Audeze Mobius Impressions
And here we have arrived at the Mobius. This is marketed as a gaming headphone and sports many convenience features like Bluetooth that simply are not typically found in audiophile headsets.
As usual, TLDR at the end.
Why the mobius?
The lcd-xc was a failure for me. Not in sound quality, but in practicality. The Mobius is the pendulum swinging in the other direction. The point of this headphone is practicality. It is bluetooth. It is usb. It is analog. It is closed back. It is planar. It doesn’t stuff anything in my ears. It is … practical. See the theme?
I tried the airpods max. The problem was, after experiencing such exceptional sound from the arya, he6se and even the sundara, I just didn’t want to listen to them. The Mobius is the flip side of Apple. It is from an audiophile company but with the convenience of much of the technology from the airpods.
This is a swiss army knife of audiophile headphones. Can it live up to that? Let’s find out!
Build and Comfort
It’s plastic. It seems sturdy. Everything seems attached well and fits the purpose of the use. It’s fine.
I have yet to have an over ear headphone that made me go “I can’t wear this”. Weight, clamp pressure, heat, none of it has become an issue on any headphone. So, really, this section is useless to anyone with any of those issues. So maybe ignore it? I did notice that clamp pressure was higher than others I had tried. And they are certainly potentially warm.
It’s fine.
Buttons galore
And they all work! The one challenging thing is knowing when buttons will work. As some modes don’t support some features. For example: the 3D sound thing only works when using USB connections as there is no multi-channel data sent over bluetooth or analog. Consequently, the 3D sound button basically does nothing when on any other connection type. (Actually, a long press still changes input modes through the active ones)
It took the opposite tact than the airpods max: There are no fewer than five, yes five buttons, four of which are multi function on the left cup. As well as 3 connectors (included mic, included usb cables, included analog stereo jack). Every single one of those 4 multi function buttons has alternate press methods. The remaining one is a simple mute switch. Something so many headphones leave out (including the airpods. no way to mute on any airpod without using the connected device). That made this headphone massively better for conferences.
The amount of things you can do is basically every single setting on the headphone. All of them. The only reason for the app is to set a custom preset for sound, which I didn’t try because, guess what? EQ sounds plastic on this to me. This continues to make no sense at all. One day, I’ll crack this nut and figure it out. Maybe it has something to do with the phase of the moon?
Obviously, there is a learning curve for all these buttons. And, if you have multiple connections open, it seems like one may take priority. For example, I was struggling getting play/pause/next/previous track to work when using bluetooth but had a cable plugged in to charge (really, this isn’t a common situation).
Two of the buttons are actually scroll wheels which control sound volume and mic volume. But wait! There’s more! Even these have tap and hold to change modes. As well as a funky tap and then scroll up or down. On the sound volume that switches tracks. And it is frankly a bit awkward. On the mic, that gesture rotates through the built in sound presets. A long press on sound volume turns off charging. Why do that? when wired to a phone, there may not be enough juice and the phone may shut it off. Turning this off lets you prevent that as well as not drain your phone battery.
Let me phrase this a different way: There is an entire document dedicated to each multi-function button on the audeze help site. Yeah.
It sounds complicated, and it is, but frankly, it’s pretty well implemented. And it does do all the things. Ironically, I am not sure they included a button to activate siri… not that I care. But an odd omission for the button king of headphones. (maybe there is a gesture I haven’t found yet)
It’s fine. Really. It’s fine.
Sound
I don’t even know. There is nothing offensive about it. There is nothing that stands out. On default or flat profile, it’s is basically a safe sound. It’s fine. Since my primary comparison is really the Dunu Zen, I have to start there. And, upfront, I feel that the Zen beats it across the board by either a little or a lot.
The Zen even feels more open than these do. And that’s not really a problem, just an observation.
The layering on the Zen is more articulate and involved. Or maybe it’s the detail.
The Mobius is a bit more relaxed. The Zen definitely has some “in your face” attitude at times. But again, not by a lot.
The Zen’s more open sound comes across quite well in the bass. While the Mobius actually may match the Zen in overall impact (YAY!), it doesn’t quite feel as articulate and it’s a bit boomy. Just a touch. It’s fine.
I can’t shake this feeling that the Mobius sound contained/restrained. It’s not some horrible thing, but I definitely didn’t feel that with it’s big closed back brother the XC (at 3x the price). It’s fine.
Volume
If you want to blow your ears off, these are not the headphones for you. Movies and some (even many) tracks can be listened to at full volume. I have not experimented much other than from the iPhone with both wired and Bluetooth.
It gets loud enough for normal use. It’s fine.
3D Stuff
Honestly, I don’t see the point. I am not sure it did anything that mattered. And at times it annoyed me. I simply turned 3D off while watching a movie. To me, this is a gimmick.
Wired for movies may make a difference. But I didn’t feel like it was as good as the airpods max. But airpods had apple specific magic working. And I think it did work. These are just good sounding headphones for movies. And that’s… fine.
Gaming
It’s a gaming headset. So I tried it. I played about 30 minutes of candy crush and didn’t see any advantage or disadvantage. 
Seriously, I will probably try a few games. But, what is meant here are FPS games. And I really don’t play those anymore. I would expect things like Starcraft, Diablo and Surviving Mars will sound appropriately immersive.
Bluetooth
These are something special in this regard. I can not hear a damn thing different on amazon ultra hd tracks between BT and Wired. Nothing. No background noise, no very light buzz, no lacking dynamics. Nothing. And this is AAC Codec for reference. The only other headphone to achieve that all the time was the Airpods Max. I assume being able to tailor the BT chip to the selected speaker has huge advantages in terms of eliminating all those things. Whatever the reason, it is absolutely exceptional in this regard, much like the Airpods Max was. It’s not fine, it’s excellent.
On the Dunu Zen, I have had all kinds of hissing, noise floors, background noise, buzzing and other issues with various pairings. That’s normal and a part of the audiophile pairing process. It’s fine.
Uses
This here is where this headphone may separate itself from the pack. It can answer phone calls. It can do webex. It can play music with decently good detail and engagement. It has some isolation. It works flawlessly wired or wireless. It really is a swiss army knife of headphones. And, at this time, barring the need for ANC, it blows away the airpods max. The airpods “Apple Experience” offers an extremely optimized multi-device experience that I doubt this can touch.
The whole problem with the airpods max was that I didn’t want to just put music on and listen. At the time I still had other over ear options around and I simply wouldn’t select the airpods unless the use case demanded practicality.
The Mobius is likely different. While, I don’t think I would choose these over the Zen for just listening to music in my recliner in the evening, as a background music headset while working, they may be exceptional. If they can truly transition smoothly from webex to work music to phone call and back without becoming a hassle, these may be a huge win. I was thinking of ordering an airpods max again, and these may fill that need much better.
Note: The first few days of usage have been seamless. These seem like a phenomenal flexible work headphone.
Conclusion
Well, it has happened. I have joined the elite of audiophile snobbery. The Mobius, which by any past experience, would have sounded like exceptional headphones. But now? It’s fine.
Its practicality, that has made it a keeper. Is it the best sound I could listen to? No. It’s fine. But it fits so many use cases during the day that I can just leave them on my head. This takes another decision off my plate during work. And that’s a good thing.
TLDR
It’s fine. It’s a keeper. But it’s fine.
Fin.