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The quality of sound on Bluetooth over ear headphones

Yusuf Osman <yusuf.osman@...>
 

Hi all, I hope I can explain the issue I'm having in a way that makes sense.

Currently I have 2 different kinds of Bluetooth headphones. The first is a Plantronics Backbeat Pro but as I can't find the purchase information I can't be sure. I think I bought them in 2016. The sound quality is great, I would describe it as really open and when I'm playing games the field is really open. By that I mean I am usually able to distinguish between near left and far left, or the left that is close to being directly ahead and the left closer to behind. The second is a pair of CORSAIR VIRTUOSO WIRELESS RGB SE. I find the sound on this less open. When playing a game everything sounds like it is in-front even if it isn't. Yet looking at the specifications, and trying to compare, even though I can't quite get the same stats for both, the Plantronics frequency response is 20 to 20,000 HZ with 40 MM drivers and the Corsair frequency response is 20 HZ to 40,000 KHZ Impedance: 32 Ohms at 2.5 kHz
Sensitivity: 109 dB (± 3 dB) And Drivers: Custom 50 mm neodymium, matched pairs.

Now I'll be completely honest and say that I don't understand most of these figures. I do know that the frequency range describes what sounds the headphones are capable of producing from lowest to highest. It seems to me that in purely statistics the Corsair are better and yet to my ears the sound coming from them is narrower, which is I guess why I'm not getting proper spacial information when playing games. When listening to music - I've used a version of Beethoven's 5th symphony for comparison - the sound from the Corsair is similarly enclosed.

The 2 headphones are differently connected to the PC, the Corsair uses a 2.4 GHZ dongle as I purchased them specifically for use with Teams and Zoom as I couldn't get my Plantronics to connect via standard Bluetooth. I've not made any changes to the default settings via Apps for either of them. I've never needed to for the Plantronics and having looked today at the Corsair software, iCue is not accessible with Jaws2020 being filled with a lot of unlabelled buttons.

Can anyone explain the difference in what I'm hearing and tell me what I need to look for in a pair of headphones to get a more open sound for both music/drama and games?

You might well be asking if I like the Plantronics so much why am I looking for something else? The answer is the quality of the material is not that great. For the past year I'd say bits of the material covering the top of the headphones, the part connecting the 2 ear cups have been flaking away, as has bits of the material around the ear cups. This happened with my previous Plantronics as well. I think they should last more than 3 years without bits falling off.
Cheers
Yusuf
Darran Ross
 

Hi Yusuf.

In very basic terms, I think what you're looking for in your headphone is a good or wide sound stage.

When checking out reviews I reckon this is the term you should listen out for. The wider the sound stage the easier it will be for you to achieve the type of sound environment your after.

I've no doubt that you will receive much better and technical replies, but basically its sound stage that is responsible for the effect you mention.

Darran
Hamit Campos
 

Hi. Yes sir Darron was absolutely right. So pay attention to people talking about sound stage. That’s the problem for the topic at hand. As to the frequency responce though yes the 40 something KHZ ones can go way way higher then the other ones. But no human not even a baby can hear up there. I’m surprised they don’t have the high rez logo on them cause they would be considered high rez. But yes sound stage is your friend here. Where possible I’d go to best Buy or something and talk with someone. Hell even Wal-Mart will do. Ask someone there. Man those guys are getting into everything. They now even have the Audio-Technica ATH M50X monitoring headphones. I was surprised cause that’s recording studio gear. But any who yes look for and ask about sound stage.

On Dec 19, 2020, at 8:23 AM, Yusuf Osman <yusuf.osman@...> wrote:

Hi all, I hope I can explain the issue I'm having in a way that makes sense.

