Ugh, what a cable mess.
Because of this, I was looking for a different solution.
I already knew that Oculus has their in-ear headphones that go into both audio ports on
the Oculus Quest with minimal cables.
I was curious about that, but I wasn’t sure if it was going to be worth the money.
Then, coincidentally, SpectraShell also reached out to us and asked if we wanted to check
out their similar headphones.
The official Oculus headphones go for 50 US dollars, and the SpectraShell ones are 25
US dollars.
That’s half the price, so we thought it’d be worth it to compare both and share our
thoughts with you since we are doing it for ourselves as well.
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Let’s start with a quick unboxing.
Both earbuds come in a small box.
The Oculus box is fancier as you can see, but I don’t think that is very important,
as I’m more concerned about the product than the box.
They both have a separate earbud for each ear.
Both have left and right designators.
The Oculus earbuds have it engraved around the connection.
The SpectraShell earbuds have it engraved behind the earbud.
Both also come with three sets of ear tips of different sizes.
Small, medium, and large.
And both come with a manual included.
Let’s move on to my impressions of both earbuds.
First of all, comfort.
Both fit well in my ears.
It’s nice that they both provide multiple sets of different sizes.
Both draw out some background noise.
Similar to any in-ear headphones.
I feel that the Oculus ones draw out more background noise because of its design.
This backside is a little wider which covers more of the ear.
However, the Spectrashell earbuds can go in deeper because of its thinner design, giving
you a louder sound.
This is very personal though and is probably different for each ear, however, both Chary,
and I found that the Oculus earbuds are more comfortable during longer play sessions.
Before we move on to sound quality, don’t forget to leave a like!
The sound quality of both is what you can expect for this price point.
It won’t beat the more expensive headphones out there, but they are actually pretty decent.
Both have a full range of frequency.
Bass sounds pretty good, and the higher tones are okay too.
There is decent binaural sound too.
I put both earbuds below 50% and that is very loud already.
I do find that the SpectraShell earbuds sound louder and crisper when listening to positional
audio, but the difference is hard to notice.
The Oculus earbuds build quality does look and feel better than the SpectraShell.
You can tell Oculus spent more time on looks here.
However, I find that SpectraShell seems to have put more time in sound quality for the
most affordable price, and less effort in what it looks or feel like.
Is it better to use these earbuds than using the built-in audio of the Oculus Quest?
Well, yes.
Compared to the built-in audio of the Quest, using in-ear headphones is definitely better
for sound quality.
There is more bass, better binaural sound, which makes me feel more immersed.
Built-in audio still suffices in certain situations, like it’s much more convenient, and sometimes
I want to put it on and play straight away without any cables at all.
But if you want to be fully immersed than using earbuds or headphones is the way to
go.
The Oculus earbuds have a cable length of about 16 cm or 6.3 inches.
The Spectrashell earbuds have a cable length of about 14.5 cm or 5.7 inches.
Both cable length is just long enough to give me enough range to reach my ear, and it also
gives me enough range to lift the headset to check my surroundings without having to
take the earbuds off.
Are these earbuds with a separate connection for each audio port better than usual earbuds?
I think so.
Having shorter cables is much more convenient because the longer ones will hang around your
body and sometimes I even unplug my earbuds because my hands accidentally pull it out.
I did notice a weird hiss when plugging in any headphones in the Oculus Quest.
I thought this might be just my Oculus Quest unit.
However, Chary’s Quest also has this hiss and searching online; it seems more people
have this problem.
Whenever I plug in earbuds, I can hear a clear hiss noise, especially in more quiet scenery,
like the Oculus Quest menu.
This happens with whatever earbuds I plug in, even the ones I use for my phone.
So since this does not seem to be the earbuds fault, I’m not going to take this into account
with the earbuds recommendation at the end of this video, but I do want you to know that
if you have this hiss, you might want to file a support ticket, because online I also found
out that not everyone has this problem.
When I was looking up information on the Oculus earbuds, I also found a couple of posts on
Reddit saying that the Oculus earbuds had a defect where the earbuds could only output
sound on the left channel and nothing on the right channel.
So in case you are wondering about this, I have tested this out, and it looks like Oculus
has solved this problem now.
I have sound output on both the left and right channel on both Oculus earbuds.
It seems like it was only a problem with the first batch, and apparently, they have solved
it now.
So which one do I recommend?
Both earbuds in this video have decent sound.
The sound quality of both is pretty equal here though as the difference is hard to notice.
I am not an audiophile.
So if you are one, then I do think there are better headphones out there with better sound,
but both of these earbuds suffice for me.
So the Spectrashell earbuds go for 25 US dollars, while the Oculus earbuds goes for 50 US dollars
and if you find comfort more important, and don’t mind pay more, then the Oculus earbuds
are a great choice.
But I do think the Spectrashell earbuds provide a very good alternative for half the price,
you get the same kind of sound quality.
So if you are on a budget, there is a clear choice here.
But yeah, a personal thing for me is that the comfort might be less at longer play sessions.
Are you going to buy any of the earbuds or do you already have a pair of earbuds?
If so, which ones and what do you think?
Let us know below!
Maybe you can help us out or even some other VR enthusiast.
A special thanks goes to artArmin and a special shout out goes to his Patreon page –
Everyone, thank you all so much for your support by watching.
And as always VR on!