Audeze Mobius "Gaming" Headset in the House

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Our brand new $400 Audeze Mobius "gaming" headset has a lot to live up to based on price alone. However, all the headline features, outside of the actual drivers and sound quality, really do not seem to have much to do with gaming. We ordered the Mobius on July 16th and finally took delivery Monday morning. Right out of the box and using these for several hours now, the price tag seems a bit much to swallow.

Check out our unboxing video.

At Audeze, we create products that break the mold and change the rules. We strive to create magical experiences for our customers that go beyond just being an ordinary headphone. With Mobius, you won’t simply play a game, you will live it.
 
oldmanbal said:
Just want high end Sennheiser clarity with actually powerful bass that doesn't require turning my amp up to deafening.
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It's possible with these.

But the rabbit hole to try to get clarity, bass, soundstage and positioning all in one set of cans is a deep one. If they impress Kyle, I'll have to take a closer look at them and compare them to the current stable :).
 
I'm happy with my Sennheiser's, these Audezenuts look like something you could get from a shady ebay seller for $60
 
I think at that price point you can get a nice set of ATH-M70X's and a headphone amp which will be worlds better.

Being realistic here most games don't utilize 7.1 audio. It's all stereo with positional trickery. I have no issue using my Sony MDR-V6's with amp to get the same positional sensation as I do with my Logitech G933's.
 
I can't buy any headsets that cost more than $50 because I have a fat head, and in 6 months I'll split them. I've never had a pair of audio headphones from the 70's or 80's break, but any modern headphone I put on my head will eventually split out.


P.S. For the record, I have an 8 3/8" head. The Army had to fit me with custom hats and a custom gas mask.
 
I tried to get into wireless headsets for a while, I really did. Ultimately I ended back up using wired + amp. The inconvenience of wires is something I wish would go away, but man wired headsets are just such a better experience. Frankly I'd settle for a wireless modmic to at least clean up the wires a bit...I heard that's coming soon...
 
I've been keeping an eye on these as a alternative option to sort out my surround sound issues in gaming, so will be very interested in reading this review.

While the peak of usage scenarios is wireless, they also offer an analogue and USB options, though wireless support is ONLY for PC apparently.

It's worth noting that for direct sales, Audeze offers a 30-day trial. I could find zero mention of who is responsible for return shipping, nothing either way.

If I read the right words from a review done here, I may give them a shot knowing a return is an option.
I have a very old pair of Razer Tiamat's, and no headphones for either of my consoles, so these could fit the bill!
 
oldmanbal said:
Just want high end Sennheiser clarity with actually powerful bass that doesn't require turning my amp up to deafening.
Click to expand...

gunbust3r said:
I'm happy with my Sennheiser's, these Audezenuts look like something you could get from a shady ebay seller for $60
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I also like my sennheisers, HD800S, things are ball tingling good.

The mobious, I have the copper ones on order, supposedly these new cans are legit and are cool as fuck, but, I’ve also heard that they are shit and not worth it and its a fucking gimmick, It all depends on who is telling the story.

If it’s staff members at Head-fi, fuck their shit, they will give a good review to anyones products as long as someone gives them free shit and becomes a “sponsor” on there forums.

I just waiting for my etailer to get them shits instock.
 
Picked a pair up when original indiegogo campaign was running for 260$.
My set should finally be arriving today after some shipping snafus.
Apparently this is their first more mass market product as opposed to their 1k$+ halo range headphones, with assembly being outsourced to China, even though drivers are still made in Cali.
And their first time dealing with a international 3pl for shipping fulfillment.

Decided to pick them up because I had heard good things about company and planar drivers in general, and seemed like they would be a really good music headphone, with ldac Bluetooth support.
Gaming stuff seemed neat, though it basically boils down to better binaural 3d sound placement, and the head tracking, which basically is there to help fix sounds in place around you, like speakers.
I.e. turning your head would change what you hear. Like when you just do that naturally to pinpoint sounds around you irl.
Curious to see what Kyle thinks of them, and if there's enough gaming value added for me to use them over my 5.1 speaker setup.
 