Currently I have 2 different kinds of Bluetooth headphones. The first is a Plantronics Backbeat Pro but as I can't find the purchase information I can't be sure. I think I bought them in 2016. The sound quality is great, I would describe it as really open and when I'm playing games the field is really open. By that I mean I am usually able to distinguish between near left and far left, or the left that is close to being directly ahead and the left closer to behind. The second is a pair of CORSAIR VIRTUOSO WIRELESS RGB SE. I find the sound on this less open. When playing a game everything sounds like it is in-front even if it isn't. Yet looking at the specifications, and trying to compare, even though I can't quite get the same stats for both, the Plantronics frequency response is 20 to 20,000 HZ with 40 MM drivers and the Corsair frequency response is 20 HZ to 40,000 KHZ Impedance: 32 Ohms at 2.5 kHz
Sensitivity: 109 dB (± 3 dB) And Drivers: Custom 50 mm neodymium, matched pairs.

Now I'll be completely honest and say that I don't understand most of these figures. I do know that the frequency range describes what sounds the headphones are capable of producing from lowest to highest. It seems to me that in purely statistics the Corsair are better and yet to my ears the sound coming from them is narrower, which is I guess why I'm not getting proper spacial information when playing games. When listening to music - I've used a version of Beethoven's 5th symphony for comparison - the sound from the Corsair is similarly enclosed.

The 2 headphones are differently connected to the PC, the Corsair uses a 2.4 GHZ dongle as I purchased them specifically for use with Teams and Zoom as I couldn't get my Plantronics to connect via standard Bluetooth. I've not made any changes to the default settings via Apps for either of them. I've never needed to for the Plantronics and having looked today at the Corsair software, iCue is not accessible with Jaws2020 being filled with a lot of unlabelled buttons.

Can anyone explain the difference in what I'm hearing and tell me what I need to look for in a pair of headphones to get a more open sound for both music/drama and games?

You might well be asking if I like the Plantronics so much why am I looking for something else? The answer is the quality of the material is not that great. For the past year I'd say bits of the material covering the top of the headphones, the part connecting the 2 ear cups have been flaking away, as has bits of the material around the ear cups. This happened with my previous Plantronics as well. I think they should last more than 3 years without bits falling off.
Cheers
Yusuf
Yusuf Osman <yusuf.osman@...>
 

Thanks Darran and Hamit, that makes things a lot clearer. I'm now going to ask on the Blind Gamers list as there will be people using Wireless headphones that must have wide sound stage given the nature of a lot of games for the blind.
Yusuf

-----Original Message-----
From: all-audio@groups.io <all-audio@groups.io> On Behalf Of Hamit Campos
Sent: 19 December 2020 13:49
To: all-audio@groups.io
Subject: Re: [all-audio] The quality of sound on Bluetooth over ear headphones

Hi. Yes sir Darron was absolutely right. So pay attention to people talking about sound stage. That’s the problem for the topic at hand. As to the frequency responce though yes the 40 something KHZ ones can go way way higher then the other ones. But no human not even a baby can hear up there. I’m surprised they don’t have the high rez logo on them cause they would be considered high rez. But yes sound stage is your friend here. Where possible I’d go to best Buy or something and talk with someone. Hell even Wal-Mart will do. Ask someone there. Man those guys are getting into everything. They now even have the Audio-Technica ATH M50X monitoring headphones. I was surprised cause that’s recording studio gear. But any who yes look for and ask about sound stage.
On Dec 19, 2020, at 8:23 AM, Yusuf Osman <yusuf.osman@...> wrote:

Hi all, I hope I can explain the issue I'm having in a way that makes sense.

Currently I have 2 different kinds of Bluetooth headphones. The first is a Plantronics Backbeat Pro but as I can't find the purchase information I can't be sure. I think I bought them in 2016. The sound quality is great, I would describe it as really open and when I'm playing games the field is really open. By that I mean I am usually able to distinguish between near left and far left, or the left that is close to being directly ahead and the left closer to behind. The second is a pair of CORSAIR VIRTUOSO WIRELESS RGB SE. I find the sound on this less open. When playing a game everything sounds like it is in-front even if it isn't. Yet looking at the specifications, and trying to compare, even though I can't quite get the same stats for both, the Plantronics frequency response is 20 to 20,000 HZ with 40 MM drivers and the Corsair frequency response is 20 HZ to 40,000 KHZ Impedance: 32 Ohms at 2.5 kHz
Sensitivity: 109 dB (± 3 dB) And Drivers: Custom 50 mm neodymium, matched pairs.

