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TV Wireless Earbuds or Wireless Headphones?


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We have now tried four different methods of listening to the HDTV where at least one person (namely, me) need the volume higher than is comfortable for the other person.

 

1. A "wireless" headset from Amazon. It had to be "tuned" and was full of problems. So I went to Bluetooth.

 

I have to note here that there is one issue with Bluetooth TV headsets or earphones and that is latency. The path the signal processing has to follow from the TV to your ears is slightly slower than the path from the TV's speakers to anyone else in the room. This creates a weird "echo" effect that can be annoying. In fact, it IS annoying.

 

I also remove my hearing aid when using the headsets. This has added advantages which I will avoid mentioning here because the person who I can't hear talking when I'm wearing headsets might read the remarks. :P

 

2. Using a Motorola Flip Bluetooth ear piece. This was originally bought for the smart phone so I could look geeky and talk to myself while wandering the aisles at Walmart. But since our Vizio has Bluetooth output it worked pretty well to listen to TV. If my smart phone rang it would shut down the audio of the TV and shift to the phone; not returning to the TV until the phone conversation was over. But the big issue was that it only lasted a couple of hours of Bluetooth (despite saying "6 hours of talk time"). So I moved to.....

 

3. A headset-type rechargeable Bluetooth device. This worked pretty well but was not designed to fit my head and was never comfortable despite being light weight. Loud enough, though. Suffered from the echo effect and the headset did not fit closely enough to block the sound from the speakers. The batteries lasted a long, long time.

 

4. A better (more expensive, at least) Bluetooth headset. Still issues with the "echo" but much louder than the last one.

 

5. A wired headset connected directly to the audio out of the Vizio TV while the DW uses the last Bluetooth headset. The actual TV speakers are turned off entirely. There is no "echo" with this arrangement and each of us adjusts the sound as we prefer. The DW can walk around and even cook in the kitchen of our SnB with no loss of audio. The headphones I bought were a closeout of some very expensive ones and came with a 20' cord which is long enough for me to sit on the recliner at the SnB and comfortably listen to TV. I cannot walk around very much though because the cord runs under the rug in an attempt to reduce the numbers of times I'll trip over it.

 

The advantage of the wired headset is that it can be used with almost any HDTV; including the ones in our RV (neither of those have Bluetooth). So far I am only 3 days into the wired versions but I much prefer them. The fit is outstanding and adjustable, they are light weight, they do not create any soreness and the sound quality is far better than Bluetooth can reproduce.

 

Cost of the wired headsets (Phillips SHP2500) was under $30 with shipping (http://www.amazon.com/Philips-SHP2500-37-Discontinued-Manufacturer/dp/B000G31SRU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421990213&sr=8-1&keywords=phillips+shp2500&pebp=1421990219485&peasin=B000G31SRU) as discontinued items still available from other retailers through Amazon.

 

I'm sticking with them for now.

 

WDR

1993 Foretravel U225 with Pacbrake and 5.9 Cummins with Banks

1999 Jeep Wrangler, 4" lift and 33" tires

Raspberry Pi Coach Computer

Ham Radio

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This is kinda of a kludgy solutiion.

 

I have always like hearing, but not watching TV programs.

 

You can get a CCRANE FM radio transmitter.

 

http://www.ccrane.com/Specials-1/transmitter

 

You can plug into the earphone jack or the RCA audio plugs using Radio Shack adapters. Find a blank FM frequency and set the transmitter to that. Then use a regular FM radio and listen on whatever type of headphones you want.

 

For educational purposes ONLY here is how you increase the power of the transmitter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n71jvpeAhSs

 

Works great if you have plenty of blank, unused radio station frequency's in your area.

Vladimr Steblina

Retired Forester...exploring the public lands.

usbackroads.blogspot.com

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  • 1 month later...

Bought the RCA set discussed by Earl. Base would not recognize any of the RCA out plugs, nor a speaker out port. Would only work with my Yamaha receiver's phone jack. Some reviewers had reported a high initial volume setting was required -- I rattled the walls but no joy. Returned the headphones. Would have been better than bluetooth, if they had worked. Don't recommend them. Cumbersome design, even if you are able to find a set that works.

 

My bluetooth hearing aids, Com-pilot device linked to a bluetooth mike in front of a speaker works well for about 20 feet. I'll be experimenting with a couple of bluetooth receiver/transmitter devices and a couple of wired type headsets I have to see if they will work without an amp at the headset end.

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As an update to our experience with the Phillips wired headsets... I bought another pair for the DW but that necessitated buying an audio amplifier which could accept one input and more than one output.

 

So I bought this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000KIPT30/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 for $25. It has four outputs, each with its own separate volume control. However we found that maximizing the audio on the TV and this amplifier allowed us to use the volume control on the headsets which works great.

 

Frequency response of the wired headsets is much better than either of the bluetooth headsets and because we turn the TV speakers off completely there is no echo. If one of us wants to walk around or listen to television audio beyond the 20' length of the headset cords we just grab one of the bluetooth headsets.

 

The Phillips headsets (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FTWT00/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1) are light weight and comfortable. They don't block external sounds too much so we can actually talk to each other while wearing them. They come with 20' of cord which is terminated with a full size stereo plug.

 

I bought another amplifier for use in the RV.

 

WDR

1993 Foretravel U225 with Pacbrake and 5.9 Cummins with Banks

1999 Jeep Wrangler, 4" lift and 33" tires

Raspberry Pi Coach Computer

Ham Radio

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There are two power standards for BT transmitters.. 30 feet and 300 ft. I have both and the 300 does work well even through walls. I have not seen any of the BT splitters for audio that claim the high power, though. Maybe there is one out there somewhere.

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