Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with audio and headphones

What kind of hardware jack does my Sleek Audio SA1 headphones use?

SamuelF — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:44:21 -0800

Help me identify this audio jack. I purchased a pair of Sleek Audio SA1 headphones recently, partially because they come with a replaceable cord. Problem is, the tiny plug it uses seems to be some kind of secret, and me no likey proprietary hardware. I figure it must be some kind of common connector, but don't know enough to identify it on sight or know what to search for. You can see examples here and here. It's very small, much smaller than a normal headphone plug. The male plug has a hole in the middle (hee hee), and the female jack (in the earbud) has a smooth metal prong that fits in the middle of the male jack (hee hee). It's not just a plug-in-a-hole like a normal headphone jack.

Any ideas? And, thanks!

My wife doesn't like the cord on her earbuds...

judomadonna — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:24:09 -0800

...so can anyone recommend a pair of earbuds with a cord that looks like a capital y (Y), not a lowercase y (y)?

Champion Sound

murtagh — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:57:21 -0800

Why does music on my MP3 player sound better with small earphones than with big headphones? I have a Samsung YP-U5 MP3 player. Music on it sounds great when I listen with the earphones that came with the player, but if I connect my large Philips (SHP2000, if it matters) headphones to the player, music sounds quite poor. Why is that?

(There's nothing wrong with the Philips headphones, just to be clear.)

Best sub $100 headphones?

Heliochrome85 — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:23:44 -0800

Headphone Filter: Looking for a pair of quality headphones, but cant try them on because im out of the country. I am trying to figure out what pair of headphones I should get. Budget is around $100. I listen to alot of music when I study, but that also means that they need to not leak too much. I have been looking at the Sennheiser HD280 pros and Ultrasone HFI550/580s. What should I get?

requirements:
1.) Good build quality
2.) Good sound quality
3.) Reasonable size and foldablility

Headphones to take a licking and keep on ticking

Rinku — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:47:36 -0800

What are the sturdiest headphones you've ever owned? My younger brother has asked for headphones for his upcoming birthday. He tears through headphones at an alarming rate - about four pairs a year. He's a high school student, and he keeps his newest pair at the bottom of his backpack, sleeps with them on, and abuses them in a variety of other ways. I'm not sure which brands and models he's torn through so far.

I'd like to buy him a pair of headphones that will keep working for more than a month or two. Hopefully they'll sound OK and won't cost more than 50$. He'd probably prefer on or over the ear headphones to earbuds.

I've seen this thread, but the discussion mostly focused on making sure the headphones wouldn't damage the kids' hearing.

Should I upgrade my headphones for computer listening?

cosmic osmo — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 09:03:00 -0800

Are Grado SR 225i headphones worth it for listening to music on my computer? Right now I have Grado SR 60s (not 60i, I'm not sure what the difference is). I have a Macbook and most of my songs are 320 kbps MP3s, with the occasional lossless file or ~192 kpbs VBR MP3.

Is an upgrade in headphones worthwhile? I don't have any serious complaints with the SR 60s, just some unexpected disposable income and a headphone addiction. They will only be used for listening at my computer.

I'm looking at the 225is specifically, but if you have recommendations for other open-backed headphones in the same price range (~$200), I'm all ears. (Ha ha...ha.)

Maximizing quantity/$ in headphones.

DU — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:14:05 -0800

Headphone optimization, but not of the usual kind. Quantity/$ There are a couple previous questions asking for "good noise canceling headphones for < ${50,100}". That's what I want, except I don't care about the "good" and I want to double down on the "noise canceling".

Basically, I want to listen to audiobooks while mowing. I know some noise is going to leak through, so getting every little audio nuance is wasted. Furthermore, there isn't much "audio nuance" in spoken text.

I have a $30 pair of noise-canceling phones that just rests on the ear. They eliminate enough that I can just barely hear the book, but it isn't quite sufficient. Plus they died. I'm thinking that if I upgrade the noise-canceling and also get over-the-ear, I should be good.

These two features don't seem to go together very often. I did find a few pairs, but they were either very expensive or no longer for sale.

(I don't want ear buds or those ear canal things.)

