Category: Budget Buys

Level Gaming Speakers from Five Below

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Today I’m taking a look at the Level Gaming Speakers from Five Below. These speakers were brought to us by Bass Jaxx (just like nearly every other piece of audio gear from that store), and they’re definitely interesting.

First and foremost, these are USB powered aux-in speakers. That’s right, they’re USB powered speakers, not USB speakers. Your PC will not recognize them as an audio device.

It’s a good thing that these speakers are USB powered too, because they use two 52mm audio drivers and have color changing LEDs. With how small the batteries on Bass Jaxx’s rechargeable speakers are, I can only imagine how quickly these bad boys would drain one.

Of course, by going with the 52mm drivers these speakers end up delivering some surprisingly high quality audio. It’s not audiophile quality by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s definitely usable. In fact, these speakers will be going on my main PC. I usually use headphones, but I’ve been meaning to get a set of small speakers for it (my old speakers are too big for my current desk).

My only real complaint about these speakers are that they lack any sort of power switch. According to the manual the only way to turn them off is to unplug them from the USB port, and that’s pretty inconvenient. Fortunately I have a USB hub that has a power switch for each port, so I have that covered. I ordered my 7 port hub online, but Five Below got some 4 port hubs with switches in stock. You might want to pick one up if you end up buying these speakers or one of their USB powered LED strips.

Crenova XPE498 Projector

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Today I’m taking a look at the Crenova XPE498 projector. I’ve been a bit obsessed with projectors for a while, but I’ve never had the budget to get a “proper” digital projector and all of the sub $100 models I’ve looked at in the past have been huge letdowns.

In the case of the XPE498, the image is bright and crisp as long as you make sure the projector is within the optimum projection range (between 1.12 and 6 meters). If you’re outside of that range you’re not going to be able to get a clear picture (unless you use external optics), but that’s more than enough room to work with.

Unlike many of the lower cost projectors I’ve used in the past, the XPE498 had very few problems with ambient light. I was able to see the display well from between 1 and 3 meters with basic room lighting, and I didn’t even need complete darkness at the 6 meter range. Keep in mind that this was just done using my off white wall and not a specialized projection screen, which would have improved the display efficiency significantly.

Also, the fact that the native resolution of the LCD in this projector is 800 x 480 (which is common for projectors in this price range) made no real difference in the image quality. I didn’t even start to notice the difference in pixel density until the screen was around 100 inches across.

If you’re wondering about how loud the fan is, it’s about on par with some desktop PC case fans. Since the XPE498 uses an LED as opposed to a halogen lamp like other projectors I’ve used, it puts off way less heat and eats through bulbs at a much slower rate. I still don’t know if the 50,000 hour lamp life is true, but maybe I should leave it running non-stop for 6 years to find out.

Now I just need to make a mount of some kind so that I can suspend this projector over my gaming table. I will never need to waste ink on DnD maps again!

U Youse Selfie Stick with SoundCam

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I came across this little gem while browsing the Five Below website looking for things to review. It’s rare that they carry microphones, so I knew I just had to get my hands on it for my Budget Tubing series.

What I’m looking at today is the U Youse Selfie Stick with SoundCam. Basically it’s just a standard selfie stick with a built in microphone. The packaging claims that it’s “the first ever SoundCam”, and I’ll only give them half credit for that claim. I’ve seen other selfie sticks with built in mics before, but admittedly this is the first one that I’ve seen with a discreet mic. All of the others made it quite obvious that they had a mic built in, and ultimately had tacky plastic karaoke or newscaster themed shells on theirs. Plus, all of the other selfie stick/mic combos I’ve come across were priced in the $10-40 range.

As for the types of content creators that would get some use out of this product, I’d have to say vloggers or any other creator that would capturing video on the go using their cell phone. It’s especially useful for when you want to take some overhead shots, since it extends to about 39 inches or so while keeping the mic firmly in your hand. The shaft also has an indentation along its entire length to keep your phone from rotating and ruining your shot.

Of course, the focus on using this with your phone does bring about one of the negatives with this little device. The phone mount is integrated, as opposed to a detachable one that uses a standard 1/4 inch bolt mount. It’s not a huge deal for most people, but I use a more traditional selfie stick as part of my overhead camera rig. That being said, the phone mount itself is very well designed. Not only does it use a nice rubberized material to grip your phone, but it even curves inward a bit for added security.

