digital headphones

[MajorFubar]

I wonder if/when we'll see some kind of surgence with these? By digital headphones I mean headphones which take a digital signal and power through USB and perform the D->A and ampification 'in-house'. Digital active (or at least powered) headphones, if you prefer. Plug them into any old computer, and providing they have an asynchronous DAC and sound sensational, that sensation is going to reliably follow you wherever you go and with whatever you plug them into. The vaguaries of mixing and matching different headphone amplifiers and DACs would be eradicated, albeit with the constraint that like digital active speakers, if you don't already love the sound, you're still pretty-much stuck with it. But even so, if they sounded good, I'd be very tempted.

 

[jjbomber]

I wonder if/when we'll see some kind of surgence with these? By digital headphones I mean headphones which take a digital signal and power through USB and perform the D->A and ampification 'in-house'.

Aren't gaming headphones just this? Logitech and Sennheiser both make USB headphones.

 

[dalethorn]

I wonder if/when we'll see some kind of surgence with these? By digital headphones I mean headphones which take a digital signal and power through USB and perform the D->A and ampification 'in-house'. Digital active (or at least powered) headphones, if you prefer. Plug them into any old computer, and providing they have an asynchronous DAC and sound sensational, that sensation is going to reliably follow you wherever you go and with whatever you plug them into. The vaguaries of mixing and matching different headphone amplifiers and DACs would be eradicated, albeit with the constraint that like digital active speakers, if you don't already love the sound, you're still pretty-much stuck with it. But even so, if they sounded good, I'd be very tempted.

I see lots of problems. I have several DACs, and even the simplest (Dragonfly) needs to have the computer configured properly, which isn't always easy. The DAC may be plug-n-play as far as the recognition by the computer goes, but those other details can get messy.