[Moonwalker1982]

A few questions for those who game with these (in my case Xbox, but so many games are on PS as well)

1- What are some of the best games to test with the Penrose X?

2- Do you recommend Dolby Atmos or DTSX?

3- And what EQ settings in the Dolby Atmos app do you use? Or the Audeze app? I prefer a strong bass, but shouldn't drown out the other sounds.

 

[Max Cow Disease]

A few questions for those who game with these (in my case Xbox, but so many games are on PS as well)

1- What are some of the best games to test with the Penrose X?

2- Do you recommend Dolby Atmos or DTSX?

3- And what EQ settings in the Dolby Atmos app do you use? Or the Audeze app? I prefer a strong bass, but shouldn't drown out the other sounds.

For specific games, it entirely depends on what you like to play - all genres will sounds pretty good on the Penrose. For me personally, a game like Battlefield is amazing with these due to the amazing sound design in those games.

I prefer DTS:X myself. I find it a bit meatier and better at rendering faux surround effect in most games while still remaining close to a stereo-type quality. Atmos is good as well though and allows for EQ manipulation via its app. Windows Sonic is also available for free and isn’t too bad.

Some EQ’s I’ve used on Penrose that amp up the bass a bit are Round and Muscular, warm, gently warm, and FPS, all available in the packs on Audeze’s site.

 

[Moonwalker1982]

For specific games, it entirely depends on what you like to play - all genres will sounds pretty good on the Penrose. For me personally, a game like Battlefield is amazing with these due to the amazing sound design in those games.

I prefer DTS:X myself. I find it a bit meatier and better at rendering faux surround effect in most games while still remaining close to a stereo-type quality. Atmos is good as well though and allows for EQ manipulation via its app. Windows Sonic is also available for free and isn’t too bad.

Some EQ’s I’ve used on Penrose that amp up the bass a bit are Round and Muscular, warm, gently warm, and FPS, all available in the packs on Audeze’s site.

Thanks for the reply

Personally I'm not yet sure whether I prefer Atmos or DTSX. I was playing FarCry 6 and when I was walking through the grass and hearing the footsteps and anything that doesn't produce bass it sounded....tinny with DTSX, but with Atmos it sounded better, more natural to me. But shooting a gun had more bass with DTSX than Atmos.

Oh also...Switch. turns out it works great with Switch, but sadly I can't chat on Xbox with friends and have Switch audio at the same time. I leave the dongle in the Xbox and I connect the Penrose X via BT to the Switch, but I keep only hearing Xbox audio and not the Switch. If I use the multifunction button to go to BT only I don't hear Xbox party chat anymore.

With my other headset, a TB Stealth 700 gen 2 I can chat in Xbox party chat and have Switch audio via BT. I'm guessing it has to do with the way these headsets connect to my Xbox. The TB doesn't need a dongle, just connects fully wireless to Xbox.

Or is there a way with Penrose?

 

[Moonwalker1982]

Also...

In the mobile app I can load other presets but it always fails when I do this. So PC really is the only way, a shame.

 

[badrisuper]

This happened to you as well (see my pic below) ? Happened to me yesterday and have contacted the shop.

Never dropped these and been very careful. Now why didn't I just wait two more months last year and got The Bang & Olufsen Beoplay Portal instead... Poor quality from Audeze and they feel rushed. Plenty of people having problems with quality.

Yes, the same happened to me. Audeze replaced it. But my question to Audeze is its going to happen again and it cannot be fixed as it is a design flaw. How Audeze going to guarantee after my warranty period? I appreciate a reply from Audeze.

Thanks
Badri M

 

[Audeze]

Yes, the same happened to me. Audeze replaced it. But my question to Audeze is its going to happen again and it cannot be fixed as it is a design flaw. How Audeze going to guarantee after my warranty period? I appreciate a reply from Audeze.

Thanks
Badri M

If anything happens after the return period, contact support@audeze.com and we'll work with you to find a solution.

 

[Moonwalker1982]

For now I've decided to return the Penrose X. The biggest pro of the headset for me was the max volume, they go loud. For some games like RDR2 where the max volume on my Turtle Beach Stealth 700 gen 2 is just slightly too low it's great. But for majority of my games the TB will do me just fine.

Tested tons of games, I checked for environmental sounds like birds, wind, footsteps, train in distance in RDR2 and it was just as clear on the TB as the Penrose X. And in some games like Hellblade for example I definitely preferred how the voices sounded on the TB over Penrose X. Bass with the right preset (tested them all) comes close to the TB but I still end preferring the bass on my TB.

Then build quality, for 250-300 bucks I don't expect all plastic, not when the TB has a metal headband and that's just so good to have. Each time I put on the Penrose X I was afraid it was going to crack, if not today or in coming weeks then eventually and I don't like that. So the only reason that I would keep them is the max volume and that's just not worth 250-300 euros/bucks.

At the end of the day audio is super subjective anyway.

 

[garpen0]

Strange. My new pair of replaced Penrose X feels much better than my pair from March 2021. They feel a little bit better built but most important is the woshing sound is pretty rare to hear actually.
Everything was replaced including USB etc. Latest fw installed.

Did not get the BO beoplay portal and happy for that. The reviews are awful.
So thanks Audeze for improving the Penrose X.

 

[GungJoe]

I ended up selling these. I really liked the sound on the Penrose for PS4/5 but I had a few issues.

