A Geek Goes Flying

The only time I’ve gotten the FiiO BTR5-2021 to work with a headset mic, it’s been the Sennheiser PC38X. I tried the mic that came with the Philips SPH9600RM, nothing. I just tried a V-Moda BoomPro (which has its own issues, like, the impedance I measure on the left and right channels is way higher than it should be, and if you don’t get the inline volume control just right, the left channel is significantly louder than the right), same thing. Reached out to V-Moda support. Really frustrated so far... Update: I picked up. another PC38X (now branded EPOS, after the Sennheiser spin-off) on sale for $129 (from $169), and picked up the Boom Mic for Drop + THX Panda Headphones ($9 instead of a purported list price of $49). Both work perfectly with the BTR5, and the boom mic fits the SPH9600 perfectly. Huzzah. Drop Boom Mic  I wish I knew why the BTR5 seems so finicky when it comes to which microphones it will work with. Also, the BTR3 is a less expensive module that will do what the...

I ran a test, recording voiceovers for videos while monitoring the audio on the Sennheiser PC38X headset I use and love at the office. As I feared, the microphone was picking up the output from the headphones - perils of an open back design (or maybe - or also? - electrical cross-talk from the shared 3.5mm TRRS cable setup). So I started looking into a solution with a good cost-performance ratio. After hearing the relatively dramatic difference between the PC38X microphone and the ModMic in this video review , I decided that was the route I’d go. Antlion had a bundle , pairing the ModMic USB (GDL-1500) with the Ultrasone 580i . The 580i headphones don’t get glowing reviews, but they’re closed-back, noise-isolating, and the combo brought the price down around $100 to about $205, so I gave ’em a shot. I like the way they sound (though I might tweak with an EQ ). For convenience, I’m routing everything to a single USB port; the headphones (3.5mm) are plugged into a Sound Blaster Play!...

My “mid-2010” iMac is getting flaky, and with its HD 4760 GPU, wasn’t a great contender for a Big Sur update, even with OpenCore Patcher. The 2012 Mac Mini occupies a sweet spot on eBay, selling for around $100-150 (depending on configuration), and can run Big Sur quite well, patched. The GPU in the iMac can be upgraded, but it’s still an old, underpowered machine witth splotches on the screen, etc. Newer iMacs aren’t that expensive by themselves, but once you factor in shipping, they’re spendy. Still, for dragging out onto the balcony to enjoy our reliably nice SoCal weather, you can’t beat the form factor. I decided to hack together a machine that met my specifications (including relatively low cost). I started with the highest spec inexpensive Mac Mini I could find, a late-2012 Core i7 2.3 GHz with 16GB RAM and a 500GB hard drive ($150). I swapped the hard drive for a Crucial MX500 1TB SSD ($90). I got a VESA mount ($15) so I could bolt it to the back of a monitor; for that I we...

Okay, I’ll start by confessing this is the definition of a first world problem. I have a Sennheiser PC38X headset I use at the office for the “new normal” of Zoom/Teams/etc. meetings, Google Voice calls, etc. It’s great. It sounds great with music, the mic quality is “perfectly acceptable,” etc. It came with two cords, a longer one that splits into separate microphone and headphone 3.5 mm jacks, that works perfectly with the Sound Blaster Play! 3 USB DAC/amp. It also came with a shorter CTIA TRRS cable that works with the iPhone Lightning adapter and other combined 3.5 mm jacks (e.g., laptops, etc). The problem is, that cord is too short. I have a colleague now more or less permanently working remotely, and for whatever reason she always calls us on our cell phones. (I kinda get it, if we need to go hunt for something we can’t really do that using Slack or our PBX desk phones.) Swapping the PC38X to the shorter cable to hook it into my iPhone was a hugely cumbersome process, and I’m lo...

TIL that beyond simply “TRRS” 3.5mm jacks, that carry a microphone signal in addition to left/right audio for headphones (etc), there are two standards, CTIA and OMTP. Pretty much everything I use seems to be CTIA: SoundBlaster Play! 4 specs : “1 x ⅛″ Headphone-out Jack (4-pole, CTIA)” HyperX Cloud Stinger headset Apple (though theirs is somewhat nonstandard in that it apparently “uses a non-standard microphone and control signaling method”) Sennheiser PC38X ( discussion ) Next, common power plugs we use every day have names and specifications (duh). I’m cobbling together a poor man’s iMac (a Mac Mini mounted to the back of a matte monitor), and one of the things I want to ensure is that there’s a single power cord required, just like an iMac. The three prong “computer” power plug? The “male” version is an IEC 60320 C14 (a/k/a the IEC 320 C14) connector, the “female” part the C13. The part that plugs into a North American 110V outlet? NEMA 5-15P (“125V, Class 1, 15A plug”). (The f...

I have an older Logitech H390 headset I picked up probably 6 years ago. It still works well and it’s remarkably clear and easy to use - I can even get Slack or Zoom running in a Linux instance under VMware to see it and use it (the same is not  true for the Creative SoundBlaster Play! 3 I use with a QC25 headset). But the earpads are disintegrating. (So is the headband, but it’s still in much better condition, and matters less to me.) For less than $10, replacements are available. And one less thing goes into the landfill.  Update: The replacements arrived. They’re smaller than the stock, and look a little funny, but ultimately they do fit and they’ll work. Side by side size comparison Replacement earpad stretched to fit, more or less Meanwhile, I picked up a Sennheiser PC 8 headset. From the photos, it appeared to be roughly comparable to the Logitech, but when I got it in my hands ... Different story. Feels very cheap in comparison. Everything about it. It’s very light wei...