The Audeze Maxwell headset is best known for its prestige as one of the best gaming headsets around, but this week Audeze announced a new partnership with APL (Applied Psychoacoustics Lab) to integrate its head-tracking tech that has the potential to open the Maxwell up to uses beyond gaming.

Through this new partnership, the head-tracking technology that’s already integrated into the Maxwell headset will be compatible with APL’s Virtuoso V2 audio plugin and standalone app. With this new integration, it’ll now be easier to create even more expansive spatial audio experiences through the use of the Virtuoso V2 binaural rendering tool.

Audeze says this will expand the possibilities for spatial audio content creation for professionals. As the Virtuoso V2 compatibility will make use of the Audeze Maxwell’s high-quality audio components. Such as the planar magnetic drivers and the integrated head-tracking. It might seem weird to think about the Audeze Maxwell headset outside the realm of gaming. However, you have to remember that at the end of the day, it is still essentially a pair of high-quality wireless headphones with a detachable mic.

With Audeze’s expertise in the audio field, it makes perfect sense for it to partner with a company that makes tools for mixing professionals. And now those professionals will be able to create even more immersive audio experiences.

The Audeze Maxwell head-tracking capabilities allow for “precise control”

Head-tracking is truly a special thing to experience when it comes to audio and it’s something that everyone should experience at least once in their life. That’s sort of where the beauty of this partnership starts to form. APL Founder Hyunkook Lee says that by integrating the Maxwell’s head-tracking technology, “both Virtuoso and Maxwell users will now enjoy an even more immersive and lifelike listening experience.”

That means you’ll start seeing (or rather hearing) more content that takes advantage of the head-tracking technology in the Maxwell headset. This will both bring more audio experiences to life and expand the range of what audio professionals can do with the Virtuoso V2 tool.

Audeze is demonstrating the integration at AES

For professionals who are attending the AES show in New York City this week, Audeze is demonstrating the integration. The show started on October 8 and goes through today, October 10. The company is also hosting in-booth sessions with Grammy award-winning recording engineers and artists. While this doesn’t really translate to the Maxwell’s foremost use case, it does at least put the spotlight on what the Maxwell headset can do for gamers.

That is, it highlights the immersive sound quality that it offers. If it’s good enough for professional audio engineers and mixers, imagine what it can do for your gaming experience.

If you own a Porsche Taycan, you might plan on making a trip to the dealership. The Verge reported that recalls have been issued due to a short circuiting risk in one of the battery’s cell block modules. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a safety recall for more than 27,000 of the Porsche EVs. The recall affects “certain” Taycan vehicles released from 2021-2024. Notices will be issued to owners by the end of November.

Porsche hasn’t been able to pinpoint exactly which cars in the Taycan fleet have the hazard. In order to determine which cars need fixing, Porsche is advising owners of Taycans made between October 21, 2019 and February 1, 2024 to bring their car to a dealership where crews can monitor the battery with diagnostic software. Porsche is also advising its Taycan owners to only charge the vehicle’s battery up to 80 percent until dealership mechanics can determine if the battery needs to be replaced.

If this problem sounds familiar, it’s because it’s one of the chief causes for the downfall of Chevrolet’s EV, the Chevy Bolt. The electric car went through a similar recall in 2021 due to a fire risk with the battery.

Chevy had to replace the batteries in Bolts made between 2017 and 2019 at a cost of $1.8 billion. The battery issues led to Chevy discontinuing the EV line and a class-action settlement that netted owners of the 2020-2022 Bolt EVs and EUVs a $1,400 settlement.

Interlagos, the venture capital firm started by former senior SpaceX leaders, is looking to raise $550 million for its first venture fund, according to regulatory filings and a confidential deck sent to prospective LPs and viewed by TechCrunch. 

The existence of the firm was first reported by TechCrunch in April, but almost nothing has been publicly disclosed about its prospective investment thesis — until now. El Segundo-based Interlagos is broadly targeting startups across “deep tech” sectors, someone familiar with the firm’s plans said. The firm will provide capital from inception through Series B, with the targeted $550 million to be deployed across 26-32 investments, the deck says.

It’s a massive target for a first-time fund, which the team recognizes. “We are sized to lead and be persistent capital partners to leading companies,” the pitch deck says.

While the filing does not yet list how much money the partners have secured to date, a source familiar with the matter says that the firm has made a first close for a chunk of that $550M target. Prospective LPs are no doubt drawn to the bona fides of the founding team, which includes Achal Upadhyaya, who was a senior engineer at SpaceX for a decade before leading investments in space and defense at Cantos Ventures; Tom Ochinero, a former high-ranking SpaceX executive who left the company in March after a ten-year stint; and Spencer Hemphill, Interlagos’ CFO who was a former Sequoia finance leader. 

The general partners will also have their own skin in the game — which is a common structure for VC firms. They have each pledged to invest a 2% general partner “commit”, the deck says, which refers to their own personal money they will commit to the fund as investors. The rest of the fund’s terms look industry standard as well: 2% management fees, 20-25% carry meaning how much the fund will keep of its returns, pursuit of deals that will give it 18-25% stakes in the startups it backs.

Ochinero, who reported directly to SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, was “personally responsible for over a billion dollars of annual revenue” at the company, according to a bio published in 2023. Upadhyaya in particular has a sweeping track record into deep tech startups as an angel and VC, according to the deck: He led the first investments into unmanned defense systems startup Neros Technologies and quantum mechanics startup SoloPulse, and the seed rounds into Shinkei Systems and Pilgrim, in his role at Cantos. His personal investments include Base Power, composites startup Layup, and Oxide Computer.

Upadhyaya did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment by publication time. 

Deep tech, a umbrella term that can include sectors like space, manufacturing, robotics, biotech, AI and more, has seen a surge of VC interest in recent years. Deep tech companies require more upfront capital and tend to have longer exit timelines, which has led to an increase in specialist funds, often composed of technical partners. But still, if Interlagos manages to raise the full targeted amount, it would make it an exception to the recent downturn in VC that has made raising capital harder. It will also likely set the firm up to successfully compete against mega-funds like Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz, which have aggressively moved into the earliest stages in deep tech VC deals.