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Making Your Headphones Wireless?
Chuck Chunder asks: "I've recently been looking at getting some wireless headphones of the RF rather than infra-red variety. After looking around for a bit it struck me that I don't actually want a whole new set of headphones. I already have a nice pair of headphones as well as earphones. What I really want is an RF transmitter and a small clip on receiver that I can plug my existing headphones/earphones into. The problem is, I can't find anyone selling what I am describing, even geeky places don't quite have what I'm looking for. Does anyone know/have experience of such a product?"
"I see several advantages to this:
- Adaptability: I can then use earphones/headphones as appropriate for the activity, or possibly use it as an RF link between hardware in different rooms
- Replacability: If I damage the headphones I only have to replace them, not the whole headphone/receiver unit; this bit will hopefully lead to...
- Lower costs
RF devices suffer from a great deal of interference in the high-end band from sources such as sun spots, satellite traffic and meteor showers. Headphones, being small amplifiers, will only make this static louder. I suggest you buy a longer cord.
Well I got the ones from ThinkGeek and they are ok. Good output, but the range is only about 20 feet. They also seem to loose the freq just a little bit every time you turn them off and on and you have to do a little minor ajustment to the knobs...nothing wrong with a little knob wiggle. Ok, where was I, ho yea. They are pretty good but are a bit on the heavy side and can start to droop. They are also only for people with somewhat larger bennies. Put these on your typcial 115 pound girlfriend and your more likely to hear Jewel on the speaks instead of the headphones, which if like me was the reason you got the damn things in the first place.
Sony has some that seem to be just a tad bit better, lighter, longer range.
enjoy.
Neck_of_the_Woods
#/usr/local/surf/glassy/overhead
This is a pretty good project for a beginner geek. Should take a couple hours, including travel time.
Radio Shack carries all of the wires, resistors, transistors, and breadboards that you'll need for this. Basically you're going to build a little repeater/amplifier. Just take the stereo jack (also at Radio Shack) and wire it up to a variable resistor (for tuning the frequency) and a standard transmitter chip.
Choose a well-known architecture, and you can install Debian Linux on it, good to go.
Fun little project, and a good way to get your feet wet.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
Here?
Building a radio emitter is not very difficult (I remember having an electronic kit when I was young with 60+ different circuits you could build, and one of them was a radio emitter). Ideally you'd choose it not to interfere with your local channels, or some neighbours could become upset if your power is too high.
Then, on the receiving end, a small walkman is all you need. Plug your headphones or earphones, and there you go!
Of course, the quality of the transmission will vary depending on the quality of the hardware and which frequency you choose (near or far from some other channel).
Alternatively, there are all kinds of devices for remote audio that are meant to be hooked to a stereo. Is it really such a big deal to get an RCA to 1/8" phono plug adapter for these and replace the AC adapter with a battery pack?
Admittedly, either is a little bulky, but certainly not too much to bring about with you in your home or workspace.
Says the RIAA: When you EQ, you're stealing bass!
you read the story, the product he wants exists he just did not find it!
"The poet presents his thoughts festively, on the carriage of rhythm; usually because they could not walk" Nietzsche
Turns speak output into FM channel
At which time you just tune it into your walkman, or radio headphones. Simple solution for mp3 players to your car stereo as well.
Neck_of_the_Woods
#/usr/local/surf/glassy/overhead
Link to speak out to FM
This little jewel lets you plug it into your mp3 player and then it tranmits to a FM channel. You could use it in this case to transmit your computer sound out to a small fm headphone set. Or in my case I plug it into my mp3 player and then catch the FM station on my car stereo. Perfect little fix without spending a ton of new money. The kicker at work is you could let everyone with 30 feet of you tune into your custom FM station playing your mp3's.
Neck_of_the_Woods
#/usr/local/surf/glassy/overhead
I have four wireless headphones that I use for movie parties in lu of an expensive stereo system. A few things to consider: unless it's in the 900mhz or 2.4ghz range, the static interference will be so annoying that it will defeat the purpose. So, making your own is pretty much out of the question.
... the units is so damn awesome. The electronics filter out static interference and unlike most wireless headphones, Sennheiser's are capable or reproducing the full 20hz to 22khz spectrum. You won't find that in a Sony product.
I am not aware of a versitile stereo relay device that is capable of doing what you ask.
I HIGHLY recommend the Sennheiser products. Don't get the RS-65 though, get the RS-85 from online dealers such as etronics.com
They have velvet ear cushions, lithum ion batteries, strong bass synthesis, excellent range, and you can buy additional receiver units so you and your friends can all watch a movie at your own personal viewing volume. It's amazing the things you never hear in a movie with traditional stereo systems. At $185, they are a bit pricey but I think it's one of the best entertainment investments I've made.
Well, ignoring cost, maybe you should look at pro audio in-ear wireless monitor systems. They typically operate over VHF or even UHF frequencies, are channel selectable, and the receiver consists of a walkman-sized beltpack. Too bad they run $400-$1000 new from Nady, Samson or Shure but who knows what you can drum up on Ebay! Yes, this is professional audio gear, and it LOOKS expensive. As long as you take care of it, it should last you the rest of your life, or 2 road tours, whichever comes first.
meh.
you could try a very cheap guitar wireless unit. It'd be quite the hack, with a lot of 1/4"-1/8" adapters (and vice versa), but it'd work. My cheap wireless (a Nady Wireless One) has a range of about 1500 feet via a 235-ish mHz transmitter/receiver combo.
There's one here on eBay right now for $25.
FM 25 kit (it has to be a kit, FCC rules)
and have been loving life since. Some of the bennifits include:
It took about 4 hours to build the kit and was not difficult (all components are through hole).