Open Back Headphones On A Budget.

nam3d — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:54:35 -0800

Could someone please reccomend me some comfortable open back headphones with decent enough sound for under £40? Prefebly they should have a short cable (as I keep triping over my Sennheiser's). I'll be using them in conjunction with my mac, mostly listening to a lot of spoken word audio (tv shows, etc) and for light music listening.

Here's hoping you can help.

"Seasoning" headphones?

rwhe — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:17:39 -0800

Is the practice of "seasoning" headphones just supersition? In the Amazon reviews for a pair of earbuds I'm buying, I came across the claim that they sounded awful unless they were "seasoned" first by hooking them up to a constant audio source with a wide frequency range overnight or even for a few days. I googled "seasoning headphones" and came across this claim for some other headphones and earbuds, although it's not widespread.

To me this sounds like either (1) rank audiophile supersition, or (2) someone pulling the reader's leg. That's why I'm coming to AskMeFi. Opinions, please. Better, facts.

Cheers!

The voices, make them stop!

chairface — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:06:35 -0800

Good noise isolating headphones for work? I'd like good noise isolating for my cubical work environment. I like ear canal buds but I can only wear them for about an hour before my ears hurt. Active noise cancellation is fine by me but in my experience it doesn't help reduce vocal chatter of my nearby coworkers. I'm not super picky (my current work cans are Sennheiser HD 201s). I've been looking at this page for ideas but I'm open to other ideas or anyone's experiences.

What would you recommend for nice, isolating sealed cans for work?

Headphone amp for Airport Express?

hydrophobic — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 09:11:00 -0800

I buckled and bought a set of AKG k701 cans. They're currently hooked up directly to my Airport Express and sounding great, just lacking the final couple of decibels. Can anyone offer any advice on choosing a suitable headphone amplifier or, even better, suggest a recommendation (sub $500)?

Value Headphones (Grado)

waltzing astronomers — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:04:53 -0800

Are the Grado SR60's the best headphones that I can buy for under $100? I plan on using them, or whatever headphones I get, mainly with my iPod.

Please help my find a pair of headphones that won't hurt my head or ears.

Afroblanco — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:45:16 -0800

Please help my find a pair of headphones that won't hurt my head or ears. I used the same pair of Radioshack headphones for at least two years. They weren't great headphones, but were very comfortable - lightweight, with a nice, loose fit. They died recently, and I am forced to find new ones.

Unfortunately, every pair I've tried has been way too tight. I've tried both circumaural (around the ear) and supraural (on top of the ear) types. Neither have made me happy. The circumaural ones give me headaches, and the supraural ones made my ears hurt. I'm not a fan of the in-ear or earbud type - they're leaky, the sound quality tends to be poor, and I don't really think they're that comfortable.

Do they still make headphones that don't hurt? I should mention that I wear them for close to 8 hours a day, so comfort is really really important. I've returned, like, 5 pairs at this point, and am beginning to feel a bit discouraged.

All the pairs I've tried have been in the $50 range, and that's about as much as I'd like to spend. I could go as high as $75 - $100, but they'd have to be *really really* good.

Soundcard interference but only over KVM?

cyrusdogstar — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 18:12:31 -0800

I need help figuring out a strange audio interference issue with my computer setup, involving headphones, a KVM, and an apparent contradiction. The setup: iMac, custom-built gaming PC, nice pair of headphones, plenty of cables. Until today, I had speakers hooked up to the iMac and the headphone jacked into the PC, and everything was fine. Today, wanting to use the headphones on both machines, I bought an ioGear KVM which includes audio switching, hooked it up, and now the PC - and only the PC - is generating irritating background noise.

So, with headphones on, I have the KVM set to the iMac. The connection goes headphones -> KVM -> KVM cable -> iMac. The sound is perfect. I then switch the KVM to the PC's port, and get a decently loud background hum/buzz noise, including various additional sounds when the mouse moves, hard disk spins up, network activity, etc.

Plugging the headphones straight into the PC results in perfect quality, as before. So if it's not the sound card (or the problem would exist with the direct connection) or the KVM cabling (or the problem would exist with both machines) then what is it?

Additional caveats: I think I can rule out nearby cable interference and the sound card, as both KVM connections have other cables nearby, and the issue happens with both my onboard and expansion sound cards (but to a lesser extent with the onboard). I also recall a similar issue with other KVMs in the past.

