Audeze Penrose Review
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Quick Summary
Connectivity
Controls
Headphone Audio Quality
Microphone Audio Quality
Software
Build Quality and Comfort
Verdict
Quick Summary
The Audeze Penrose is the clearest and most detailed sounding headset at its price range and below. It’s an excellent choice for competitive FPS games.
However, the build quality isn’t great, the comfort is lacking, and the treble boosted sound signature is not for everyone.
Connectivity
The Audeze Penrose is optimized for PC and PlayStation 4 and 5, but I also used it on the Switch and with my Android phone. If you want Xbox functionality, there's the Penrose X.
The Penrose has 3 (technically 4) different connection options:
First, the Penrose can be used wirelessly using the low latency 2.4 GHz wifi USB dongle.
Secondly, you can use it with Bluetooth 5.0. The Bluetooth connectivity is really split into two different options.
You can have the headset paired with both Bluetooth and the USB dongle at the same time. When you do this, the voice prompt will say "2.4 and Bluetooth". Or you can swap again to connect through Bluetooth only.
So if you want to use the Penrose to talk on your phone while also playing on PS5 with the dongle, you can do that.
The Bluetooth-only option is very welcome because of my negative experience with the SteelSeries Arctis 9. On that device, if you go out of range or to the maximum range of the USB connection while using Bluetooth, it will keep saying “pairing” or “connecting” as it tries to conenct to the dongle. On the Penrose, you can specifically set it to Bluetooth only to eliminate that issue.
The dual wireless functionality is a bit of a niche use, but the fact that it has Bluetooth and a detachable mic means you can take the Penrose outside and use it as a normal set of Bluetooth headphones. Nice.
Lastly, you can use the auxiliary port for a 3.5 mm wired connection. For console use, you can just plug it into a controller.
Keep in mind if you do this, generally the headset does not get nearly as loud as when used with the 2.4 GHz connection. Also, the quality of the sound is going to be limited by whatever amp it's plugged into. For example, the PS4 controller causes some mic audio compression when you plug headsets into it.
Signal Consistency
I’ve been using the Penrose for a couple months and the device has never cut out on me. Then again, I also don't move farther than 2 feet from my computer or about 6 feet from the console.
Charging and Firmware Updates
So those are the basic connection options, but there's one more port which is USB-C. This is needed to charge the device and necessary for firmware updates. The battery is stated to last up to 15 hours and it takes 4-5 hours to fully charge.
15 hours of battery life seems like an overestimation in my experience. I've been experiencing maybe 10-12 hours. This is a big deal, because this device only works when powered on. You can't even use it with the aux cable if it's dead or powered off.
The silver lining is you get access to certain functions - specifically swapping between the EQ presets - even when you're using the aux cable. And EQ presets do save to the device itself so you can use them on console no matter how you connect to it.
Controls
All of the controls are on the left earcup and there are a lot of them. First, there's the power button on the outside. There's a light that will be a different color depending on how it's currently connected or if it's charging. Then there's a mic mute switch at the top.
Next to the mic port, there's a blue button that lets you change the connection. You can switch between: USB 2.4 GHz wireless, Bluetooth and 2.4 (dual wireless), Bluetooth alone, or auxiliary cable.
There are a couple things to note about this functionality. When you plug in an aux cable, it will automatically switch to that mode from whatever other setting you might be on. You're going to have to manually switch back with that button.
In addition, it's really easy to accidentally press while you're trying to hold the headset in place to press the dials on the back so watch out for that. It honestly took me a few weeks to get used to the placement of all the controls.
There are two dials near the rear for the headphone gain and mic gain. These are both in-headset controls, so they don't affect your PC system volume. I love that. However, if you're using Bluetooth on your phone then it will control the phone's volume itself.
The downside to the volume control of the Penrose is when used with the USB dongle, the Windows volume button becomes completely non-functional. You can't raise, lower, or mute the volume at all. You can only use the headset controls.
Clicking in and holding the mic gain dial will switch the sidetone on and off. It's not very loud and I never use mic feedback, but it's there.
An example of an EQ preset in Audeze HQ.
Clicking in and holding the headset gain slider will let you swap between 5 EQ presets that you can fully customize on PC. The implementation is good but not perfect. I'll get into that in the software section. You can only swap between these presets using the headset itself after you've updated to the latest firmware.
Headphone Audio Quality
Is the audio quality of the Audeze Penrose worth $300? The short answer is yes. But the sound is not for everybody. I’ll be covering the sound in great depth here, so here is a quick bullet point list:
Drivers Overview
Tuning
Detail and Clarity
Soundstage
Casual Listening (Movies, Music, Immersive Games)
Audio Quality Summary
Drivers Overview
What makes this headset so different from others? From a technical perspective, it uses Audeze's patented 100 mm Planar Magnetic Drivers. Audeze has some great videos and graphics explaining why these perform so well, but this article is a review, so I won’t market them here. Still, just the size of the drivers is twice the size used in most gaming headsets.
