Looking for TV headphone suggestions

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Hi all,

I am looking to pick up a new pair of headphones for my TV, because I play a lot of video games at night and would rather hear it in full fidelity than at 5% volume so that I don't wake my family up.

Right now I am using Turtle Beach's X2 headphones, which are good but don't offer the sound I am looking for. It lacks a little in the bass and some sounds come off as chimey. The reason those headphones are good though, is because it allows you to intercept RCA cables, which means I could use them for any one of my consoles. They are also wireless, which to me is a huge bonus.

So I guess my question is, is there a good set of wireless headphones, that allow you to connect to any RCA cables? I'm looking for other suggestions as well. My TV does not have an audio jack, so I am out of luck there.

Thanks!
 

madmat

Soup Nazi
Yikes, I was going to suggest a set of Koss electrostatics but they're not cordless. Full fidelity, hells yeah but cordless... nope. Koss FTL.
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Well, if there doesn't happen to be good wireless headphones, I might go with wired. Wireless offers much more freedom, I love it. But seeing how I am never -that- far away from the TV anyway, I will still consider a wired pair.

In this day and age, -everything- is going wireless. I'd be surprised if there wasn't a good wireless pair on the market.

Here's another question. Say for instance I had a pair that allowed me to connect RCA cables to one another, ie: the consoles audio cables plug into the headphone cables, and then the headphone cables plug into the TV. Would it be possible to... daisy chain that? For example, having RCA cable after RCA cable plugged into each other at a time, so that ALL the consoles would work through the headphones without having to go in back of the TV and swap them all the time?

Or, would something like that degrade audio quality?
 

madmat

Soup Nazi
It would seriously degrade sound quality plus you'd be feeding audio back through the outputs of the other devices. It could eventually burn something out since audio signals are AC signals of varying frequency and amplitude.

You'd be better off getting an RCA switch box and doing that.
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Doh, why did I not even think of that. That's what I will do then. Happen to have a link to those Koss headphones you mentioned? I am still unsure if I want to get wired, but I am still considering it.
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Have you tried those ESP950's before? What main advantage would there be with those? They are ugly as hell ;-)

Thanks for the links, I am going to look through their line-up shortly. Some of their wireless headphones look great.

But again another noob question. Do all of these use the RCA cables, or would I need something else? Thanks again for the help man, and get some sleep ;-)
 

madmat

Soup Nazi
The ESP's? Nope but I've read reviews of them and spoken to people that own them, they're just too awesome for words. The sound is better than being there.

The benefits? How about the most lifelike sound that you can imagine? Then take it and make it better to the point of being surreal.

Are they RCA? Dunno but if not you can get headphone to RCA converters.
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Gotcha. $1K seems a tad high. If I had a home theater to match, I'd jump on it. I don't need something that hardcore, just something that sounds high-end... just maybe not that high-end ;-)
 

madmat

Soup Nazi
Yeah, $1,000 is a big toll to pay but if audio is vitally important to a person it's a good investment as those will be the last pair of headphones you'll ever buy even if you live to be 100... the lifetime warranty is nice too.

Remember, they come with their own dedicated amp so that's a good chunk of the price and electrostatic elements have transient response times so fast that it's spooky. With normal drivers you have time delay and phase shift due to the delay of the voice coil reacting to the input from the amp then moving the driver. The electrostatic drivers use a piece of mylar stretched taut that is statically charged and the charge's field makes the mylar react and create sound.
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Oh a lifetime warranty? That makes me reconsider, because if that's the case, you are right about it being the last set I'd have to buy. Still, they are uglier than a drunk Rosie O' Donnell.

Thanks man, I will consider those. Won't be for a little while since I have other priorities at the moment, so I might just purchase a wireless pair from them for starters and see how I like them. In the future, having a wired and wireless pair would likely come in handy anyway.
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Good stuff. I am definitely considering them, but it will be put off for a few months. I might get a new TV prior to getting those, because 1080p would be nice, and would give me a reason to have nicer headphones. I -still- might pick up a wireless pair for the time being, but I might just hold off until I pick those other ones up.

Oh the decisions. I will sleep on it, for multiple nights ;-)

Thanks for the help man.
 

madmat

Soup Nazi
Let me know if you get 'em, I'd drive up to St. John to hear 'em... once I got a better ride that is.
 
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