How do people listen to audio in the shower?

zaebiz — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 01:09:01 -0800

One Ipod. One shower. One man. How can this man listen to his audio in the shower without damaging his Ipod or his ear cavities, using only household (or otherwise inexpensive) items. IMPORTANT : Must be able to hear the words. Ok feel free to add any waterproofing accessories that you know of but I feel certain I can do this safely with a bit of creative thought. Im open to not using the Ipod and using the computer instead, and Im open to not needing to wash my hair/face in the shower at the time.

How to record a sing-along choir track without a pile of headphones?

cortex — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 09:10:17 -0800

Lo-fi group recording: how can I record a 6-8 person sing-along choir cleanly if I don't already own a bunch of headphones and splitters? Imagine this: I have a track of a song-in-progress, and I'd like to add to that a track of half a dozen or so people singing a part. (See also: clapping a part.) It's an untrained group of friends and family—they don't know how to work as a group, and may have essentially zero musical training, but they can sing along to something with a little practice.

So I can't hum a reference note, wave a baton, and get an a capella performance out of them: they'll need to hear the track they're singing to.

But I don't have 6-8 pairs of headphones, nor the splitter hardware to run them through.

I could play the song into the room through a monitor, but I don't want the backing track bleeding significantly into the choir recording.

So: clever tricks? Alternate routes? Good bleed-management compromises, if I monitor? And should I just pick up a bunch of super-cheapo headphones, and if what's a good route for splitting out to 8 or so pairs of 1/8" jack phones?

Why Are My Headphones Picking Up Digital TV?

RokkitNite — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 07:48:32 -0800

I hear voices in the static... and they're laughing. I've got a pair of Sony wireless headphones connected to my PC. They've got an active range of about ten metres from the transmitter, and if there's nothing coming out of the PC soundcard then after a couple of minutes the transmitter switches off and they revert to white noise. So...
I was doing some writing with the headphones on and the sound on low. I wasn't listening to music so the headphones were just giving out a low, sibilant hiss. I started to hear voices under the static - faint at first, but gradually getting louder. I tried to turn up the volume on the headphones themselves, but then the hiss drowned out the speakers altogether. As I strained to listen, I struggled to discern specific words, but there was something strangely... familiar about the rhythms. Then I caught the words 'Nils' and 'radio show' and realised I was listening to an episode of Frasier.
I know I wasn't listening to a clip on a radio station because it immediately cut to an ad break, and since they turn the sound up at the transmitter I was able to figure out I was listening to the Paramount Comedy channel.
How am I receiving the audio for Paramount on my headphones? We don't get Paramount, and neither do our immediate neighbours. I've heard of amplifiers sometimes picking up police radio and suchlike, but how am I managing to receive the audio from a subscribers-only digital broadcast? Is there a stupidly simple explanation?

Fix my headphones or let them die?

awenner — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 08:31:07 -0800

My venerable Sony MDR-V500DJ headphones have finally, after 6 years, lost sound in the left ear. Is there a way I can repair the cord and the now faulty wiring? Twisting the cord at the base makes the audio occasionally come back, so I know the problem is at the plug and not the ear end. I also know that this means the 'phones are likely at the end of their life cycle, so I'm not opposed to radical surgery. Do people fix these things, even on an unofficial basis? Has anyone tried?

How to ad a headphone jack to a simple speaker?

bjork24 — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 10:06:16 -0800

AudioFilter: how can I add a headphone jack to a simple speaker? The channel monitor in the booth at our theater uses a very tiny, crappy speaker to monitor audio output to the various channels in the auditorium. When I watch movies from the booth, I have a hard time hearing the movie over the noise of the projector and exhaust fan. I'd like to make it possible to use headphones on the monitor, so I could hear the movies a bit better.

There's only one speaker in the monitor, and it has two wires going to it (one of which I think is a ground of some sort). What do I need to add a headphone jack, and how do I do it?

Save my Grados from Ostracization!

archagon — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 12:43:49 -0800

Is there any way to comparatively test the performance of my headphones' channels? I recently bought myself a pair of Grado S60s, but haven't yet been able to fully enjoy them. Almost immediately after receiving them, I plugged them (via 1/8-1/4 adapter) into my equally-new Smokey pocket amp's output port. I didn't realize that the port was mono and that my guitar's volume was turned all the way up; the left channel started to blare distorted/crackly guitar noise into my ear, and I quickly took them off.