• It's very closed sounding. So it's hard to get a strong feel for enemy positions when factoring distance. You can get an impression, but things cluster together.
• On Playstation, you don't have access to a good virtual surround sound option for most games. Sony's 3D tempest audio is not good on games that are not explicitly designed to support it (and even there I'm not entirely convinced in some of those games). On games that don't go out of their way to support the tempest audio, it sounds compressed and it feels like you lose a lot of spatial information compared to other surround sound options. I A-B tested this on multiple games by closing my eyes and having a second player run around me (I controlled the second player on PC by pressing random inputs). I would try to estimate their position and then open my eyes, I was consistently accurate when using Dolby 5.1 via the Astro Mixamp Pro, but not using Sony's 3D audio.
• I had some issues with odd sounds from the drivers. Kind of minor but quite irritating, they would sort of pop and crackle here and there. Not often at all, but enough to note that I disliked it.
• The noise floor is quite poor. There's a constant hissing noise in the background, while this isn't present most of the time when you're playing very load games, if you play games which are quiet you can hear it. For instance Elden Ring has no music much of the time, you can just hear your own footsteps and the sound of the environment. It's distracting. I took steps to reduce this (increasing game volume, reducing headset volume, removing side tone) but it's still present to some degree and that does affect the experience in some quieter games.
• The headphones are ugly. Something that I really couldn't get over was how I felt awkward using them out in public. I know they're not really designed for this purpose but I bought these wanting an all-in-one option for work and gaming and I just dislike how they look on my head so that's something I'm conscious of. It's not a big deal, I wasn't embarrassed by it or anything like that but I think some headphones actually look really cool and it's a shame to go out wearing something as lame as this. I often wear NuraTrue when I'm out and I like how they look like Spacers.

But, what they did do is sell me on the Audeze sound. Because I was really impressed with the drivers and I loved how tight and responsive they were. Compared to other gaming headsets they felt far more detailed and crisp. I'm not fantastic at describing audio, but I really loved the sound. So after selling them I went back to my previous setup (Fidelio X2R and V-MODA Boom Pro) occasionally imagined a day where I'd purchase a full Audeze set of cans.

Anyway, the other day I stumbled upon an ebay listing, the Audeze LCD-GX for £500 or best offer. They were described as 'like new' and only opened once, so to me this seemed like a steal. I managed to get the seller down to £430 and they arrived about a week ago. They blow the Audeeze LCD out of the water, they have that fantastic sound that I loved in the Penrose but it a bit more refined. At times I felt the Penrose was a little bright but the LCD GX felts absolutely perfect tonally. At the same time they offer a considerably wider feeling soundstage, none of the noise floor issues and by plugging them in to my Astro Mixamp Pro I can get that 5.1 virtual surround sound that I find to be much more consistent. For me they also feel like they're EQed perfectly out of the box, which is a big benefit since while I mostly use them with the dac in the way described above, I also plug them into the Switch directly and they work great like that.

I know that's probably not the best option for everyone here because the LCD-GX is far more expensive than the Penrose but I think for me it was the only option to get the results I wanted.

 

[Zojokkeli]

If only Audeze made a wireless version of LCD-GX, I'd buy that one in a heartbeat. Having owned LCD-MX4, I concur that Audeze makes excellent headphones.

 

[waltdisneypixar]

LCD-GX is far more expensive than the Penrose but I think for me it was the only option to get the results I wanted.

can you plug it to ps5 controller and check the sound that way and compare it to penrose please

 

[GungJoe]

can you plug it to ps5 controller and check the sound that way and compare it to penrose please

Sure. I'm at a conference today but I'll test it later this evening and I'll post a mic test also as the mic will sound different through the controller vs through the astro a40 mixamp.

 

[GungJoe]

Here you go. I put my thoughts on the audio quality into the first video. However overall I'd say the sound on the DualSense sounds more compressed and misses detail that is present when you plug in with a DAC. It's still a good sound overall, tonally they're really nice headphones and they have good dynamics which are still present but it certainly missing detail when plugged into the controller.

In terms of driving the headphones, the controller is more than capable. They are low impedence and the controller can go beyond volumes that I would consider healthy. I listen comfortably between 80 and 90%.

Video 1 is recorded directly on a PS5 with the GX plugged into the controller. I'm using Playstations own party chat system (because in-game chat audio sucks) and Playstation's recording software.

For clarity I say that the Penrose is bright in this video, but I do not mean to say that the GX is dark. I find it to be more neutral leaning than the Penrose and I prefer that but it's only slight. Overall I think they both have good tuning out of the box for games and avoid the issues with overly warm sound signatures that many gaming headsets present.



Video 2 is recorded with the headphones plugged into the Astro Mixamp Pro TR which is then plugged into the PS5. With this setup I'm using an audio extractor to pull an optical signal from my HDMI cable. You can get audio extractors online but most of them are only HDMI 2.0, but there are HDMI 2.1 splitters that can do the job.



I don't think I'd recommend getting the headphones for the DualSense jack if that's you're only use case. I think if you're looking to use it as where as well, such as on your desktop, laptop, Switch and so forth, or potentially considering a dac in the future, then the GX is great. But otherwise I'd perhaps just stick with the Penrose. All the same, having experienced the GX I don't think I would want to go back.

I will definitely jump in with another wireless set from Audeze if they iterate on the Penrose design though. Better build quality, better aesthetic (make them look like the LCD-1?) and a 3D sound option built into the headphones would sell me on a new model. Mobius style headtracking would interest me too.

 

[Gunn3y]

It has been a while since i checked back in here, though i'm fairly certain i'm on the current firmware. Did anything ever come of the plan to add functionality to allow the Windows volume control to actually change the volume on the Penrose? I would still much rather use the volume control on my keyboard to adjust it than the scroll wheel on the headphones.

 

[ethernode]

@Audeze are you going to leave the new voice cue (mixed wireless + BT) as it is (i.e. half baked) or is a fw update still on the radar ? To me, leaving it as is is the same as saying that this device won't get any more fixes.