Yet another headphone thread

Reporting back.

Yeah, the line-in on the Arctis 7 puck works as you'd expected. Mixes the line-in audio with the USB PC audio, and routes the mix to either the headset (if powered), or the line-out on the puck if not.

There's no independent volume control on the line-in, so you're reduced to using the volume controls on the source. It adds quite a lot of hiss, but that might be the cheap sh*tty cable I'm using.

One minor irritation - both the line-in and line-out sockets on the puck are physically tight - I have several cables with enough bulk at the shoulder of the plug that they don't insert all the way into the puck.

Jonman wrote:

Reporting back.

Yeah, the line-in on the Arctis 7 puck works as you'd expected. Mixes the line-in audio with the USB PC audio, and routes the mix to either the headset (if powered), or the line-out on the puck if not.

There's no independent volume control on the line-in, so you're reduced to using the volume controls on the source. It adds quite a lot of hiss, but that might be the cheap sh*tty cable I'm using.

One minor irritation - both the line-in and line-out sockets on the puck are physically tight - I have several cables with enough bulk at the shoulder of the plug that they don't insert all the way into the puck.

The hiss in situations like this seems to often come from the audio source and the ADC either sharing a ground or not. I’ve run into this issue many times with my local setup and had to work around it in various ways. Not sure what you can do when the audio source is the same device that powers the ADC. My electronics-fu is very self taught so I might be using the wrong terms here.

Are the sockets on the puck “iPhone case” tight?

pandasuit wrote:

The hiss in situations like this seems to often come from the audio source and the ADC either sharing a ground or not. I’ve run into this issue many times with my local setup and had to work around it in various ways. Not sure what you can do when the audio source is the same device that powers the ADC. My electronics-fu is very self taught so I might be using the wrong terms here.

Are the sockets on the puck “iPhone case” tight?

Tighter - the problem is that the sockets are slightly recessed into the puck, so the puck-case can interfere with the plastic housing on a plug. I had to go buy a particularly lean plug'd 3.5mm cable and a male-male coupler for the run to my PC speakers. Which would offend my audiophile sensibilities if the speakers weren't $50 Logitech trash (but that's why I have a decent pair of cans so I'm not reliant on those trash speakers).

This may be somewhat offensive, but any recommendations for lower to mid-range priced headphones (I am talking under $100)? Should be somewhat comfortable, with a mic and ability to mute. My current Turtle Beach Ear Force X11s have started to lose the ear muff things.

mudbunny wrote:

This may be somewhat offensive, but any recommendations for lower to mid-range priced headphones (I am talking under $100)? Should be somewhat comfortable, with a mic and ability to mute. My current Turtle Beach Ear Force X11s have started to lose the ear muff things.

For wired headsets at that price point RTINGS suggests the HyperX Cloud 2/Cloud II:
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/re...

Their list of the best under $100 gaming headsets:
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/re...

I have no personal experience with any of these.

I have a friend who really likes his Cloud 2 headphones. His main consideration was clamping force (which is one of the criteria in the RTINGS ratings). He has a big head, so headphones that clamp hard are no go for him. He's not an audio connoisseur so the somewhat bass-heavy mix of the Cloud 2 didn't bother him, in fact he liked it.

If this is important to you, here's RTINGS clamping force table (other data, too):

https://www.rtings.com/headphones/to...

For most headphones you can replace the earmuffs if you wanted to extend the life of them a bit.

EvilDead wrote:

For most headphones you can replace the earmuffs if you wanted to extend the life of them a bit.

Hunh. I’ll have to look into this.

**edt**

I reached out to turtle beach, and they do sell replacement ear pads, unfortunately, they don't ship to Canada.

So I bought generic ones off of Amazon.

I have bought a few generic ones myself in the past and never had issues.

EvilDead wrote:

I have bought a few generic ones myself in the past and never had issues.

Yeah, likewise, I just replaced the pads on my Sony NC set and it's like they're new again!

Got 'em from Dekoni Audio, in case anyone's looking for some.

EvilDead wrote:

For most headphones you can replace the earmuffs if you wanted to extend the life of them a bit.

I did this just last year with my older Sennheiser HD600s. The official Senn pads don't last as long as they might, and they cost $50(!), but I haven't spotted a good alternative replacement. There are numerous options, but the reviews have many claims that the timbre of the sound changes.

IIRC, I'm at about nineteen years on these cans. Love being able to buy replacement parts. Was able to replace a dead earpiece for not too much money. Sadly, Senn USA seems to be giving up on the replaceable parts idea. Instead, they want you to ship them the cans and then they'll charge you an arm and a leg for doing really, really simple stuff.

I had to order in the replacement earpiece from the UK. Replacing it was super easy, although I did need to watch a YouTube video first. It irks me that Senn USA would charge me at least $50 for five minutes of easy work. The whole point of the design is to make it easy for end users to fix them, but now they're refusing to support that anymore, at least in the US. Grrrr.

