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I've been using the same pair of AKG 240's for the past (I poo poo you not) 16 years, for PC gaming. To me, they sound better than anything else I've ever used. I like hearing crisp midrange and treble, and don't care about massive booty bass. Now, they are uncomfortable as gently caress, and one of my friends owes me $200 which he is likely but not guaranteed to pay me back. He also has an extra pair of Astro A40's, which I've never used but he swears are great. Would it be prudent to take those off his hands and call it even?
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Oct 18, 2013 22:55
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I have a bluetooth LG Tone+ HBS-730 headset, it works great with my Android phone, so I picked up a bluetooth dongle for Windows 7 and was going to try it out. I got the dongle installed and successfully paired the headset, but now "Bluetooth Peripheral Device" appears in the device manager and it won't find any further drivers. LG seems to have nothing on their site, and googling for AD2P drivers suggests that I'm about to embark on a nightmarish endeavor. Does anyone know how I could make this easier?
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Oct 20, 2013 05:15
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grack posted:Does going in to device manager and manually pointing to the driver folder under Hardware->Properties->Update Driver work? No, that didn't. Mercifully I figured it out, the website for the Bluetooth Dongle had a Win 7 driver package that actually enabled every function on the headset, I have the earbuds and microphone working now. Thanks though!
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Oct 20, 2013 18:21
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Enamel wire doesn't need to be melted, it can be gently scraped with sandpaper or a razor blade then wiped clean with a tissue. The heat from the soldering iron will melt away the stray enamel bits you miss.
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Oct 23, 2013 00:59
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vanbags posted:I bought the Superlux HD 681s for a cheap pair of gaming headphones and I've been more than happy with their performance for the price. Looking at the design of those, they are an exact clone of the AKG 240 that I use. I've had them for a decade and they kind of always put too much pressure on the top edges of my ears after an hour or two, so I usually wear them offset: half on my ears and half on my temples. That's comfortable enough to wear indefinitely. Also be careful not to overstretch them, it's complicated to explain, but those two wires that provide the clamping force are actually two thick coathanger-type pieces of metal that carry the signal to the right side ear. If you fatigue them too much or they develop too much wiggly side-play, the signal will become hosed. Edit: Oh yeah, no one responded the last time I asked... Astro A40's, are those price-competitive as nice sounding headphones with a mic (at their eBay price of $150-ish), or is there a premium on those and I can get comparable alternatives for less? Seems like I'd be paying extra for their marketing/street-cred. Zero VGS fucked around with this message at 17:36 on Nov 3, 2013 |
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Nov 3, 2013 17:23
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Get the LG Tone or LGTone+ You can buy the Tone+ from BestBuy for $70, and show them the Amazon link at the register and they'll price match them down to $41: http://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-Tone-HBS-730-Bluetooth/dp/B009A5204K I run, lift weights, and bike in mine.
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Nov 6, 2013 23:59
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This is speakers, not headphones, but I don't see a speakers thread. I'm the office IT guy and there's a dozen "Sonos Play: 1" in the office. I loving hate these things, they are $200 each and it is a pain in the rear end for people to connect to them and use them. I want to get $50-$100 Bluetooth speakers to replace them so people can pair directly to their phone or laptop and manage things themselves. I figure basically all of the bluetooth speakers have a battery, but battery life is not an issue since these will be plugged in 24/7. I just need decent range and sound competitive with the Sonos for a great price. Something along these lines?: http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Portable-Bluetooth-Speaker-Black/dp/B00EHZYWGM/ Edit: I just realized that a TV Soundbar that has Bluetooth might be even better, they seem larger and probably put out better sound and I'm not paying for a battery like that. Zero VGS fucked around with this message at 01:22 on Jan 29, 2015 |
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Jan 29, 2015 00:48
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b0nes posted:I'm actually looking at the LG Tone Pro headphones. My friend got some as a gift and cant say enough good things about them. If you can get them, the LG Tone Plus, one model earlier, have identical sound quality as far as I can hear and much better button placement, and can be had much cheaper. Edit: Refurb LG Tone for $32, I'd get that instead if it were me: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/ol/B009A5204K/sr=8-1/qid=1424180757/ref=olp_tab_refurbished?ie=UTF8&condition=refurbished&qid=1424180757&sr=8-1 Zero VGS fucked around with this message at 14:48 on Feb 17, 2015 |
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Feb 17, 2015 14:45
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b0nes posted:Just ordered it, used my birthday Amazon balance. Now I just need to worry about the earbuds slipping off. I had gotten some SkullCandy's at the T-Mobile store for free because they took forever with my order, but they won't stay in my ears. All the LG Tones mercifully include three sizes of ear buds, so that's a plus. The design makes it hard for the cords to get yanked while running around too. I use the largest size and sometimes they'll loosen a bit so they're not forming a perfect seal but they never totally fall out.