SuicideKing said:
Picked a pair up when original indiegogo campaign was running for 260$.
My set should finally be arriving today after some shipping snafus.
Apparently this is their first more mass market product as opposed to their 1k$+ halo range headphones, with assembly being outsourced to China, even though drivers are still made in Cali.
And their first time dealing with a international 3pl for shipping fulfillment.

Decided to pick them up because I had heard good things about company and planar drivers in general, and seemed like they would be a really good music headphone, with ldac Bluetooth support.
Gaming stuff seemed neat, though it basically boils down to better binaural 3d sound placement, and the head tracking, which basically is there to help fix sounds in place around you, like speakers.
I.e. turning your head would change what you hear. Like when you just do that naturally to pinpoint sounds around you irl.
Curious to see what Kyle thinks of them, and if there's enough gaming value added for me to use them over my 5.1 speaker setup.
Click to expand...
The head tracking works. It is sort of strange though. I need to hit up some Netflix with these today as it might be interesting with 5.1 and movies. I am waiting for an important sig-required delivery right now, and I am pretty sure these isolate the user enough that I would not hear a knock or the doorbell.
 
The boards over at Head-Fi indicate the a lot of issues with the first shipments to Kickstarter folks(hissing and such). They are just now beginning to ship the retail orders. I've heard some really positive feedback on the properly operating headsets though. Looking forward to the full review from Kyle!
 
fadedlogic said:
The boards over at Head-Fi indicate the a lot of issues with the first shipments to Kickstarter folks(hissing and such). They are just now beginning to ship the retail orders. I've heard some really positive feedback on the properly operating headsets though. Looking forward to the full review from Kyle!
Click to expand...

A large part of delay, was after initial report of noise floor being too high (hissing), they halted all orders, sent all manufactured ones back to factory to be reworked with a potential fix, that most people who got both seem to agree has made it a non issue.
 
I own a pair of these as I was part of the original Indiegogo campaign. Audeze is well-respected in audio and I really do enjoy planar magnetic drivers. You should always be skeptical with any audio products advertised as being made for gaming,
but it looks like Audeze is looking to change that with their first gaming focused headphone.

I've always been interested in virtual surround, starting with the Aureal Vortex 2 back in the day. I own many pairs of headphones, including the AKG K7XX, Audiotechica ATH-AD700, Monoprice M1060, Sennheiser 58X, and Beyer 880 Pro. These days, I use HeSuVi for my virtual surround needs, well, until I received my Mobius.

I paid $250 as being part of the early campaign. Here are my impressions:

Pros:

+ LDAC Bluetooth codec support. Android 8+ supports this codec.
+ Head-tracking works extremely well. It's very immersive and useful in online FPS gaming.
+ No hiss. At least on my unit, I've never heard a hint of hiss.
+ This may be the first wireless headset I've used where I haven't been disappointed in the sound quality.
+ You can use it wired over USB-C.
+ Did I mention USB-C?


Cons:
- They're closed headphones, so you're just not going to have that large soundstage that an open headphone provides.
- It will take some time to get used to all of the buttons and their functions.
- Battery life could be better.
- Microphone wasn't working very well for me. There's apparently a beta firmware to address this, with a final release coming soon.

If anyone has any questions, let me know.
 
Aren't those headphones heavy on the head with all that circuitry and batteries? Serious question as I still refuse to leave the wired world with all my audio controls coming from the wired source. Batts + controls + heat just screams bad to me.
 
fadedlogic said:
The boards over at Head-Fi indicate the a lot of issues with the first shipments to Kickstarter folks(hissing and such). They are just now beginning to ship the retail orders. I've heard some really positive feedback on the properly operating headsets though. Looking forward to the full review from Kyle!
Click to expand...
No hissing that I can hear on mine.

linuxdude9 said:
+ Head-tracking works extremely well. It's very immersive and useful in online FPS gaming.
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Tell me just how much this actually impact FPS gaming. I do not see it being a big deal at all. Do you look around a lot while gaming, more than few degrees?

