Poll of the Day > Do you think there's any difference in sound between wireless and wired

(+) Yeah! (+)

headphones? What has been your experience?

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For sound? no - the main reason to go wired over wireless is latency related and that tends to not apply to sound.

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Probably but I doubt its something Id ever notice personally

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Of course. The vast majority of wireless headphones operate with Bluetooth. It's a handy technology, but severely bandwidth limited. Though whether the degradation matters will be 100% subjective and dependent on many variables.

I don't exactly need the highest fidelity to keep a podcast in one ear all day between home, work, and back, so bluetooth is ideal. Having a cord hanging around all day is not ideal. If I really, really want to immerse myself in a movie or an album at home, I'll use my wired Sennheiser soup bowls, but the occasional momentary audio glitching in a podcast isn't worth bitching about.

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Lokarin posted...

For sound? no - the main reason to go wired over wireless is latency related and that tends to not apply to sound.

Rhythm games are about the only thing that the latency does apply to but usually you can adjust in-game settings to compensate.

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wireless has, I think, a slightly noticeable delay. something like 50ms. it doesn't matter if you're listening to music (since there's nothing to be out of sync with), but it's annoying if you try watching a video. not 100% sure it's not just in my head though.

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Sahuagin posted...

wireless has, I think, a slightly noticeable delay. something like 50ms. it doesn't matter if you're listening to music (since there's nothing to be out of sync with), but it's annoying if you try watching a video. not 100% sure it's not just in my head though.

The human brain can handle delays in sound pretty easily for videos, if you have inputs it gets a bit weird, check out this video if you're curious:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4vyRvMASPU

shadowsword87 posted...

The human brain can handle delays in sound pretty easily for videos, if you have inputs it gets a bit weird, check out this video if you're curious:

I was just guessing with the 50ms. reading about it, it can apparently vary from around 34ms to up to about 300ms delay, which is a lot more than the max of 125ms that we can adjust to.

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Sahuagin posted...

I was just guessing with the 50ms. reading about it, it can apparently vary from around 34ms to up to about 300ms delay, which is a lot more than the max of 125ms that we can adjust to.

Yeah, with my bad bluetooth headphones it really only is relevant when I'm watching a video where the lip syncing isn't great.

shadowsword87 posted...

The human brain can handle delays in sound pretty easily for videos, if you have inputs it gets a bit weird, check out this video if you're curious:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4vyRvMASPU

Without actually watching the video, the eye can be faked out by 16hz, and the ear can detect fuckery up into the 30khz range easily.

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LuciferSage posted...

Without actually watching the video, the eye can be faked out by 16hz, and the ear can detect f***ery up into the 30khz range easily.

Not frequency, delay.
So if I clap at a distance, you will see my hands touch, and then hear the clap later.
The question is how long before your brain starts to notice some fuckery.

shadowsword87 posted...

Not frequency, delay.
So if I clap at a distance, you will see my hands touch, and then hear the clap later.
The question is how long before your brain starts to notice some fuckery.

Without a video reference, and to review, I'm using a single earbud to keep insipid Xmas music and vapid conversations at Bay...delay is also meaningless when I'm listening to audio podcasts.

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There is a difference, IMO.

I have the Bose wireless headphones that allow you to plug it in. There is no latency, and much better clarity/volume when plugged in.

Wireless is convenient, but I always jack it in.

To an audiophile probably. To someone like me who can't tell the difference between the speakers on my phone and the sound bar on my TV? No.

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