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 I recently nabbed these headphones w/mic on sale at Newegg. They are designed for a computer which I didn't realize and so have two 3.5 mm plugs (headphone & mic) but I wanted to use them on my telephone and 360 controller (2.5 mm). Is there an adapter I can buy?
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Sep 17, 2008 18:43
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wormil posted:
yes, there is. Don't assume headphones have 2.5mm jacks: they rarely do. You just reminded me that I need to order one too, for my juke.
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Sep 17, 2008 18:51
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Dominoes posted:yes, there is. Don't assume headphones have 2.5mm jacks: they rarely do. You just reminded me that I need to order one too, for my juke. That adapter doesn't help. Being 3.5 mm isn't the problem, I have an adapter for that.
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Sep 18, 2008 00:26
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wormil posted:That adapter doesn't help. Being 3.5 mm isn't the problem, I have an adapter for that. What sort of adapter do you need, then? To your phone's proprietary system, something like this thing for some sony-ericsson phones?
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Sep 18, 2008 08:40
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pim01 posted:What sort of adapter do you need, then? To your phone's proprietary system, something like this thing for some sony-ericsson phones? I believe he means he needs to adapt 2x 3.5mm, into a single 2.5mm that carries both mic and audio.
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Sep 18, 2008 15:09
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UserNotFound posted:I believe he means he needs to adapt 2x 3.5mm, into a single 2.5mm that carries both mic and audio. So like this thing but with the mic channel connected to a seperate 3.5 mm connector? I can't seem to find any with a quick search - it'd be dead easy to solder one together yourself, though  .
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Sep 18, 2008 15:16
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pim01 posted:So like this thing but with the mic channel connected to a seperate 3.5 mm connector? I can't seem to find any with a quick search - it'd be dead easy to solder one together yourself, though Actually for a phone it would not need the 4 connector type, as you only need mic/audio/ground. If the xbox audio is stereo, you would need 4 connections: mic/L/R/gnd. It's gonna be easier to buy plugs and DIY for whatever he wants, I believe.
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Sep 18, 2008 15:26
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UserNotFound posted:Actually for a phone it would not need the 4 connector type, as you only need mic/audio/ground. If the xbox audio is stereo, you would need 4 connections: mic/L/R/gnd. It's gonna be easier to buy plugs and DIY for whatever he wants, I believe. Thanks guys. I'll see what I can come up with.
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Sep 19, 2008 03:14
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This might not be a quick question, but I figure I'll put it here before starting a new threat. I just got a Samsung 32 inch LCD, but I'm using the side speakers. I have an ancient Onkyo TX-17 receiver, and 4 older Infinity speakers., but the cones are blown out of two of them, but I think the tweeters are still okay. I'm not sure what I should do. I don't have more than a couple hundred dollars to spend on upgrades now, but I feel something needs to be upgraded. What should I do? New receivers are pretty expensive as far as I've seen, but speakers aren't cheap either. Any recommendations?
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Sep 19, 2008 21:47
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hawk989s posted:This might not be a quick question, but I figure I'll put it here before starting a new threat. Well, if you lived on this side of the pond I'd say grab a couple of Mordaunt Short 902i speakers, and you'll have great sound quality for your £99.95 (~$180). There's probably some speakers over in the US that are just as good value-for-money-wise, but I wouldn't know which those are. Honestly, grab two good speakers, and your sound will be waaay better than when you get four cheap ones just for the heck of it (or god forbid buy some crappy 5.1 set).
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Sep 19, 2008 22:11
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pim01 posted:Well, if you lived on this side of the pond I'd say grab a couple of Mordaunt Short 902i speakers, and you'll have great sound quality for your £99.95 (~$180). There's probably some speakers over in the US that are just as good value-for-money-wise, but I wouldn't know which those are. Well, the two infinity speakers that still work that I have are pretty decent speakers, and the receiver only has 4 speaker outs, it's pretty old.
