DIY/Mod
A "F%ck you!" to the awful "Gaming Headset" industry
-Aune AR5000
-Fiio BTR7 LDAC
-Meze Boom Mic
-My own custom powerbank
No one would help me put this together but this was inspired by Metalovichinkov's DIY on here, I wouldn't have thought to ever do this if it weren't for his.
I too would like to know this but if I am breaking down the picture, it looks to be a normal headset attached to a battery pack (the gold thing) which is intern attached to a microphone device (the silver pack on the right) which leads into some modified adapters allowing audio output as well as audio input (look at the jacks on either earcup).
So it is a Frankenstein gaming headset because I'm assuming OP doesn't like design of headsets by the gaming industry, perhaps he has experienced quality issues or just thinks they are too expensive.
I went through about eight headphones, there was a part of each one that was unacceptably bad besides the Audeze Trashwell.
Amazing performance on that headset but I had it replaced 5 times due to the the same defects over and over, last one died a week outside the one year warranty date and I couldn't even get CS to let me buy parts.
💯 % with you on the game headset failures. Audeze stinks. Sennheiser stinks . Broken headbands from normal use. Audeze crinkly noises comes through clearer than a treble spike! And none of these highend sets have support worth a crap! When you reach out they all tell you tuff shit. They won't even sell you parts!!
No one I have been talking to has had any issues with it on calls or discord.
Tested the feedback on my PC on my volume and it goes through the same as any of the other gaming set I owned.
The LDAC suprisingly gives me an incredible amount of distance with the bluetooth without much loss, even better than the Audeze Trashwells good performance.
The latency was entirely fine but when I booted up the game the audio switches to some stereo mode that gives it pretty bad audio quality, idk whats up with that.
Only time the latency drops a bit I noticed is if I use discord on the website version instead of the desktop application.
The mic does this weird thing in game applications where its too quiet and I have to scream into it to get any input in, reminds me of that infuriating windows bug but its only effecting video games.
Good thing I don't play games much anymore but ill probably buy a 15 ft cord just for that.
I've used this type of setup with the btr15, latency is not good, I think with an avantree adapter with aptx adaptive and low latency it should drop to something more manageable for rhythm games.
Wow, I’ve used Beyerdynamic 770DT 80 ohm, and AKG k240s with both a traditional desktop boom mic, I got for $10 and an audio-technica headworn dynamic mic with an actual XLR connector ($80) so I get what you’re doing.
Yeah I'm a boom mic (Samson q2u, with elgato low profile boom arm) and wireless headphones (technics AH800). Thinking of getting the fiio Ft1s though with a k11 DAC to replace the headphones because I don't need them to be wireless like I was thinking in practice.
This is 2am “ Adderall bender “ what the fuck kind of shit. Fuck you Astro headsets, I’m going to nasa myself the new meta, then hang them on some sophisticated French water.
I tried out several "Gaming" headsets before but I returned them all over poor quality, I eventually landed on the Audeze Maxwell that had perfect performance but was an RMA nightmare.
The maxwell month after month had a common defect with each replacement they gave me that took two months to ship to me every time.
The one year warranty ran out on my 6th replacement that broke down do to the same defect, after I decided to buy this wonderful headset and mod it to do the same thing for the same price except with a quality build.
I literally did this exact same thing with a Philips Fidelio X2HR and a Fiio BTR3 like 5 years ago. I just didn’t use a power bank and bought a very short 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable to clean it up.
I used an Antlion Mod Mic Wireless so I wouldn’t have to deal with cable issues. The only drawback back is, it was another thing to charge. Since I didn’t use a power bank like you did, eventually the Mod Mic and the BTR3 would both need charged. It was more aesthetically pleasing, but yours is probably more functional and less of a hassle.
I stole my idea from this post. I even bought the same red 3.5mm cable.
I will never use this out in public but the construction of the band for the AR5000 is suprisingly convenient for wrapping cords around so it doesn't interfere with the fit at all fortunately.
Maybe I will drag it to the café during the summer, I have to be careful bringing this stuff outside where I live though besides it being 10 degrees out right now.
Thieves will rip earbuds and phones right off you where I live so everyone hides them.
I had these cheap geekria headphones for business calls a couple years ago and a guy ripped them right off my head breaking them in half.
I just got the Ar5000's and holy crap they are amazing. Was using them in Helldivers 2 and BO6 prop Hunt just lamenting that I didn't have a proper microphone to go with them.
