Bluetooth 7.1 Headphones

Looking for a decent pair, want to be able to use it mainly for streaming music from the iPhone or movies from my XOOM tablet via bluetooth.

Added use of sending audio from my TV and obviously the odd game from the pc or xbox here and there.

Looking at the Turtle Beach PX5, seems to fir the bill, but i hear the Tritton Warhead are arriving soon.

Anyone with any suggestions?

 

Wow. $250 for the Turtle Beach PX5s.

Are you dead-set on Bluetooth headphones? Because $250 will go a lot further in both sound quality and build quality, if you are willing to consider wired headphones.

 

Yea, needs to be bluetooth, often watch TV with headphones, so a cord is a right pain.

Also very convenient without cables when usinh the iPhone or tablet.......

 

they aren't 7.1 but i bought these for the main use of running. was also looking at using it with the iphone/laptop. i'll post back once i get them and tried them out
edit: just notice that the link wasn't posted haha but its the jaybird freedom. http://www.jaybirdgear.com/

 

Ok, the Turtle Beach ones you mean, they market them as 7.1, but i know they only have 2 cones.

 

1. Doesn't matter what headphones you get because bluetooth is the limiting factor in terms of sound quality and reproduction.

2. Don't waste money on these surround sound solutions since the same money on a good stereo pair will always sound better.

 

well thats depressing, the reviews talk up the ambient surround.......?

 

really... what a waste... it's like buying a ferrari with a cheap engine. just buy a wired one or just buy a cheap bluetooth one.

 

Well for Bluetooth, it's a matter of bandwidth. You can't accurately reproduce sounds with the bandwidth that A2DP offers. If you're going to go wireless, look into RF solutions such as those from Sennheiser. What's your budget and range needed? Their RS110 is the cheapest solution at $100.

There are good wired surround sound headphones though, it's just that they tend to cost a couple hundred dollars more than stereo ones and honestly, I don't believe that they're much better even when they're much more expensive. In the end though, all that matters is how things sound to you. Sound is a very subjective thing since we're all pretty different. Try a few pairs out, if you don't mind the sound from Bluetooth headphones or from surround sound headphones, and the price is right, then go for it.

 

Ok, consensus so far cans the surround, ill have to accept that.

BUT the bluetooth is handy, limitations acknowledged, cos I dont need a base station as you do with RF. I can just pair with another bluetooth device, like my Iphone or tablet......

 

If you must go bluetooth get the cheapset set you possibly can, they will all sound about the sound due to the limitations of BT technology.

 

i think you all misread what the product actually is it is not a 7.1 bluetooth headset in the sense that all audio goes through bluetooth. only the game chat/cell phone or whatever is on the bluetooth. The actual audio froma game console or whatever is on a separate rf frequency. you can get audio via bluetooth but only stereo sound. The description is a little vague but the stereo bluetooth is from something else streaming to it such as a pc or the ps3 chat function. if you look at what comes in the box youll understand immediately that this product is basically a two headset type thing in one.

here's a clip of the description from the turtle beach website. I capitalized and bold the important bit

"The Turtle Beach PX5 is also the first headset to incorporate DUAL RADIOS—one for immersive, Dolby Digital surround sound game audio and another for chat on the PlayStation Network via Bluetooth. The Bluetooth feature also supports stereo audio streaming for listening to music while playing a game and can also be used to accept phone calls while playing the game. "

In my opinion this seems like a very cool product but since it doesnt have a universal pc compatibility i do not believe its worth the money for me. (not everyone has a dolby encoder built into their laptops via optical toslink)

 

Thanksd mate, thats a great summary.

So basically anything that i stream via bluetooth will just be average stereo sounds. Thats OK for normal music.

To enjoy the surround feature, you need an optical link between the PC and the base station, which then send the surround via RF?

Curious, on a latop with wirless capability built in, is the basestation still required?

 

Ive never seen a wireless headset that did not need its basestation so itll more then likely need it.
The headset from the description could not only get you your music (via bluetooth) but get you your game audio also at the same time (via rf). So you could be say playing your x360 halo reach(optical) and listen to your music from your pc(bluetooth) with this one headset.

Unfortunately from the pictures of the device inputs not only would you need a pc with an optical output but that laptop must also support encoding audio into dolby digital or dts because it seems that is all the basestation does is decode and send the signal out. This is perfect for a console since both the ps3 and x360 have built in encoders so i dont see turtle beach putting an encoder into the basestation because it doesnt need it for a console oriented product. The only thing that would be surround sound from the headset as is on a pc without the dolby encoder is stuff that is already encoded into dolby digital or dts.(movies for example)

If it had a usb connection to the pc then maybe you could implement the encoder via software but sadly the only usb it has is to power the basestation (judging from the pictures and box contents)

You can how ever still get stereo sound from the pc

EDIT: I listened to the audio clips they have as examples and man does their "enhancements" make the audio sound terrible.

 

With the bluetooth headphones, your probably going to get an audio lag.

 

So waddya reckon........worth the dosh then, or pass up for a cheap bluetooth set?

EDIT: Thinking about it, there is software PC wise that can decode, AC3Filter for example.......

 

I recommend that you ditch the whole idea altogether. Get wired headphones for your iPhone & Motorola Xoom tablet.

If you still want wireless headphones for watching TV, then get a separate wireless headphone setup for that. If you specifically want surround sound while watching TV or playing console games, then get a wireless Dolby Headphone decoder like the Astro MixAmp 5.8 to use in combination with your wired headphones.



The problems with what you are trying to do is:

* Using one set of Bluetooth headphones for multiple source devices will require you to pair the Bluetooth connection every time you are switching devices. This is a pain in the butt.

* Using a single pair of wireless RF headphones for multiple devices will require you to move around a base station for those headphones, including all of the audio & power cables for that base station. This is a pain in the butt.

* On top of that, any kind of wireless (RF or Bluetooth) headphones will be heavier, bulkier, more expensive, have poorer audio quality, and require you to deal with the hassle of keeping the batteries charged. This is a pain in the butt.



If you have a very specific need for wireless headphones that supercedes the drawbacks of wireless, then by all means go for it.

But if you are looking at wireless headphones because you think wireless is a "nice to have" feature, or because you think wireless is just-as-good-as-wired-but-better-simply-because-it-is-wireless, then ditch the idea. Get wired headphones instead (either full-sized headphones or in-ear canalphones for portability).

 

i have many reasons why its not worth it but ill just tell you the two major reasons why I think this headset is a waste. I agree with what kent1146 says also.

1. It costs way too much. 249.99 is pretty steep considering you could get much better stuff with that amount of money.

2. The rf surround sound operates on the 2.4 ghz spectrum. Too many things operate on this spectrum for me to feel its a good decision.