Earphones / headsets: Let's hear the hivemind stories

[Kasey Chang]

I don't remember how many headsets / earphones I have, probably too many.

Right now my "daily driver" is a $20 BT "exercise" (basically earphones with a tiny BT module, like this:



Buttons are atrociously small, and the wires seem to be too short by my big head, and microphone seem to suck, according to some. And battery only lasts hours, not the whole day.

Previously my daily driver was an LG Tone +



But after a few months of phenomenal battery life, the microphone started fritzing out. Now it's sitting on my bookshelf. I wonder if it's my phone that's causing the audio problem, not the BT headset?

A week ago I ordered one of those Amazon premium headsets with the magnet coupling and flat cord, just to see how they are like. They don't fit in my ears. Phooey. No arch or such to make them stay in. Mutant ears, I know. To make them fit I have to buy one of those third-party special eargels, which basically doubled the cost of the headset. I said "no way". I will make do with my Sennheiser earbuds instead.

I ordered one of those generic BT4.0 "allReLi" single ear headset for my dad (he said he's allergic to the rubber Motorola 730 earhook) and the cheap headset died after ONE DAY. They're shipping me a replacement, but in the meanwhile, I went out and bought him another Motorola, this one with a plastic earhook. (He lost the Jabra Classic I got him last year)

And I must have been on a warpath since I have two other sets coming in... On Massdrop I bought a Sennheiser single ear BT and when they have a "in-ear monitor grab bag" I also put myself in for one. I'll see it sometime in early September, and I don't know what I will get, only that it'll be something supposedly worth a lot more. Hahaha.

So what's the hivemind experience on the headsets, wired or BT?

[Pyperkub]

The Photive bt headphones on sale at amazon now for $25 or so are pretty good, much better than the Plantronics bt headphones I had previously had.

[hitbyambulance]

i could talk about headphones all day, but Bluetooth phone earpieces, i dunno.

[Kasey Chang]

i could talk about headphones all day, but Bluetooth phone earpieces, i dunno.

Are we talking the huge cans like KEF, AKG, and Grados?

[hitbyambulance]

i could talk about headphones all day, but Bluetooth phone earpieces, i dunno.

Are we talking the huge cans like KEF, AKG, and Grados?

indeed so

[Isgrimnur]

I picked up a pair of MEElectronics Atlas wired headphones because of some ear pain with the in-ear phones I was using. Went to the doc the day I got them, and was diagnosed with folliculitis. The Atlas are listed at $100, got the white ones on Amazon for $20.

[Kasey Chang]

Atlas are $50 on MEI's own website... But they look pretty nice.

[Kasey Chang]

GAH! Lost my Crosstrainer yesterday. I think I hung it on back of my neck and since it doesn't come with any clip it just... whoosh and gone sometime during the day.

Good thing my two backups arrived. One's my Sennheiser single ear that I ordered from Massdrop. Paired it and charged it... working fine. And pretty long battery life playing podcasts all afternoon so far deep into the evening. The other is the replacement for my allReLI that broke after one day. Charged it and will try it tomorrow.

[Kasey Chang]

My Massdrop prize arrived: Brainwavz M5. While it's obviously better built than the cheap headsets, I'm not convinced it's that MUCH better. It's worth 45 on Amazon, I paid $25 for it on Massdrop, so it's cheaper, but I'm not that much of audiophile... What songs should I use to like, make me feel I got what I paid for? As compared to my cheap Amazon or JLabs headphones?

[Isgrimnur]

Bohemian Rhapsody and the Jurassic Park soundtrack.

[Daehawk]

i could talk about headphones all day, but Bluetooth phone earpieces, i dunno.

Thats me...big cans and headsets with boom mics. Earbuds and such no.

But to post something about headsets. My first..that were mine..I picked them I used them I paid for them....were a big old brown set of cans I got at the local GreenStamps store with stamps. It was so cool. Times long gone. I still have them but the padding has rotted away.

[Kasey Chang]

I found a weakness with my Sony MDX-XB950BT's.

Turns out while the "headband" is nice and wide, it's held together with a TINY screw about the size of your eyeglass hinge. And if that thing popped out of its screw threads... the adjustable rails are toast, and right now, BOTH of the screws have popped out (with 48 hours). (I told you I have a big head!)

Right now I have two zipties holding the two section together. Doesn't affect the slider, and seems to relieve the tension on the screw itself, but that's a WEAK design, Sony.