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Feb 18, 2015 02:54
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Turds in magma posted:Looking for a pair of wireless headphones for my dad for xmas, so my mom doesn't have to listen when he's watching TV. I have almost the same request as poster above, is there such a thing as wireless headphones that let you switch quickly between two different bluetooth sources? Doesn't have to be expensive, but I have a quiet apartment where I want to switch between listening to the TV's audio or listening to the PC's audio, without having to gently caress around with receivers or pairing things all the time. The rest can be cheap; something like light, plastic over-the-ear stuff is fine.
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Dec 4, 2017 00:26
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Zero VGS posted:I have almost the same request as poster above, is there such a thing as wireless headphones that let you switch quickly between two different bluetooth sources? Doesn't have to be expensive, but I have a quiet apartment where I want to switch between listening to the TV's audio or listening to the PC's audio, without having to gently caress around with receivers or pairing things all the time. Searching around, I'm realizing it might actually be the most cost effective to just get: - TWO cheap BT headsets (one for PC and one for TV): https://www.amazon.com/Mpow-Bluetooth-Headphones-Wireless-Memory-Protein/dp/B01NAJGGA2 - Optical-to-Bluetooth transmitter for the TV: https://www.amazon.com/Paxcess-Digital-Bluetooth-Transmitter-Receiver/dp/B01MT1V26O That's $104 for everything and avoids having to futz with pairing... does that make sense?
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Dec 4, 2017 03:47
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NewFatMike posted:There's no dedicated 3.5mm Jack on the Pixel 2, correct? It's a USB-C adapter? Yes, it includes an adapter, I just leave it hooked up to my headphones so I don't lose it.
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Dec 18, 2017 18:43
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NewFatMike posted:I'd be curious to see what the power output is on those. If it's the one in the box, it might just be a direct pinout for analog audio which will do it for most consumer cans. It directly drives my Astro A40's plenty loud, for what it's worth.
