Gadgets, Devices, Things and Stuff

[Count Nerfedalot]

While bluetooth ear buds are tempting, and wires are a royal PITA, I've unfortunately been contaminated by The Countess with an appreciation for high fidelity, especially bass. And while you can't feel earbud bass in your pelvis (or all your bones) like you are supposed to, the wired Klipsch buds she gave me after she switched to headphones are absolutely incredible. To the point I started using them in the old car even because they sounded so much better than the 8yr old car speakers. I've yet to find bluetooth buds to match, and probably couldn't afford them if they exist.  The Klipsch were definitely not convenience store rack cheap as it was!

[Chimpy]

Anyone have any good bluetooth earphone/headphone recommendations?  Now that Apple has broken compatibility with standard headphone jacks I have to cut the cord, because fuck the lightning-connector version.

I have been happy with the stuff from BlueAnt over the years. I have a pair of their waterproof ones for the gym and they work well. Especially considering they are priced a lot better than other non-alibabamarketplace brands.

[Tale]

Anyone have any good bluetooth earphone/headphone recommendations?  Now that Apple has broken compatibility with standard headphone jacks I have to cut the cord, because fuck the lightning-connector version.

I have a three-year-old pair of Sony bluetooth noise-cancelling headphones that I use with my Galaxy S7. I commute by train and foot, listening to podcasts along the way, and when I get to work I plug them into the work PC as wired headphones. I've put them through hell and they're still going strong.

But I recently researched the best active noise-cancelling bluetooth headphones and tried them in a store, and if you can afford it, there is NOTHING as good as a pair of the latest active noise-cancellers. Best are either the Bose QuietComfort 35 II, or the rival newer and slightly better Sony WH1000XM3. You might still find last year's Sony WH1000XM2 at a cheap price now that the XM3 is out, and they are almost as good as the other two. I ended up buying a pair of XM2s for my wife and she likes them.

They all work similarly to mine (they can switch between bluetooth or wired) but with much better noise-cancelling. Like, you put them on and the world becomes totally silent except for what you are listening to. Great on a plane or in a noisy work environment, but a little dangerous in the street (you can always switch the noise-cancelling feature off and on as needed).

[Cyrrex]

Anyone have any good bluetooth earphone/headphone recommendations?  Now that Apple has broken compatibility with standard headphone jacks I have to cut the cord, because fuck the lightning-connector version.

Assuming music listening is one of the key use cases you have for it, you might have to explain what kind of features are important to you in terms of the sound signature.  I might be the exception, but I need powerful, loud, high energy phones, because that is what I listen to.  Must of the noise cancelling stuff sounds awful to me, because they tend to seriously lack power.  YMMV

Within the in-ear, I have tried cheaper stuff from Taotronics and Soundpeats.  Of these, the Soundpeats (Q35s I think) are for sure better, and so cheap they are worth having as a second pair.  In the pricier range, I tried out a pair of Beats Xs, and was hugely disappointed.  They have nothing going for them and cost a small fortune.  I replaced them with somewhat cheaper pair of Jaybird X3s, and I am quite happy with these.  They are probably in the real world only slightly better than the Soundpeats for my kind of listening, but the Jaybird app you can get to customise the sound signature puts it over the top, especially if your phone is outputting bad sound (as is the case of my super expensive iphone X).  It hardcodes the EQ settings you want into the phones themselves, so the signature will follow to the next device you use it with.  The Jaybirds are all around the best wireless In Ear I have tried for my tastes.

I won't say much about Over Ear, because I am probably different than others when it comes to tastes.  Noise cancelling?  If I can hear the outside world, it is because the music isn't loud enough.  THAT SAID, if you like it loud and powerful, get the Skullcandy Crusher Wireless headphones.  They have an over-the-top bass adjustment slider that is patently asbsurd (and synthetic as hell) if turned to maximum, but if you use is just ever so slightly it actually ends up being quite nice.  In fact, although they are intended for music, they end up being shockingly good for movies and video games on a portable device or in an airplane.  The stupid bass slider is actually wonderfully for games and movies, becuase here you can have the sound turned down, but the bass boost is still significant, leading to a much fuller sound at low volumes.  They sound hysterically better than a pair of Beats Studio 3s at half the price.  But if you want something accurate, soothing and noise cancelling...no.