For example, the Astro A40 uses 40 mm drivers, The HyperX Cloud Alpha uses 50 mm, and the Cloud II, 53 mm. Before I even go deep into the quality of sound, the sheer volume is way louder than any other headset I’ve used.
Tuning
The Penrose has a frequency range of 10 Hz - 50 KHz. That's far wider than any device I've ever used, but it’s misleading without context. The range of human hearing is only 20 Hz to 20 KHz anyway which is what most headsets are. But I did want to list that spec, because that is still quite rare.
What’s more important is the frequency response or how it emphasizes the highs, mids, and lows.
The Penrose is my new main headset for FPS games.
This is a very “bright” sounding headset. The treble is definitely the star of the mix here to the point of being harsh at the higher frequencies. If you're into other sharp devices like the Sony MDR-7506, or the HyperX Cloud Alpha, then you'll be at home. The bass is stronger than both of those, but it definitely takes a back seat to the upper mids and highs.
The overall sound signature is pretty much perfect for competitive FPS games. Two of my favorite headsets aside from this are the Astro A40 and the Drop + EPOS PC38X.
However, those devices don't have that (frankly obnoxious) boost in the treble and the upper mids like the Penrose, Cloud II, and Cloud Alpha do. Which means footsteps are just not really that loud in the Astro or the EPOS. They sound natural, but they don't stand out as much from everything else like vehicle rumbles and explosions.
PC38X (left), Astro A40 TR, and Penrose (neck)
And that is what you’d really want them to do in a competitive shooter. So the Penrose is tuned really well out the box for games like Warzone and Halo.
Detail and Clarity
Now what's even more interesting than the EQ tuning that the Penrose has is its detail and clarity. That's the main thing Audeze brags about. They say these drivers set a new standard of sound separation with ultra low distortion.
And… they're correct. This is easily the most detailed headset that I've listened to. It makes the ever-worshiped MDR-7506 sound like it's missing detail, especially in the bass. The Penrose has exceptionally clean, textured bass where you can hear all the strumming of guitars and all the vibrations of drums.
When listening to YouTube videos with decent audio quality but not recorded in a sound treated room, you'll be able to hear reverb off the walls that you didn't notice before.
This headset makes the Astro A40 sound muffled in comparison, and I love the A40. It makes the Cloud II's bass seem muddy. That’s hard to do considering how restrained the low end is on the Cloud series headsets.
While the Penrose will not instantly turn you into a top player, I will give a couple examples of how this helped me in gameplay. In Warzone, there are two common killstreaks: the cluster strike and the precision airstrike.
A precision airstrike in Call of Duty: Warzone.
When both of those go off you just hear explosions, planes, and artillery. You can't hear anything else. I always assumed that was the point. With the Penrose, you can still hear footsteps of people running around and people slamming doors on the floor beneath you while all this stuff is going on. The sound separation is exceptional.
Another Warzone example is when the timer starts ticking down on the next gas circle and there's loud music and a bunch of unnecessary sound effects that get in the way of the game. You can still hear all of the movement clearly through that.
Soundstage (and why it’s overrated)
A great benefit that these drivers provide is the ability to hear normally imperceptile sounds far in the distance. In Halo Infinite - at least in FFA Slayer - there's no music for most of it. So you can really hear grenades and weapon fire from across the map.
That also leads me to challenge the pervasive idea that to have better “positional audio” that you need an open back headset with a wider soundstage. Comparing the Penrose to the Drop + EPOS PC38X proves that is definitely not the case.
The Audeze Penrose is closed back and the PC38X is open back meaning there’s venting on the outside of it to let sound leak in and out freely. This makes sounds feel like they're all around you. This is because the audio is literally coming out of the ear cups into the space around it. For a pleasant listening experience, it's pretty cool. And for casual listening, the PC38X is currently my new favorite headset.
But does this wider soundstage help me discern the location of enemies more accurately? Absolutely not. I hear sound cues from much farther away on the Penrose, because its detail is just that good. And that's in addition to the sound signature of the Penrose being more suited to FPS games anyway.
The Penrose doesn’t sound super closed-in since the ear cushions aren’t truly noise isolating. Therefore, if you wanted to eliminate background noise, this doesn’t do that so well. But if you’re concerned with its “directional audio being subpar, because you read or heard that open back headsets are superior in that regard… I can say in my experience, that’s not the case. The Penrose performs admirably for competitive gaming.
Casual Listening (Music, Movies, Immersive Games)
For music, instruments that were previously buried in a track really get to shine with the Penrose. Using the default EQ profile, the bass is quite weak, but it’s extremely clear and gets deep into the lowest frequencies. You can crank up the bass with the Audeze HQ software, but even with aggressive EQ, it will never match the power on the low end of warmer devices like the PC38X or any of Skullcandy’s lineup.
For that reason, I don’t personally use the Penrose for much casual listening at the house. I take advantage of its Bluetooth during workouts and occasionally on the go, but the sub-bass is just too restrained for my tastes. If you like to both hear and feel explosion rumbles in movies, and experience powerful 808s in music, then you probably won’t be satisfied with the Audeze Penrose.