Unfortunately, this may have ruined my left channel. Almost certainly not, but I'm very susceptible to the placebo effect. Great.

Whenever I now listen to music, I feel slightly uncomfortable. Although I can never pinpoint the problem, and although casual left-right volume tests seem to yield identical results, it appears to me as if the right channel is -- louder? clearer? better in some way than the left channel. Reason (as well as the amp's manufacturer) says that the amp couldn't've possibly damaged the 32-ohm 'phones, but I can't help my convictions.

Is there any way to comparatively test the performance of my Grados' channels?
Also, can headphones be permanently damaged by excessive volume, and if so -- in what way, and how long would it take?

lend me your ear(phone)s

luriete — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 16:28:31 -0800

headphone choice for non symmetrical hearing: my father is mostly-deaf in one ear. He wears an in-ear hearing aid that works well. He would like to find the following... either over-ear noise-cancellation headphones that will work with a hearing aid (so far, every type he's tried gives him huge amounts of deafening feedback when it interacts with the hearing aid), or a pair of in-ear headphones that have separate right/left volume controls, or some combination of the two.

My uncle got out his soldering iron and made him a pair using ipod earbuds and a home-made volume control, but they're not too sturdy, and he'd like something more comfortable to wear in his ear.

Ideally, comfortable over or in-ear 'phones with the volume controls - i think that noise reduction is secondary, although he likes the idea of it if they are over-the-ear models.

Any ideas? We've looked high and low and haven't found any headphones except for giant studio sets that have independent volume controls.

Is the headphone plug on my iPod doomed?

box elder — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 17:29:26 -0800

Is the headphone plug on my iPod doomed? I just bought new earbuds to replace some old ones that I use with my 2nd gen. iPod and there's no sound in the left channel. I've gone through a lot of headphones/earbuds in my day. I can still get the audio to play through both right and left channels when I plug the iPod into my stereo (I use a cord/jack/dealie that goes in where the headphones would) and my larger headphones still work... but only if I'm careful not to wiggle the cord too much.

I can also get the new buds to work in both ears if I pull the jack out a little bit. Is there a way to clean or repair that little plug? I'd be sad to have to replace my iPod. Is this a wear-and-tear issue? Is it doomed?

(I checked the new earbuds on my computer and stereo to make sure they work, and they do.)

Am I damaging my hearing?

oxala — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 17:51:53 -0800

Often when listening to music or a film on my in-ear (ipod) headphones I fold my ears forward and hold them. Is this damaging my hearing? I fold my ear forward so it more or less seals over the headphone and I hold it there. Music sounds incredible, it goes from the equivalent of listening inside an empty soup tin to a 30,000 seater arena inside my skull. The bass is massive but I can still hear the treble and there is no manual increase in volume. Could I be damaging my hearing? Volume isn't excessive, I just wonder about the bass which is pretty extreme and right inside my head. The difference between the tinny normal headphone usage and the massive bass is disconcertingly large. I'm not sure if it's just an aural illusion or if I am amplifying some frequency and creating a problem for the future here, because it feels like that.

Is the headphone jack in my laptop broken for good?

mayfly wake — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 21:01:50 -0800

I broke the audio line-out jack on my laptop! Help! I recently, in a disastrous combination of clumsiness and bad speaker arrangement, tripped over the cord connecting my speakers to my Sony Vaio laptop. This caused the plug to bend against the inside of the jack with quite a bit of force. Now any speakers or headphones plugged into this jack do not work at all, unless held at a certain angle, and even this only makes sound come out of one speaker, while sound continues to come from the laptop speaker. Is there a way to fix or replace this jack, or pay someone to do it?

Recommendations for cordless headphones?

littleme — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 11:38:27 -0800

I'm about to get a roommate, and she's warned me that she tends to play her music loud, and late (she's a bartender, so she works until about 2am). I'd like to buy her some cordless headphones; any recommendations? In the house I have an 802.11b/g wireless network and a cordless phone, so obviously I'd like to find headphones that don't interfere with those things -- or, indeed, are interefered with by those things. Would I do better just buying a pair of wired headphones with a long cable?