[Sky]

Anyone have any good bluetooth earphone/headphone recommendations?  Now that Apple has broken compatibility with standard headphone jacks I have to cut the cord, because fuck the lightning-connector version.

The Jabra Elite Active 65t are what I have, and I'm quite happy with them. I'm not an audiophile, but they sound good for earbuds, in my opinion. I listen to everything from classical to metal. Sound passthrough on mobile devices is decent.

And as a former musician with hearing loss, don't listen to Cyrrex at all. A snug pair of earbuds means you can reproduce the feeling of volume at much lower db.

As a side note since we're talking bluetooth sound, I'm disappointed that the PS4 can't send sound to my bt earbuds. Plugging my cans into the controller is super awkward.

[Trippy]

Wait a week or two to see if the AirPod 2 is announced?

October 30 is the date for the next Apple event where the AirPod 2 may make an appearance.

[Mandella]

I have a set of Treelab earbuds that can bluescreen my media center if I turn them on and off really quick.

They come in a really snazzy case though.

[01101010]

As a side note since we're talking bluetooth sound, I'm disappointed that the PS4 can't send sound to my bt earbuds. Plugging my cans into the controller is super awkward.

Agreed. Picks up my BT keyboard automatically but fuck your hearing device... oh unless it's specificly the PS4 headphones. Those are just fine.

[Rasix]

Glad I got the Arctis 7. Works perfectly with the PS4. They are a little bulky, but they work and sound great. I can just move the little receiver between the PS4 and PC with little issue. If you have a really huge head, I'm not sure they'd be great for you.

Before that I had a cheap bluetooth set that worked well. Just paired it with my TV. Easy.

[Cyrrex]

And as a former musician with hearing loss, don't listen to Cyrrex at all. A snug pair of earbuds means you can reproduce the feeling of volume at much lower db.

Quit pulling your idiotic "as a former musician" card.  It qualifies you for exactly nothing in this conversation.  I can counter it with "as a person who owns thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars worth of audio equipment" and it is just as meaningless.  Your second sentence is patently untrue, or rather, not so simple as you state it.  Poor headphones sound poor no matter how snug the earbuds are.  And "snug" isn't enough to do it anyway, the signature changes depending on the material, the shape of the buds, the size of the driver, the angle it is in your ear, etc.  And power matters, it always matters.  

Edited to add:  Whenever I make a recommendation for something "high volume and or high energy" I usually mention the caveat that my tastes are different than many.  I have a very high tolerance for loudness, and always have.  I gave this caveat when I recommended the Skullcandy Crushers.  These are for particular tastes (although most people would probably like them for lower volume multimedia purposes).  For the IE recommendations above, I gave no such caveat because I was not factoring my unusual tastes into my recommendations.  The Soundpeats really are good, inexpensive IEs.  The Jaybirds are great mid priced IEs, and probably sound better overall than most top priced stuff.

What is lost in these conversations is the source material for the signal.  The device you use to listen to headphones makes a huge difference, wired or unwired.  Very few people understand this or factor it in, which isn't surprising because professional reviewers also fail to factor it in, or at least, they fail to explain it to the public.

[Cyrrex]

Glad I got the Arctis 7. Works perfectly with the PS4. They are a little bulky, but they work and sound great. I can just move the little receiver between the PS4 and PC with little issue. If you have a really huge head, I'm not sure they'd be great for you.

Before that I had a cheap bluetooth set that worked well. Just paired it with my TV. Easy.

I have a set of these Arctis 7 as well for the PC, and I agree, they are great.  I would probably like them less for the PS4 as you lose the SteelSeries app to control the sound, but these are probably my favorite PC headset ever.  Drawback is the receiver.  I really wish they would have just gone with regular bluetooth.

[Tale]

I think the question was about bluetooth headphones to use with a phone.

