Wireless Headphones

[Guest siamjourney]

Does anyone know where you can get wireless headphones that would work with Win XP in Chiang Mai? I want to use them for Skype calls. I haven't seen them at Computer Plaza or Pantip Plaza. Wireless keyboard/mouses are everywhere.

[noise]

Cheap 300 baht ones at Pantip, but you will have to search thru the FM stations it receives to find the PC audio. They are battery operated, but there is a DC connection.

I used those for a while and then bought a 1900 baht one at the Sony shop, 3rd floor Airport Plaza, that came with a DC power supply. Much better, straight one channel broadcast of the audio of whatever it is connected to.

[willi2006]

As you mention Windows XP I assume you ask for Bluetooth devices. Most notebooks now have Bluetooth build in already. If not there are Bluetooth USB adapters available.

There are two quite different types of Bluetooth devices available. Mono for mobiles which can be used also with a computer for about 300 THB at mobile shops having telephone quality (small frequency range). Stereo highquality devices for music (broad frequency range) which can be used for phoning also are available in electronics shops, e.g. from Sony "DR-BT100CX" for 1900 THB. On the internet you can find descriptions of the latter. It's also sold in other countries.

I don't know the special situation in Chiang Mai. In Bangkok you can get them at Pantip. In Khon Kaen at Tukcom, similar to Pantip, or even in Central Plaza in mobile and Sony shops.

In electronics shops there are also other devices available which come with a sender and a wireless stereo headset. They don't use Bluetooth. The sender can be connected to the audio outlet of receivers, TV sets or computers. The price depends on the headphones quality but starts well below the above Sony device.

Edited May 18, 2010 by willi2006

[BWPattaya]

I have bought wireless headphones in TukCom Pattaya and Sri Racha for just 250 Bt. These plug into the audio output on a PC or Laptop. This then connects to a battery powered transmitter and is picked up by the headphones. Radio station reception also built in.

However, I haven't seen any with a microphone for Skype use. I will look later today and PM you if i see any.

[uptheos]

Sorry, can I divert please.

My hearing is not so good but better than my technical espertise.

Can I fix a wireless router to my TV and wear headphones, as I lose a lot of dialogue in movies through backround noise.

As I said I'm not technical so easy answers preferred please - it that OK with you OP?

[Greenside]

Sorry, can I divert please.

My hearing is not so good but better than my technical espertise.

Can I fix a wireless router to my TV and wear headphones, as I lose a lot of dialogue in movies through backround noise.

As I said I'm not technical so easy answers preferred please - it that OK with you OP?

You can plug a wireless sender into your TV audio out or headphone socket (the latter may turn the main speakers off) and listen through the set of headphones that come with the sender. The cheapest of these work by infra red and cost from about 200 baht but more money will quickly get you something quite a lot better that uses FM or maybe Bluetooth. The very cheap ones are in every computer accessory shop and stall in Panthip and the plazas and may be worth experimenting with. A router is not what you want - they're just for computers.

Until I got my internet radio (which gets its signal directly from my router), I used a 250 baht FM wireless speaker that had a little transmitter that plugged into the line out or headphones socket on the PC but the receiving unit wasn't up to much and gave up after about a year - great for listening to the BBC in the bathroom but no good at all for music.

Edited May 18, 2010 by Greenside

[uptheos]

Sorry, can I divert please.

My hearing is not so good but better than my technical espertise.

Can I fix a wireless router to my TV and wear headphones, as I lose a lot of dialogue in movies through backround noise.

As I said I'm not technical so easy answers preferred please - it that OK with you OP?

You can plug a wireless sender into your TV audio out or headphone socket (the latter may turn the main speakers off) and listen through the set of headphones that come with the sender. The cheapest of these work by infra red and cost from about 200 baht but more money will quickly get you something quite a lot better that uses FM or maybe Bluetooth. The very cheap ones are in every computer accessory shop and stall in Panthip and the plazas and may be worth experimenting with. A router is not what you want - they're just for computers.

Until I got my internet radio (which gets its signal directly from my router), I used a 250 baht FM wireless speaker that had a little transmitter that plugged into the line out or headphones socket on the PC but the receiving unit wasn't up to much and gave up after about a year - great for listening to the BBC in the bathroom but no good at all for music.

Thaks Greenside.

[jfchandler]

I wanted to listen to streaming TV from my laptop PC, which uses my bedroom TV as a second display, at night after my wife is sleeping. My Toshiba laptop has a Bluetooth dongle.

