5.1 headphone with optical connection

[symbian]

I have been reading around and I still dont understand how it works. At first, I want to buy all in one home cinema system to use in my bedroom. Then, I have just realised that my neighbour would kill me if I turn it on at night. After that I find this forum and read all the threads in this category. Some comments on this web confirm that 5.1 headphone can perform as well as home cinema system. However, most of the headphones you are talking about such as Sennheiser HD595, it doesnt have coax or optical connection. How can it be real 5.1? Some threads talks about decoder but I can find much details about them. I heard about dolby headphone such as grado, Philips and Pioneer. Does it have any other brand? I try to look around in several shop in London. Unfortunately, I can not find one. So, it's no chance of comparison. If my writing is confusing, I'm sorry as it's not my first language.
Um.. If you can recommend any dolby or dts(it would be better) headphone, please do.. .. . and around 100 if there are any.


Thanks in advance

[NicolasB]

You're not going to get a decent surround-headphone system for £100, I'm afraid.

There are two completely different types of system that are referred to as "5.1 headphones".

The cheap, rubbishy ones (like, say, Speedlink Medusa) work by having three separate drivers on each side of the headphones, one in front of the ear, one level with it, and one behind. The headphones take 5.1 analogue input. The surround effect is not very convincing; there is a definite difference between sound from in front and sound from behind, but there's no real positioning of the sound beyond that - it still sounds like it's coming from right next to your ear - and the sound quality is rather poor.

More expensive systems use something like Dolby Headphone. What these do is to simulate an imaginary listening room. Within that room is a 5.1 speaker system. Dolby Headphone calculates what the sound would be like inside the ears of a person sitting in that room listening to the speakers. (This is quite a complicated calculation - it includes things like reflections off the walls of the room).

When you listen to the headphones, it is creating inside your ears the same sound that it has calculated would happen in a person's ears if they were actually in the imaginary room listening to the imaginary speakers.

Systems like this can sound pretty good. The positioning of the sound is not as good as with speakers, but the overall sound quality - purity and lack of distortion - may be much better than you'd get with speakers.

Dolby Headphone systems include a decoder box (with a digital input and headphone output) and generally come with their own headphones (usually wireless). The decoder can deal with Dolby Digital or DTS signals, and can also take a stereo signal and apply Dolby ProLogic II, then Dolby Headphone. Unfortunately such systems are not cheap; maybe second-hand you could get one for £100.

Philips and Pioneer are the two most popular brands for Dolby Headphone. There are others, but they tend to be either ridiculously expensive (AKG) or too cheap and nasty to bother with (Creative Labs). Sony also does some devices like this which use Sony's own proprietary algorithm instead of Dolby Headphone; my understanding is that Dolby Headphone sounds better.

[supermac]

Thanks for that, very informative

[symbian]

Thanks
That's very helpful.
So, I think I got just one chioce if I go for wireless.
It is Philips because Pioneer is too expensive.
What different between Philips SBC HD 1500 U/00 and Philips SBC HD 1505 U/00?
I'm looking on this website.
http://www.technikdirekt.de/main/en/.../Article.html?
http://www.technikdirekt.de/main/en/.../Article.html?
I think 1500 come with.. um like wireless station... what if I buy 1505, ?
What about with wire?
It might be cheaper and better.
Sorry to ask a lot but for me I cant go wrong for headphone that cost me £100.
I cant afford a new one soon.
Thanks for your comment anyway

[NicolasB]

The SBCHD1500 base station does have a headphone jack socket on it, so you can plug your existing (wired) headphones in there if you wish, instead of using the bundled wireless ones. I can't vouch for the socket's quality, as I've never owned that system. I would speculate that it's probably not up to the job of driving high-impedance 'phones like my Sennheiser HD650s, but it'd probably do for most normal things. Having said that, most reviewers have been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the cordless 'phones in the HD1500 system, so they should do you fine.

There is a non-cordless equivalent that Philips makes, or at least used to make - the SBCHP1500. But it's never been for sale in the UK and was always hard to find anywhere. (It may have been discontinued now, I'm not sure).

2nd hand or ex-demo HD1500 systems come up on eBay fairly regularly, although they're not as cheap as you might hope.

[clearsound]

Originally Posted by symbian

I have been reading around and I still dont understand how it works. At first, I want to buy all in one home cinema system to use in my bedroom. Then, I have just realised that my neighbour would kill me if I turn it on at night. After that I find this forum and read all the threads in this category. Some comments on this web confirm that 5.1 headphone can perform as well as home cinema system. However, most of the headphones you are talking about such as Sennheiser HD595, it doesnt have coax or optical connection. How can it be real 5.1? Some threads talks about decoder but I can find much details about them. I heard about dolby headphone such as grado, Philips and Pioneer. Does it have any other brand? I try to look around in several shop in London. Unfortunately, I can not find one. So, it's no chance of comparison. If my writing is confusing, I'm sorry as it's not my first language.
Um.. If you can recommend any dolby or dts(it would be better) headphone, please do.. .. . and around 100 if there are any.


Thanks in advance

Hope you do not mind me latching on, as I did not realy want to start a new thread.
Please could anyone help, I have a home cinema with optical connection, and I have just ordered some Sony MDR-DS3000K inrared wireless 3.1 headphones.
My question is, if I only use the optical connection from the headphones to the home cinema, will I be able to hear anything that is not recorded in 5.1, or just 5.1 only?
Thankyou in advance, Brian.

[Tony_T]

Originally Posted by clearsound

Please could anyone help, I have a home cinema with optical connection, and I have just ordered some Sony MDR-DS3000K inrared wireless 3.1 headphones.
My question is, if I only use the optical connection from the headphones to the home cinema, will I be able to hear anything that is not recorded in 5.1, or just 5.1 only?
Thankyou in advance, Brian.

You'll note that these headphones have both an optical and a standard stereo phono input together with a digital/analogue switch on the base unit.

I can't remember the exact details (I've now packed the 'phones as I'm moving) but I had the 'phones connected to the optical out on my AV receiver and also connected the phono leads as I couldn't hear all sources.

As far as I recall, output from my PS3 (optical into receiver) and DVD recorder (coax into receiver) worked fine on the 'digital' setting. I think the CD (coax output) worked ok too.

My Wii is connected directly to the TV and I have a phono lead from the TV to the receiver for the TV sound. I'm pretty sure that I bought the phono lead for the headphones so that I could hear the analogue signal from the TV.

In short, you should be fine for any digital source (stereo or 5.1); but I doubt if the home cinema system will convert an analogue source and output it via the optical output.