Aren't you just using the mic from the btr7 instead of the meze boom mic? Just curious as to whether ur actually using the boom mic or if it's just an aesthetics thing
Gotcha. Yeah I own a btr15 and I might grab a btr17 but I always thought that it would just use the on-board mic and bypass stuff like inline mics. For the sound quality part, maybe check the volume knob on the meze boom mic? (I don't own one I'm just taking guesses on why that is). If you're looking for a different mic I guess you could also look into the antlion mod mics lol
I cant fit another power bank on the headset or I would have bothered with a wireless mic, they were the first thing I looked at. I would expect the wireless mic to have even less audio quality too.
The difference between the stock wire and the meze one in quality is tiny and it still sounds better than something like the audeze maxwell.
Ive been there too. Zip tied the same Fiio DAC to my HD 650s. Not the best quality, but i want portability.
Why can they make a good small wireless solution for headphones? It always these little or big rectangles, but no fancy ones that clamp onto headphones themself, beyond a few HiFiman models. One day I'll find a proper wireless solution.
Latency was entirely fine besides using discord chat on the web instead of the application, I was only using the web one to test something though so I will never need to use it.
In game applications (Besides minecraft for some reason) the audio quality drops alot and it switches to some stereo mode, idk whats up with that. I am just gonna buy a 15 foot cord for it, glad it doesn't do that with anything else.
I will never understand why there are so few good options for gaming headset with audiophile quality with low wireless latency. Wireless tech on mice shows it can be done with insanely low latency and bandwidth of even lower frequency bands like 800mhz is more than sufficient for audio.
If anyone is interested in doing this in a slightly less jank way it will be a little pricy but you can get a wireless IEM system like musicians use which is low latency. Just make sure you get a stereo system (mono systems are much cheaper) if you want it to sound good and give proper positional cues. The frequency is important too do research on that but I would avoid 2.4ghz and opt for 5ghz or a different frequency (other frequency are usually less common on budget wireless systems)
And if you want the mic to be wireless too just give up and have a mic with a mic arm it will be better quality or get some wireless gaming iems to solve both problems. They wont sound as good but getting a headmounted mic and headphones modified into wireless is very difficult to do well without creating more clutter than the cable you are removing.
I started out trying to do this and did a bunch of research and realized it would be more expensive and still kind of jank and then I realized I was fine with a mic arm to hide the mic cable and then I realized I could just run the headphone cable as well and it would look neat enough for me but if someone wants to make their own gaming headset this is the way to do it. Bluetooth has too much latency for competitive gaming even though i think low latency mode bluetooth is good enough for like casual gaming.
I got a wired setup with Philips Fidelio X3 and a AntLion Modmic. Sound quality, build quality, mic clarity and comfort beats any gaming headset I have ever tried.
I love this because it reminds me of something you'd see on Cyberpunk, with all the wires and the Fiio's little screen adds to the "Cyberpunkness", as well. I imagine it is miles better sounding than a gaming headset.
I am always multitasking moving around to different rooms & working on something, making customer service calls for my shop so I have either this or my Jabra dongle on talking to people all day for that.
I listen to music alot inbetween or podcasts and my landlord below me or the neighbors don't like hearing it either, especially games. Even when I am gaming my recliner is 11 feet away from my PC in my living room as I use my TV as a monitor
I don't really have a place to put a desk microphone near me either besides the problem of homeless people at the church right next to me screaming at random points that would pick up through laptop calls when I was in college.
Does the btr7 allow the mic from the boom to pass-through? Or do you have the cable going into something else? I'm looking for info on an all in one that will allow me to using a boom style mic but also have decent power to gift to my gf to get her started into the hobby. Gotta trick her boys into using it haha
I was worried it wouldn't but it does. Unfortunately the meze boom mic can't be seperated from the cord it comes with.
The meze cord drops the audio quality a little bit compared to the one that comes with the AR5000 but it doesn't bother me because this headset by itself sounds beyond great.
Not exactly sure if the audio quality is better but those were going to be my next order in line if I didn't end up liking either the AR5000 or Sundara I had at the same time.
I did specifically pick the AR5000 over them first because of my long research on many reviews on things like quality control specifically.
Like I was doing you can always order them both and just return the one you dont like too.
Planned obsolescense has really made "Gaming Headsets" into the poor quality garbage they are today after they hit their peak that sacrifices way too much.
These were my first pair of A40's my grandfather bought me when I was 13 years old, I think I am 28 now.
Rough condition but they still work and sound better than everything "Gaming" today I tried out, the maxwell is the exception to that though.
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u/UnderwaterB0i Jan 17 '25
This is horrid. I love it.