HTC VIVE Deluxe Audio Strap

First I want to boost the sellers(Game Girlz) because they did a seriously great job! I have Prime but "Game Girlz" had this strap for $80 plus $5 S/H which was $15 cheaper than the Prime version($99) at the time of my purchase. So Game Girlz saved me money for one thing. The other thing was that Game Girlz got this strap to me faster than I would've gotten it had I ordered it via Prime! I was quite surprised by that. Along with this strap, which wasn't a Prime order, I ordered two other items which were Prime orders(and also VIVE accessories). This strap arrived in two days and before either of the Prime products which were bought in the same order. In fact, I still haven't received one of the Prime products from that order and probably wont until tomorrow. If all sellers were so competitive, diligent and fast, who would need Prime? Watch out Amazon... Oh and as far as the headset strap goes? Just like everyone else, I love it. Yes, it is a little expensive for what it is but once you start using it instead of the old floppy strap, you'll never want to go back. This hard strap really makes the VIVE fit SO much better on your head which not only increases your comfort but also your overall VR experience since you arent constantly readjusting or fidgeting with the fit and position of your headset. You just put your headset on, position it the way that you like, snug up the knob on the back of this strap and that's it. Your done and wont have to think about messing with your VIVE headset again until you decide to end your VR session. So if you've got the spare $100 and a VIVE then this is strap is an investment that you will enjoy.

I consider this a "must have" upgrade if you won a HTC VIVE. I think this is what the vive should have come with to begin with. It is way more comfortable than the original strap the vive comes with and much easier to use and adjust when taking it off an on especially if taking turns with other players. My friend ordered one of these too and both of us notice we can even see a little clearer especially in the peripheral area on the edges it holds the mask more securely and center's your eyes in the lens better. It also feels like it takes some of the weight off of your nose feeling less front heavy. I love the audio better with this too. The earbud's that came with the vive would not stay in my ear's or anyone's ear's that used my vive for that matter, so I was using my pc headphones with the vive which was another wire to deal with, and more clunkiness on your head. the speakers being built into this is much better, no wire to get in the way and I can either leave the speakers over my ears but spaced out away from my ears so i can still hear my friends in the living room with me, or I can even swivel one speaker back out of the way. If you don't care about hearing what is around you in the room you can press them into your ear and they click and hold in place against your ear so you can hear the game even better. I rate this a 5 start product and Highly recommend this upgrade to your vive. The directions were not the best but they have a online video that is pretty good, It is easy to change out the old and install this to the headset. If you own a vive just buy this you will be happy that you did!

This audio strap and ear phone upgrade is a significant improvement over the original design. It is much easier to don your headset, adjust the fit and position the ear phones. With this upgrade I can wear the unit longer and more comfortably than before. The ear phones are very comfortable with a very light touch / pressure on your ears. The sound is very clear and it is in stereo though it does not provide the same level of stereo immersion that a really good set of headphones provides. For me, the comfort and ease of use of the 'built-in' headphones outweighs the sound quality of the premium headphones I had previously used. One caution, my HTC Vive headset was an early model. It is designated as: HTC Vive Pre on the headset cover plate that goes over the cable connection area. After a lot of effort trying to connect the strap to the headset I contacted Vive to find out what the problem was and they transferred me to the Vive Pre support staff. They immediately sent me a packet of parts that allowed me to modify the headset and attach the strap. It was three days from contact to receipt of parts. The conversion took 15 minutes, is fairly simple and all parts and tools required are provided free of charge. Once installed, the new strap snapped right in and I was off to a VR! The only downer is I just read HTC Vive announced at the 2018 Commercial Electronics Show (CES) a new, higher resolution headset will be available in a couple of months. It will be adjustable, and have built-in headphones as well as 2880 x 1600 resolution - 78% greater than the current headset. Price has not been announced.

I'm very happy with this purchase though would have been happier is the Vive just came this way out of the box! It's a lot more secure. Before with the regular strap the fact that we have it connected to the ceiling above us sometimes when we would been down while playing it will pull off of your head. On top of that the headphone buds (which I hated anyway) went out. The sound in this head set is great and easily adjustable to fit each person that uses it. The cord is free at the front of the visor now when before it was at the back of your head. During beat saber you will snag it so I had to zip tie it. I also added my own padding (haha see pictures) because if you want to play for more than 30 minutes your head will get really sore on top where the headset sits. My head is very sensitive to it. Very well made and easy to snap onto your Vive visor. Everyone that has a vice should have one of these as well. Total must! As well as the new mask padding! Pick them up too!