So I checked around and ended up buying a Samsung SBH 650 stereo Bluetooth headset, which is basically just a battery-powered device the size of a matchbook, with a standard stereo headphones jack and an included set of earbuds... Price was about 1800 baht.

Link the headset to your PC/laptop via Bluetooth, and you're ready to go. Works the same for any audio output, including ITunes, etc. Only thing is, you'll need to have the right kind of Bluetooth audio software on your PC to do this... something like Blue Soleil.

My laptop didn't originally come with Bluetooth pre-installed, so I first went and bought a dongle at ForetuneTown IT for about 150 baht... That alone worked fine for Bluetooth file transfers from my Nokia mobile phone, using Nokia's software.

But I discovered when I wanted to play stereo audio thru the headset, I needed software on the PC/laptop to specifically support that. The Bluetooth dongle I bought didn't come with any software itself, nor did the Samsung headset.

[frenchfarangjomtien]

Hi,

It seems that the best Wireless headphones available for PC are the one from Logitech, and they have only one Wiress model, the Clearchat Wireless, but i couldn't find it at PANTIP Bkk even though they have all Logitech Wireless head phones.

I need one with micro, do you know if Sony is selling it in Thailand ?

Thanks.

[DavidOxon]

Sorry, can I divert please.

My hearing is not so good but better than my technical espertise.

Can I fix a wireless router to my TV and wear headphones, as I lose a lot of dialogue in movies through backround noise.

As I said I'm not technical so easy answers preferred please - it that OK with you OP?

You can plug a wireless sender into your TV audio out or headphone socket (the latter may turn the main speakers off) and listen through the set of headphones that come with the sender. The cheapest of these work by infra red and cost from about 200 baht but more money will quickly get you something quite a lot better that uses FM or maybe Bluetooth. The very cheap ones are in every computer accessory shop and stall in Panthip and the plazas and may be worth experimenting with. A router is not what you want - they're just for computers.

Until I got my internet radio (which gets its signal directly from my router), I used a 250 baht FM wireless speaker that had a little transmitter that plugged into the line out or headphones socket on the PC but the receiving unit wasn't up to much and gave up after about a year - great for listening to the BBC in the bathroom but no good at all for music.

Hi Greenside

Did you get your internet radio here or somewhere else, and is it any good?

Thanks

David

(Strange that internet isn't in the online internet dictionary! and neither is online!!!)

[Greenside]

Internet Radio. When it works well it's brilliant but it (or at least mine) has some drawbacks. I have a Roberts Stream 202 which runs on both mains and battery and does, DAB (not available in Asia), FM, Internet Radio and streams any audio you have stored on a shared folder on your PC or your music library. Expensive at £150 but a good solid build and it runs directly from my wireless router so the PC doesn't have to be on.

Why is it good? There's something nice about being able to listen to the BBC news when you're having a shave or enjoying the latest FOOC* in the garden. Sure, you can download Podcasts and play them back in a variety of ways, but my radio allows me to select them without resorting to the computer and it's fun to experiment with faraway stations. I can go online and select Favourites and add stations which then appear on the radio interface so it's easy to choose the latest news programme or find an episode of The Archers.

The not so good points: It eats batteries - the 6 rechargeable D Cells weigh a ton and don't last long before they need a refill and, wouldn't you know, the charger only handles four at a time so that's a bit of a performance. PURE make an equally expensive radio which has a rechargeable battery pack as an optional extra (at £30) that will charge when in the radio which is a much better solution. By the time you've bought a decent charger and the D Cells there's not much in it.

If your internet connection is prone to hiccups then not only will you find the buffer (I think 20 seconds on mine) gets exhausted but five more seconds produces some kind of network timeout that takes you back to the beginning of the programme. There's no way to fast forward or start where you left off and this to me is a big problem. I've written to Roberts and Frontier Radio to request the facility but although they upgrade the firmware from time to time it's yet to make the cut. I'm sure it's possible to program that in somehow.

A good FM transmitter hooked up to the computer and played back via a decent portable radio is a great solution but I never found a unit with sufficient range and, of course, you'll have to keep nipping back to the PC to choose the programming unless you're listening live. One advantage of this approach is that you can listen to a playlist of your choice - music, drama or whatever.

* Before someone asks: From Our Own Correspondent, a long running and excellent weekly, featuring short pieces by BBC journalists and often revealing the lesser known side of places they work in.

Edited July 15, 2010 by Greenside