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Dec 19, 2017 01:41
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CLAM DOWN posted:Curious if anyone has has tried the new Zolo Liberty+ earbuds. My buddy backed the kickstarter so got his already, and he got me to try them out this morning as I was interested in picking up a pair once they're on sale. I'm super impressed, very high build quality, sound great, feel great in my ear, and the carrying case also works great. Pairing was effortless and the BT 5.0 connection is very stable, video lag is super noticeable and I'd only probably use them for music. I'm kind of wondering if I'm missing something horrible about them because I'm definitely gonna pick up a pair once they hit Amazon. I have had them for a few weeks. Pro: music is great most of the time, the Zolo equalizer app sucks but I found one called Neutralizer that works amazing I have a normal size head and used the largest earbuds and largest grip thingy, fit is perfect and secure even if yawning/eating/sprinting etc. Cons: they didn't pay the licensing fee for APT-X which basically ruins them for non-music. They have a ton of latency on games and videos. To mitigate some of the latency for phone calls, they only drive the phone call from the right ear, left is silent. All stereo has to be sent from the right ear to the left, which requires a buffer, i.e. more lag, so I guess that's the reasoning. They told me it can never be fixed with firmware. The microphone for calls is not great due to placement.. it is fine indoors but not outside with lots of ambient noise or moderate wind. Bluetooth 5.0 apparently does not solve cross-body interference; if I have the phone in my front pants pocket and I'm bicycling, it will still cut out for a second, once every few songs. During the winter the charging case is nice, but in the summer without a coat, you might not want to carry that bulgy case in your pocket and then you don't really have a neat way to charge/protect them. A good subset of people have gotten duds, some have the left ear drop constantly, some have one ear become way quieter than the other (this happened to me and resolved itself after a day, maybe something to do with battery levels). Zolo/Anker support I was able to reach the couple times I called, they are Americans and are knowledgeable, and are offering refunds to people with issues, or exchanges, stock permitting. if you're just going to have your phone in your breast pocket and listen to music on your commute and don't mind the gaming/video/voice pitfalls, they're ok. edit: If LG could make a Bluetooth 5.0 pair of Tone headphones that sound as good as these, I'd go with that instead whenever they come out. Zero VGS fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Dec 22, 2017 |
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Dec 22, 2017 01:40
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Anyone know of any true wireless earbuds that have both BT 5.0 and AptX? I've scoured the internet and the only one I see is this upcoming pair, EOZ Air: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/eozaudio/eoz-air-worlds-most-advanced-true-wireless-earphon I have the Zolo Liberty+ and they're good for music but the lack of AptX kills them for voice calls and games, and they still occasionally lose signal. The EOZ Air seems like it can fix all of that with the AptX and external antenna, so I guess I'll wait a few months for that unless anyone's seen anything else that missed.
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Feb 1, 2018 00:55
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Spermanent Record posted:Don't buy expensive headphones that don't have replaceable cables. I was pretty psyched to see the newer Astro A40's come with a female 1/8 jack on the headset, I'll probably have mine working for decades. I kept a set of AKG's working for 20 years but I had to resolder it several times a year.
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Feb 15, 2018 02:33
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For my home PC that I do my majority of gaming on, I use Astro A40's, plugged in to my Xbox controller. Comfort is great, sound is adequate. The problem is that since I have a cord going from the headset to the controller, I'll constantly yank the controller off the desk, the headset off the desk, or both. I'd like to try a wireless headset, but I hear the Astro A50's get static on them and are lossy. Is there a set of headphones that are: - Budget - $200-600 - Needs a boom mic for voice chat, I guess if this is the dealbreaker then I can get a desk mic but I'd rather not. - Rock solid wireless connection, preferably lossless - Over-ear, multi-hour comfort like the A40's, open-air is fine. - Can't have any noticeable latency since I use for gaming - Bonus if it has a base station that can recharge it, and has optical-in. Another bonus would be having Bluetooth, and/or Aux-in 3.5 jack so I could use it wired, just for futureproofing. - Preferred Tonal Balance - Best-sounding headphones I ever had were the AKG K240's I used for 20 years. Comfort was terrible on those but closest to that sound profile is ideal. I'm not an audiophile though so anything between A40 and K240 I'd barely know the difference. Anyone know what would tick off the most boxes? edit: Googling around, I spotted the Steelseries Arctis Pro, it has literally every feature I wanted and comes with two batteries so you can swap one out to charge in the base station. The only negative I saw in reviews was someone said there can be white noise, some are claiming newer models dont have it if you don't crank it up all the way. Are there any other competing headsets in this class?: https://www.amazon.com/SteelSeries-Arctis-Wireless-Headset-playstation-4/dp/B079YBKT3H/ Zero VGS fucked around with this message at 23:35 on Jun 19, 2019 |