[Kasey Chang]

My Sennheiser BT headset turns out to have horrible fit, that I had to engineer my own as the ear gels are crap and the earhook broke.

This is the result:



You're looking at a Frankenstein creation combining what's left of a "Decibullz" moldable earpiece, a paperclip, and the Sennheiser BT headset. And it's a much better fit



EDIT: Changed image host from GPhoto to Imgur

[Isgrimnur]

Images don't come through.

[Kasey Chang]

I am surprised how many wired headsets / headphones do NOT come with a shirt clip... but you can buy them on Amazon for $5 for 5.

[Kasey Chang]

Yet ANOTHER variation on that stupid Bluetooth... The paperclip actually hurts my ear, so here's the latest variation: Using "Earhoox" extender:





This Earhoox was meant to be used on "earbuds" type headphones, but it fits fine here, had to stretch it a little to fit it in. And it's a good fit that shaking one's head and there's no fear of it coming out, and my ear no longer hurts.

http://www.amazon.com/Earhoox-Round-Ear ... B00FGDRXTC

[Kasey Chang]

I found something to enhance the fit of "in ear monitors" (i.e. the in-ear type earphones)... a set of 'wings' from ITIS



http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010N6APLY

These fit over your existing earphones (the in-ear type) and are available in 3 sizes so the wing fit in your ear's inner arch and thus hold the earphone in place even during hard exercises and jumps. The "Earhoox" I linked to earlier are the same idea, except they are meant for the "ear bud" (that sits outside the ear) or the Apple "ear pod" type headphones.

And they do a good job, and they also work as replacement wings for similar type of Bluetooth earphones.

I find the regular silicone type ear tips a little irritating and somewhat loose. I've tried the double- and triple-baffled versions and while they are better, they are even more uncomfortable as they block outside noise AND relies on friction against your ear canal to hold the stuff in. This so far seem to be the most economical solution, 3 pairs for $10.

[Daehawk]

I forgot I had these. best earbud type I ever owned. They got really good reviews is why I got them and they were right. Sound awesome. And super cheap. The only downside is they have a braided cloth cord that will tangle bad all the time. Small price to pay. Buy 3 or 4 pairs heck. Their shape is like having those things built in.

http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=9927

[Kasey Chang]

Ah, I have one of those too. I replaced the tip with the triple-baffle version I got from some ear tip trial kit. You're right, those cloth lines tangle like CRAZY. And no microphone.

[Daehawk]

Oh ya thats right no mic..whoops. I also replaced my tips to some foam ones. The ones that came with them..even though there were 3 sizes...just never fit quiet right. Good bass though.

[Kasey Chang]

You know what that pair needs is...

Ear hooks!



Fit your wire through these plastic-y things (they split open in the middle) and hook these behind your ears. Voila, won't fall out/off period.

[blackjack]

Had my bday recently, and my mom likes to let me pick out one item as a gift. I have been veering more towards cooking-related stuff of late, but she got me some great Creative Labs PC speakers last year.

So speaking of hivemind, she got me...

Corsair VOID Wireless Dolby 7.1 RGB Gaming Headset — Special Edition Yellowjacket
http://www.corsair.com/en-us/void-wirel ... low-jacket

Really comfortable, great sound, and while I find the earcup lighting FX pointless (unless maybe you go to a lot of LAN gaming events), you can disable that to save some battery life. Unlike my 2009 era Plantronics wireless, this has great battery life (around 16-20 hours depending on what's enabled) and a nice auto-shutoff option. If you enable voice prompts, then a voice clearly tells you when you enable/mute your microphone, when auto shutoff is about to take place (if it doesn't detect game or music sounds for a while it starts turning off), when it truly turns off, and when the headset's on and working.

You can choose to have this stuff indicated by little LEDs on the mic end, but I think the audio prompts are more useful for me.

Instead of buttons for volume adjustment, it uses a little rocker switch on the left cup's bottom. In certain games (The Division for one), you'll see a tiny volume meter on screen for just a second or two when you adjust volume.

A Windows tray utility allows settings changes and shows percentage battery left, among other things.

While it looks humongous, if you have fairly big ears like me it's a great fit and really comfortable and relatively light. I tried a new Plantronics wired model that feel lighter to me but I wanted to ask for something a bit crazy as my gift.