The last feature that this selfies stick has is a shutter button. It’s very useful, but at the same time it looks like this is the cause of one of the biggest negatives plaguing the device. Yes, it’s useful in that it allows you to start/stop your recording in iOS or take a still while recording on Android, but I think there might have been a goof up in either QA testing or a the design stage. Apparently the signal from the shutter button interferes with the mic, and that affects each phone OS differently. On Android you get a bit of occasional electrical interference, while on iOS the phone won’t pick up the mic and even thinks you pressed the shutter button if there’s a loud noise.

Fortunately I was able to get the mic working on both phone systems, but it did require the use of a couple of adapters. I used the TRRS (aka 4 pole or multi-jack) to dual TRS (aka standard stereo 3.5mm jack) adapter that came with the U Youse gaming headset I reviewed a while back to split the signal. I then used a dual TRS to single TRRS adapter to put just the mic signal into each phone. The end result is a clean signal in Android, and an actual signal in iOS. Of course, this does render the shutter button useless, though a Bluetooth shutter button is just $1 online.

After getting the mic to work properly, I can say that I actually really like the overall sound quality. It has a much better bass response that may of the lavalier mics I’ve used in the past, and does so without all of the extra cables. Of course, since it’s not attached to your person it does pick up a bit more environmental noise due to the needed sensitivity.

All in all, I really want to like this device, but the fact that I needed to use added adapters (which you can get online for around $1.20 total) to fix some audio issues means that I can’t give it a shining review. If you want to take a chance on the possibility that mine was a fluke or you’re willing to buy the adapters needed, then go for it. It definitely delivers decent audio at a much lower price point than many other products (including decent lav mics), but I really wish it worked properly right out of the box.

Fifine K052 Microphone Review

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Fifine reached out to me not too long ago and requested a review of one of their newest microphones, the K052. Since this was the first time a company approached me for a review (shady Amazon sellers don’t count), I thought I would give it a shot.

The K052 is a bit different from the majority of the other mics that I’ll be reviewing for my Budget Tubing series, seeing as how it’s a gooseneck microphone. Of course, the physical design of the mic doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a condenser microphone. In fact, I’d say that the design of this mic actually makes it a bit more versatile since it won’t stand out in certain environments. It would look a bit odd to have an obvious “podcasting” style mic sitting on your office desk, but a gooseneck would look right at home.

As for the price of the K052, it will set you back around $28. The research I’ve done on gooseneck mics tells me that this is actually a great price, especially when you take into account a couple of the bonus features included with this mic. Not only does the K052 have a build similar to many more expensive goosneck mics (two flex segments and a metal tube vs. a full flex neck on the cheaper mics), it also includes both a mute button and a volume knob on the mic base. You’d actually have a hard time finding a mic in this price range that has those features. Heck, even the Blue Snowball is missing the mute button and volume control.

When it comes to the audio quality presented by the K052, I have to admit that I was pretty surprised. While it looks like the mic uses a relatively small electret capsule, it still delivers clear audio with a nice frequency pickup range. Looks like Fifine did a good job picking out the other bits and bobs they shoved into this small package.

All in all, I think $28 is a great price for what you get.

BM-800 Review & Test

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Here’s another entry into my “Budget Tubing” series, and this time I’m taking a look at one of the most common entry level mics out there, the BM-800. I say it’s the most common because just about every cheap audio tech supplier has their own rebranded version of this mic, though they sometimes change the model number slightly (I’m looking at you Neewer NW-800).

Not only is the BM-800 sold by a multitude of companies, but it is also pretty inexpensive despite having a nice solid build. The average price for this mic is between $15 and $25, though I lucked out and got mine new in box for $10. With the package I ordered I got the mic, a shock mount, a 3/8 to 5/8 thread adapter for the shock mount, an XLR to 3.5mm audio cable, and a wind guard puff. If I wanted to spend a little more money I could have gotten everything listed previously, as well as a boom arm, a proper XLR cable, a phantom power supply, and a pop filter for a grand total of $40.

One very interesting thing about the BM-800 is that it can be used both with and without phantom power, unlike a lot of XLR condenser microphones. If you plug the included XLR to 3.5mm audio cable into the BM-800 you can use the mic with any audio card that has a 3.5mm mic jack, though admittedly your results may vary. In the above video I do an audio test using the 3.5mm cable and my latop’s sound card, and the resulting audio quality is quiet and noisy. However, I have also used this mic and cable combo with a USB audio capture device meant for recording music, and it sounds great despite not using phantom power.