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Sep 19, 2008 22:18
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hawk989s posted:Well, the two infinity speakers that still work that I have are pretty decent speakers, and the receiver only has 4 speaker outs, it's pretty old. Well, keep two of your infinity speakers, then. Seriously, good stereo speakers (just the two) will present a better soundstage and reproduction than most cheapish 5.1 sets. All this 5/6/7.1 stuff is often just stupid more==better thinking. Granted, you miss the occasional "oh god the sound is behind me!" effect (see the bat scene in the beginning of Fear&Loathing), but when you spend the same amount on 5 speakers and a subwoofer as you would on 2, you'll lose out in quality for your money. On the other hand, if you're willing to invest the money in a quality receiver and good speakers, 5.1 is amazing. You might want to try a new amplifier - Capacitors go bad after some time and might need replacing (bad capacitors will ruin your sound completely). Find somewhere with a good return policy and try a new stereo amp for a few days, you might be surprised by the quality.
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Sep 19, 2008 23:04
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So what should I get? I'm still confused.
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Sep 20, 2008 00:26
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hawk989s posted:So what should I get? I'm still confused. Well it sort of depends what you want to do - just use the analog audio out on your TV? Do you have a dgitial tv tuner with a digital output? Do you have game consoles that you'd want to conncect? do you want to hook up a PC or CD player? Then there's the question of convenience. I can recommend an amazing DAC and amplifier combo for ~300, but you'd have to get up and turn a knob to change the volume. On the other hand you can get one of the cheaper Onkyo models for that price and get a remote (and more channels), but it'll sound worse. Mostly TV/movies/games? or music? that's all things that'll unfluence your options. For the time being i'd try your existing amplifier with the two working speakers as a stereo system, though, see how it sounds . I'm off to bed so I won't reply for a bit.
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Sep 20, 2008 00:42
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I stumbled upon a pair of Sony speakers and a receiver from a friend of my mom's, and I have most everything hooked up and working great but one issue. [I may explain this extremely badly, but hopefully someone can tell what point I'm trying to get across.] The receiver has 5 ways it can output sound to the speakers, through the CD, cassette, and radio attached to the receiver, and 2 RCA inputs on the back, with one labeled "Video" and one labeled "Phono." Since I have both a TV and Computer I'd like to use with this, I'd like to have one go in the Phono RCA jacks and one go into the Video RCA jacks, but when I compare the two using the computer, the Phono one is incredibly loud and distorted compared to the Video one, which sounds excellent. Any ideas as to why this is and if it's fixable? (Also, the PC is already connected via a 3.5mm audio to RCA converting cable. I just need the TV, basically.)
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Sep 21, 2008 01:35
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I just got a new 22" wide screen monitor (http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/detail/detail.do?group=computersperipherals&type=monitors&subtype=lcd&model_cd=LS22MEXSFV/XAA) and have an older receiver, a Sony DA333ES (http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=STRDA333ES) which can output s-video and composite video. Unfortunately, my monitor can only take in VGA and DVI. I'd really like to use my monitor to watch DVD's and play games on a Wii or N64, but I can't figure out how to output the video signal from my receiver to my monitor. Goons, can you point me in the right direction, do I need a converter box or just some kind of cable? If I need a box, what's a solid one to get, hopefully under $75? Thanks.
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Sep 21, 2008 02:40
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pim01 posted:Well, keep two of your infinity speakers, then. Seriously, good stereo speakers (just the two) will present a better soundstage and reproduction than most cheapish 5.1 sets. Sure, if you're listening to music with 2 channels, but games and DVDs are much better with 5.1.
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Sep 21, 2008 02:42
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Dominoes posted:Sure, if you're listening to music with 2 channels, but games and DVDs are much better with 5.1. Good 2.0 is better than crap 5.1 for any content.
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Sep 21, 2008 02:59
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Mantecore posted:I just got a new 22" wide screen monitor (http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/detail/detail.do?group=computersperipherals&type=monitors&subtype=lcd&model_cd=LS22MEXSFV/XAA) and have an older receiver, a Sony DA333ES (http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=STRDA333ES) which can output s-video and composite video. Unfortunately, my monitor can only take in VGA and DVI. I'd really like to use my monitor to watch DVD's and play games on a Wii or N64, but I can't figure out how to output the video signal from my receiver to my monitor. I have my PS2 hooked up, and when I change the input to RCA, it shows up, but it's blurred and just doesn't look as good as it should, even compared to my crappy TV. I know this is an issue with the default output resolution not matching that of the monitor or something like that, but is there something I can buy to clear this up? I even tried my Wii with component cables and it's better, but still unnecessarily blurry. Thanks!