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Jun 19, 2019 23:05
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Zero VGS posted:For my home PC that I do my majority of gaming on, I use Astro A40's, plugged in to my Xbox controller. Comfort is great, sound is adequate. The problem is that since I have a cord going from the headset to the controller, I'll constantly yank the controller off the desk, the headset off the desk, or both. Turns out they had a few of these Arctis Pro Wireless in stock at my Worst Buy, so I picked one up already and I'm giving it a test run. I'll probably return it and get it cheaper on eBay to keep. - Headset out of the box clamps my head like a vice but I used the box it comes in to stretch it and it's much better. I wouldn't mind if the ear cups were a little larger/softer like Astros. - The wireless is stellar: imperceptible latency, and I can walk around my house and not drop the signal, so I can keep listening to YouTubes on the shitter. Claims to be lossless and I have no reason to doubt, I haven't heard any sonic artifacts at all. - Sound profile is adequate but meh, maybe I'm used to the bassier Astro A40 making these to seem a bit flat in comparison. The built in EQ helps, and turning it up really makes sound effects like sword clashes in Sekiro pop. - Feature-wise, by far the most thoughtful headset I've ever used. Volume and mic mute on the left ear, pull out the mic boom or retract it into the headset, comfy headband that can't catch my hair, 3.5mm aux-in to use without batteries, dual hot-swappable batteries included so one is always on the charger, optical-in on base station, optical cable and 5 other cables all included, turn the red "mute LED" brightness on the microphone down or off, adjust the OLED brightness on the base station and set it to turn off when not actively using controls, adjust the sidetone volume (how loud your own mic sounds to yourself, like a landline telephone, great attention to detail!), Bluetooth lets you pair to your phone and it'll actually combine BT audio with PC audio so you can hear phone notifications while gaming, it's like they thought of every possible nitpick I could raise and preempted them.
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Jun 20, 2019 17:56
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With some more extended use I do like the Arctis but I'm starting to miss the open-back design on my A40's. They felt much more breathable and ambient. The Arctis make a practically airtight seal on my head; if I squeeze them tighter to my head the bass sounds better, and if I spread them to create an air gap then they sound awful. I assume this means I can't use a larger/fluffier earpad type? I'm kinda tempted to bust out the soldering iron and frankenstein both headsets together so I have the receiver/controls of the Arctis stuck to sides of the A40 instead.
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Jun 21, 2019 09:22
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Is there anything that can make a wired pair of headphones wireless, that DOESN'T involve Bluetooth or analog radio frequency? Basically like the Arctis Pro Wireless uses an encrypted 2.4ghz that has like a hundred feet of range and no perceivable latency. Is there some kind of kit like that which I could use to make a pair of Astro A40 wireless?
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Apr 10, 2023 05:51
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DancingShade posted:True wireless bluetooth earbuds for phone pairing & casual music / youtube listening make sense. Any other use gently caress it, give me a cable. I have hearing damage anyway so I don't need some flawless audio quality. Arctis Pro Wireless are super convenient and sound perfect to me except I find the pressure and lack of breathability uncomfortable. Hmm. I wonder if I can buy a damaged pair of Arctic Pro Wireless like with a snapped hinge, then tear out the PCB and battery slot, then solder a 3.5mm headphone/mic jack to the PCB and attach all those guts to the side of my Astro A40. I don't see why that wouldn't work, except from what I can see the A40 speakers might have a slightly different impedance, and the Arctis I assume would be tuned way different since it assumes a seal on your head? Is that anything I could overcome with the equalizer? I'm tempted to try...
