I need to buy some headphones for the NASCAR race this Sunday.
I’d been planning on it and planning on it and there’s a million places to get them on the web, but I put it off for too long and now I’d be worried about shipping.
So, where do you get them?
NOTE: I’m NOT talking about music listening headphones. I’m talking about ones like this.
I looked at Circuit city and Radio Shack’s websites and they only seem to have the music listening ones.
I don’t even know what KIND of store would sell them. Where can you buy scanners? I’d think you could get them wherever you can get scanners.
You can buy an adapter plug at Radio Shack for $ 2.99 that will allow a standard set of headphones with a 1/8 stereo plug to work perfectly with a scanner. There’s nothing special about scanner headphones (in fact the audio quality is usually marginal at best) other than the fact they have a monophonic 3.5mm plug on the end.
I need a store. NOT EBAY or and online store, because I have to have them Sunday.
It’s more than an adaptor. At a race, you need a pair that insulates from outside noise. Believe me, I’ve tried a regular pair at a race. They’re useless.
Looks to me like you want a pair of closed cans. Go to Best Buy or, preferably, your local audio specialty store, and get yourself something that looks like these.
Or how about this? Get yourself a pair of comfortable earbuds. Get the mono adaptor. Put in the earbuds (a good pair of earbuds will already help cut down on the noise, due to the design) and then put a pair of shooting muffs on top of them. Voila! Good sound reproduction with lots of noise reduction at a cheap price and quick availability.
Yeah, and about 10000000x as impossible to actually hear the race broadcast.
Here’s what folks are missing:
During a race, you can tune a scanner to the radio broadcast of the race, and to frequencies that the teams are using to communicate with their drivers.
The point is to listen to the broadcast while attending the race, which means you need objects on your ears that
allow you to hear a radio
block out ambient sound.
Now, asterion actually kind of had an interesting alternate solution with ear-buds and shooting muffs.
I doubt, but I could be wrong, that those Sennheisers would block out the noise from racecars. They might be fine for blocking out the refrigerator and washing machine at home while listening to a little Steely Dan, but a race is friggin’ loud. If you’ve never been, it’s similar to a rock concert. You need to shout to the person next to you.
the question again is: what kind of store locally carries this stuff.
You could do that, too. But I think that having the headphones being the closest thing to your ears would work better and then having noise reduction over them than the other way round. I guess it would depend on that and comfort.
Until asterion’s post, I hadn’t really considered “sporting goods” stores. I checked “Dick’s Sporting Goods” online and it looks like they have them and there’s a Dick’s around here. (not www.dicks.com :eek: )
So unless I hear definitively otherwise, I’ll call around some sporting goods stores this evening.
Thanks. I didn’t get a direct answer, but I might have found it.
I live a few miles away from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Seems every race weekend there are enough trailers selling scanners and headphones to populate a small town. Sure, you won’t be getting a guarantee or a warranty (or even a place to return them if they don’t work), but if you’re in a race with time, they could be your last hope.
I’m already considering that as a last resort but I’d like more options and confidence.
I’ve only been to a few races before and a couple involved just partying in the infield. But we’re in the stands at Dover and we’re lined up for both races there next year too, so I figure it’s time to invest. Last time I was there I wished I had some.
They have real nice ones now that have a microphone on the headset, so if you’re there with your buddy you can talk through the scanner, basically.
You might want to call your local motorcycle store - I know I’ve seen bikers that have the equivalent in bike helmets. Of course, they’re probably helmet-specific, but they may be able to lead you to the right place.
Here’s what I normally do in the evening: Nothing.
Here’s how much I love it: A lot.
Here’s what I did last evening:
Call Radio Shack. They can send one to me in 6 days. No good.
Call “Bass Pro Shops”. They transfer me to another department. I wait for about 5 minutes, hang up.
Call “Dick’s”. They transfer me. Wait about 10 minutes. Hang up.
Call back. They transfer me again. I wait about 5 minutes. Hang up.
Call another “Dick’s”. They transfer me. No headphones.
Call a local electronics store. They have them. So I go to the electronics store, and try some on ($15). I think I can hear the ambient noise BETTER with these on. These would be COMPLETELY useless for a race.
(now, I’m out in the burbs, so. . .)
Go to Modell’s sporting goods. No dice.
Go to Home Depot. No dice (which I knew, but it’s near the Modells)