Now I'll be completely honest and say that I don't understand most of these figures. I do know that the frequency range describes what sounds the headphones are capable of producing from lowest to highest. It seems to me that in purely statistics the Corsair are better and yet to my ears the sound coming from them is narrower, which is I guess why I'm not getting proper spacial information when playing games. When listening to music - I've used a version of Beethoven's 5th symphony for comparison - the sound from the Corsair is similarly enclosed.

The 2 headphones are differently connected to the PC, the Corsair uses a 2.4 GHZ dongle as I purchased them specifically for use with Teams and Zoom as I couldn't get my Plantronics to connect via standard Bluetooth. I've not made any changes to the default settings via Apps for either of them. I've never needed to for the Plantronics and having looked today at the Corsair software, iCue is not accessible with Jaws2020 being filled with a lot of unlabelled buttons.

Can anyone explain the difference in what I'm hearing and tell me what I need to look for in a pair of headphones to get a more open sound for both music/drama and games?

You might well be asking if I like the Plantronics so much why am I looking for something else? The answer is the quality of the material is not that great. For the past year I'd say bits of the material covering the top of the headphones, the part connecting the 2 ear cups have been flaking away, as has bits of the material around the ear cups. This happened with my previous Plantronics as well. I think they should last more than 3 years without bits falling off.
Cheers
Yusuf
Hamit Campos
 

Oh dephinetly. They should be able to tell you too. I'd also suggest an actual 5.1 sound system but I haven't kept up on blind games so don't know how they are incoded. Say email me off list if you know the answer to this 1. Are there finally blind people games that are epic like Call of Duty Battle Field or Crysis? Especially Crysis. That's my favorite game. Darn if only I knew all the cheet codes and keystrokes.

-----Original Message-----
From: all-audio@groups.io <all-audio@groups.io> On Behalf Of Yusuf Osman
Sent: Saturday, December 19, 2020 4:51 PM
To: all-audio@groups.io
Subject: Re: [all-audio] The quality of sound on Bluetooth over ear headphones

Thanks Darran and Hamit, that makes things a lot clearer. I'm now going to ask on the Blind Gamers list as there will be people using Wireless headphones that must have wide sound stage given the nature of a lot of games for the blind.
Yusuf

-----Original Message-----
From: all-audio@groups.io <all-audio@groups.io> On Behalf Of Hamit Campos
Sent: 19 December 2020 13:49
To: all-audio@groups.io
Subject: Re: [all-audio] The quality of sound on Bluetooth over ear headphones

Hi. Yes sir Darron was absolutely right. So pay attention to people talking about sound stage. That’s the problem for the topic at hand. As to the frequency responce though yes the 40 something KHZ ones can go way way higher then the other ones. But no human not even a baby can hear up there. I’m surprised they don’t have the high rez logo on them cause they would be considered high rez. But yes sound stage is your friend here. Where possible I’d go to best Buy or something and talk with someone. Hell even Wal-Mart will do. Ask someone there. Man those guys are getting into everything. They now even have the Audio-Technica ATH M50X monitoring headphones. I was surprised cause that’s recording studio gear. But any who yes look for and ask about sound stage.
On Dec 19, 2020, at 8:23 AM, Yusuf Osman <yusuf.osman@...> wrote:

Hi all, I hope I can explain the issue I'm having in a way that makes sense.

Currently I have 2 different kinds of Bluetooth headphones. The first is a Plantronics Backbeat Pro but as I can't find the purchase information I can't be sure. I think I bought them in 2016. The sound quality is great, I would describe it as really open and when I'm playing games the field is really open. By that I mean I am usually able to distinguish between near left and far left, or the left that is close to being directly ahead and the left closer to behind. The second is a pair of CORSAIR VIRTUOSO WIRELESS RGB SE. I find the sound on this less open. When playing a game everything sounds like it is in-front even if it isn't. Yet looking at the specifications, and trying to compare, even though I can't quite get the same stats for both, the Plantronics frequency response is 20 to 20,000 HZ with 40 MM drivers and the Corsair frequency response is 20 HZ to 40,000 KHZ Impedance: 32 Ohms at 2.5 kHz
Sensitivity: 109 dB (± 3 dB) And Drivers: Custom 50 mm neodymium, matched pairs.