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Apr 10, 2023 08:39
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Zero VGS posted:Hmm. I wonder if I can buy a damaged pair of Arctic Pro Wireless like with a snapped hinge, then tear out the PCB and battery slot, then solder a 3.5mm headphone/mic jack to the PCB and attach all those guts to the side of my Astro A40. I don't see why that wouldn't work, except from what I can see the A40 speakers might have a slightly different impedance, and the Arctis I assume would be tuned way different since it assumes a seal on your head? Is that anything I could overcome with the equalizer? I'm tempted to try... I did it. Introducing the Arctro Pr04bidden Wirelest:  Took the speakers out of the Arctis Pro Wireless, tore away the headband and soldered a headphone jack to the solder pads where the speakers used to go, and coupled some magnet covers with 3M Command Strips. Now it can magnetize to the side of any pair of headphones and add lossless, lagfree 40+ foot wireless, a very nice microphone with mute button, Bluetooth that can mix PC with phone audio, a base station that charges a spare battery, and all the other Arctis features. I was expecting the volume or bass to be screwed up since this is closed-ear electronics driving an open-ear Astro, but nope. The audio sounds perfect on flat equalizers. It sounds better than when my A40's were wired, because the Arctis electronics are driving them louder than my laptop was. The one thing I had to do was turn off the volume limiter on the base station, as I think the Arctis electronics drive the Astro speakers maybe 10% quieter than it drove the original Arctis speakers. But it can still easily reach hearing-damage levels before maxing out. Best pair of headphones I've ever had. Was $25 for a pair of A40's, and $55 for a pair of Arctis with a broken hinge (which I tore out anyway) It adds only like 2 ounces to the headset because it's nothing but ABS and PCB , but it's enough that I'll just need to counterweight the other side, and close it up with something better looking than that medical tape. I'm beyond stoked though, the A40 had better comfort/sound and now I've got the best of both worlds with none of the weaknesses.
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Apr 16, 2023 20:28
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Mr. Mercury posted:Seems like a lot of effort—keep an eye out for weight issues with the imbalaced load, and pause using them if your neck/head starts hurting after use I am a VR gamer, my neck is very powerful! Ok Comboomer posted:have you thought about making a matching magnetic container that can attach to the opposite earcup? That's a deep cut... but yeah maybe I can make a container that holds my beef jerky and maintains it at an ideal temperature...
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Apr 16, 2023 20:57
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I made some big improvements and balanced it out:  It is very compact now and sounds awesome. I came up with a trick where I ran the right audio through the A40's unused headphone jack, so it would carry across the headset to the left-side output jack and I looped the wires back into the plug as an input. These wireless adapters are just powerful enough to drive the A40's as loud as I can handle, which are apparently 48 Ohm impedance speakers. Am I right to assume that if I tried these adapters on an "audiophile" headset with higher ohms, it would be too quiet, but if I try them on something like say the "beyerdynamic DT 900 PRO X" which is also 48 Ohm, it would be a sidegrade if I'm not an expert?
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Apr 20, 2023 19:37
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Dr. Fishopolis posted:what you've done is create the worlds dumbest bluetooth receiver. you could just buy a tiny bluetooth receiver instead of taping broken headphones to not broken headphones. Except that it uses lossless, lagless 2.4ghz with several times the range of bluetooth. And my windows desktop doesn't have bluetooth, and even if it did bluetooth on Windows is heinous. And the base station charges a spare battery so I can swap to a full one in seconds. And it adds a microphone which is much higher quality than what the A40's had. And there's an equalizer with a nice jog wheel for volume, and I can mix the levels of the game/chat volumes instantly. And there's a microphone mute button and a red LED on the mic so I can be sure when it's muted. And it can play audio from my smartphone's bluetooth for phone calls and my PC's audio over 2.4ghz at the same time. And they're not taped, I upgraded to magnets (how do they work)? I mean, you're talking to one of the cheapest goons on the planet, but bluetooth is just no bueno for gaming, even apt-X low latency has noticeable latency, certainly unplayable in rhythm games. I'm wearing headphones for 12 hours a day, so why not combine the most feature-packed wireless guts with the most comfortable headset? Sorry if no one is impressed, I still think it's mondo cool. Mr. Mercury posted:Better off not tinkering there and just using the product, as that's what the headphones were designed around. You'll not get better results than the OG product! I was just entertaining the thought of going down the "audiophile" rabbit hole. But yeah, these already sound perfect to me now so I should try to take a break and be happy. It seems really hard to find specs for sensitivity/efficiency and harder to interpret them, so I suppose the best bet is to just bring these with me and plug them into demo units at Best Buy or HiFi stores if I ever get around to it.
