Maintaining domestic peace, any electronics designers around??

[ACE_FIN1972]

Hi all,

I'm not sure how many of you are having this same problem but I need to solve this.

I play using headphones. I like to communicate with others, so I talk constantly. Naturally as you know, when using headphones you raise your voice so that you can hear what you are saying. This is the main problem. My wife gets irritated when I start "shouting" in my room. "Shouting" leads to an argue and argue leads her to the fuse box and there goes my electricity and my nerves, leading to even bigger argue...Ah you may know.

I don't want to keep quiet and I want to speak so I can hear what I say. I have been thinking some solution for this and I came up with one... If I only could get my own voice in to the speaker.

Now I don't know if it is possible to send your own voice through PC back to the headphones, at least I haven't seen such software. What is possible, is to make a small mic + amplifier + speaker unit that could be fitted in to the headphones.

So besides original speaker passing game and teamspeak voices in to my ears, there would be a small additional speaker, conducting my own voice inside the phones.

Now, I am an engineer but I don't design electronics and I'm actually rather poor on electronics in general. So I'm asking; Do we have any electronics designer here in these forums? If so, could you do me a favour and give a little help in this matter?

I know plenty of others who are struggling in the same situation. Hope this leads to good a solution and peace in home :)

My idea is free for any of you to improve and use, also alternative solutions, if you have such, are appreciated. (Yeah, now I know. I'm going to hear stories about usin shovel and such )

[ElFipso]

Re: Maintaining domestic peace, any electronics designers around??

Oh, I get your point!
Just try to adjust your audio settings. Works for me!
I set the ingame sound to only 15%. That way I can hear what my teammates say and I still hear myself talking. I never had to shout though.

Btw, why do you need to hear yourself anyway? You should know what you're saying LOL.

No, serious, lower the ingame sound and try. That may help a lot.

FipZ

[ACE_FIN1972]

Re: Maintaining domestic peace, any electronics designers around??

I've tried it but then I can't hear is someone is approaching me. I play sniper a lot and I prefer hearing is someone is trying to sneak behind me. In my opinnion, sounds and voices are really important element of the game, I don't want to miss them.

I didn't remember to tell you fellows, but I do have a small hearing impair in normal speaking frequiences. So I use a bit higher volume than normal user. I've been hunting since I was 15 and all shotgun shooter will get that impairment if they don't use protectors. Hunting with protectors is impossible. (Well nowadays there are such protectors available)

About hearing myself, I don't want to hear myself but it comes by nature. It's just the same thing as with hearing protectors. I naturally raise my volume when using those.

[ElFipso]

Re: Maintaining domestic peace, any electronics designers around??

hmmm, as I can't give you technical solution I can just suggest you to try to not shout
sorry

FipZ

[ACE_FIN1972]

Re: Maintaining domestic peace, any electronics designers around??

Okay, thanks anyway. Hmm... you manage to say that much better than my wife :laugh: .

[camper.]

Re: Maintaining domestic peace, any electronics designers around??

I have the solution to your problems, child.

After 30 years of deliberation, 20 of which were spent researching the quantum tunneling properties of every element discovered by man, the othe 10 spent proofreading my research, I have found the cure to all humanity's problems.


Lo, and behold!



Isn't she a beauty? Just place one on the fuse box and never suffer again!

[pelirrojo173]

Re: Maintaining domestic peace, any electronics designers around??

I assume you have closed-aural headphones (meaning they block outside sounds, keep all the sound inside the headphones)?

You could try something a bit more open that would let sound in from the outside. Get something without a cup that fully covers your ear - or if it does cover the ear make sure it isn't sealed.

Most of the high-end headphones are actually open-aural because the sound tends to get distorted a bit when it's closed in, so you don't have to worry about getting some headphones with shoddy sound quality (unless you buy on the cheap side).

If you have headphones that aren't sound-canceling/closed-aural at all, I don't think you'll have the problem of not being able to hear yourself anymore. At least, I don't have that problem.

[JoeG]

Re: Maintaining domestic peace, any electronics designers around??

...Or you can try un-muting your microphone.

Check your sound settings. Sometimes - especially on soundblaster soundcards - there is actually a slider and mute button for the microphone on the output side. It is usually muted so you DONT hear yourself, but in this case, it sounds like you do.

[ACE_FIN1972]

Re: Maintaining domestic peace, any electronics designers around??

I assume you have closed-aural headphones (meaning they block outside sounds, keep all the sound inside the headphones)?

You could try something a bit more open that would let sound in from the outside. Get something without a cup that fully covers your ear - or if it does cover the ear make sure it isn't sealed.

Most of the high-end headphones are actually open-aural because the sound tends to get distorted a bit when it's closed in, so you don't have to worry about getting some headphones with shoddy sound quality (unless you buy on the cheap side).

