Which USB headphones?

RastaManBob

RastaManBob

RastaManBob

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30 Dec 2003
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Hi,

Can you recommend any particular USB headphones, ideally sub £30 but would consider stretching slightly if necessary?

I do not have easy access to a headphone socket on my work PC (without an extension), so I'm wishing to go down the USB route. This either means external sound card or DAC and 3.5mm headphones or a set of USB ones. Considering the price limitation I imagine only the latter option is viable.

Use will be typical office/YouTube/Napster streaming, etc. Mainly music and certainly no games. I definitely want a banded set, not in-ear.

Headset features (e.g., mic) are not required but I've no problem if they were included, though I would want the mic to be retractable/removable (as it will not be used).

I'd like some kind of control box/inline volume control, if possible but again I'm happy to let that slide if doing so means getting better value for money.

Originally I was set on the Sony DR-350USB mainly due to price and thought they ticked all of the boxes. At the time I'd seen them online for < £30 however everywhere seems to be out of stock now at that price range... They are probably do-able at £40ish but being as they were selected on somewhat of a whim I thought best to see if there were anything else worth going for instead.

Thank you! :)
 
saitrix said:
You fancy building a dac? Build a bantam dac cheaply and then you can use any headphones.

http://www.diyforums.org/BantamDAC/BantamDACoverview.php
Click to expand...

Hey Dan,

How are you these days? From looking around here seems you've left L'boro? Is that true?

Anyway, back on topic :p

I'm happy to build a DAC but I'm not sure it's a viable option, mainly because I do not have any headphones at the moment so I'd still need to buy a set of those which eats out of the budget. Even if I went for the top budget at £50, if I could build a DAC for £30 (just a random guess; not yet read the above link as I'd no doubt do a bit of research on which DAC to build for performance:cost ratio if I were to go down that route) which leaves only £20 for headphones... Now I'm not sure, with little knowledge on what's good and what's not with respect to headphones, would get me very much.

Consider now I'd like to hit the ideal <£30 budget (which is still reasonable considering I'm only after something cheap and cheerful for work), if the DAC costs £30 I've no budget for the headphones at all.

From a hobbyist point of view building a DAC would be cool, especially as I miss my electronic roots (still plugging away when I get a chance!) but I'd definitely have to look at it more from the "enjoyment of building it" (:p) if I was to go down the DAC route as I cannot see it being as cost effective as buying an off-the-shelf set. Then again, I'm sure you could persuade me otherwise :).

Dan.
 
I'm good thanks, I'm still in loughborough! Yeah I agree probably isn't a cost effective method but I knew you'd like the project. The only issue there is smd soldering. I'm just about to start my first DIY project, want to make a headphone amp. What would be cool is building a dac with a built in amp, the USB would be enough to power it. Though there I am making it more expensive! Should be about £20 to build the amp. I need to work out where is best to buy these bits. Watch out for fake stuff on eBay too when buying headphones. I was happy with my £25 sennheisers I got years back, plus you can build a dac for your hifi at home, I keep meaning to do that for my htpc.

You use the same PC at work? If so you could just permenantly keep the extension cable connected
 
saitrix said:
I'm good thanks, I'm still in loughborough!
Click to expand...

Ahh, it was seeing your commute is now longer that got me thinking... So I take it that must mean a new job instead? Cool; what you up to these days?

saitrix said:
Yeah I agree probably isn't a cost effective method but I knew you'd like the project. The only issue there is smd soldering. I'm just about to start my first DIY project, want to make a headphone amp. What would be cool is building a dac with a built in amp, the USB would be enough to power it. Though there I am making it more expensive! Should be about £20 to build the amp. I need to work out where is best to buy these bits. Watch out for fake stuff on eBay too when buying headphones. I was happy with my £25 sennheisers I got years back, plus you can build a dac for your hifi at home, I keep meaning to do that for my htpc.

You use the same PC at work? If so you could just permenantly keep the extension cable connected
Click to expand...

Yeah, I use the same PC at work but I'd still rather the USB solution than the extension cable. I just think it'll be tidier with USB hubs in the monitor and keyboard.

The DAC with built in amp sounds cool. Don't think I'll need that (do not tend to use portable audio) but I think it'd definitely be useful if you do... When I did look at off-the-shelf DACs (a few weeks ago when I was first looking for something for the office) the Fiio E7 kept coming up as a good unit for tight budgets... That can be used as a portable amp too. I think that's a little over £50 if I remember correctly, so not suitable for me. If I did go down that route building would be more fun anyway. Surface mount should not be too much of an issue either (I've only limited experience with it but it was not so bad, depending on package sizes).

I'll give the DAC route some further consideration anyway... Thanks for the heads up! :)
 
Ahh just changed the store I am in.

You will have to see if you can have a listen of the usb headphones to see what quality they are. They must have a cheap dac inside them so I do just wonder whether you will be giving up sound quality for it being neat.
 
I'd tried getting an answer to the question in the OP in a few of the likely places and had no luck. Fortunately I managed to get hold of the Sony DR-350USB (the only model I'd found that looked suitable and reasonable-ish for the money) at a bargain price of £20 delivered. I'm sure it's not as good as a custom DAC and audiophile level headphones but on first test today it does all I need of it.

They look reasonably stylish and, with the removable mic, not much like a headset (more like normal, non-bulky, headphones). The build quality seems fine and they are comfortable. The sound quality seems okay for me, but then again I'm not listening to high-quality audio so I'd not be able to notice too much either way, I'd assume.

Irrespective, this will do me for now and means I can begin to consider the DAC idea at my own pace... Not in a rush now I've got a good working solution here. And at the price I paid I've still got some money available for the DAC, if I wish. Additionally, I will not *need* to buy the DAC and headphones at the same time, as the Sony's have a 3.5mm jack on and can be used without the USB soundcard that they ship with.

So, it's been good progress. I'm sorted for now and am looking forward to considering some of the DAC ideas suggested, time permitting! :)
 
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