Hi. I just bought a Sony 32" Bravia for my small room. Although I would love to get home theater speakers, it is not advisable because I have flatmates who may be disturbed as I like to watch my movies with loud audio even late at night. I thought about headphones and I would like to ask advise on what kind of headphones I can buy here in NZ is best for watching movies. Hope someone can help. Cheers.
Hi Jaxson. Thanks for your advise on the DIY surround headphone. It looks the headphone in the article was designed for a laptop. I will be using one for TV with DVD player and receiver. Will the design in the artilcel apply? There was also a link to an Ezonics EZ 638 model, but looks like it has a USB plug and will not work for my set-up? Any solutions? Thanks.
I was under the impression that because you have 2 ears that are roughly arranged on either side of your head what allows you to determine the direction sound comes from is the time difference that the sound takes to reach one ear compared to the other. If that is the case then wearing earphones negates that for any affect above stereo. I guess if there was some way of factoring in any head tilt or turn and factoring that into the audio delay for one ear or the other to produce surround sound. Since your eyes tend to rule your ears, good pair of stereo headphones should be enough.
“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996
I tried some 5.1 headphones and found them crap compared to some good stereo ones and the fake 5.1 turned on in the dvd software. I think it was powerdvd I was using that had it, and it worked very very well.
richms: I tried some 5.1 headphones and found them crap compared to some good stereo ones and the fake 5.1 turned on in the dvd software. I think it was powerdvd I was using that had it, and it worked very very well.
Holy crap, you mean they actually make these things?!
I generally buy headphones from the states, even after shipping etc. they still tend to be half to 2-thirds of the price of buying them in NZ. My Grado's are $399rrp in NZ, I got them for NZ$180 landed. Ridiculous markups.
The Sennheiser 555's are brilliant. I've got some old HD280 Pro's which are also very good and block out external noises so you can watch things at great volume without bothering others, or them bothering you, but I believe they're discontinued now. The Grado SR series are all open-backed headphones so almost as much sound goes out the back as out the front, this is also true of the high-end Senn's.
The 280's also have a 3 meter long coiled cable which helps being able to sit a fair distance away.
Most of the fashion headphones (Skullcandy etc) heavily accentuate the bass frequencies which might be better for listening to some action movies and hip-hop/electronica on, but I find them to get incredibly fatiguing. This is also true of the Sennheiser HD212's which are popular street headphones, good sound, but quite bass-heavy.
Computerlounge is as good a place as any to buy headphones from though, their prices are better than average and they usually have things to you in 2-3 days.
dont be afraid to spend a little more on a good quality set of headphones, especially if there staying in your room...they'll last just as long as your TV- i've had the sennheiser hd595's for 4or5 years now and their still perfect sound. Bear in mind that the hd555/595 are open and as such can be heard by others so not so good in office/train. hd595 prefer to be driven by an amp, but still "ok" from portable device/tv.. anything higher hd600/650 etc really need amp.
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