At $130, it''s not cheap initally, but you will wind up saving money in the long run.
You could try this...I'm not sure about its range, but it will probably work in an average sized room. Just get a walkman and use one of these thingamajigs to play your music on a standard FM Walkman. You could even save batteries and get a crystal radio (just pump up the volume on your PC).
Karma: Excellent (fuck, even in the future moderation doesn't work!)
Put on your headphones without plugging them in and turn your speakers up really loud.
It's something like $80 at Best Buy. It can use standard earphones, but comes with it's own. Works fairly well, but the incoming signal strength needs to be set right so it doesn't clip the audio. It's not particularly strong - it won't penetrate the steel subflooring where I work so I have to turn it off when I change floors and I sometimes have to "reorient the antenna" when there is a lot of metal between me and the transmitter. :( It uses rechargable batteries (included) and has a built in recharger. Charges usually last 10-12 hours. In Wired parlance, it delivers economy level performance, but I've yet to find a product one functional tier higher. Perhaps one of the other responses might enlighten.
1. Buy a pair of headphones
2. Buy a laptop
3. Build a 802.11b wireless net for your apartment/home/domicile
4. Share/nfs/serve your mp3's from your desktop.
5. Retrieve/mount/client your desktop's mp3s from your notebook.
6. Enjoy music
I had a great idea: Wireless earpieces for cellphones. That wire is a pain to deal with. Of course, it almost feels like a similar idea to a remote controlled remote.
Somone's going to make a pile of cash off this idea, aren't they?
She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue.
Sunspots? Satellite traffic?
Shut the fuck up!
Jensen Wireless Receiver Pack -- JW120 at bestbuy
Radio Shack sells a wireless headphone package that will do what you want. It comes with everything you need, including cheap walkman type headphones. Unlike all the other commerical wireless headphone packages, it uses a small beeper-sized device into which you plug in any headphones you want. I think it costs $99
That looks pretty good. Other peoples comments on digital v analog for reducing static and wireless phones (which I have, as well as living in an apartment building so there could be others near by).
Looks like I've got a bit more research to do before I stump up the cash but thanks for the pointer.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Actually, I've also been thinking of doing something similar. The trick is, I want to make a baby transmitter on a belt clip that can plug into a Discman/Walkman/Mp3 player/radio. This would transmit to earbuds powered by a watch battery with only a tiny antennae sticking out. This is the beauty: no wires, and completely concealable (think toque).
Does anyone think this is possible? Have any advice? So far the only thing keeping me from building it is the smallness required to effectively work inside an earbud.
To build the wireless headset you will need the following:
- big 50's style TV rabbit ears
- magnetic induction core
- 5 pounds of cobalt 60
- chin strap
- 8 track player
- car battery
- lots of velcro
Once you get this stuff it practically builds itself.
Check out Amphony.com.
:)
For around $150, you get a couple of megabits/sec
streamed to your ears.
Unfortunately I don't know how quality the
supplied headphones are, although it might not
be too hard to hack up your headphones by ripping
the receiver out of the Amphony headset and
warming up the soldering iron.
Of course for much more cash, buy an iPAQ and
plug in an 802.11b card
I got one of these for Christmas a few years ago. It's from Radio Shack, model no. 33-1165. I couldn't find it on radioshack.com, so perhaps it is discontinued. The receiver is about the size of a deck of cards, and the sound quality is average for wireless, which means fairly bad.
Ok I've seen way to many of these posts dogging anything less that 900MHz or 2.4GHz. First to clarify why we like higher frequencies better. High Q circuits or the relationship between the cuttoff and ideal resonance gives us less interference with larger bandwidths at higher frequencies with less power lost. This is great for the ever shrinking world of electronics were we want less power loss cause we like batteries to last longer, smaller wavelengths shorter antennas/permeates through more structures easier... This however does not mean that circuits with a lower Q value like those you would find with the same bandwidth at a lower frequency lack any ability to reproduce the audible spectrum. Granted it does require more electronics to filter out things like harmonics and possible outside interference but that doesn't mean it will sound any worse that a 2.4GHz products. It is simply cheaper to make consumer goods like this and assume it is of a quality that is acceptable enough to be sold at a particular price point.
What I would recommend is you find a product that you can test out before purchasing or has a liberal enough return policy that you could use the product and decide if it works for you because a poorly designed 2.4GH product could sound far worse that a well designed 87-108MH product.
To examine what I'm talking about here further just search for resonant circuits on google.
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This is definately the way to go. Alternatively, you might get away with some low power VHF ham gear if there's nobody in the area to hunt you down and yell at you - but at 30mW, your broadcast range won't be very high either. The kit is going to be much cheaper than that anyhow, unless you have the gear already. You WILL lose some fidelity over the wired headphones though, don't kid yourself. Most people will never notice the difference.
:).
Mildly off topic, don't ever read anything on how to detect errors in compression. I used to work with MPEG codecs and I can't watch most of the movies on the net.. I can imagine what learning to detect mp3 artifacts does
The only thing that would be better is if you designed or bought a small digital transmitter and decoder with a 16bit x 44.1kHz bandwidth. These units might exist out there if you look, but every single one of the stand-alone FM units (aside from quality kit like the Ramsey unit) blow chunks because of frequency drift or intermittant static. The other problem is batteries go dead, I listen to music all day when I'm at work.
FWIW my solution at work is to stream to my notebook and then listen off it.
..don't panic
I just bought a kit for one of these and put it together. Works great for my iPod, except you have to shield the thing with some copper wire (if you're buying a kit). I find that everything causes the frequency to vary, from looking at it, to sometimes driving in the wrong direction (power lines I guess). They're great if you can contain them properly. And what beats soldering up something yourself?
Mmmm. Rosin Core...*drool*