Audio Quality Summary
The Penrose is easily the headset champion if you're looking for the best competitive advantage. For music and movies, the detail is excellent, but I'd only recommend the Penrose to people who are fine with treble that can get harsh.
There are certain songs that I had drop the 4 kHz range by up to 8 dB and boost the 64 Hz frequency by about the same just so my ears wouldn't bleed. A great example is Doe Deer from Crystal Castles. That’s just unlistenable with the Penrose’s out the box sound. If you're into this type of sound for music and movies, you've got a winner.
Microphone Audio Quality
When used wirelessly, the Audeze Penrose has below average microphone audio quality for a headset. The sound is muffled, unclear, and the electronic feedback is very loud. Even at maximum volume it only hits around -24 dB in Audacity, so it’s pretty quiet.
The Penrose mic quality kinda succ.
The be fair, the microphone itself is not the cause of the poor quality - it’s the compression through the 2.4 GHz connection. I also recorded a sample using a splitter that comes with the HyperX Cloud Alpha. With that setup, the feedback is reduced, and the sound is more full and natural.
The low volume issue still remains when used wired, and the plosive rejection of the mic itself is not very good.
In summary, the mic is pretty bad when used wirelessly, but it’s above average when used wired. However, the Penrose does not actually come with a splitter in the box, so it’s not fair to judge it by its wired performance if you’ll be using it with a desktop PC.
Software
The Audeze HQ app is functional but it feels a bit neglected.
I assume Audeze wants the physical headset itself to function as a hardware key for the software, but I find it annoying that you can't just plug in the dongle and access all the headset functions from there. Without the USB-C connection, you can’t use Audeze HQ at all.
Anyway, you get a 10 band EQ which is quite precise. You can change the auto shut-off time and change other things like the mic volume and sidetone.
The EQ profiles save to the device itself which is good. You don't actually need to click save and make a file unless you wanted to load a different set of presets.
Even though I got the Penrose, not the Penrose X, the software still says “xbox mix”. Also, the app can never go full screen.
There are a couple nitpicks I have with Audeze HQ.
First, the equalizer has a lot of clipping protection added to it. So if you boost - for example - one of the bass frequencies like 64 Hz, by 6 dB, the software will make all of your audio significantly quieter to compensate for that.
This headset gets so loud using Bluetooth or 2.4 GHz, that it probably won’t matter too much since you can just raise the volume. However, if you were to use the aux port, this will make your device pretty quiet.
You’ll need to be careful when switching EQ presets, because if you have a bass heavy preset and switch to the default sound your Penrose is going to get super loud without warning.
A second nitpick is how long it takes to cycle between the presets. You have to hold down the headset volume dial for around 3 seconds and wait for the “EQ 1” or “EQ 2”, etc. voice notification every time so getting from preset 1 to 5 can take up to 20 seconds.
And again, make sure your firmware is on its latest version so you even get this option at all. So the software is good, but it has room for improvement.
Build Quality and Comfort
If the Audeze Penrose has one weakness, it's the build quality. This thing is all plastic which is pretty thin and not very flexible.
Pulling it off my head feels like pulling off the $30 Razer Kraken X - like it's about to snap.
Now that I’ve had these for a couple months, I have successfully worked out in these several times with no damage. I’ve read an insane amount of complaints about the headband snapping, but that hasn’t been my experience.
As for comfort, I’d give the Penrose a B at best. At first the clamping force was way too much and they hurt quite a bit, but after breaking them in, they're looser. That said, the tight fit is actually pretty helpful when lifting weights so they don’t fall off.
The padding is fake leather that's between the softness of the Cloud Alpha and the Cloud II.
The adjustment brackets are pretty standard, and there is swivel. The angle they rest on my shoulders makes them the first device that doesn't choke my neck while utilizing the swivel.
The swivel on the Penrose is pretty good.
Long Term Durability Issues…
The best part about written content is you can update it over time. After using this device for about 3 and a half months, I started to get a rattling sound in the right driver whenever it was over about 40% volume or whenever any bass was played.
Customer support wasn’t any help, they just copy-pasted this from their website which basically just says '“this is normal and there’s nothing to worry about”. So yeah, huge warning to get your device from an authorized reseller and to be more adamant about getting yours RMA’d if there’s any issues.
Verdict
I recommend the Audeze Penrose. It's the clearest and most detailed sounding headset I've heard and it's tuned perfectly for shooters.
However, if you're a basshead, I'd skip these and get something like the Drop + EPOS PC38X. “Audiophiles” will hate me for saying this, but if you can try out some Skullcandy headphones at a local store, they’re worth at least experiencing for the bass.
If the Penrose and PC38X are both out of budget, I'd stick to my previous recommendation which is the Astro A40. Then there’s the Cloud Alpha or Cloud II which are even cheaper.
Product Listing
Audeze Penrose: https://amzn.to/3MH8hVk