Now I'll be completely honest and say that I don't understand most of these figures. I do know that the frequency range describes what sounds the headphones are capable of producing from lowest to highest. It seems to me that in purely statistics the Corsair are better and yet to my ears the sound coming from them is narrower, which is I guess why I'm not getting proper spacial information when playing games. When listening to music - I've used a version of Beethoven's 5th symphony for comparison - the sound from the Corsair is similarly enclosed.

The 2 headphones are differently connected to the PC, the Corsair uses a 2.4 GHZ dongle as I purchased them specifically for use with Teams and Zoom as I couldn't get my Plantronics to connect via standard Bluetooth. I've not made any changes to the default settings via Apps for either of them. I've never needed to for the Plantronics and having looked today at the Corsair software, iCue is not accessible with Jaws2020 being filled with a lot of unlabelled buttons.

Can anyone explain the difference in what I'm hearing and tell me what I need to look for in a pair of headphones to get a more open sound for both music/drama and games?

You might well be asking if I like the Plantronics so much why am I looking for something else? The answer is the quality of the material is not that great. For the past year I'd say bits of the material covering the top of the headphones, the part connecting the 2 ear cups have been flaking away, as has bits of the material around the ear cups. This happened with my previous Plantronics as well. I think they should last more than 3 years without bits falling off.
Cheers
Yusuf
Yusuf Osman <yusuf.osman@...>
 

Not sure about 5.1 sound, or the games you mention, I enjoy playing Swamp and Shades of Doom, both of which require the ability to distinguish the direction of sounds. In wireless mode the Corsair is rubbish but if connected by a USB cable it seems to be a lot better. Someone on the Blind gamers list suggested looking for surround sound settings in the Corsair's software. That will have to wait until I have sighted assistance as the software is pretty rubbish.
Yusuf

-----Original Message-----
From: all-audio@groups.io <all-audio@groups.io> On Behalf Of Hamit Campos
Sent: 19 December 2020 21:56
To: all-audio@groups.io
Subject: Re: [all-audio] The quality of sound on Bluetooth over ear headphones

Oh dephinetly. They should be able to tell you too. I'd also suggest an actual 5.1 sound system but I haven't kept up on blind games so don't know how they are incoded. Say email me off list if you know the answer to this 1. Are there finally blind people games that are epic like Call of Duty Battle Field or Crysis? Especially Crysis. That's my favorite game. Darn if only I knew all the cheet codes and keystrokes.

-----Original Message-----
From: all-audio@groups.io <all-audio@groups.io> On Behalf Of Yusuf Osman
Sent: Saturday, December 19, 2020 4:51 PM
To: all-audio@groups.io
Subject: Re: [all-audio] The quality of sound on Bluetooth over ear headphones

Thanks Darran and Hamit, that makes things a lot clearer. I'm now going to ask on the Blind Gamers list as there will be people using Wireless headphones that must have wide sound stage given the nature of a lot of games for the blind.
Yusuf

-----Original Message-----
From: all-audio@groups.io <all-audio@groups.io> On Behalf Of Hamit Campos
Sent: 19 December 2020 13:49
To: all-audio@groups.io
Subject: Re: [all-audio] The quality of sound on Bluetooth over ear headphones

Hi. Yes sir Darron was absolutely right. So pay attention to people talking about sound stage. That’s the problem for the topic at hand. As to the frequency responce though yes the 40 something KHZ ones can go way way higher then the other ones. But no human not even a baby can hear up there. I’m surprised they don’t have the high rez logo on them cause they would be considered high rez. But yes sound stage is your friend here. Where possible I’d go to best Buy or something and talk with someone. Hell even Wal-Mart will do. Ask someone there. Man those guys are getting into everything. They now even have the Audio-Technica ATH M50X monitoring headphones. I was surprised cause that’s recording studio gear. But any who yes look for and ask about sound stage.
On Dec 19, 2020, at 8:23 AM, Yusuf Osman <yusuf.osman@...> wrote:

Hi all, I hope I can explain the issue I'm having in a way that makes sense.