At least Sennheiser still has removable cords because my cat just killed my third one. I spent over an hour trying to figure out why I could hear background sounds but no vocals in videos thinking it was a driver issue. Nope, exposed wires... If only I did the smart thing and just plugged another headphone set in from the get go.

Malor wrote:

IIRC, I'm at about nineteen years on these cans. Love being able to buy replacement parts. Was able to replace a dead earpiece for not too much money. Sadly, Senn USA seems to be giving up on the replaceable parts idea. Instead, they want you to ship them the cans and then they'll charge you an arm and a leg for doing really, really simple stuff.

I forget where I read it, but I heard that Senn is looking to sell off its consumer headphone division.

Well, I haven't bought any earphones from them since about 2001, so I can maybe see why. They did too well the first time!

edit: no, I actually had a lower-end headset from them around 2009. Didn't like it much, and it broke within a year anyway. So they went from too good to not nearly good enough in about eight years.

mudbunny wrote:
EvilDead wrote:

For most headphones you can replace the earmuffs if you wanted to extend the life of them a bit.

Hunh. I’ll have to look into this.

**edt**

I reached out to turtle beach, and they do sell replacement ear pads, unfortunately, they don't ship to Canada.

So I bought generic ones off of Amazon.

Got my generic covers, and even a nifty little tool to help install them. Works well. A little stiff, but they are new, so meh.

Nice!

Any recommendations on an Xbox One headset for streaming and chatting in-game?

Mixolyde wrote:

Any recommendations on an Xbox One headset for streaming and chatting in-game?

Budget, fancy-pants or somewhere inbetween?

Jonman wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:

Any recommendations on an Xbox One headset for streaming and chatting in-game?

Budget, fancy-pants or somewhere inbetween?

In between is fine, I think. Also, I prefer over ear, not in ear, if that still exists.

Mixolyde wrote:
Jonman wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:

Any recommendations on an Xbox One headset for streaming and chatting in-game?

Budget, fancy-pants or somewhere inbetween?

In between is fine, I think. Also, I prefer over ear, not in ear, if that still exists.

Streaming directly from the Xbox?

pandasuit wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:
Jonman wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:

Any recommendations on an Xbox One headset for streaming and chatting in-game?

Budget, fancy-pants or somewhere inbetween?

In between is fine, I think. Also, I prefer over ear, not in ear, if that still exists.

Streaming directly from the Xbox?

Correct, via Twitch app for simplicity.

Mixolyde wrote:

Any recommendations on an Xbox One headset for streaming and chatting in-game?

Isn't that typically done with over-ear headphones and a separate mic, not going through the console?

I don't have a PC good enough to do streaming at the moment, trying to do it all through the Xbox.

So this is using an Xbox streaming integrated app correct? If so shouldn't any headset work? Wireless or wired?

HyperX Cloud Alphas are down to $80 right now, if you're not looking for wireless? Wirecutter approved.

Jonman wrote:

HyperX Cloud Alphas are down to $80 right now, if you're not looking for wireless? Wirecutter approved.

Thanks, that should do nicely. Wired and plugged into the controller is fine.

I'm just waiting for the Xbox branded wireless ones to come back in stock. They look like great upgrades to my Turtle Beaches in the areas that matter to me.

Shout out to the Anker Q30 Bluetooth headphones, which are on sale for $60 for Amazon Prime Day. They punch way above their weight, especially with some EQ tweaks. And the battery life is superb.

I had been eyeing the Sony XM4s, but with the music streaming services starting to push lossless audio, and lots of people suddenly discovering that Bluetooth isn't up to the task of lossless, it feels like we're a couple years away from some big Bluetooth audio updates. I figured if I was going to spend that money for some Bluetooth headphones, I would wait for the bandwidth and codecs to catch up to this new lossless streaming world. (Especially since I'm now on iOS and wouldn't be able to use the LDAC codec support of the Sonys)

I love my Anker Q20 and Q30s!

*Legion* wrote:

Shout out to the Anker Q30 Bluetooth headphones, which are on sale for $60 for Amazon Prime Day. They punch way above their weight, especially with some EQ tweaks. And the battery life is superb.

I had been eyeing the Sony XM4s, but with the music streaming services starting to push lossless audio, and lots of people suddenly discovering that Bluetooth isn't up to the task of lossless, it feels like we're a couple years away from some big Bluetooth audio updates. I figured if I was going to spend that money for some Bluetooth headphones, I would wait for the bandwidth and codecs to catch up to this new lossless streaming world. (Especially since I'm now on iOS and wouldn't be able to use the LDAC codec support of the Sonys)

I've also got a set. Use them with my computer as well as my phone. Very good buy for that price.