Audeze Mobius Gaming Headset Review @ [H]

I don't see Bluetooth itself as an end- its purpose isn't surround gaming headphones with head tracking, but rather passable audio quality for mobile stuff as well as basic data connectivity with a low power draw.

It's not really the right technology today, at least, but it is probably the best technology to be extended for this kind of application. Eventually.

For now, such endeavors are probably best left to various wireless USB techniques. Logitech probably has a lead here given how long they've been in that game.
 
I don't see Bluetooth itself as an end- its purpose isn't surround gaming headphones with head tracking, but rather passable audio quality for mobile stuff as well as basic data connectivity with a low power draw.

It's not really the right technology today, at least, but it is probably the best technology to be extended for this kind of application. Eventually.

For now, such endeavors are probably best left to various wireless USB techniques. Logitech probably has a lead here given how long they've been in that game.


LDAC = Lossless.

Bluetooth isn’t going away, it’s here and will continue to improve, the aforementioned LDAC, it’s a lossless format, then we have Aptx, Aptx HD and Aptx Low Latency.

Aptx is a ball hair away from lossless, LDAC is lossless.

LDAC devices are few and far between, but that will grow, Aptx is nearly everywhere nowadays.

No reason to think BT is shit now, BT is only shit if you need to use it on apple devices.
 
From Audeze today....which goes against what they said in that other forum thread. There are a total of 4 Audeze employees on this email thread.

From: Redacted <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, November 2, 2018 6:18 PM
To: Redacted
Cc: [email protected]; Redacted
Subject: Re: Mobius Unboxing and Review Contact Point


Hello Kyle,

We have a beta version of firmware that greatly improves the microphone. Please let us know if you will be interested int giving it a go.


Thanks,

-Redacted



upload_2018-11-2_18-58-55.png
 
Maybe put something about this fiasco at the beginning of the review, to let people know what kind of company they're potentially dealing with. Sometimes that's just as important as the product itself.
 
Maybe put something about this fiasco at the beginning of the review, to let people know what kind of company they're potentially dealing with. Sometimes that's just as important as the product itself.
Good suggestion, done. We updated page one of the review.
 
LDAC = Lossless.

Bluetooth isn’t going away, it’s here and will continue to improve, the aforementioned LDAC, it’s a lossless format, then we have Aptx, Aptx HD and Aptx Low Latency.

Aptx is a ball hair away from lossless, LDAC is lossless.

LDAC devices are few and far between, but that will grow, Aptx is nearly everywhere nowadays.

No reason to think BT is shit now, BT is only shit if you need to use it on apple devices.
Bluetooth has so much lag that I would be surprised if someone actulaly used it for gaming.
 
Bluetooth has so much lag that I would be surprised if someone actulaly used it for gaming.
I tried it out before I sent those back....it was not an up to par PC gaming experience.

Mobius is a joke for PC gamers that do not have money to burn.
 
Just got my Mobius headset in today ... gonna find out to my satisfaction if it's truly worthy of the name "planar magnetic gaming headset" or not. With Kyle's review in mind, I'm really curious ...
Well, how is it? As bad as Kyle says it is? Kyle is usually right on the money with these things.

After reading some of the negatives from this review, this is a pretty interesting product... Falls right in line with how I feel about most gaming branded products.... Overpriced, over marketed, and underwhelming...
 
Well, how is it? As bad as Kyle says it is? Kyle is usually right on the money with these things.

After reading some of the negatives from this review, this is a pretty interesting product... Falls right in line with how I feel about most gaming branded products.... Overpriced, over marketed, and underwhelming...

Still testing it -- movies/music seem good, so far (compared to my other headsets). I haven't touched gaming that much w/it yet; will do so in the next week or two.

I'll put my write-up review in this thread, once I'm done.
 
Still testing it -- movies/music seem good, so far (compared to my other headsets). I haven't touched gaming that much w/it yet; will do so in the next week or two.

I'll put my write-up review in this thread, once I'm done.

The thing I'm most curious about is the wireless issue Kyle mentioned. That seems incredibly stupid if the quality takes a dump if you enable the mic... Seems like a complete afterthought
 
The thing I'm most curious about is the wireless issue Kyle mentioned. That seems incredibly stupid if the quality takes a dump if you enable the mic... Seems like a complete afterthought
It is NOT a wireless headset for gaming unless you want to use Bluetooth.