[Sky]

A 'high tolerance for loudness' is another way of saying 'hearing loss'. 

[Sky]

Anyway, back to the point. I'm in headphone mode at work today, and though I've owned the Jabra for a few months now and listened to a ton of stuff it still blows me away how much better the Emperor of Sand sounds through them. Tons more detail and the bass lines are nicely audible. That last is great, because they tend to mix thumpy on their albums, it beats up my sub in the truck. Mastodon is layering a TON of stuff in their mixes, it's nice to hear so much of it coming through.

They may not be audiophile quality, but they're about as good as one could hope for with the current state of consumer true wireless bt earbuds.

To get back to pass-through, I mentioned I could hear my fiancee when I have it turned on (not well enough to carry on much conversation, though). With it off, the isolation is great, I killed my leg playing drums when I got them, my new drum monitors.

[pants]

Glad I got the Arctis 7. Works perfectly with the PS4. They are a little bulky, but they work and sound great. I can just move the little receiver between the PS4 and PC with little issue. If you have a really huge head, I'm not sure they'd be great for you.

Before that I had a cheap bluetooth set that worked well. Just paired it with my TV. Easy.

I have a set of these Arctis 7 as well for the PC, and I agree, they are great.  I would probably like them less for the PS4 as you lose the SteelSeries app to control the sound, but these are probably my favorite PC headset ever.  Drawback is the receiver.  I really wish they would have just gone with regular bluetooth.

+1.  One thing I do like about the receiver is that it can do passthrough - I have a set of dinky speakers on my desk for when I want to play sound to share with the family (youtube videos etc).  Big fan of the Arctis.

[Cyrrex]

A 'high tolerance for loudness' is another way of saying 'hearing loss'. 

Probably normally a fair assumption, but I have had a high tolerance ever since I was yay high, even when I had confirmed perfect hearing.  At 45, my hearing has only degraded slightly (after a billion hours of unsafe listening for more than 30 years), probably no more than average, and I seem to be able to hear high sounds just fine.  So, it is a thing.  My oldest boy has a really low threshold, for some reason, and always has.  There is nothing wrong with his hearing per se, though as a youngster he had issues with infections and stuff.  He inherited some genetic inner ear weakness from his mother, that much I know.  Ears are different?

Curious about your Jabra love.  In this neck of the woods (where their HQ is and I believe they are produced as well), they are generally considered okay-to-poor sounding, but feature rich.  Jabra in general, that is, not the model you mention.  What are you comparing them to?

[Stewie]

I have a pair of jaybird x2 and they are great for doing anything active. Decent sound. Great fit and can take a serious workout session/sweating.

As for over ear headphones, I just got a set of the Sony w1000 x m3s and I think im in love. The noise cancelling works. For listening to music everything else is shut out pretty good and you are left with just a great range of sound. I have listened to songs that I have listened to a million times before and am picking up little bits that I never knew were there previously.

I am finding them pretty comfortable and as a dude that sweats easily these are not too bad at all.

As for getting the previous xm2s, I'd recommend not doing that as a number of people complained of cracking headsets. The new ones have a new design around the hinges and better plastics so they should be much more durable.

Bottom line is if you like music and want a great set of noise cancelling headphones you cannot go wrong with these. If you travel a lot or take transit on the regular then you need these.

[Tale]

On an overseas trip in October, the hotel wifi was weak and lacked security, and I thought "there must be a gadget that piggybacks this, boosts the signal and creates my own secure wifi network on top of it". So I googled up the Hootoo Tripmate Titan, and have just taken delivery of one.

It's basically a battery with a router on top. If your hotel room has internet via ethernet cable, you can plug it into the Tripmate and create your own private wifi network. If there's only wifi in the hotel, it can connect to that and sit your own private network on top (great if the hotel limits the number of devices that can connect). This also lets you add things like a Chromecast to your hotel room. And if you connect storage to the Tripmate via USB, you've also got NAS. And the only thing you ever need to put wifi details into is the Tripmate itself.

