A funny thing happened on the way to using headphones for watching films... - Blu-ray Forum

GlacierTuba · 11-04-2023, 07:40 PM

Do you use headphones to watch films and/or tv series/live TV?

What headphones do you use? And if you do, do you even care if they're any use and just want them to spit out audio, any audio? Curious to know what everyone else is using for this sort of thing.

Anyway, I was messing around today trying to see if I could get some half decent sound out of a few pairs of headphones and earphones for watching Blu Ray discs. Of course by going in to this I had to accept that I wasn't going to be getting class-leading discrete surround, but to be honest the majority of what I watch is ancient and mostly 2.0, maybe 5.1 at a push.

With expectations set, I fired up some equipment and started meddling.

First experiment was with a flagship 1Mii Bluetooth TX/RX which can do LL, APTX, LDAC etc. So it's well able for spitting out decent audio over Bluetooth. I tested with APTX HD on my Galaxy Buds2 Pro first off. The sound was great and attempted to give some semblance of discrete surround but this was more to do with how the earphones work rather than anything fancy going on with the 1Mii.

I tried LDAC this time and found my WH-1000XM3's sounded a bit cleaner than the Buds2 Pro. One common problem though is even when the volume was maxed out, both pairs felt a bit 'quiet'. It done my head in so I got the aul 3.5mm cables out and went off to find my Sennheiser's and a DAC.

using the headphone port on my LG OLED, I plugged a 3.5mm straight in to the telly and put on my HD598's. Open backed, cream and fake wood cans. They look mediocre but they pack a punch.

The telly did a grand job of spitting out louder audio than the 1Mii TX/RX, so the LG OLED must have a half decent analogue board on it for headphone out. It still wasn't 'loud' enough though.

So I went and plugged in one of my portable DAC's.An old FIIO E17 (the model number, nothing to do with Brian Harvey and a bag of yips).

I popped in my Japanese AC-3 Laserdisc pressing of Mission Impossible 1 (the ONLY way to this day in 2023 that you can get the original theatrical audio) and cranked up the volume.

Holy moly!

This is what I was looking for. Decent audio and LOUD! I'll be going this route in the future for sure. I've a couple more bits I want to test. I've a Pioneer XDP-300R which is beefy enough with Dual DAC's and balanced outputs, so that's going to be tested next as i think it's a bit juicier under the hood than the E17.

I'll also try a paid of AKG 510's to see if the closed cup approach fares better than the Sennheiser's. I'll try a couple of Shure e3c and e4c IEM's too with triple flange tips to see how much more audio I can inject in to my skull.

The main point for me from all of this is how disappointing the Bluetooth audio was in co.parison. On the flip side, the sound quality i got for wired cans and a DAC in the chain just blew my ears off. I'll be using this set up much more in future, mainly for late night film viewing.

What about you? What kind of headphone set up do you use?

11-04-2023, 07:40 PM	#1
GlacierTuba Power Member Member since:Apr 2023	A funny thing happened on the way to using headphones for watching films... Do you use headphones to watch films and/or tv series/live TV? What headphones do you use? And if you do, do you even care if they're any use and just want them to spit out audio, any audio? Curious to know what everyone else is using for this sort of thing. Anyway, I was messing around today trying to see if I could get some half decent sound out of a few pairs of headphones and earphones for watching Blu Ray discs. Of course by going in to this I had to accept that I wasn't going to be getting class-leading discrete surround, but to be honest the majority of what I watch is ancient and mostly 2.0, maybe 5.1 at a push. With expectations set, I fired up some equipment and started meddling. First experiment was with a flagship 1Mii Bluetooth TX/RX which can do LL, APTX, LDAC etc. So it's well able for spitting out decent audio over Bluetooth. I tested with APTX HD on my Galaxy Buds2 Pro first off. The sound was great and attempted to give some semblance of discrete surround but this was more to do with how the earphones work rather than anything fancy going on with the 1Mii. I tried LDAC this time and found my WH-1000XM3's sounded a bit cleaner than the Buds2 Pro. One common problem though is even when the volume was maxed out, both pairs felt a bit 'quiet'. It done my head in so I got the aul 3.5mm cables out and went off to find my Sennheiser's and a DAC. using the headphone port on my LG OLED, I plugged a 3.5mm straight in to the telly and put on my HD598's. Open backed, cream and fake wood cans. They look mediocre but they pack a punch. The telly did a grand job of spitting out louder audio than the 1Mii TX/RX, so the LG OLED must have a half decent analogue board on it for headphone out. It still wasn't 'loud' enough though. So I went and plugged in one of my portable DAC's.An old FIIO E17 (the model number, nothing to do with Brian Harvey and a bag of yips). I popped in my Japanese AC-3 Laserdisc pressing of Mission Impossible 1 (the ONLY way to this day in 2023 that you can get the original theatrical audio) and cranked up the volume. Holy moly! This is what I was looking for. Decent audio and LOUD! I'll be going this route in the future for sure. I've a couple more bits I want to test. I've a Pioneer XDP-300R which is beefy enough with Dual DAC's and balanced outputs, so that's going to be tested next as i think it's a bit juicier under the hood than the E17. I'll also try a paid of AKG 510's to see if the closed cup approach fares better than the Sennheiser's. I'll try a couple of Shure e3c and e4c IEM's too with triple flange tips to see how much more audio I can inject in to my skull. The main point for me from all of this is how disappointing the Bluetooth audio was in co.parison. On the flip side, the sound quality i got for wired cans and a DAC in the chain just blew my ears off. I'll be using this set up much more in future, mainly for late night film viewing. What about you? What kind of headphone set up do you use?

Best iTunes Music Deals