Audeze did tell us that they had software beta updates for the mic issues after we had published our review. Not sure of the state of all that. I sent mine back for refund as I was not going to use those for gaming.
 
I am glad I read real audiophile reviews and not your review on this particular subject. The Audeze Mobius has amazing sound quality for stereo and high-res audio settings. I like HardOCP for many things but your review of this product, while accurate for the mic and some of the features, is absolutely wrong for overall sound quality from the planar magnetic drivers in the headphones. These headphones sound quite a bit better than most headphones under 500 dollars and better than almost all ‘gaming’ headphones. They are rated quite well on real headphone and hifi sites, so I definitely trust them more in this area.
 
I am glad I read real audiophile reviews and not your review on this particular subject. The Audeze Mobius has amazing sound quality for stereo and high-res audio settings. I like HardOCP for many things but your review of this product, while accurate for the mic and some of the features, is absolutely wrong for overall sound quality from the planar magnetic drivers in the headphones. These headphones sound quite a bit better than most headphones under 500 dollars and better than almost all ‘gaming’ headphones. They are rated quite well on real headphone and hifi sites, so I definitely trust them more in this area.
We reviewed these as a gaming headset, as these were advertised at the time. These fell on their face as a gaming headset. We actually had good things to say about sound quality overall. And the mic is total trash....which is very important in a gaming headset. The mic is literally the worst headset mic I have ever used. Gamers should not touch these.
 
I am glad I read real audiophile reviews and not your review on this particular subject. The Audeze Mobius has amazing sound quality for stereo and high-res audio settings. I like HardOCP for many things but your review of this product, while accurate for the mic and some of the features, is absolutely wrong for overall sound quality from the planar magnetic drivers in the headphones. These headphones sound quite a bit better than most headphones under 500 dollars and better than almost all ‘gaming’ headphones. They are rated quite well on real headphone and hifi sites, so I definitely trust them more in this area.

I use significantly nicer headphones (planars among them) on a daily basis for gaming and other listening- and I'm quite happy that Kyle did the review from a gaming headset perspective.

Simply put, these are audiophile cans with features that have been marketed towards gamers but that simply don't translate well, and the issues with the mic are egregious.

It seems more likely that you looked at the rating in the review but failed to actually read it.
 
Kyle seemed to really like the sound quality of the headphones as regular headphones. Why not let your product stand on its own two feet and be great instead of a gimmick?

I am glad I read real audiophile reviews and not your review on this particular subject. The Audeze Mobius has amazing sound quality for stereo and high-res audio settings. I like HardOCP for many things but your review of this product, while accurate for the mic and some of the features, is absolutely wrong for overall sound quality from the planar magnetic drivers in the headphones. These headphones sound quite a bit better than most headphones under 500 dollars and better than almost all ‘gaming’ headphones. They are rated quite well on real headphone and hifi sites, so I definitely trust them more in this area.

Kyle said that the headphones sounded great as regular headphones if you read the review. Nobody said that they sounded bad. Now the original mic is a different story. :)

I think you should have waited to get the HyperX / Audeze collaboration version. It has all the suggestions that we made in this thread incorporated into them. Obviously someone from Audeze read this thread, paid attention to the criticisms and is coming out with a revised edition. :)
 
At least the mic has been improved in the latest firmware (to me it seemed like mic gain was simply set way too low and I think that's probably what has been boosted so you won't need to have it set so close to the mouth) as well as remembering your last used config and an added "warm" EQ preset. Haven't checked it out yet but will soon. Mobius will still get quite a few firmware updates which will improve it from the initial launch.

They will also add the ability to turn off headtracking and keep the surround algorithm on for example. They probably will also expand on the feature they've recently added to make keybindings when certain movement of the headphone is picked up, it's already possible in some games to literally lean your head to lean ingame for example, that's a good use of the headtracking IMO.

I'm glad the HyperX collaboration happened as those guys have a much much better understanding of gaming nerds' needs being big into e-sports scene. That's probably where the big bucks will come from. As it is now, Audeze Mobius tends to find more its home into audiophile users who prefer a more "headset" target audiophile headphone than gamers picking it up to get a good gaming headset with superb sound quality like Kyle pointed out it's not the best when it comes to satisfy "the needs" of a gaming headset.