Being mostly battery, it doubles as a portable recharge point for phones etc, so you take it with you when you go out sightseeing for the day. I'm sure it will also be useful in other public wifi situations like cafes, but I haven't thought of those yet.

[Trippy]

On an overseas trip in October, the hotel wifi was weak and lacked security, and I thought "there must be a gadget that piggybacks this, boosts the signal and creates my own secure wifi network on top of it". So I googled up the Hootoo Tripmate Titan, and have just taken delivery of one.

You do realize you'll be sending all your info to China now, right?

[Tale]

You do realize you'll be sending all your info to China now, right?

My first touchscreen phone was a Huawei. I'm doomed. Also, I live in a giant Chinese operation called Australia.

[Cyrrex]

Super Duper necro, because why not.  It is the fucking apocalypse.

Anyway, I bought a 4K projector.  Ended up getting an Optoma UHD40.  It uses Pixel Shifting technology, which basically is a way of using a 1080p signal and replicating it four times faster than the human eye can perceive, thus simulating a 4k image.  Well enough that it officially qualifies as 4K, though falling a teensy bit short of true 4K to a professional eye (and costing waaaaaay less).  Cost me roughly...1150 bucks.

The long and short of it is this....placement was a goddamn bitch that required me to basically re-arrange my living space a few times.  Extremely inflexible.  I had gotten used to my 1080p Epson projector that had a brilliant shifting tech that let me put it almost anywhere.  This one needs to be almost dead center, and fairly low to the ground.  Annoying.

The picture, OTOH, is absurd.  Yep, looks like 4K.  I found one of those ultra HDR 4K youtube videos and put it up on the wall and it looks fucking unbelievable. At 4 meters of screen space on the diagonal, that’s almost 160 inches.  It is also bright as hell, I can actually use it in broad daylight.  Highly recommended if you have the space.  

[jgsugden]

Care to take a pic and post it?  I was looking into something when we finish the basement.

[Salamok]

I'm waiting for my 1080p bulb to go out before I upgrade to 4k.  The most expensive part of a really good projector setup is the room, after that the furniture then the AV system, the projector itself is the least expensive thing in the whole setup (other than consoles, dvr's, cable box's and such).  I'm also convinced my screen is adding significantly to the experience (the completely non-reflective border squares up the projection perfectly so it looks like an LCD screen).

edit - So happy with my inherited BenQ 1080p projector I will likely go with them for the 4k upgrade as well.

Here's some pics of mine, with lights on and off:





If you are thinking of doing your own media room I highly recommend darker paint on the walls and a screen with a non reflective black border.  Luckily i didn't have to think of either of these things since they were there when i moved in.

[Sky]

After hanging my first big tv (82") by myself, it's likely the last big tv for me. I'll move to projection next time. I was just looking at that projector for the library earlier this week. Then they gave me a budget without asking me what I needed to do it right, so we didn't get it 

On gadgets: any recommendations for a 12" class android tablet that's cheap but not too crappy? We want to get one for the fiancee's mom so she can watch daily Mass, since she's starting to get depressed being cut off from church services. Needs to be big because she's also legally blind. We don't want to dump much money into it because it's such a limited need item, but important for the next few months.

[HaemishM]

If you're trying to play video on a tablet, you probably need to spend a little money. It may not be iPad level of money, but take it from me - don't buy one of the $120 Android tablets that are out there. I bought one of the Best Buy Insignia brand ones for about that much a year ago, and it's great as a comic book/eBook reader, but useless for trying to stream YoutubeTV or any of the other streaming services I've tried.

[Cyrrex]

If you're trying to play video on a tablet, you probably need to spend a little money. It may not be iPad level of money, but take it from me - don't buy one of the $120 Android tablets that are out there. I bought one of the Best Buy Insignia brand ones for about that much a year ago, and it's great as a comic book/eBook reader, but useless for trying to stream YoutubeTV or any of the other streaming services I've tried.

Why exactly?  Bad connection?  Bad screen?

I will see if I can take a picture of a projected 4K image and do it justice.  Not even sure I can figure out how to load it up here.