Of course it looks like a bumblebee but I don't have many guests in my PC room. I believe the non yellow jacket version is black and cheaper as it skips the base station, which is really just a little one-slot USB hub so you can put the transmitter in there rather than back of your PC or use up a front PC slot for it. They also sell a wired black version for much less.

Anyway, so far I love it. I would probably not recommend $150 headsets for most folks but if you feel like splurging on something like that, I think it's a good bet but maybe ask me later (it does have a 2 year parts warranty).

[Kasey Chang]

I have a set of Sony MDR-XB950BT. The battery lasts day and a half (or feels that way), and can even work as a wired headset if you don't need wireless.

[Kasey Chang]

Had to Sugru the Sony headset and zip tie it as well. My big head is taking a toll on the poor headphone.

First time I use Sugru as a glue/reinforcement. Let's hope it works well.

[Cortilian]

I use a pair of ATH-M70x http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/headp ... index.html and they are the best things ever. Nice to have some writeoffs and be able to splurge a little sometimes.

[Kasey Chang]

Reinforcement works, only used half of the Sugru pack. Decided to do the other side pre-emptively. Use the black pack so it's not too obvious. This Sugru stuff works. I need to get a couple more packs... The intro pack I got off Amazon (red, white, black 1x each) is good for small repairs.

[Kasey Chang]

I use a pair of ATH-M70x http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/headp ... index.html and they are the best things ever. Nice to have some writeoffs and be able to splurge a little sometimes.

I want the ATH-AD900X... I've been told it's great for big heads like mine. I'm waiting for my tax refund, but I need to talk to my accountant... Apparently Feds didn't like the fact I didn't take the Obamacare writeoff?

[Giles Habibula]

Corsair VOID Wireless Dolby 7.1 RGB Gaming Headset — Special Edition Yellowjacket
http://www.corsair.com/en-us/void-wirel ... low-jacket

That's a sweet-looking set there, blackjack. How are they holding up?
How well do they handle music, for instance? About half of my headphone time is spent listening to music, the other half gaming, so the music aspect is of interest to me.
And I actually like the Yellowjacket color scheme.
If I didn't already have a decent set of headphones, I'd be eyeballing those. In fact, I'm still going to eyeball those, since my current set isn't wireless, and I've decided that wireless will be a must for my next set, as dealing with that damn cord is a bigger deal than I thought it would be. But at the time I ordered mine, I was under the impression that wireless headphones would inherently bring connectivity issues.

What I've been using for the last two years are the HyperX Cloud Pro Gaming Headset. I paid $79.99 for them on June 28, 2014, and they're still doing really well. Currently just $67.90. They only thing I wish they had is wireless capability. I also wish they had the volume control on the headset itself rather than being in-line on the cord. But overall, for the money, I think the sound quality is really, really good. But I'm no expert, as this is the only headphone set I've bought in over 30 years. They fit well, are lightweight, sound nice for games and music, have a detachable mic, and they look nice and are comfortable and easily adjustable.

[hitbyambulance]

i personally wouldn't buy any wireless headset for music, as there will necessarily be a reduction in audio fidelity (due to lossy Bluetooth data compression).

[Kasey Chang]

FWIW, my Sony can be BOTH wired and wireless. No extra bass and other modes in wired mode, but also don't need to be charged either.

[gbasden]

That's a sweet-looking set there, blackjack.

Indeed. After my Logitech USB gaming headset started not being recognized my my computer, I lost my battle with my inner will and used my birthday money to pick up the same set. I really like the large earcups and the headband design. It fits well on my large head. The sound in games is fantastic. Music is a bit bass heavy and not super defined, but I have a pair of Sennheiser HD650s when I want to be serious about that. For listening to music while doing chores and cooking dinner, you can't beat the convenience of the wireless connection. I can get a good 30' away from my computer with no issues.

[Kasey Chang]

Bought SoundPEATS neckband style Q900 BT headset from Amazon. It's $20, it's BT4.1 and it's got long battery life.

So what's the problem?

1) Magnets holding the buds to the tips are quite weak. One shake and it's loose.

2) it's not tolerant of bad BT signals. I've had multiple instances where the sound turns into complete static. Had to stop the playback and restart it.

3) The instructions are a bit off.

But what are the good parts?

1) Multi-point... I've paired it to two devices at once.

2) VERY long battery life (lasts a whole day listening to stuff)

3) VERY lightweight, barely there (less than 5 oz)

I could have gone for the model with folding arms and retractable buds, but those are like $40 instead of $20.