Why the reviews are so mixed are that they angle the product from such a different perspective. Kyle's review is great if you look from the eye of a "gamer", the others make sense if you look from an "audiophile" point of view. Audeze should have to begin with been collaborating with gamers who know what it is important, for the HyperX collaboration you can sense some of it has happen, the mic & pop filters is a good example, those look like the exact same ones used typically in e-sports in big tournaments in CSGO. Only the pricing didn't make much sense how it can even be cheaper.... I understand from a marketing standpoint HyperX brand felt it's necessary to get it slightly down to bring mass appeal but from a commercial point of view I don't get it how there is that much wiggle room or then simply Planar Magnetic headphones have been WAY WAY overpriced thus far. :p (but in reality it's probably down to shipment volumes, planar magnetic headphones so far has such low shipping volumes which I suppose the HyperX branded Audeze headphones are attempting to break).

I'm definitely excited for the future as we need products like these that pushes technology forward, I might even sell the Mobius and pick up a HyperX set depending how the profiles are configured, I'm not a pro gamer personally and my tastes are more into a bassheavy setting which the Mobius lacks and what HyperX likely will have. The bluetooth aspect of Mobius I was hoping to be a big deal for me but the reality is, no aptX support limits my useage scenarios and I'd like to use it with TV but yea too much lag as there's no bluetooth transmitters with LDAC (or AAC for that matter) support. I do have another bluetooth headphone with aptX-Low latency + a aptX Low latency supporting BT transmitter which both sound very good and the aptX-LL also has the lowest lag so it's keeping me very satisfied for those needs but the headtracking had been very nice for TV use though.
 
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I talked to an audiophile tech guy I have known for years about Audeze and he told me they do not sell a product unless they can make 80%+ profit margin on it. I think there is a lot of that going on in the audio industry.
 
lol good review by Kyle, especially catching the Bluetooth only wireless option (input lag + quality takes a dump over BT which is a no-no for gaming). The only feature that this headset had me interested was the wireless but now it's just a bad product. I'll just use my other headsets (including their own LCD-3) with a mic instead lol.
 
RPGWiZaRD

When I go shopping on Alibaba to see what things cost in China, I end up staring at prices like these.
https://www.alibaba.com/product-det...pm=a2700.7724857.normalList.42.28bc7518SUCZne

Ha ha. I wonder what the markup is for planar magnetic headphones since it is the hot new "thing."

To be fair, planar magnetic tech has been around for quite some time, as is the "ultimate headphone end game electrostatics" by brands like Stax.

The modded planar magnetic/orthodynamic Fostex T50RP MK3 I used to own had some of the biggest and best bass I've ever experienced, even given my preference for detail.
 
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Update: big apology to all that might've been waiting on my impressions/review of the Audeze Mobius -- I've been blasted with a metric ton of work over the past 1.5 months or so (and still am).

I'll put up the "detailed review" at a later date, but the nitty-gritty is this: while I really like this headphone (to the point where it has replaced my Audeze LCD-2 Classic for gaming and some music), there are a number of issues that prevent it from being a runaway hit/award-winner -- and most of those issues seem to stem from the software side of things. The positional audio is both good and "not good" at the same time (I'll explain what I mean in my full write-up). Movies and music are quite nice. Comfort is very good. Bluetooth is erratic. Software is irritating.

Edit: what I'll say in my "detailed review" will be subjective, since I don't have any advanced headphone testing gear (like dummy heads) or software like the Rightmark Audio Analyzer.
 
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Update: big apology to all that might've been waiting on my impressions/review of the Audeze Mobius -- I've been blasted with a metric ton of work over the past 1.5 months or so (and still am).

I'll put up the "detailed review" at a later date, but the nitty-gritty is this: while I really like this headphone (to the point where it has replaced my Audeze LCD-2 Classic for gaming and some music), there are a number of issues that prevent it from being a runaway hit/award-winner -- and most of those issues seem to stem from the software side of things. The positional audio is both good and "not good" at the same time (I'll explain what I mean in my full write-up). Movies and music are quite nice. Comfort is very good. Bluetooth is erratic. Software is irritating.

