[uczmeg]

Hi,

A small child and a wife who goes to bed early (because of small child!) have taken a toll on my movie watching, at least the noisy part of it. And I'm getting fed up with turning the sound down and setting the bass to low.

An 8ft picture deserves a bit of noise!

So, I need to take my first steps into the world of headphones for movie watching and am completely lost.

A search here revelas a lot of model numbers, talk of headphone amps and prices that scare me after what I've already spent!

So what are my options? What else do I need? Can I expect to get reasonable sound for around £100?

Currently I'm using a HTPC with an Audigy 2 soundcard. I'm using this to pass through the DD/DTS digital signal to my amp via s/pdif. (I think the Audigy has analogue outputs too, but it is in an akward position to check right now).

The PC is about 10m away from where I sit and in another room. My amp is in the same room a few metres away.

Any suggestions appreciated!

Cheers
Marc

[uczmeg]

Damn, I HATE this place. It costs me a fortune!

So, I've done some more searching on here, and already I've talked myself way up from my £100 budget and am seriously considering some Pioneer SE-DIR800C headphones...

[uczmeg]

Or maybe the Philips HD1500....

[Dr_Mike]

Well I went for the Pioneers. What put me off the Philips was the fact that they use 2.4Ghz RF transmission. As I understand it this is the same frequency band used by Cordless Phones, Wireless Networks and other stuff, so I thought there may be potential for interference. Can anyone confirm whether this is or isn't the case ?

I haven't found line of sight to be a problem with the IR Pioneers, although the manual says you need to be within 30 deg of axis, in practice mine work anywhere within the same room as the base unit and only go off when I walk out the door.

[uczmeg]

Interesting thought Mike.

I like the idea of the Philips as the PC is in another room. However 2.4Ghz could well mess with my wifi, videosender, house phones etc. The microwave already does funny things with those!

Of course when I'd be using these little of the above will be in play, so it could be isolated ok. Still could be annoying and would be interesting to hear comments.

Found the Philips for about 270 Euros delivered from Germany. But really need a German friend to sort it as they won't take cards, just bank transfers. And I really don't want to pay £20 to transfer the cash.

Cheers
Marc

Originally Posted by uczmeg

Found the Philips for about 270 Euros delivered from Germany. But really need a German friend to sort it as they won't take cards, just bank transfers. And I really don't want to pay £20 to transfer the cash.

Cheers
Marc

I bought some headhones from Thomas Mann, probably the supplier in Germany you're referring to, but as far as I'm aware my bank didn't charge me anything over my standard charges. No such charge appears in my statement and the exchange rate seemed right. Perhaps I missed something.

[NicolasB]

Marc, your AV amp doesn't happen to have Dolby Headphone output, does it? A few do, mostly Denon ones.