Currently I have 2 different kinds of Bluetooth headphones. The first is a Plantronics Backbeat Pro but as I can't find the purchase information I can't be sure. I think I bought them in 2016. The sound quality is great, I would describe it as really open and when I'm playing games the field is really open. By that I mean I am usually able to distinguish between near left and far left, or the left that is close to being directly ahead and the left closer to behind. The second is a pair of CORSAIR VIRTUOSO WIRELESS RGB SE. I find the sound on this less open. When playing a game everything sounds like it is in-front even if it isn't. Yet looking at the specifications, and trying to compare, even though I can't quite get the same stats for both, the Plantronics frequency response is 20 to 20,000 HZ with 40 MM drivers and the Corsair frequency response is 20 HZ to 40,000 KHZ Impedance: 32 Ohms at 2.5 kHz
Sensitivity: 109 dB (± 3 dB) And Drivers: Custom 50 mm neodymium, matched pairs.

Now I'll be completely honest and say that I don't understand most of these figures. I do know that the frequency range describes what sounds the headphones are capable of producing from lowest to highest. It seems to me that in purely statistics the Corsair are better and yet to my ears the sound coming from them is narrower, which is I guess why I'm not getting proper spacial information when playing games. When listening to music - I've used a version of Beethoven's 5th symphony for comparison - the sound from the Corsair is similarly enclosed.

The 2 headphones are differently connected to the PC, the Corsair uses a 2.4 GHZ dongle as I purchased them specifically for use with Teams and Zoom as I couldn't get my Plantronics to connect via standard Bluetooth. I've not made any changes to the default settings via Apps for either of them. I've never needed to for the Plantronics and having looked today at the Corsair software, iCue is not accessible with Jaws2020 being filled with a lot of unlabelled buttons.

Can anyone explain the difference in what I'm hearing and tell me what I need to look for in a pair of headphones to get a more open sound for both music/drama and games?

You might well be asking if I like the Plantronics so much why am I looking for something else? The answer is the quality of the material is not that great. For the past year I'd say bits of the material covering the top of the headphones, the part connecting the 2 ear cups have been flaking away, as has bits of the material around the ear cups. This happened with my previous Plantronics as well. I think they should last more than 3 years without bits falling off.
Cheers
Yusuf
Hamit Campos
 

Ah yeah maybe you could with someone's help try and change the vsettings on those headphones and put them in some surround sound mode. Dude if you haven't heard Crysis look it up on Youtube. There's even a channel Movie Games I think it's called that some how puts all the game play into a movie like format. He has all 3 Crysis games. Listen to them in that order. As it is a story. Crysis was so demanding in 2007 when it launched that now it's even a meem to ask but will it run Crysis? It's such a meam that the company in their remaster has a but will it run crysis mode.

-----Original Message-----
From: all-audio@groups.io <all-audio@groups.io> On Behalf Of Yusuf Osman
Sent: Saturday, December 19, 2020 5:42 PM
To: all-audio@groups.io
Subject: Re: [all-audio] The quality of sound on Bluetooth over ear headphones

Not sure about 5.1 sound, or the games you mention, I enjoy playing Swamp and Shades of Doom, both of which require the ability to distinguish the direction of sounds. In wireless mode the Corsair is rubbish but if connected by a USB cable it seems to be a lot better. Someone on the Blind gamers list suggested looking for surround sound settings in the Corsair's software. That will have to wait until I have sighted assistance as the software is pretty rubbish.
Yusuf

-----Original Message-----
From: all-audio@groups.io <all-audio@groups.io> On Behalf Of Hamit Campos
Sent: 19 December 2020 21:56
To: all-audio@groups.io
Subject: Re: [all-audio] The quality of sound on Bluetooth over ear headphones

Oh dephinetly. They should be able to tell you too. I'd also suggest an actual 5.1 sound system but I haven't kept up on blind games so don't know how they are incoded. Say email me off list if you know the answer to this 1. Are there finally blind people games that are epic like Call of Duty Battle Field or Crysis? Especially Crysis. That's my favorite game. Darn if only I knew all the cheet codes and keystrokes.

