The thing I see most often is people adding the little Dekoni nuggets pads on the headband.
Amoebic might very well take it out if it's causing this much trouble.
Is it breaking links? Tested a few and they seemed to link to whatdver the thing is.
Still working on getting the contact feedback form working, and that's taking longer than expected. To say I inherited a dusty ancient broken-ass Frankenstein of a beast is an understatement. We're still finding and rolling out small fixes from the server migration and recent updates, lol. YouTube embeds are still on the docket. It is long. I think this is on there somewhere.
Regarding am*zon and integrations, I don't have access to that stuff, unfortunately. It would require getting Certis literally out of the woods and back online and coordinating a meeting to do that, and with everything going on right now, coordinating all of that to fix broken am*zon links aren't a priority at the moment. It's more likely something that can be addressed with a bunch of other back-end things once Certis is back Canada-side later this year.
If you want to support the bezos monopoly, and our dated, broken, and forgotten tech is causing issues for you or go against your moral principle, I would strongly recommend you not do it through click-throughs on our site.
I got some koss porta pros on recommendation from Jeff Green. So far, so good. I don't think they're that common here. I ordered them right as shutdown was happening, and was told couldn't get my order, but there was the same thing in limited edition blue. It's baby blue and not a fan of it, can see why it was still left in the warehouse.
Should call them liberty pros because I have freedom from batteries. No wireless nonsense in my house, except for the kettle.
Malor wrote:Amoebic might very well take it out if it's causing this much trouble.
Is it breaking links? Tested a few and they seemed to link to whatdver the thing is.
Try the links in this post.
If you go in and edit or quote the post, then paste the link straight into a browser, it works. If you follow it from the post, it breaks.
Not a huge deal to me.
I got some koss porta pros on recommendation from Jeff Green. So far, so good. I don't think they're that common here. I ordered them right as shutdown was happening, and was told couldn't get my order, but there was the same thing in limited edition blue. It's baby blue and not a fan of it, can see why it was still left in the warehouse.
Should call them liberty pros because I have freedom from batteries. No wireless nonsense in my house, except for the kettle.
Porta Pros are amazing, and I can also recommend these ear padsthat imo add to the comfort and sound of the headphones.
They are my daily headphones for just hanging out.
Ok I bought some KPH30i's and threw orange yaxi pads on them.
So good! A little less band pressure than the porta pros and very comfy for working in.
Mermaidpirate wrote:I got some koss porta pros on recommendation from Jeff Green. So far, so good. I don't think they're that common here. I ordered them right as shutdown was happening, and was told couldn't get my order, but there was the same thing in limited edition blue. It's baby blue and not a fan of it, can see why it was still left in the warehouse.
Should call them liberty pros because I have freedom from batteries. No wireless nonsense in my house, except for the kettle.
Porta Pros are amazing, and I can also recommend these ear padsthat imo add to the comfort and sound of the headphones.
They are my daily headphones for just hanging out.
One downside to Porta Pros is if you have long or shaggy hair.
That band was constantly tearing out my hair every time I took the headphones off.
Other than that great for the price.
There's a lot to be said for the modularity of Sennheiser's higher-end cans. The left driver on my HD600s went out finally -- after ~15 years, I really can't complain about longevity. So I ordered in a replacement piece. Sadly, it looks like Sennheiser USA doesn't sell parts anymore, they only let you send in the headphones and get an "estimate for repair". This is a ridiculous racket, because these things are dirt-simple to work on. All the pieces are modular and just snap in and out, there's no need for a tech at all. Spend five minutes watching a Youtube video, and you can fix pretty much anything about them.
Fortunately, you can still get parts from the UK, so I ordered in a new driver, about $60 with shipping. I also bought a set of replacement pads, finally, as the old ones were getting pretty shoddy. And, damn, it's like having a brand-new headset. They charge way too much for these, $50, but I still got out at about $110 to fix the old ones instead of $300 for a new set, and the net effect feels just about identical.
After I'd gotten the replacement driver, the video I watched mentioned a material flaw in the tiny springs used to connect the drivers to the cable; apparently, on the really old models (like mine), the spring eventually gets weak and stops making good contact. So if you've got an old set of 580s or higher, and you lose a driver, it may be a 5-cent spring at fault, rather than the driver itself. It looks like you can probably bend the spring a little to restore contact, meaning you might be able to fix it for free.
I just went ahead and replaced the driver, since I had it anyway. And damn, those are nice-sounding headphones.
edit: I just looked it up, and I bought these in 2003, so seventeen years ago. I've really gotten my money's worth.
second edit: If I wanted to buy a new set that was similar, I'd be looking hard at massdrop's "58X Jubilee", at about $175. I think those are pretty similar to the old 580s, but redesigned to be lower-impedance, so you don't need a headphone amp as badly. The true 600s sound fine on a standard headphone plug, but if you've got a high-quality source, an amp will help substantially. They wake up and get really awesome with the combo of a good amp and a great source.