That_Sound_Guy said:
Aren't those headphones heavy on the head with all that circuitry and batteries? Serious question as I still refuse to leave the wired world with all my audio controls coming from the wired source. Batts + controls + heat just screams bad to me.
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350 grams. Not seeming heavy, but have not worn them long periods yet. These do seem to get a bit hot though.
 
gunbust3r said:
I'm happy with my Sennheiser's, these Audezenuts look like something you could get from a shady ebay seller for $60
Click to expand...

Not to sound too critical, but Audeze is a really respected name in personal headphone audio.

If you look on Ebay or Amazon, there are all kinds of Chinese knockoff headphones & gaming headsets that look "just like the real thing", or close enough (copies of all respected brands, including blatant ripoffs of Sennheiser/Beyerdynamic/etc).

As for Audeze themselves, check out these mini-reviews, complete with links for the more detailed/formal reviews (of Audeze and other models, including Sennheiser) from one of the best headphone reviewers in the business (who uses objective measurments, not "quasi-elitist hand-wavium") -- all the models listed are good:

https://www.innerfidelity.com/content/innerfidelitys-wall-fame-over-ear-open

I do think that Audeze is putting a lot on the line in their Mobius model, and some planars can sound considerably different than dynamic headphone drivers (I strongly disliked the Audeze LCD-2 Classic when I first tried them on, but after using them [3+ hours per day] for a week, and then comparing them to some of my other headphones, I really liked them -- subjective review/comparison below):

 
I heard someone say they were getting extrememly low volume levels from the mic on these. And that it has a mic monitoring feedback that you may always hear and not be able to turn off.

Curious to look at the [H] impressions of these guys.
 
linuxdude9 said:
I don't play online FPS without using virtual surround, as it's a huge advantage.
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I fully understand what virtual surround is. I do not see the headtracking being beneficial, but hopefully I will be greatly surprised. :)
 
Curious about these. I currently use DT-880's with a modmic5 on them for gaming. Really miss having more places locally to go and try speakers/headphones.
 
SuicideKing said:
Since I had been waiting on these for a while and reading other indiegogo backer reviews as they got theirs, everyone DID seem impressed by movie surround sound experience
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I've yet to hear a convincing set of "5.1/+" headphones that don't just use some hacky softwear to splice quality audio into not so accurate segments. Would really enjoy something that delivered true to experience theater sound in a can. However, don't be deceived by a need to have more than stereo sound, it is and will always be the largest step forward in audio delivery. Throw in Jimi Hendrix are you experienced and crank up the volume if you want to argue against this.
 
The one thing to remember is that there is no surround in wireless mode.
There's the optional emulation of two front speakers in a 3d space, but that's it.

Got my pair this afternoon, just finished setting it up, haven't really messed with it too much.
I'll agree no hiss, that being said there is a noticeable noise floor. I.e. when I turn it on, I hear something I don't when it's off. Not a hiss, but some barely noticeable white noise. It disappears as soon as something is playing, about the equivalent of some low level ANC. So not a practical issue, but something to note.

Also, it gets plenty loud.
 
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Been playing with the head tracking while I am writing a review listening to netflix/twitch. My wife comes in and starts talking to me. I turn and look at her and can't her and in my mind I thought my speaker system was on and the cans had come unplugged (stupid ass SHORT cable that I have yanked out 10 times today), then I took them off...and the speakers were not on. Wow.
 
I use some LCD2's at my workstation when I don't want to be bothered and maybe I contributed to the short cable. I asked for a much shorter one because a 2 or 3 meter cable is ridiculous for plugging into an amp that is half a meter away.
 
If anyone is curious about this but doesn't want to spend that much, Mobius uses Waves Nx for its virtual surround and head tracking. You can try Waves Nx for free for 30 days ($10 thereafter) and the head tracker is also purchasable for $99. Both can be used with any headphone.
 
illram said:
If anyone is curious about this but doesn't want to spend that much, Mobius uses Waves Nx for its virtual surround and head tracking. You can try Waves Nx for free for 30 days ($10 thereafter) and the head tracker is also purchasable for $99. Both can be used with any headphone.
Click to expand...

The head tracker is the Mobius is far better than the standalone one. Standalone is 50hz, versus 1000hz of the Mobius.
 
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