Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/05/15/this-129-bluetooth-headphone.html
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I’m definitely in the market for a bluetooth receiver. I go through a lot of headphone cords, so I really don’t want to spend a lot of money on a bluetooth, earphone combo that I’ll have to toss when one part of the chain is damaged.
" Giving them more juice opens them up a lot and everything gets far more detailed. The sound stage widens waaaay the heck up"
Hmm…the invocation of the term “sound stage” triggers my audiophile woo senses. Not saying you are wrong about the receiver, just that I associate expounding on how great the “sound stage” is with speaker cable and other audiophile woo reviews.
“My only complaint about the GET is that I find the volume wheel to be jumpy and I hurt my ears when I am not careful.”
That’s a great warning and I’m gonna have to say these will have to be a no. I had that problem with the monitor volume on my Mackie mixer as well as some other devices. Way, way too much power. There really should be a limiter or physical limit lock or some such thing. It usually takes me way longer than it ought to to realize the fastest hearing saving response will be to rip the headphones or IEMs off of my head rather than try to futz with the controls, which is painful with custom molded IEMs :-0
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Or you could like, buy a phone with a headphone jack.
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If the term for “the picture in your head of where the instruments are spatially placed” bothers you, perhaps you should not read these sorts of reviews.
The volume wheel isn’t awful, but it is tricky. Certainly not optimal.
But then you are making other compromises.
jlw has found a way to use the headphones he likes with the phone he wants to use. You just have to pick the solution that delivers what you need and places compromises in places that you don’t care about.
I wouldn’t choose this because I don’t want wires at all. I’d rather give up some sound quality to to gain freedom from snagging the cord on every bit of hardware around my house and having my headphones torn from my head all the time.
Different strokes, you know?
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Just say this in german and it’ll sound legit as hell
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Lot’s of people who use bluetooth headphones have standard TRRS headphone jacks on their phones. I’ve discovered I have a real knack for finding every possible doorknob and other cable snagging architectural features - and which can hurt, and also break cables. Being able to free my earphones from being hardwired to my phone would allow me to dress the cables better and still access my phone.
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"the picture in your head of where the instruments are spatially placed” is one of those subjective experiences that is easily over imagined. Not saying you are doing this. But I do think the well has been poisoned by all the woo reviews. Also, reviews are mixed in terms of content. Yours includes objective technical details like the the volume control that can be accidentally tweaked. So I’m going to read reviews for what I can glean from them.
I have killed a couple of my now-out-of-production Sansa media players because the headphone cord got yanked too often, causing the jack connections inside the device to fail. And I intend to have a Sansa player with Rockbox available until the day I die.
So I am now using one of these to drive a set of bluetooth headphones, even though the sound may be a little, teeny bit degraded.
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For some time i used a wireless gaming headset because i had killed a few sets by yanking the cable as well so i getcha. I did find the odd distortion in quality every now and then to be too obnoxious but i’d hope things are better quality-wise than like 8 years ago.
Yes, and the experience is different for most/many. “I think these sound better” is just as subjective tho – the one truth here is that the GET puts out more power than then Ribbon and drives the headphones better. I’ve always found that more power makes headphones sound better, til it doesn’t. Thats why the volume knob needs to work precisely…
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Are you dealing with any tinnitus? I’m 47 and since last fall I’ve had ringing that never stops.
How’s the bluetooth lag? One problem I’ve had with bluetooth when watching video is that it makes everything seem like it is badly dubbed as the voice lags the lips by a fraction of a second.
das Bild in deinem Kopf, dahingehend, wo die Instrumente räumlich angeordnet sind??!
Zis is ze German Analogy Police! You might have some idea, why we are here…
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I finally had to give up on my beloved Rockboxed Sansas for this reason. I’d successfully resoldered several, but now it’s Bluetooth from the Android phone. Big upside is being able to hear and answer calls with the headphones on. I’m not an audiophile, listen mostly to podcasts, books and NPR, and am happy with cheap light SoundBot over the ear units. I HATE buds!
Just to point out something here. “Power” is a static thing, it is a specific measurement and in terms of speakers it is directly related to volume. A 5W class A amp may not drive your studio speaker set to ear bleeding levels, but the clarity and hence soundstage is excellent. At the same time a 1000W class D monoblock isn’t doing anything to help the clarity of an excellent speaker.
Output power is important because typically distortion increases as power increases. And just like full size speakers, headphones all require varying levels of power to sound optimal. At the same time things like THD percentage and at what power, channel separation, and amp design play a big part in overall sound quality.
I still have two working e260s, two working Fuzes, six working Clip Zips, and three working Fuze+.
From my cold dead hands…
I’d love someone to do a showdown on this with the Earstudio ES100 (which also has a balanced out), can be had for 99$ on amazon (US only it seems)
With tinnitus that would be wasted on me, my £15 griffin will do just fine https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01HRYAP1K
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