Where the BM-800 really shines, however, is with the use of phantom power. Near the end of the video I plug the mic into my Behringer Xenyx Q1202USB audio mixer, and I was very surprised by how great it sounded. It doesn’t outshine my Audio Technica AT2020, but for a $20 mic you could do far worse. Also, the fact that I can use the BM-800 with a proper audio interface also means that I can actually monitor my audio while I’m recording, unlike most of the USB microphones I’ll be reviewing in the future.

All in all I think the BM-800 is actually a great grab for the price. The fact that you can actually use it with your standard audio card (despite it not sounding that great in some cases) is a nice little bonus, since most people beginning their content creation journey won’t have access to audio interfaces with phantom power.

U Youse Gaming Headset from Five Below

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Today I want to take a look at the U Youse gaming headset that I found at my local Five Below for $5 (surprise, surprise). These have come through Five Below on multiple occasions (which is extremely rare), and I thought it was about time I find out for myself whether or not these are worth being restocked.

First off, I want to point out that these are hands down the most comfortable headphones that I’ve ever bought from Five Below. The bulk of the headphones I’ve bought there have large pads that crush my ears, while these are true over-the-ear closed-back headphones (my favorite style BTW). Of course, the padding does feel a little bit cheap despite being comfy.

As for the audio quality, I’d have to say that it’s some of the best that I’ve heard out of a set of $5 headphones. It has a good amount of bass (though it does sound artificially boosted), and the treble avoids sounding tinny. I can’t ask for much more for $5.

Another feature that I’m really happy this headset has is a in-line volume control. I know it might not sound that impressive to most people, but back in the day I would go out of my way to find headphones with this feature. Fortunately the volume control on this headset works properly, because all of the headphones I bought in the past (for more than $5 each mind you) would have one or both cups cut out as I adjusted the volume.

U Youse actually did something that I wish Bass Jaxx would do. Both brands typically use a combo jack on their headphones that include microphones, but only U Youse was kind enough to include an adapter that splits the single combo jack to two stereo jacks (well, the mic is mono over stereo). Not only is that great attention to detail, it also made my life easier since I could properly test the headset’s mic without having to order an adapter online.

Speaking of the mic, I have to say that it’s actually not half bad. It’s nowhere near being the best mic in the world, but I’ve definitely heard worse audio coming from more expensive name brand headsets. If you want to hear what the mic actually sounds like, I did a proper mic test in the second half of the above video. I even ran the audio through an audio spectrum analyzer so that I could give you a better idea on the sound profile this mic had.

So, over all I have to say that this is a pretty great headset for $5. It’s comfy, the audio is decent, it has an in-line volume control, and the mic is pretty nice. Heck, I’d even say that the mic included on the headset would be a decent upgrade for podcasters and vloggers that are using the internal mic on their phones and/or laptops.

Color Changing LED Gaming Mouse from Five Below

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While I was looking for a couple of water bottles at my local Five Below I ended up stumbling across something a little unexpected. That something claimed to be a gaming mouse, and needless to say my curiosity was piqued.

The gaming mouse in question is brought to us by U Youse, which is a brand that pops up quite frequently at Five Below. Interestingly, this isn’t the first time that this exact model of mouse has found its way to their shelves, even though most of the tech that passes through Five Below is never ordered again after the stock runs out. Apparently it was popular enough to warrant a bit of special treatment.

Now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. Like virtually all of the tech (and many of the other items) at Five Below, this mouse is an imitation of an existingg product. It’s an angle for angle reproduction of a generic gaming mouse that you can get from quite a few Chinese manufacturers. It goes by many names, but for the sake of this review I’ll focus on the M102 from Lingyi. What’s really funny about the detail put into the reproduction of the M102 is that U Youse even reproduced the bolts on the side. I don’t mean they put bolts where Lingyi did. No, I mean that they have faux bolts molded into the plastic. It’s actually quite hilarious.

Despite the care taken to imitate the M102, there are two places where U Youse seems to have dropped the ball a bit. First off, the M102 and all similar mice have a pair of extra buttons on the left hand side of the mouse. These extra keys are set to “forward” and “back” by default, but the M102 in particular allows you to reprogram these buttons for use in your games of choice. There are even buttons that allow you to change the DPI settings on your mouse (which controls the cursor speed), while this mouse is fixed at 1200 DPI.

