a front USB port.

Fair warning: Aptx-LL does have a very slight delay (30-40ms IIRC) but I find you can adatpt to it for FPS gaming pretty easily. The bigger issue for me is the hassle of managing charging/connections for multiple devices (BTR3k and Mod Mic Wireless) and the fact that I don't have the balls to sit in front of my coworkers on conference calls with giant headphones on, a dongle strapped to the side of it, and a lit-up boom microphone that looks like a kids toy. I suppose I could get a different headset for work if the Penrose doesn't work out, but I really really don't want more headphones.

 

[Androidisgimp]

Also have my despatch email and Royal Mail tracking No. from Hifiheadphones. There’s no going back now!
Well done to Hifiheadphones. Not only did they give me a discount on the headphones because of a website error, they’ve also been fantastic throughout this ordeal.

 

[WhiteHartMart]

Congrats to all those with UK orders that have despatched - guess who is regretting changing their mind and then reordering - slipping down the queue in the process!! Paid for Special Delivery on my order so still a chance I guess for a weekend delivery for me. That'll teach me for being impatient/indecisive!