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Sep 21, 2008 19:00
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Im about to move up to 7.1 (from 5.1). Should I put the new speakers (which are better than the current rears) in the back and move the current ones to the surrounds, or put the better ones in the surround position and leave the rears where they are?
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Sep 22, 2008 20:29
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The Pell posted:Im about to move up to 7.1 (from 5.1). Should I put the new speakers (which are better than the current rears) in the back and move the current ones to the surrounds, or put the better ones in the surround position and leave the rears where they are? Depends on how your pre-amp/receiver is going to deal with 5.1 sources. In general I'd say leave the rears where they are and put the good speakers in the surrounds. Edit to address below: My receiver sends 5.1 to the surrounds, not the rears. The exception is when I tell it to do pro-logic style matrixing on the surrounds to get 7.1 out of 5.1 sources, in which case audio goes to all 4 surround speakers, but even in this case the surrounds are still more active. fahrvergnugen fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Sep 22, 2008 |
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Sep 22, 2008 20:52
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If you don't use many things that support 7.1, put the good speakers in the back. 5.1 is a commonly-used format for movies and games, but 7.1 is less common. I think it's used for some movies and games. Related: What uses 7.1? If the current rears are the same model as the fronts, an advantage of putting the good ones in the middle will be having more uniform front-back sound if you're listening to something in 5.1. Try both and see what you like. Dominoes fucked around with this message at 22:20 on Sep 22, 2008 |
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Sep 22, 2008 21:21
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Dominoes posted:Headphones use line level. Using an amp would be a better solution, but try it without before spending the money. Where would I find a nice cheap headphone amp? I really do not know what I am looking for. Most of the ones I find are portable for ipods and such, but I want something that will let me listen to my TV with headphones when my TV only has RCA audio output.
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Sep 23, 2008 21:26
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What are the differences between the Sirius Stiletto 2, Stiletto SL100, and SL10? I'm just looking for something that can receive the radio. I know I heard complains early on that models just recorded the audio and couldn't receive live audio at all. Has this been resolved?
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Sep 23, 2008 23:11
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Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I just set up my first home theatre system. In a 5.1 surround setup receiving DTS 5.1 HD audio, should voices ONLY be be coming out of the centre speaker? Likewise, is it normal for that centre speaker to be a lot louder than the others? Unfortunately my receiver (AVR-2308CI) has a very, very poor manual, so I'm struggling to get this thing set up properly.
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Sep 24, 2008 00:51
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Pyros posted:Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I just set up my first home theatre system. In a 5.1 surround setup receiving DTS 5.1 HD audio, should voices ONLY be be coming out of the centre speaker? Likewise, is it normal for that centre speaker to be a lot louder than the others? 1) The center is generally where voices are recorded. 2) A properly configured system should make it impossible to tell which of the front three speakers a sound is coming from, but should instead create a soundstage in front of the display that is as wide as the main speakers. You can use a white noise test with a decibel (sound pressure) meter from radio shack to set the volume levels for each speaker. Most THX-logo DVDs have a test built in, if your receiver doesn't do it.
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Sep 24, 2008 02:46
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Mighty Horse posted:I'm beginning to sound like I work for these guys, but. This is PAGES back, but I forgot to mention that I bought a TX-SR506, and it's GREAT. Fantastically loud, and nice enough featureset. It switches video, too! It was delivered within 24 hours of me buying it, too! Thanks man.