I used an Elite Battery Strap before getting this one. The battery strap snapped, as they are prone to do, so I decided to switch things up. I had been using a set of EngineeredAF snap on headphones with the Elite strap which use Koss Porta Pro drivers. They were a great step up from the Quest's built in audio, so I wanted something that would be at least as good. The audio of the Vive DAS has better bass and is at least on par with the Koss Porta Pro. It has a slightly more enclosed sound than a true open back headphone like the Koss drivers. The Vive DAS audio is comfortable, yet is also warmer on the ears. The DAS audio enclosure has a strange side effect in some listening conditions. Even when turned off, the enclosure seems to amplify some ambient sound like fans or AC running in the background. At first I thought there was a white noise problem electronically, but it's just this inherent flaw in the way the headphone enclosure was built. Once I knew what it was, it stopped bothering me, and it doesn't interfere when you are playing games, the sound of the games overpowers it easily. You may only notice it in the right conditions, and when everything is silent. The foam for the head back padding is affixed with Velcro, so it is removable/replaceable. The foam that comes with it is the wrong material choice for a VR headset in my opinion. It is highly porous and cannot be cleaned. Luckily VR cover makes replacement foams that are covered in PU leather that wipe off easily. They are also filled with memory foam and increase the comfort by a large degree. I got the 10mm version and it's perfect for me. (The attached photo is with the stock foam) I used the 3d printed attachement kit "Ultimate FrankenQuest 2, Oculus Quest 2 Adapter for Vive Deluxe Audio Strap" here on Amazon, which worked perfectly and is very secure. When used with a Quest 2, you will still find the setup front heavy. I counterbalanced using some curved steel weights from StudioForm. Some people use batteries, or other things to weight the back. Just know that if you really want a high degree of comfort, you will need to add some weight to the back. Once you have it set up the way you like it, the spring loaded mechanism is excellent when taking it off and putting it on. No need to adjust the knob on the back each time, it just goes on and is right where you left it. Overall I'm very happy with the strap, despite some of the short comings. There's nothing better out there right now, so it's worth a bit of extra modding and accessories to make it all work the best it can.

I know the newer Pro model comes with one from the factory basically, but if you got a Vive for Christmas, have been rocking the crap strap for a while, or like me got impatient waiting for the next model I highly suggest one of these. Whether you need the audio or not, the strap itself makes it worth 100 bucks. It's WAY easier to adjust on the fly, it puts more pressure in more comfortable areas of your head compared to the strap, it doesn't leave you feeling like you ran with a sweatband on all day, and due to the nature of it you can put the HMD on with one hand.....usually. In my previous position at work we got a Vive when it came out. My biggest complaint was the terrible implementation of the head strap compared to what Oculus did with the Rift. Speaking of the Rift, I fully believe the Vive audio strap is much better than what is on the Rift. It's easier to adjust, as said earlier provides pressure to more comfortable areas, and the audio quality (in the short time I used it) seemed better than the Rift's speakers. Speaking of that audio, using the headphones is so much better than the earbuds they provided at launch (seriously, what were they thinking?). Oh, and it didn't come with a dud speaker like our Rift did. If you're into using your own headset, you can do that too. Simply remove the headphones off the strap. Just bear in mind that due to the strap being thicker using a headset will be slightly more uncomfortable. It is for me as I have an unusually large head. It's worth it if you have a nice headset though. Up to you. I'm guessing if you have a Vive your gaming PC probably has a nice virtual surround sound headset. Although the strap headphones are decent for what they are, they are no comparison to a nice headset. If you're looking into using a TPCast, it fits perfectly on this strap and doesn't move around either. Because the foam is thick on top I don't even notice the wireless transmitter on top of my head. Take note, it's kind of a pain in the butt to get the cables in and out of the HMD attachment plastic piece, but once you're done you probably won't look back anyways. This strap also appears to be more kid friendly in my experience, fitting my 6 year old and 9 year old better than the stock strap. This strap plus an 18mm memory foam face piece and your kids can enjoy VR too just like you comfortably...or not. Up to you, but sharing is caring right?

This audio strap is a great improvement over the one that comes with the Vive. It is comfortable and the easy adjustment knob makes it far easier to swap from one person to the next. I don't think the speakers are anything to write home about but the sound quality was fine and they are conveniently placed. The extra padding makes it more comfortable than the actual strap, and it you have a TP Cast you can un-Velcro some of the padding and use it to cover the part that would be on top of your head. It is unfortunate that this didn't come bundled with the original Vive headset and it is certainly on the expensive side for what it is. However, it gets the job done and I would recommend it if you can swallow the price. I also have a TPCast wireless system to I ended up zip tying the battery pack onto the back of this strap so now I basically have to put on the headset and I am good to go. It is great, but now there is a bundle of cords on the back of the strap. Although this is likely not the intended use (since I am zip tying something onto it) but it would be nice if there was some accommodation made for this scenario.

I was hesitant at first on this upgrade to my VR set-up, and even more skeptical when I opened the box to see the seemingly lackluster piece of equipment that I had just dropped a hundred dollars on. The packaging was nice, and the installation was easy, but was this worth a hundred bucks I thought as I handled this somewhat flimsy plastic head restraint. Curious, I booted up Skyrim VR to play as my murderous cat dude. Using the regular strap when I started the character, I found that I could only play for about 20 minutes before the combination of the uncomfortable headset and choking myself with my headsets wires as I attempted to throw a fireball or two made me want to jump off a cliff. With this simple contraption, no longer did I have to battle the immersion killing wires from my headset while gaming. It seemingly helped to balance out the load of the headset as well, making longer play-times more comfortable. Ive seen people complain about the audio, but honestly it is pretty good unless you are a audio nazi and must have the latest 500 dollar senheizer or w/e headset just to kill some b@#@s. If that's the case you probably hate vr anyway just like you secretly hate yourself. Worth it, especially since it will probably be a couple gens of the vive before any noticeable improvements make it worth dropping a boatload of money on. By then I'm sure the built in headsets will be standard, and hopefully so will the 300 dollar wireless adapter thing because the regular wires are still a pain in the booty.