If you have headphones that aren't sound-canceling/closed-aural at all, I don't think you'll have the problem of not being able to hear yourself anymore. At least, I don't have that problem.

Yeah I've closed phones. I used to have open ones, Logitech Precision Gaming headset. Those lasted about an year and then they went broke. I decided to buy a better phones with more rigid structure. My current phones are good (Phillips Gaming something...) and yes those are closed ones. It was a bit better situation back then when I was using open phones.

Have you fellows ever tested active ear muffs?

http://earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/petasphes.html

With these you can speak like you are not wearing muffs at all.

What I'd like to do, is to combine this sound passing system with normal headphone system, to be able to myself and by this way prevent volume increase of my speech. Additional bonus is that it also makes me hear if she has something to say, without phones being ripped off from my head.

Does this make any sense to you at all, or am I just getting to be weird?


Camperstirke there is one major down side in your suggestion. After while I would find myself in a situation where that box is locked, I don't have electricity and I have no idea where she has hidden the key. Woman is sneaky creature. I'm sure you have bumped to that conclusion during those 30 years

JoeG that is something I have to check. Thanks for the tip.

[camper.]

Re: Maintaining domestic peace, any electronics designers around??

You shall not find that case occurring, child, if you treat the padlock as you would your first born. You must caress it ever so gently, should it happen to get into the hands of your domestic enemy, thou shalt wash it seven times with hydroxide of sodium and bless it with thy finger.

May the power of padlock be with you, child.

I must depart.

[pelirrojo173]

Re: Maintaining domestic peace, any electronics designers around??

I use these. Medusa 5.1 surround headset. They might not have the sound quality you'd get from buying a $400 set of pro headphones, but they're amazing for gaming. They look closed-aural in the pictures, but they actually pass sound through very easily (I was annoyed at this when I got them, but I got over it).

They're also very sturdily built. Many times I've knocked them off the desk when standing up (the chord is like 10 feet long and gets tangled sometimes) and they hold up great. They have a nice sturdy feel to them, and are a bit heavy. Plus, they come packaged in a nice little velvet thingy wrapped with a ribbon - so you know they're quality :p

Oh, they come with a pre-amp you can control volume from, so if you're talking to somebody you can easily just turn the volume down on the knob instead of taking them off or alt-tabbing to turn the volume down.

They take some serious fiddling with to optimize the sound, and if you read reviews of them you might hear people talking about the rear speakers being "tinny". There is definitely truth to that, they do that intentionally to try to simulate how things would actually sound if they were behind you. However you can counter this with some tweaking of the bass-boost and whatnot.

I've owned these for a year, and they're still working perfectly. The bendy mic thing still holds its position perfectly and the mic itself is still working as well as they day I got it. I highly recommend these as a gaming headset. If you're an audiophile and want the best quality sound you can find you might want to steer away, but if you are a gamer and satisfied with merely excellent sound quality (instead of perfect), I recommend them. Good sound, quality construction and feel, and the 5.1 surround is great for games like CS (and BF2 to a lesser extent) where you really need to hear where things are coming from They also fit your situation well I think, as they're open-aural and have an easy way to adjust volume externally if you need to talk to somebody.

Sorry for turning this into an advertisement for these headphones, but I love mine

[ACE_FIN1972]

Re: Maintaining domestic peace, any electronics designers around??

You shall not find that case occurring, child, if you treat the padlock as you would your first born. You must caress it ever so gently, should it happen to get into the hands of your domestic enemy, thou shalt wash it seven times with hydroxide of sodium and bless it with thy finger.

May the power of padlock be with you, child.

I must depart.

^^:laugh::laugh::laugh:


You are right, but I have such loose mind when placing small items safely.
Also that danger knows how to use power pliers. She is also very capable of hiding those pliers...

Nah, I recon a battle lost before it has even started.

[davelisowski]

Re: Maintaining domestic peace, any electronics designers around??

Um... I don't know what software you have for your soundcard...

I just unmute the microphone in the sound board. You will hear yourself speak.

:edit: Ah, JoeG beat me to it. It's a simple solution, but works wonders.

Barring that, just move one earpiece a little bit off of your ear.

[ACE_FIN1972]

Re: Maintaining domestic peace, any electronics designers around??

I tried to do that mute box untabbing. It won't allow me to do it. I don't have separate sound card installed, I'm using my motherboards integrated audio circuit.

Hmmm, so it's possible to recycle your own voice through PC to the phones.... I might need a new soundcard. I have to study this more deepen. Thanks fellows :)

[davelisowski]

Re: Maintaining domestic peace, any electronics designers around??

You might have to ALT-Tab out of BF2 once the round starts, and unmute it again. Sometimes BF2 likes to mute the microphone.

Try that.

Or move an earpiece slightly.