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Sep 24, 2008 04:24
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fahrvergnugen posted:2) A properly configured system should make it impossible to tell which of the front three speakers a sound is coming from, but should instead create a soundstage in front of the display that is as wide as the main speakers. You can use a white noise test with a decibel (sound pressure) meter from radio shack to set the volume levels for each speaker. Most THX-logo DVDs have a test built in, if your receiver doesn't do it. I used my receiver's volume test, but I think it screwed things up, because it detected my center speaker as only .2 feet away from my spot, and it set everything to -5 db with the exception of the center, which was set to +12 db. Looks like I'm going to either try the test again, or screw around with the settings manually. Should the back speakers be softer than the front ones? edit: in retrospect, that was a dumb question. My rears are a LOT closer, so it makes sense to put them softer. Pyros fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Sep 24, 2008 |
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Sep 24, 2008 05:30
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Pyros posted:I used my receiver's volume test, but I think it screwed things up, because it detected my center speaker as only .2 feet away from my spot, and it set everything to -5 db with the exception of the center, which was set to +12 db. Looks like I'm going to either try the test again, or screw around with the settings manually. Should the back speakers be softer than the front ones? If you bring your centre back to somewhere between 0 and 3 dB, it'll sound a lot better. A 6 dB rise makes things sound twice as loud, so your ~18 dB difference makes the centre speaker sound 8 times louder than the rears (and the fronts, which fucks up your sound image). You could run the volume test again and adjust things by ear. That should be closer to ideal than the way your receiver set it. edit: the 6dB rule goes for distance, too. Doubling the distance equals a 6 dB drop in sound level. So a speaker 6 feet away will sound twice as loud as one 12 feet away, when both are driven at the same level. pim01 fucked around with this message at 08:04 on Sep 24, 2008 |
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Sep 24, 2008 07:59
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Aegri Somnia posted:What are the differences between the Sirius Stiletto 2, Stiletto SL100, and SL10? I'm just looking for something that can receive the radio. I know I heard complains early on that models just recorded the audio and couldn't receive live audio at all. Has this been resolved? If you just want live radio, get a starmate since they are cheaper. But it was the S50 that needed to be in a "dock" car or home kit to recieve live broadcasts. The other 3 can get a live signal. The wifi of the stilettos is nice, but XM's satelite setup and ground repeater network lend themsleves to a better portable experence (still not great if you are out of range of a repeater, but better). The new portable they have coming, http://www.orbitcast.com/archives/xmp3-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know.html seems to be nicer than any of the sirius hardware, as usual.
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Sep 24, 2008 23:07
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pim01 posted:If you bring your centre back to somewhere between 0 and 3 dB, it'll sound a lot better. A 6 dB rise makes things sound twice as loud, so your ~18 dB difference makes the centre speaker sound 8 times louder than the rears (and the fronts, which fucks up your sound image). 10dB is doubling.
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Sep 25, 2008 01:54
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Dominoes posted:10dB is doubling. In voltage, yes, but not power.
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Sep 25, 2008 04:13
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sund posted:In voltage, yes, but not power. ~10db is a doubling in loudess, which is what we were talking about. A doubling in power gives ~3db. Dominoes fucked around with this message at 04:23 on Sep 25, 2008 |
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Sep 25, 2008 04:21
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Dominoes posted:~10db is a doubling in loudess, which is what we were talking about. A doubling in power gives ~3db. As with all things physiological, it's a range. ~6dB is bottom, ~10 is top. Most engineers tend to point to 10dB, psychophysiology people tend to mention 6dB. It depends on interpersonal variance, and a bit on the actual frequency range, since our basilar membrane is not exactly linear.
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Sep 25, 2008 08:06
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I've had a couple of mp3 player headphone jacks crap out on me. Their stereo sound channels were damaged and now only the right ear has sound. I'm guessing it's permanently damaged, but can anyone tell me why it happens and general things someone can do to prevent it? I'm looking to get a new player soon, but I'm wary of spending good money on something that might break within a year or two.
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Sep 25, 2008 20:05
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iamsosmrt posted:I've had a couple of mp3 player headphone jacks crap out on me. Their stereo sound channels were damaged and now only the right ear has sound. It tends to happen because you tend to have your player in your pocket or some other place where there's pressure on the plug (when you move, sit down, that sort of thing). The plug then acts as a sort of lever on the insides of the jack, either wriggling one of the contacts of the jack loose from the pcb, or pushing at the metal bits that make contact with the plug until they're malformed. It happens because of the cheap jack manufacturers use, and you can prevent it by thinking about where you keep your mp3 player (so you don't put pressure on the plug).