The other difference is the scroll wheel. Where the M102 has a nice rubberized wheel with gaps that allow the LEDs to shine through, the mouse for U Youse has a piece of plastic garbage that is hands down the worst scroll wheel I have ever used. The entire wheel is plastic without any type of rubberized coating, and you can tell by the way it grinds that it was not designed for the mouse’s shell.

Speaking of the shell, the back of the package claims it’s made out of high quality ABS plastic. It may or may not be ABS (I don’t know for sure), but it is far from high quality. It deforms quite easily when squeezed, and I highly doubt it would survive if you’re prone to raging while you game. The thin shell also means that the mouse is very lightweight, which goes against the current trend in gaming mice where they include interchangeable weights.

After all of these negative points I bet you are expecting me to say that you shouldn’t buy this mouse, but you’d only be half right. If you are looking for a cheap gaming mouse, I would definitely tell you to look elsewhere since you can get better gaming mice online for the same price or just a little more. However, if you need a quick and cheap replacement mouse for your computer then this wouldn’t be the worst choice. Getting a computer mouse in my area is typically more than $5 for the cheapest models, and those don’t have a neat color changing LED effect. Of course, maybe paying a few dollars more would be worth it to not have to deal with this scroll wheel…

Halo Wireless Speaker from Five Below

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Today I want to take a look at the Halo Wireless Speaker from Five Below. This little guy is from the ever present Bass Jaxx brand, and it’s actually quite interesting.

This first thing you’ll notice right off the bat is that this little guy actually isn’t all that little. It comes in at around twice the size of most of the speakers that I’ve covered from Five Below, though it’s nowhere near the largest Bluetooth speaker that I’ve seen in the store. The good news is that the size increase isn’t just for show, since it’s sporting a 52mm audio driver as opposed to the 40mm driver seen in the bulk of the Bluetooth speakers Five Below offers.

As for the overall design of the speaker, it seems reminiscent of a subwoofer that you would see in a home stereo setup. The large dome has an air intake at the top, and the speaker itself is situated at the bottom of the unit. Thanks to the design of the housing, as well as the larger driver, this speaker has a much better audio quality when compared to the other Bluetooth speakers from Five Below that I’ve reviewed. Heck, it even comes close to the audio quality of some of the $20 Bluetooth speakers I have.

Now let’s talk about the negatives. First up is the fact that this speaker seems to only have a 1-2 hour battery life. It’s a little on the short side, though that does seem to be the trend when it comes to Five Below’s offerings recently. You can get a bit more than two hours out of it if you’re lucky, but I’ve gotten close to 3 hours out of other speakers. That may be the doing of the larger driver.

My other issue with this speaker is one that I have with most of the recent Bluetooth speakers from Five Below. That is the fact that I’m not a big fan of the lighting effect. I know it’s a silly gripe, but after seeing the glory that is the smooth 16 color transition from the Blast cube and the LED light strip (both from Five Below), I just can’t get excited by an alternating pattern of monochromatic red, green, and blue LEDs.

My aesthetic sense aside, this is actually a pretty decent speaker, and for $5 you can’t go wrong. It also seems that I’m not alone in my verdict, since these speakers are currently sold out on the Five Below website and the stores appear to only be getting a limited quantity in. Of course, that doesn’t mean that they’re out of stock in the stores just yet, so good luck on your hunt if this speaker is something that you’re interested in.

Vibe E-Ssential LED Light Strip from Five Below

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Not too long ago I found this LED light strip sitting on the shelf at my local Five Below, and I just knew I had to take a look at it. Well, that was my main excuse for buying it. My other reason is because I thought this would be something nifty to use in a DIY project.

I guess I should start off by listing the features mentioned on the box. Specifically, this LED strip is supposed to be easy to use, is USB powered, has 15 colors to choose from, and even comes with a remote control. Out of that, there is only one little white lie, and that is the fact that the LEDs actually have 16 colors if you include white (and I do). Also, the back of the box mentions that the LED strip has an adhesive backing, and that will definitely come in handy depending on the project you use these on.