-----Original Message-----
From: all-audio@groups.io <all-audio@groups.io> On Behalf Of Yusuf Osman
Sent: Saturday, December 19, 2020 4:51 PM
To: all-audio@groups.io
Subject: Re: [all-audio] The quality of sound on Bluetooth over ear headphones

Thanks Darran and Hamit, that makes things a lot clearer. I'm now going to ask on the Blind Gamers list as there will be people using Wireless headphones that must have wide sound stage given the nature of a lot of games for the blind.
Yusuf

-----Original Message-----
From: all-audio@groups.io <all-audio@groups.io> On Behalf Of Hamit Campos
Sent: 19 December 2020 13:49
To: all-audio@groups.io
Subject: Re: [all-audio] The quality of sound on Bluetooth over ear headphones

Hi. Yes sir Darron was absolutely right. So pay attention to people talking about sound stage. That’s the problem for the topic at hand. As to the frequency responce though yes the 40 something KHZ ones can go way way higher then the other ones. But no human not even a baby can hear up there. I’m surprised they don’t have the high rez logo on them cause they would be considered high rez. But yes sound stage is your friend here. Where possible I’d go to best Buy or something and talk with someone. Hell even Wal-Mart will do. Ask someone there. Man those guys are getting into everything. They now even have the Audio-Technica ATH M50X monitoring headphones. I was surprised cause that’s recording studio gear. But any who yes look for and ask about sound stage.
On Dec 19, 2020, at 8:23 AM, Yusuf Osman <yusuf.osman@...> wrote:

Hi all, I hope I can explain the issue I'm having in a way that makes sense.

Currently I have 2 different kinds of Bluetooth headphones. The first is a Plantronics Backbeat Pro but as I can't find the purchase information I can't be sure. I think I bought them in 2016. The sound quality is great, I would describe it as really open and when I'm playing games the field is really open. By that I mean I am usually able to distinguish between near left and far left, or the left that is close to being directly ahead and the left closer to behind. The second is a pair of CORSAIR VIRTUOSO WIRELESS RGB SE. I find the sound on this less open. When playing a game everything sounds like it is in-front even if it isn't. Yet looking at the specifications, and trying to compare, even though I can't quite get the same stats for both, the Plantronics frequency response is 20 to 20,000 HZ with 40 MM drivers and the Corsair frequency response is 20 HZ to 40,000 KHZ Impedance: 32 Ohms at 2.5 kHz
Sensitivity: 109 dB (± 3 dB) And Drivers: Custom 50 mm neodymium, matched pairs.

Now I'll be completely honest and say that I don't understand most of these figures. I do know that the frequency range describes what sounds the headphones are capable of producing from lowest to highest. It seems to me that in purely statistics the Corsair are better and yet to my ears the sound coming from them is narrower, which is I guess why I'm not getting proper spacial information when playing games. When listening to music - I've used a version of Beethoven's 5th symphony for comparison - the sound from the Corsair is similarly enclosed.

The 2 headphones are differently connected to the PC, the Corsair uses a 2.4 GHZ dongle as I purchased them specifically for use with Teams and Zoom as I couldn't get my Plantronics to connect via standard Bluetooth. I've not made any changes to the default settings via Apps for either of them. I've never needed to for the Plantronics and having looked today at the Corsair software, iCue is not accessible with Jaws2020 being filled with a lot of unlabelled buttons.

Can anyone explain the difference in what I'm hearing and tell me what I need to look for in a pair of headphones to get a more open sound for both music/drama and games?

You might well be asking if I like the Plantronics so much why am I looking for something else? The answer is the quality of the material is not that great. For the past year I'd say bits of the material covering the top of the headphones, the part connecting the 2 ear cups have been flaking away, as has bits of the material around the ear cups. This happened with my previous Plantronics as well. I think they should last more than 3 years without bits falling off.
Cheers
Yusuf

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