[HaemishM]

Like video was janky as shit bad, not to mention you could feel the Wifi antenna heating up in the bottom of the pad when it passed too much data. 

[Cyrrex]

Alright, let’s try this.  For visual reference, those speakers on the side are 80cm high.

Bleh, I don’t want to bother resizing, because I think it defeats the purpose in this case.

https://imgur.com/ZXdgpCG

https://imgur.com/UWM0yZM

Should probably add that this is close to Worst Case.  Maximum image size on a white painted and textured wall with no dark borders.  Not sure if the pics do it justice, the 4K nature stuff looks almost as good as my 65 inch Sammy.

[Draegan]

Anyone have any experience with short throw projectors? Sometime in the next year I'm probably going to be getting a new tv. Current tv is over a decade old and how it survived, I have no idea.

In any case, I'm looking to go 75"+ and your typical projector is a non starter because I have no where to hang it from in my living room. I've seen some of those short throw projectors that throw against a wall from a table top. They any good? Waste of time/money?

[Cyrrex]

I think this one I am talking about might be considered a short throw.  Better question is....how far would you have it sitting from the wall?  You can often find a calculator for whatever projector you are looking for.  I think Optoma’s site has a calc.  75 inches is pretty easy, I don’t think you have to be more than 8 or 10 feet away.  Maybe less.

[Draegan]

Short throw is basically projecting up on to the wall, sitting where a conventional TV would sit.

[Cyrrex]

So you literally mean a projector that is already sitting up almost against the wall?  Sounds....challenging.

Quick look tells me that you can probably get a really good 4K short throw that would do the job at about....18 inches from the wall.  But cost close to 4 grand.

[Hammond]

I have used a couple Epson short throw projectors and they are ok. I wouldn't pick them as a primary Media room projector mostly due to the lack of features and cost. Also you would end up mounting it to the ceiling so why not just go with one a few feet back that is cheaper / better.

[NowhereMan]

Quick question on USB wall charger units: Does anyone make any with a mix of USB C and A ports that isn't just one USB C + some number of regular USB ports? I've got a phone and chromebook that are both USB C but my kindle and headphones (and dive computer if on a trip) are USB A. I basically could usually do with 2 USB C ports and one, preferably 2 USB As for travel. I don't know if there's a technological limitation but it looks like multiple USB Cs never have a single USB A port tacked on, just the other way round.

Alternatively I guess I could hunt down a USB C - MicroUSB cable.

[Trippy]

A charger with a single Type-C Power Delivery port that can put out enough power (>=45W) to properly charge a laptop is not cheap. Putting two such ports on a charger essentially doubles the price. My suggestion is just to get a charger with a single PD port for your Chromebook and charge your phone at a slower rate on one of the regular Type-A 2.4A/5V/12W ports with a Type-A to Type-C cable. There are plenty of those types on the market. If you absolutely positively must have two Type-C PD laptop-capable ports *and* Type-A ports this is what you want for $100:

https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Charging-PowerPort-Intelligent-Allocation/dp/B07VSMK849

I haven't seen a charger with a single Type-C PD lower-power (45W) laptop port and another less powerful (18W) Type-C PD phone port *and* Type-A ports, which is basically what you are asking for.

Edit: clarified last sentence

Edit 2: spoke too soon, I found one with the above configuration for relatively cheap ($40) if you are willing to go with a no-name brand (I wouldn't):

https://www.amazon.com/Nozza-Charger%EF%BC%8CAdapter-Charging-Compatible-Nintendo/dp/B07Z8VVXTF

At 75W it provides just enough power for a 45W PD laptop, 18W PD phone, and 12W Type-A device.

There's also this 100W one similar to the Anker model from a slightly-less no-name brand for $55:

https://www.amazon.com/Charger-Key-Power-Desktop-Delivery/dp/B07THC5DJV

Another slightly less no-name brand, Satechi (never heard of them but they do at least seem to specialize in charging products unlike that Nozza brand above) also has both a 75W and a 108W dual PD + Type-A ports charger. This is the 75W one for $70:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07M97XGNZ

Personally I would just spend the extra $30 and get the Anker.