Edit: what I'll say in my "detailed review" will be subjective, since I don't have any advanced headphone testing gear (like dummy heads) or software like the Rightmark Audio Analyzer.
Can't wait to read what you think of them. :)
 
That entire industry is filled with this shit. Just look at the prices of some" audiophile cables " and that's a pretty good insight into how overpriced some of this shit is.

"Audiophile cables and quasi-magical music rocks" are the worst. It's one reason why I'm not a big fan of cable manufacturer Audioquest (they are very clever with their marketing, tho).

As for the Audioquest Nighthawks, they are a very polarizing headphone; I was considering getting one about 2 years back, but ended up passing, after reading a number of detailed reviews from reviewers I trusted.
 
I think it was unfortunate that the rep for Audeze responded the way he/she did. I have been an Audeze customer since 2011 and have been very happy with my LCD2, LCD2 fazor, LCD3 and LCD3 fazor headphones; their customer service has generally been good and consistent.

Just like any high performance boutique electronics manufacturer, these headphones are not perfect from manufacturing perspective. However, Audeze headphones that are above $1k are among the best I have heard at their respective price points. Apart form Audeze, I have owned numerous AKGs, Sennheisers, Audio Technicas, Beyers, Grados, Koss, NAD, Sony, Philips, Panasonic, and have heard even more. Based on my perception and preferences, Audeze came closest to the sound of high quality speakers. For the same level of quality reproduction, I suspect you would need to spend 5-10x on the speakers.

I think had [H] raised the issue with Sankar or Alex, things might have transpired differently.
 
I think had [H] raised the issue with Sankar or Alex, things might have transpired differently.

The biggest issue is that the Mobius appears to be terrible at what it portends to be: it is a significant downgrade in terms of usability compared to your standard Corsair or Logitech wireless headset for gaming. It's head tracking feature is mostly useless (regardless of how well it works), and it's wireless feature is hampered by Bluetooth. Oh, and the mic sucks.

Being a nice set of cans doesn't really make up for all that at its price-point.
 
Being a nice set of cans doesn't really make up for all that at its price-point.

The idea from Audeze (I think) was that it would be a "great value", given that it's the base Audeze Sine headphone that's been very heavily reworked to accommodate other "gaming-ish" features (to the point of actually becoming an entirely different headphone) -- and the Sine series (before it was discontinued) was by no means a "cheap headphone" @ around $400 or so (it was a competitor with the likes of the Sennheiser HD 600/650 line, AKG K7-- lines, HiFiMan HE-400i, and many others). Audeze has built up an enviable reputation in the audiophile world (a rep that, for the most part, has been backed up via objective testing), so they were definitely counting on the "blending of a venerable audiophile name with the lure of ultra-high-end gaming" as a potent mix (something that Sennheiser & Audio-Technica [amongst others], annoyingly, haven't bothered to do, since their top gaming headphone models are their "good, but very much low-fi" headphones retweaked for gaming -- I don't plan on seeing a "gaming edition" of the HD 600/650/660 S anytime in the near future, even though I think that would sell quite well with the right marketing).

While I do believe that it's somewhere between "evolutionary" and "revolutionary" in terms of what it brings to the table (and that is a very, very big plus), after my time testing it out, I think Audeze was overambitious with their expectations for this headphone -- and that's something I'll go into more detail in my upcoming review. Lots of nice things, lots of not-so-nice things.

For what it's worth, I'm glad that Kingston's HyperX division is picking up/retweaking the Mobius for their HyperX Cloud Orbit/Orbit S line -- the approach they've taken (cutting out head-tracking on the Orbit, and taking out Bluetooth altogether) seems to be a smart one, and is shown in the price, too -- $300ish range.
 
For what it's worth, I'm glad that Kingston's HyperX division is picking up/retweaking the Mobius for their HyperX Cloud Orbit/Orbit S line -- the approach they've taken (cutting out head-tracking on the Orbit, and taking out Bluetooth altogether) seems to be a smart one, and is shown in the price, too -- $300ish range.

This release is perhaps the best result we could have hoped for with HiFiMan getting into 'gaming' headsets. Can't say that I'd be in a hurry- HD600 and Blue Snowball (along with HE-4XX, MDR-Z7, Focal Elex, others...) so I'm quite set, but for those looking for a top-end out of box headset, I think that Kingston will have the right product!
 
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