Headphones & Audio Devices

Tmac said:

Not sure where to ask this question, but this seems to be the best spot. I've been recording an album in the studio for the last year and I want to start recording my demos at home to save money.

For context, I typically just play acoustic guitar and sing to get a song demo'd. And for my own purposes I'm just using a room mic to pick up the vox and acoustic guitar.

I've got a Focusrite Solo 3rd Gen for my input and I'm using an Audio-Technica AT2020 as a room mic for guitar/vox. But, I'm getting some weird phasing when I record and I'm not sure where it's coming from. The vocals sound fine, but the guitar sounds weirdly electronic at moments and keeps phasing in and out.

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So you don't have piezos and are just using the room mic? My Focusrite solo sucks, there is substantial input lag. I had to screw around with bit rates to get it to function at all without artifacts and then even then it just doesn't like a any preprocessing apps that it comes bundled with. I had to basically run just Ableton, can't use dumb air mode or the device monitoring channel and it works OK. Just have to put headset to listen with the lag in Ableton and it is at least clear.

Apparently some of their higher end stuff is supposed to be actually decent, but I hate the solo, it's been nothing but trash for me.

Tmac said:

Well damn. What should I get instead?

I have a Yamaha 08 or whatever for my live gigs but I don’t want to have to set it up at my PC. It’s not huge, but I’d have to add some furniture for it.

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I ended up just trading it in favorably and going with the 2i2 since my local store only had Scarlett stuff in my price range in stock and that unit seems to function better but TBH I haven't really pursued it much more since. Every thousand dollars you spend makes it better is what I kept getting told... I'm just confirming your experiences with audio artifacts and latency with the solo anecdotally, they still seem to be the big dog in that segment.

I also got a Pocket Pod from Line 6 but no XLR on that, it works better as a general guitar interface than the solo did despite it being a bit junkier. I think they have bigger ones but "working slightly better" doesn't strike me as a compelling reason to recommend the lower end L6 stuff either. Not really happy with anything in this price range and I'm just looking for latency free basic quality interfaces, not all the bells and whistles.

Old sennheisers pads are guessing and wife might start gaming again. not a super audiophile other than trying to hear footsteps in tarkov. any current bang for the money good choices at the 100 and under currently?

Sludig said:

Old sennheisers pads are guessing and wife might start gaming again. not a super audiophile other than trying to hear footsteps in tarkov. any current bang for the money good choices at the 100 and under currently?

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I always recommend the Drop/EPOS PC38X but they go for $180 and current sales only bring them down to $150. At the $100 range I'd probably go with EPOS Game One ($87, third party seller but shipped by Amazon) or the Drop PC37X ($105, sold and shipped by Amazon).

Vorph said:

I always recommend the Drop/EPOS PC38X but they go for $180 and current sales only bring them down to $150. At the $100 range I'd probably go with EPOS Game One ($87, third party seller but shipped by Amazon) or the Drop PC37X ($105, sold and shipped by Amazon).

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I have the pc37x or it looks almost the damn same, suprised no changes over a few years. Bought it off drop etc.

Sludig said:

I have the pc37x or it looks almost the damn same, suprised no changes over a few years. Bought it off drop etc.

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Yeah, I don't think the PC37X have changed at all. The PC38X is exactly the same as what I got from Drop during the initial run before they started selling on Amazon too. Even when EPOS split from Sennheiser all that changed is they started offering it in all black because some people didn't like the original black/gold.

Vorph said:

I always recommend the Drop/EPOS PC38X but they go for $180 and current sales only bring them down to $150. At the $100 range I'd probably go with EPOS Game One ($87, third party seller but shipped by Amazon) or the Drop PC37X ($105, sold and shipped by Amazon).

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+ 1 for the PC37x or PC38x

I just bought a new TV for my living room and am moving my existing TV to the bedroom. My wife and I would like to be able to each use bluetooth heaphones to listen at night. Does anyone know of a decent product for this?

Captain Suave said:

I just bought a new TV for my living room and am moving my existing TV to the bedroom. My wife and I would like to be able to each use bluetooth heaphones to listen at night. Does anyone know of a decent product for this?

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First, check to see if your TV can do it natively. Samsung and LG may have the capability depending on age, other brands may too.

If that's not an option, you can get a transmitter like this one if your TV/soundbar/receiver has a headphone jack:

In any case, you'll need to make sure whatever headphones you use support aptX low-latency and/or aptX adaptive. Adaptive is better sound quality but the latency isn't as good as the older LL codec.

Vorph said:

First, check to see if your TV can do it natively. Samsung and LG may have the capability depending on age, other brands may too.

If that's not an option, you can get a transmitter like this one if your TV/soundbar/receiver has a headphone jack:

In any case, you'll need to make sure whatever headphones you use support aptX low-latency and/or aptX adaptive. Adaptive is better sound quality but the latency isn't as good as the older LL codec.

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Thanks, ended up getting this one after reading some reviews and deciding what features I wanted (25% off at time of posting):

Deathwing said:

Any recommendations for a DAC? My Schiit Modi 2 will still respond to 5 minutes under a portable heater but it's getting too warm to use that anymore. My Schiit Magni is still working fine, but doesn't need to be compatible with that.

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Yeah, I feel your pain. I bought the Hel 2 because I loved the Hel so much and wanted modern power cables and more power. Damn thing stopped working after 9 months and they were real pricks about replacing it so I won't buy from them again. From what I gathered it's some shitty usb chip they decided to use on the new Hel 2.

I've been using this and it's kind of blown my mind, I thought their SXFI tech was going to be a gimmick but the immersion level of the sound is something I can't really describe well enough to do it justice. When people are talking it sounds like they are in the room with me and when music is playing it's like I'm in the recording studio with them. I had to take a picture of each ear and upload it into the app and completely changed the sound settings. I still run it with EQ APO.

Deathwing said:

I don't even see a Hel 2 on their product page. Beyond just giving Schiit more money, it looks like they designed/licensed their own USB chip on the newer versions of the Modi. IDK, seems excessive nor would I expect an accoustics equipment company to even be good at that(chip design).

I wasn't aware Creative was still around, tbh. What headphones do you use with that?

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It's still shown as the Hel on the lineup, but if you click on the link it says Hel 2 all up in there. Whatever they did, it sucks.

When I'm gaming I use my PC38x and when listening to music I use my HD58X Jubilee. If you're curious to check it out just get it on Amazon and return it if it isn't your thing haha.