I don't know if the 58X sound is the same, however. The overall impression online seems to be that they're really good, but I haven't heard them myself, and it's easy to manufacture positive responses on the modern internet.
I probably wouldn't bother going any further upscale; the 600s were hard to tell apart from the 580s, when I upgraded all those years ago, and that was when I had much better hearing. The 650s are supposedly better still, but I'm suspicious that might be marketing as much as anything.
Hah, I went back to the first couple pages on the thread, and I said this, back in 2009:
Remember that these things can last you a substantial fraction of your life if you're careful with them. It's worth a few extra days of thinking when a good choice can last for so many years.
That was good advice. I just now fixed the HD600s, 11 years later.
edit: after further review: man, good sound on the computer used to be really hard. That whole mess has mostly gone away. WASAPI cures most ills, and buying a motherboard with a good DAC cures the rest.
Without going full on headphone amp, does anybody have any recommendations or a good place to read up on decent USB C to 3.5mm adapter?
There are some on Amazon like this one for $13 that claim higher specs than most on Amazon, but who knows what to believe. Then there's more expensive stuff like this for $34.
There are a few videos on Youtube, but a lot of the times they products they reference are no longer found on Amazon.
It would be interesting if somebody did an ID on the chips in these. I suspect most probably use the same chips.
After the USB C port died last week on my Galaxy S8+, I finally had to upgrade and the S20+ of course has no 3.5mm jack.
I went maybe a little over board and got this spectra dac/amp that I can use with my laptop as well.
It works great, but also dumb purchase.
I went maybe a little over board and got this spectra dac/amp that I can use with my laptop as well.
It works great, but also dumb purchase.
Hah, that's the type of price I was hoping to avoid 
I think I'll try the $12 first.
Without going full on headphone amp, does anybody have any recommendations or a good place to read up on decent USB C to 3.5mm adapter?
I'd say to just get Apple's. It's $9.
Just to clarify for folks, the HD 58X are not really like the old HD 580's. Like the Sennheiser HD660S they in fact use the same driver as the often maligned and now discontinued HD700. It's essentially a direct transfer of that driver into the HD600/650 based shell. They have a pretty amazing wide soundstage, but their focus is more toward the treble end than is typical of Sennheiser.
They don't have the same smoothness and relaxed nature to their sound signature that the HD600/650/6XX all have and that made them so beloved.
They're still very popular anyway, IMO because the price is very right for the relative quality of the sound, and they work very well for gaming. The brighter signature can be a little fatiguing for some folks though.
Also FYI out of the box they may clamp significantly more on your head than the HD600/650/6XX. Mine were genuinely uncomfortable, which is bizarre for a set of headphones with that frame.
I had to cut a piece of wood to the right length to force the frame apart and kind of break it in without crushing the earpads.
boogle wrote:I went maybe a little over board and got this spectra dac/amp that I can use with my laptop as well.
It works great, but also dumb purchase.
Hah, that's the type of price I was hoping to avoid
Live a little
I need a pair of IEMs to use on my Xbox and in party chat.
I bought some Linsoul BLON BLO3s and I like the sound, but people hear their voice echoing in party chat when I turn the volume up.
Any suggestions? Ideally they'd have detachable cables and the microphone wouldn't be too close to the earbuds themselves.
I'd spend about £70.
Going to be remodeling the home office with two desks and two work from home users. Looking for suggestions for headphones for zoom / conference calls that meet a pretty specific set of criteria.
1. Bluetooth that can connect to phones and PCs.
2. Little to no voice audio lag on calls (Phone and PCs).
3. Good mics that can reduce or block ambient noise (this is a small room).
4. Have good noise cancellation or can passively block out noise well.
4. The ability to connect wired as well would be a plus.
What’s your budget?
Less than $300 but less than $200 would be much more appealing.
I am going to be going back through the past dozen or so pages, but I am looking for some mic/headphones to put on my Secret Stanta list. As such, I am not looking for top of the line, but for good and comfortable. They will be used for Discord and MS Teams, plus the occasional videogame /movie when the rest of the family is trying to sleep.
Going to be remodeling the home office with two desks and two work from home users. Looking for suggestions for headphones for zoom / conference calls that meet a pretty specific set of criteria.
1. Bluetooth that can connect to phones and PCs.
2. Little to no voice audio lag on calls (Phone and PCs).
3. Good mics that can reduce or block ambient noise (this is a small room).
4. Have good noise cancellation or can passively block out noise well.
5. The ability to connect wired as well would be a plus.
A disclaimer: There is no pair of headphones in existence that will not be a significant compromise on a minimum of 2 or in the vast majority of cases at least 3 of your wants. I fly every Monday and Friday for work and basically do not take headphones off/out for ~7 hours those days.
