The Audeze Penrose Gaming headset brings premium audio and features to a segment packed with competitors that vary wildly in price.
Off the back of the next gen launches and pandemic gaming boom, premium audio has become much more desirable among discerning gamers. How well does the Audeze Penrose headphones deliver on their promise and should you buy them? Let’s take a look.
Audeze Penrose – Design
When I first opened the box I was slightly surprised by the look and feel of the Penrose headset. I still can’t tell if the surprise was a good or a bad one. Let’s put it this way, I’m accustomed to the premium, understated/industrial design of other Audeze products. I love that their audio products typically sport a no-nonsense design that avoids flourishes in favour of quality materials and finishes. The Penrose on the other hand looks “gamery”. The cups are faux leather with an outer shell and headband made from a smooth touch plastic material. The plastic used strikes a decent balance between rigidity and flexibility. Each cup features a geometric graphic and the Penrose name, while Audeze is printed along the top of the headband. The Penrose has blue accents around each cup, while the Penrose X, for XBOX, opts for Volt Green.
The first impression isn’t negative as such, I guess I just expected something more in keeping with the premium look of other Audeze products. My guess is they wanted to try and appeal more to younger gamers with this design, but this visual targeting puts the Penrose at odds with its pricing and audio capabilities. That aside, they don’t feel cheap, even if they look a little toy-like.
The left cup houses all of the controls; Mic-mute switch, power button, multi-function/pairing button and two individual wheels for headphone and microphone volume. That’s a nice touch. It also has three inputs; a custom fit port for the removable microphone that comes in the box, USB-C for charging and a 3.5mm port for wired connections.
Things I really like about the design of the Audeze Penrose Headset; the fact that each cup can rotate so that they rest flat when worn around your neck. I also like the detachable mic, it gives these headphones a little more versatility if you want to wear them for general use. In terms of fit, I find them quite comfortable, even during long periods of wearing. This in spite of them weighing roughly 320g. They fit snug and isolate the sound well around my medium-sized ears.
Audeze Penrose – Sound
One thing you’re guaranteed when you see the brand name “Audeze”; high fidelity audio performance. The sound quality of the Audeze Penrose is truly magnificent, bringing a level of detail to gaming audio that is challenging to find anywhere else. You will hear spatial elements of sound design that were previously barely detectable in all of the content you throw at these.
What helps this headset stand out from the crowd? 100mm Planar Magnetic drivers. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, let me explain in basic terms. The vast majority of consumer headphones use dynamic cone drivers, which are relatively low cost. But as a standardised and cheaper driver type, they have limitations in how they respond to different frequencies. The design of dynamic cone drivers concentrates sound in the centre of their diaphragms, which can cause distortion as the sound passes outwards, particularly at high volumes. What you ideally want is a uniform pistonic (up and down) response across the diaphragm. This is what Audeze’s planar magnetic drivers deliver, resulting in low distortion and superior frequency response range of 10Hz – 50kHz.
And when it comes to bass, the larger the diaphragm, the better. The Penrose’s have two large 100mm drivers and for reference, Apple AirPods Max, which cost twice as much have two 40mm dynamic drivers. If I were Audeze, I would almost have been tempted to market these as general consumer headphones that have the added bonus of gaming functionality. Because as headphones for listening to content and music, they are already an outstanding piece of kit. The fact that they can pair to a console or PC and have an attachable microphone is a bonus.
If you want to fine tune your listening experience, the Audeze HQ app provides a 10-band EQ window for you to make adjustments to the performance of the Penrose Headset. It’s quite a basic app, but it works reasonably well and on Android, allows you to save up to five presets, while I could only save two on my iPhone.
Audeze Penrose – Verdict
Should I buy the Audeze Penrose? Whether it’s hearing the direction of footsteps and gun fire or a richly textured soundtrack, this headset will give you an edge and bring a new level of immersion to your gaming and listening experiences.
I also love the fact that you can pair these to your mobile devices while gaming, so that if a call comes in, you can switch to your phone and take it. Pairing to a PS5 with the supplied 2.4GHz wireless dongle was also a breeze. It’s seamless integration like this that you often miss when you opt for cheaper gaming headsets. The battery is charged via USB-C and will give you a respectable 15 hours of on time. As a total package, there are few compromises here in terms of sound quality, build and function.
The only let down for me is that my search for one headset to rule them all goes on. Why is it so hard to get a single pair of quality gaming headphones to work across all consoles and devices wirelessly? If only manufacturers would adopt a single standard for wireless audio.
For more information and buying info, head here:
https://www.audeze.com