[Isgrimnur]

I picked up a pair of MEElectronics Atlas wired headphones because of some ear pain with the in-ear phones I was using. Went to the doc the day I got them, and was diagnosed with folliculitis. The Atlas are listed at $100, got the white ones on Amazon for $20.

Warranties these for broken hinges after 10 months, they sent me the Rumble AF80, which can be run wired or bluetooth. Only thing I dislike is that the battery low voice indicator is usually a lot louder than the music to which I was listening, and can be quite disconcerting. However, they do charge relatively quickly, and I can get 2-3 workdays out of them before needing to put them on the charger.

[Moliere]

I am looking at these two options:
HyperX Cloud II Gaming Headset
Corsair Gaming VOID USB RGB Gaming Headset

[Bad Demographic]

I am looking at these two options:
HyperX Cloud II Gaming Headset
Corsair Gaming VOID USB RGB Gaming Headset

I have the VOID USB RGB Gaming headset.
I've found that when I'm gaming and have to get up to do something (get food, something to drink, hit the bathroom, etc.) and take off the headset, by the time I get back my sound has turned off. I haven't figured out how to turn it back on without saving/restarting the game. This has happened in both Fallout 4 and Borderlands 2.
It may be something I'm doing. But because of that, if you want to get the VOID, maybe the wireless version would be better.

[Moliere]

I am looking at these two options:
HyperX Cloud II Gaming Headset
Corsair Gaming VOID USB RGB Gaming Headset

I have the VOID USB RGB Gaming headset.
I've found that when I'm gaming and have to get up to do something (get food, something to drink, hit the bathroom, etc.) and take off the headset, by the time I get back my sound has turned off. I haven't figured out how to turn it back on without saving/restarting the game. This has happened in both Fallout 4 and Borderlands 2.
It may be something I'm doing. But because of that, if you want to get the VOID, maybe the wireless version would be better.

Other than that are you happy with the quality of the headphones and microphone?

[Bad Demographic]

I am looking at these two options:
HyperX Cloud II Gaming Headset
Corsair Gaming VOID USB RGB Gaming Headset

I have the VOID USB RGB Gaming headset.
I've found that when I'm gaming and have to get up to do something (get food, something to drink, hit the bathroom, etc.) and take off the headset, by the time I get back my sound has turned off. I haven't figured out how to turn it back on without saving/restarting the game. This has happened in both Fallout 4 and Borderlands 2.
It may be something I'm doing. But because of that, if you want to get the VOID, maybe the wireless version would be better.

Other than that are you happy with the quality of the headphones and microphone?

Pretty much, yes.
The only other problem I have is that the people I play Borderlands 2 with say I sound like R2D2 over4 the mike. But I don't know if that's the headset or something odd about our connection. When it's just Bob and me, he says I sound normal. When it's the four of us, even Bob says I sound like R2D2. Also, with all four of us playing, the others complain that I'm breaking up most of the time (and they are breaking up for me).
Keep in mind, though, that I got the Corsair VOID because my Borderlands group complained that they couldn't hear me over my old headset (and old Sennheiser). So the mike issue may have nothing to do with the headset.

Hmm. Was that coherent?

[Moliere]

I am looking at these two options:
HyperX Cloud II Gaming Headset
Corsair Gaming VOID USB RGB Gaming Headset

I have the VOID USB RGB Gaming headset.
I've found that when I'm gaming and have to get up to do something (get food, something to drink, hit the bathroom, etc.) and take off the headset, by the time I get back my sound has turned off. I haven't figured out how to turn it back on without saving/restarting the game. This has happened in both Fallout 4 and Borderlands 2.
It may be something I'm doing. But because of that, if you want to get the VOID, maybe the wireless version would be better.

Other than that are you happy with the quality of the headphones and microphone?

Pretty much, yes.
The only other problem I have is that the people I play Borderlands 2 with say I sound like R2D2 over4 the mike. But I don't know if that's the headset or something odd about our connection. When it's just Bob and me, he says I sound normal. When it's the four of us, even Bob says I sound like R2D2. Also, with all four of us playing, the others complain that I'm breaking up most of the time (and they are breaking up for me).
Keep in mind, though, that I got the Corsair VOID because my Borderlands group complained that they couldn't hear me over my old headset (and old Sennheiser). So the mike issue may have nothing to do with the headset.

Hmm. Was that coherent?

Yes, thank you for the info. I had been leaning towards the HyperX so you're feedback helped.