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Apr 20, 2023 21:21
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WattsvilleBlues posted:Following on from this, the headphones finally stopped even turning on for me this afternoon. I don't have any experience with that exact model, but if you look back at my posts you'll see that I consider the 2.4ghz wireless audio from the Arctis Pro Wireless (which I've used for years) to be fantastic, so much that I've taken the guts from broken Arctis headsets and stuffed them into other brands to gain those wireless features. It has a long range and is hard to disrupt, and imperceptibly low latency. That Nova 7X has a dedicated 2.4ghz dongle so I would guess the reception is comparable. I prefer open-ear headphones from a comfort/soundstage standpoint but that's just a matter of preference; if you were already happy with the Turtle Beach, then any Arctis wireless headphones should be a direct upgrade. The Arctis headsets all use plastic for some hinge-points that should have been metal; I've never broken a pair but I've been fairly stationary with them. If you sit on them by accident or fling them around in a backpack you might snap them so consider a hardcase if you transport them often. One look on eBay and I instantly spotted one with a broken hinge, so be aware: https://www.ebay.com/itm/285218792567
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Apr 26, 2023 17:50
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qirex posted:People don't generally like this recommendation but get a headset. You could get, for example, a Plantronics Voyager Focus UC on ebay for under a hundred bucks. They're on ear but they sound pretty good, there's no bluetooth latency when using the dongle, the battery lasts forever and when you're done just drop them on the charging stand, you have a visual mute light and dedicated mute button. The ANC isn't anything to write home about but the isolation is decent. There's over ear versions from them and Jabra too but I don't think the dock situation is as good so you'll still be dealing with cables. and I didn't like the 8200s I got as much as the on ear. I ran a call center with hundreds of these things and I wasn't a fan. For one thing they're almost all on-ear as opposed to over-ear so the comfort and isolation suffer a bit. I mostly bought them instead of nice over-ear headsets so employees wouldn't be tempted to steal them (most of the Plantronics models I had only plugged into a jack from the desk phones). There's someone on eBay selling heaps of like-new Arctis Pro Wireless for $115 shipped, unlike the Plantronics you'll always have a second charged battery on deck: https://www.ebay.com/itm/334856797573 People on Zoom meetings compliment how good my Arctis mic sounds without me bringing it up, and you can adjust how loud you want the side-tone (hearing yourself in real-time) to be, which is something you'd usually only get in the Plantronics headsets and not a gaming headset. You can use the base-station on your PC for loss/lag-free wireless and still pair your phone over Bluetooth.
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May 4, 2023 20:27
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Canine Blues Arooo posted:I don't want to be a dick here - audio experience is very subjective and all that, but I'm really curious as compared to what? In non-audiophile terms, Arctis Pro sounds "pretty good". According to RTings, Arctis Pro are slightly more accurate than HD 600: 8.2 https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/steelseries/arctis-pro-wireless 8.1 https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/sennheiser/hd-600 I have no idea how dependable those RTings reviews are. However, they gave the Nova Pro a 7.7 so I guess that newer model cut some corners compared to the older Arctis Pro Wireless? It is probably still impressive to anyone who is coming from Turtle Beach stuff (which all seem to get poor sound ratings), especially if the Arctis headsets are making a good seal. Zero VGS fucked around with this message at 07:01 on May 7, 2023 |
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May 7, 2023 06:58
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Mr. Mercury posted:It's worth pointing out that RTINGS also finally joined the rest of the pack Who is the rest of the pack? RTINGS were the only ones who popped out to me as doing frequency response tests with those mannequin heads on affordable headsets. The audiophile sites seemed too snobbish to go near the gaming headsets.
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May 7, 2023 18:52
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