Audeze Penrose X – Design and Options
The Audeze Penrose and Penrose X wi-fi headsets – the latter of which I reviewed – each provide the corporate’s planar magnetic/Neodymium know-how. These high-end, $300 headsets use 100mm planar magnetic drivers alongside Fluxor magnet arrays and Fazor Waveguides in every cup; the drivers and array present readability whereas the waveguide reduces distortion. Forgoing an in-depth evaluation on how all of this tech works, I can say that the Penrose X sports activities effectively constructed cans that permit for a tremendous audio-based expertise when gaming.After all, that’s simply on the within. The skin of every cup gives numerous niceties as effectively. As an illustration, the Penrose X makes use of contoured reminiscence foam and synthetic leather-based to offer a gentle and cozy match. Which is notable given the strain utilized by its headband – the X squeezes in such a method to maintain itself from falling out of your head throughout play.
Moreover a gentle contact, there’s nothing of notice on the appropriate ear cup. The left cup, nevertheless, homes the entire buttons and ports. That features the microphone and USB-C cost ports, a typical 3.5mm audio jack (for wired gaming), a number of quantity management wheels, the ability button, microphone mute change, and a nifty multi-function button that adjustments the Penrose’s connection kind.
All of those buttons and such are of a typical headset design. That stated, there’s truly rather a lot happening comfort smart. Take the a number of quantity management wheels for instance. Having separate quantity wheels for the mic and sport sound is at all times a plus. What makes them nice although is their secondary features. Double click on the headphone quantity wheel and the Penrose X will hyperlink again to the final Bluetooth host system it related to (extra on that in a bit). Urgent and scrolling the mic quantity wheel will regulate the sport chat combine, separating the chat and sport volumes with a view to higher hear one or the opposite.
The facility button has a number of makes use of as effectively. Urgent and holding the button will activate/off the headset. Single clicks will pause and play audio or reply and finish calls whereas double clicks (with a quick pause in between presses) will start Bluetooth pairing. The multi-function button has related makes use of. Lengthy presses begin the wi-fi dongle pairing whereas single clicks toggle between wi-fi, Bluetooth 5.0 and Aux connections.
Once more, the Penrose X appeared to be designed with comfort in thoughts. A number of helpful choices and options are at all times at your fingertips. Past that’s the ease of play. Out of the field, all I needed to do was plug within the versatile increase mic and join the two.4GHz wi-fi dongle (which comes with the headset) right into a USB port on my gaming PC and Xbox Collection X to get issues going. Even pairing to my cellphone to take heed to music was a breeze; the Penrose connects remarkably quick. Related on to a tool can also be simple because of its 3.5mm to three.5mm cable. Actually, the one factor that’ll gradual you down is the headset’s 3 hour cost time, which is able to web you 15 hours of battery life.
Audeze Penrose X – Efficiency
The Penrose X carried out splendidly, whether or not it was paired with my Android phone, PC, or Xbox Collection X. This was particularly the case with Xbox. For one, there was no want to regulate audio rendering settings because it helps any spatial audio system so long as it doesn’t must do any handbook processing. This principally signifies that, as a result of the Collection X handles every little thing on the backend, you’ll be able to simply plug and play – there’s no want to modify from say, Dolby Atmos, if that’s the setting you’d usually use with the Collection X. The Penrose X can deal with it and supply a digital encompass sound expertise with no need to be fiddled with.
One other factor that stood out is the flexibility to change the sport chat combine. One among my largest pet peeves with utilizing wi-fi headsets on the Xbox One (and now the Xbox Collection X/S) is how there’s no menu choice to alter the chat and sport volumes individually; they’re there however grayed out, solely usable with wired headsets. And whereas one may decrease the in-game sound through a sport’s sound settings, they would want to do this for each sport, subsequently elevating the quantity again up when not utilizing a wi-fi headset. The Penrose X circumvents this concern with its mic quantity wheel.
By urgent and holding earlier than scrolling up or down, I used to be capable of regulate the sport chat combine utilizing this wheel; my gaming TV, I may see the grayed-out bar sliding forwards and backwards. This made taking part in video games like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War bearable as I didn’t have to fret about explosions drowning out the chat. Talking of explosions, all of them sounded wonderful. Gun hearth, footsteps, somebody slowly opening a door in an effort to be sneaky – all of it got here in loud and clear. And with the strong connection offered by the two.4GHz wi-fi dongle, I didn’t have to fret about latency points.
Leaping over to PC for just a few rounds of Valorant, I shortly discovered myself immersed within the motion. That’s to not say that the Penrose X at all times carried out exceedingly higher than my earlier headsets, however solely that it didn’t want a lot tweaking to offer an important expertise. Nonetheless, if I did have to tweak the sound, I may use the AudezeHQ software program to take action. It permits the toggling of sidetones, combine changes, EQ adjustments (utilizing it’s 10 band interface), firmware updates and extra.
Most of my time with the Penrose X was past nice. There have been some points price mentioning although. The Penrose and Penrose X each permit for simultaneous connectivity through wi-fi and Bluetooth connections. This enables for some fast swapping – I used to be capable of chat with pals through Discord, change over to my cellphone to reply a name, after which change again to my PC utilizing one button. This kind of performance is nice on paper. Sadly, the mic itself doesn’t change forwards and backwards with you.
My pals on Discord may nonetheless hear me speaking after switching to my cellphone. I needed to manually mute myself on the app to maintain the decision non-public. Additionally, on just a few events, a sport’s audio from my PC and the particular person speaking to me on the cellphone may each be heard on the identical time. Switching between gadgets, utterly stopping the exercise on one earlier than beginning one thing on one other, proved to be useful. However making an attempt to trip shortly was met with combined outcomes.
Then there’s the mic. Toted as a broadcast high quality microphone, it largely lives as much as the hype. That stated, it may be a bit finicky. All headset mics require the right positioning to work effectively; put it too far-off and nobody can hear you, too shut and also you’ll sound muffled. The Penrose X’s mic is completely different. Regardless of the place I put the mic individuals may hear me. Which was an excellent factor. How effectively they may hear me although, trusted the slightest of changes.
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I checked on Audeze’s really helpful microphone positioning. Tried to maintain it between 2 and 6cm from the decrease left nook of my chin, slowly shifting it round to get issues good. Throughout that point, I’d ask my pals how I sounded. I’d go from low or muffled to nice and again once more although I used to be barely shifting the mic. It took a couple of minutes however, ultimately, I used to be capable of place it in a spot that labored, the place everybody may hear me speaking with out additionally listening to me respiration.
As mics go, it stayed in place whereas I used to be taking part in. I didn’t must mess with it once more till I by chance knocked it misplaced. This time, to repair the sound, I recorded myself whereas taking part in round with the mic’s positioning. I may at all times hear myself, nevertheless it took some time to get it to the place I’d be snug streaming or podcasting. You could possibly chalk this as much as person error – it’s potential that I wasn’t as mild with the mic as I believed – however the microphone does take some getting used to. Extra so than quite a lot of different headsets I’ve used through the years.
Audeze Penrose X – Buying Information
Each the Audeze Penrose and Penrose X might be pre-ordered immediately from Audeze with an MSRP of $299.99. The Penrose models are transport now, with the Penrose X to observe later this month.