As for the features that are not listed on the box, this strip is weather resistant thanks to a layer of clear silicone (which I was not expecting), it’s designed to be cut to whatever length you choose (which I was expecting), and even has multiple lighting modes that you can choose from (I had hoped for that, but wasn’t sure). That’s right, not only can you choose between 16 colors, but you can even have fun with different lighting effects. While the remote lists 4, in my experience there are only really 3 modes. You can have the lights flash between the three main colors (red, green, blue), flash between all or most of the possible colors (I didn’t count, sorry), or do a smooth transition between all of the colors (my personal favorite). If you want to see the lighting effects in action, feel free to watch the above video.

The other item included in the box was a manual, which I found pretty useless. It mainly gives you some of the technical information as well as a couple of warnings, but it completely skips over one of the most important parts. Specifically, it doesn’t tell you the proper way to hook up the power cable. The way the strip was designed, it’s actually possible to hook the power cable up in two different directions. Now, while it might be possible to actually use the strip no matter which direction the cable is facing, I didn’t want to risk it since I have fried more than my fair share of DIY projects by hooking a USB cable up backwards. Just make sure the label on the cable is facing the same direction as the LEDs and you’re all set.

Now, let’s talk about the price. For your $5 you get a 1 meter long self adhesive USB powered RGB LED strip with 16 chips on it, and I’ve found that to be a pretty average price for such strips on Amazon. Heck, even if I go to AliExpress there isn’t that much of a price difference if you’re only buying 1 meter, and this way you don’t have to wait several weeks to get it. The longer strips really don’t save you much per meter on Amazon either (AliExpress is another story). All in all, I think $5 is a great price for what you’re getting here, and the fact that it’s in your hand immediately and can be returned without much hassle (if needed) is a huge bonus.

I should go ahead and say that I’m actually pretty familiar with LED strips like this one, since I’ve worked with similar strips in the past for various projects. I’ve also been contacted a couple of times by Amazon sellers asking me to review the ones that they carry, though I never actually took them up on their offers since they wanted a positive review in exchange for the product (which is shady IMO). Also, none of the sellers offered strips for under $20, and I try to keep to items in the $10 or less range for reviews since my content (this blog, my YouTube channel, my coming podcast, and any future projects) are all about being a geek on the cheap.

$5 Bluetooth Luxe Earbuds from Live. Love. Music.

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Today I want to take a look at the wireless Luxe Earbuds from live. love. music. (gotta love that lack of capitalization and use of extraneous punctuation). These earbuds just hit the shelves at my local Five Below, and they’ve left an impression on me to say the least.

First, let’s start with the positives. The earbuds themselves have a nice velvety texture, though sadly the manufacturer did not use the same coating on the control unit. As for the audio quality, these actually sound really nice. The bass isn’t muddy, and the treble does a great job avoiding coming across as tinny (unlike other headphones in the same price range). Something tells me the fact that these headphones mimic the design of Apple EarPods/AirPods has something to do with the audio quality.

Now on to the negatives. You know that great audio quality I mentioned in the previous paragraph? Well, it turns out that the earbuds are actually mono instead of stereo, despite the packaging lauding their “dynamic stereo sound”. Sure, mono earbuds can be of use to people with hearing damage, but there are far better ways to achieve the same effect without using poorly manufactured electronics. Most phones and computers allow you to adjust the balance of your audio to a single ear, and there are even accessibility modes that allow you to output mono over stereo. Of course, if you have your heart set on a hardware solution, there’s always a stereo to mono adapter.

Another issue I have with these earbuds is the overall build quality. Yes, the texture on the buds proper feels nice, but the metallic bits look really cheap. Not only is the “gold” vacuum plated plastic more akin to tarnished brass on the black earbuds, but the rose gold (or copper?) highlights on some of the white models looks more like its neon pink. Also, the vacuum plating on all of the different models will definitely chip off in the long term.

Finally, the design of the control unit is terrible. While the manufacturer was considerate and added a dust cover to the USB port (something that was missing from some $5 Bluetooth headphones), that feature is rendered pointless with how the buttons were designed. The buttons are just cut portions of the control unit’s body, and that leaves three nice open cavities for every type of contaminant imaginable to reach the main circuit board of these headphones. If you wear these bad boys outside they’ll get gunked up and possibly even fried relatively quickly. In the wrong environment these headphones might not even survive to the end of their 2.5 hour battery life.

All in all, I’d say save your $5 for something else. There have been far better Bluetooth headphones available at Five Below before, and there are sure to be better headphones on offer in the future. In fact, if you’re lucky you may still be able to find a few leftovers from their last batch of Bluetooth headphones. The LED cable earbuds were actually pretty nice.