I use a pair of Sony XM3's. They sound great and the active noise canceling is excellent. They're trash for calls. Supposedly the XM4's are much improved for calls, but I have no reason to upgrade to them so I can't speak to that. I use an entirely separate set of fully wireless IEM's for calls and meetings.
For full size more long term use options, I've also tried Jabra Elite 85H's and now both pairs of Bose that you see everywhere, the Quietcomforts and the new ANC 700's or whatever they call them.
Jabra Elite 85h: Great for calls, somewhere in between the Bose and the Sony for sound quality, but not as comfortable to me as either. I could only wear them for about 45 minutes before they got annoying. Best for calls and meetings of the bunch. If these are comfortable for you IMO they're underrated and cost less than all of their more well recognized competition.
Bose Quietcomforts: Slightly lesser ANC to me vs the Sony's, better for calls, they sound kind of hollow, empty, and bad. If you aren't picky about sound quality (or like other Bose products you've heard before) these are a pretty great option especially if you find them on sale.
Bose NCH 700's: Great features, great for calls, not as comfortable as the Sony or even Bose's older Quietcomforts, sound quality is still standard Bose. So.. still bad (IMO!).
Of note: None of these headphones have particularly great passive noise isolation, and ANC does almost nothing for people talking in the same room so you are going to hear other people speak around you. In fact, sometimes ANC headphones can even seem to amplify other conversation in the immediate area. They aren't, of course, but it seems like they are because they squash down/eliminate all the background room noise.
Also, IIRC none of them keep microphone/call functionality when used wired, at least as far as I'm aware, but this isn't something I ever tested.
I am going to be going back through the past dozen or so pages, but I am looking for some mic/headphones to put on my Secret Stanta list. As such, I am not looking for top of the line, but for good and comfortable. They will be used for Discord and MS Teams, plus the occasional videogame /movie when the rest of the family is trying to sleep.
This is much more straightforward, but need a budget!
Off the top of my head, I say look at the Drop + Sennheiser PC38X headset. It's HD600/650/6XX comfort but with a built in mic that actually sounds pretty natural and works well. It's $170. If that's higher than you were thinking, there are actually some solid ~$100 options now for headsets, but I'm blanking on what they were. IIRC there was a youtube sort of roundup of the best 3 options I can dig up.
Thanks ThinJ, that is helpful. Out of curiosity do you do a lot of switching between phone & PC or primarily use them on one device or the other?
I will need to look into the Jabra Elite 85h. I have a pretty narrow noggin so they might work well enough comfort wise.
Out of curiosity do you do a lot of switching between phone & PC or primarily use them on one device or the other?
I don't do a lot of juggling devices, no. I know one of the bigger complaints from a fair number of people on the Sony XM3's was not being able to simultaneously connect to more than one device, so that conversation does happen about all of these things.
And just, maybe ignore me when I grumble about Bose sound quality. They're hugely popular, so clearly a lot of people are perfectly happy with the way they tune their products. I just really dislike it.
OK, thanks for the input. I have heard / read that same complaint about Bose from multiple sources so I know you're not alone. I haven't spent much time with them other then briefly putting on a friends pair. They were comfortable though.
It's too bad Sennheiser isn't as competitive in the Bluetooth scene. I love their wired sets.
The Sennheiser Momentum sets have their fans, I've just never tried them. Might be fine in a home office setting though. Hard to say without trying it out.
Super expensive though!
Supposedly the XM4's are much improved for calls, but I have no reason to upgrade to them so I can't speak to that.
I have the XM4's. They are trash for calls.
I'm assuming trash means bad mic pickup?
mudbunny wrote:I am going to be going back through the past dozen or so pages, but I am looking for some mic/headphones to put on my Secret Stanta list. As such, I am not looking for top of the line, but for good and comfortable. They will be used for Discord and MS Teams, plus the occasional videogame /movie when the rest of the family is trying to sleep.
This is much more straightforward, but need a budget!
Off the top of my head, I say look at the Drop + Sennheiser PC38X headset. It's HD600/650/6XX comfort but with a built in mic that actually sounds pretty natural and works well. It's $170. If that's higher than you were thinking, there are actually some solid ~$100 options now for headsets, but I'm blanking on what they were. IIRC there was a youtube sort of roundup of the best 3 options I can dig up.
Thanks.
The budget is about $100 max (if that is even possible).
Wyze is launching $50 ANC headphones next month. I can't see how they could be anything close to good at that price but they do make pretty great cheap security cameras, so who knows.
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