In a world filled with cyborg looking headsets, there's really only a handful of gaming headsets that both perform well and look great. The Audeze Mobius manages to tick both boxes and be one of the best at both in the entire industry. They feature the most balanced and true to life sound of any headset on the market and well, have a look at those curves….
If you're a gamer, the Audeze Mobius could well be the best headset you can buy. If you're not a gamer… then we're not only judging you ;) but we're here to tell you that the Mobius isn't just a headset for gamers, but a headset for everyone. With multiple connectivity options, such as Bluetooth, USB and 3.5mm, the Mobius can connect to just about any device imaginable.
Like any good pair of shoes, the Audeze headsets definitely have a wearing period. The first time I put them on they were particularly hard and quite uncomfortable. However, the more I wear them, the more they mould to the shape and size of my head and the more comfortable they become.
In terms of audio quality, you won't get better than the Audeze Penrose or Mobius, they truly are audiophile quality audio, in a gaming headset package. The Penrose being the cheapest planar magnetic headset on the market at the time of writing this article and absolutely delivers best in class audio performance.
Honestly, in a lot of ways the Audeze range of headsets are absolutely the best you can get, however “to get” them, you're going to have to part with a considerable amount of cash, and for this reason and this reason alone, neither was named our headset of the year. If it were based purely on audio quality they would have been. I can't reiterate enough how exceptional the audio is from both these headsets.
Mobius:
Some of the key features of the Mobius include:
Planar magnetic drivers for audiophile-grade cinematic sound
Full 3D emulation with wired USB support for popular surround sound modes (7.1 or 5.1)
1000 times/second integrated head tracking
Anatomy calibration to tailor the sound to the user
Mobius integrates Waves NX technology for real-time onboard 3D processing
Wired USB, Aux and Wireless Bluetooth Connections
Compatible with Gaming Consoles, Mobile Devices PC and Mac
The Audeze Mobius, is a premium looking and feeling headset. It is the absolute king of “Gaming Audio” and I reiterate would have absolutely been voted our best overall headset if not for two things. The first of which is the giant elephant in the room, the price tag. $700 for a gaming headset just simply puts it out of most peoples realm of possibility. The second is its bluetooth connection. When connected to either a mobile device or a laptop via bluetooth, the latency becomes unbearably distracting. On top of this issue, when testing the microphone over a bluetooth connection, it was simply unusable. When wired, the microphone quality is ok, but no better than average. Therefore, ultimately due to its poor bluetooth performance, we've rated these one of the worst in terms of microphone performance. H
having led with the negatives, please read on for why this headset might be worth the investment, if bluetooth and microphone quality don’t affect your decision. The thing is, the audio quality is truly phenomenal, those 100mm drivers really set it apart from the rest in terms of sheer audio quality. It's easily the most true to life audio of any gaming headset I've ever tried. Having audio frequencies of 10-40,000Hz, I can't stress enough how good these sound. They blow the rest out of the water in terms of audio quality; it just lacks in some other areas that a lot of gamers may find important. If you are buying a headset to play online and chat with your friends and want a purely wireless connection, then there's others on this list better suited for you. But, if you're an audiophile and pure audio quality is what you're after, and you like to connect via bluetooth for music or podcasts, then you won't find better than the Audeze Mobius.
One of the stand out features of the Mobius is its 3D head tracking. If you're not familiar, head tracking is essentially real time audio processing that centers your audio where your display is. Meaning, if you're looking straight at your TV while wearing them, the audio sounds like it's coming from the TV/ straight ahead. If you turn your head left, the audio is processed to sound like it's coming from your right, keeping the sound centred to where your TV is in relation to your head position. This is particularly impressive when playing games like COD and other FPS games where sound direction is absolutely essential.
Penrose:
Some of the key features of the Penrose include:
Excellent audiophile quality audio,
Audeze 100mm planar magnetic drivers,
lossless 2.4GHz low latency connectivity,
sleek design,
The Audeze Penrose is the absolutely perfect headset for either the Playstation or Xbox; it is without a doubt the best sounding headset for both consoles on the market. An impressive mix of incredible 100mm Planar Magnetic drivers, a frequency range that surpasses any other on this list (bar the Audeze Mobius), and very impressive sound deadening in the ear cups, that delivers a super crisp and life-like audio experience every single time. While the price may seem a little steep for some, The Audeze Penrose is in fact the cheapest headset on the market that includes planar magnetic drivers. If you don't know, a planar magnetic driver or transducer (the device that converts the electrical signal to sound waves) functions differently from dynamic drivers by using a flat diaphragm, rather than a typical cone or dome shaped membrane that you might find in common loudspeakers. These magnetic drivers help deliver rich, vibrant sound and are both louder and lighter than normal drivers, allowing for greater weight reduction in headsets that house them.
They are not the most comfortable or feature rich headset on this list (they are still a very comfortable headset) and the microphone, while performing well on console, is not the best available. What the Audeze Penrose lacks in these areas, it makes up for in sheer audiophile quality audio. Make no mistake, the Audeze Penrose is an audiophile headset first and a gaming headset second.
Simply put, Audeze is doing things in the gaming headset market that nobody else is. These planar magnetic drivers really are a game changer. The Penrose are currently the cheapest set of headphones on the market to feature these drivers. While I get the concept, I don't quite understand the technology behind “planar magnetic drivers”. There's one thing I do understand though, and that's when something sounds amazing and both of these headsets do.
If you want the best sounding gaming headset on the market, you won't go wrong with either of these.