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Sep 25, 2008 21:14
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Thanks for the quick response. It makes enough sense, I'll be more careful if I get something like an ipod touch or something.
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Sep 26, 2008 00:57
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A decibel is a logarithmic unit. Assuming frequency, distance, everything bar amplitude are kept constant then the difference in sound pressure level between sound x and sound y = 10log(X/Y)dB So lets say X has twice as much power behind it as Y. 10log(2/1) = 10log2 = 3.01dB difference If X has 10 times more power behind it than Y then: 10log10 = 10dB difference If X has 1000 times more power behind it than Y then 10log1000 = 30dB difference With regards to perceived loudness - this would depend on the frequency of the signal since the ear is non linear and does not perceive all frequencies at the same amplitude as being equally loud. It is generally more sensitive to the ranges corresponding to human speech. Moreover, the ear generally begins to perceive all frequencies as being equally loud the higher the amplitude is. There is no accurate way of expressing a difference in perceived loudness between 2 sounds in decibels. Instead, you have people doing psychoacoustic experiements on people where they play a fixed frequency sine wave and increase the amplitude until a listener thinks its twice as loud as it was before. Theres a scale derived from experiments like this called phons and sones but I've never used them and don't know how it works. I've heard some people say twice the perceived loudness = 10dB but I have no idea how you would arrive at that number.
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Sep 26, 2008 01:10
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WanderingKid posted:Theres a scale derived from experiments like this called phons and sones but I've never used them and don't know how it works. I've heard some people say twice the perceived loudness = 10dB but I have no idea how you would arrive at that number. The whole audio field is a bit weird. You've got people who come from the music side of things, people from the medical/hearing aid side, electrical engineers and now AI/psychophysics people. All bring their own terminology and methodology to the field, resulting in sometimes having three different measures for what amounts to the same thing (and is expressible in dB or Hz anyway). Picking 10dB is, in my opinion, just a matter of convenience since it sits nicely (as you demonstrated above) at an order of magnitude. When I was doing my masters we did some informal testing for a course, and the mean lay somewhere around 8dB, if I remember correctly. If you do enough testing, both stepping up and down, you can get a rough picture of what one person considers 'twice as loud' at a given frequency (or range, when you use some form of broadband noise). pim01 fucked around with this message at 09:44 on Sep 26, 2008 |
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Sep 26, 2008 08:44
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I've been upgrading my system slowly, moving from totally bottom of the barrel components to slightly better stuff. The first thing I did was get of the pinoeer receiver I bought at costco for 200 bucks a buncha years ago, and replaced it with a Yamaha RXV-663, which I got a very good deal on. Next, I got rid of my older sony subwoofers for a single MFW-15 from AV123. Now, i'm looking to take the next step. The rest of the system breaks down as follows: 2 Blueroom Minipods for fronts 2 Acoustic Research AR17s for surrounds 1 Acoustic Research AR4c for center My fronts and center aren't really timbre matched, but it has been this way for a while. My biggest concern is good 2.0, and the minipods have been decent enough for quite a while. Now with more things been encoded with surround audio tracks that aren't trash, I really need to do something about this. Good 2.0 is still my first goal, so I don't know if I should upgrade each piece to higher priced stuff one at a time, or if I should upgrade it all at once with moderately priced stuff. AV123 is offering their ELT 525 2 tower 2 monitor 1 center set for $999 shipped right now. Would this be a good upgrade path to hold me off for a few more years? I already have the MFW-15, which is totally amazing. Is AV123s other stuff just as godly for it's price range? AV123 offers many sales, how do these ELT 525s compare to their more expensive stuff? How about to other brands that offer sales? edit: AV123 still has their super labor day deal, and if i'm not mistaken, I can call them up and subtract the whole price of the MFW-15 from that. Shipping would probably still cost quite a bit, so I doubt I could afford this deal right now. Any opinions on it though? BabyRyoga fucked around with this message at 12:36 on Sep 26, 2008 |
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Sep 26, 2008 11:50
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