Why are mains power computer mice, keyboards and headsets very rare or non-existent?

[Archinist]

So, why are they never seen, except for some dodgey fake Chinese things off eBay, or some obscure industrial items? Wouldn't they be much better than USB/thunderbolt/3.5/other normal means, because they could draw massive amounts of power straight from the wall socket/plug? It would be like having an entire speaker plugged into your ear, it would be great. I'm sure they could find similar benefits for the keyboards, mice and other things as well.

[Imperial528]

I would hazard to guess that when you don't need more than, at most, a few to a dozen watts of power, you don't need to draw from a 120v or 230v supply that can provide considerably more amperage than the device will ever draw.

Not to mention that unless these devices are being driven by a central power hub, each one would require its own rectifier and transformer to regulate its power supply. Which a computer has integrated anyway.

And, these devices generally are meant for use with a computer, such that they need to be connected to one by some means, usually wired, at which point you may as well tap a few watts from the PC's native power supply, since it's already done the work of making a nice smooth DC output at 5v.

Now, personally I would never wear any headphones directly driven by the grid. I don't need to become part of a 120v circuit and I'd much rather reduce my risk of doing so than increase it considerably.

[Dominus Atheos]

What is it that you think a mouse and keyboard need to do that they would require more power? What situation or tasks do you think would benefit from more power?

And did you seriously just say you wanted a full-power speaker plugged into your ear? I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you have only ever used the earbud headphones that came with your phone, but a high-quality headset can sound better than most speakers.

This is honestly one of the weirdest questions I've ever heard. Are you high on Ambian or something?

[Iroscato]

So, why are they never seen, except for some dodgey fake Chinese things off eBay, or some obscure industrial items? Wouldn't they be much better than USB/thunderbolt/3.5/other normal means, because they could draw massive amounts of power straight from the wall socket/plug? It would be like having an entire speaker plugged into your ear, it would be great. I'm sure they could find similar benefits for the keyboards, mice and other things as well.

(Bolding mine)

Yes, perforated eardrums sounds like an absolute riot of a time.

[Archinist]

What is it that you think a mouse and keyboard need to do that they would require more power? What situation or tasks do you think would benefit from more power?

And did you seriously just say you wanted a full-power speaker plugged into your ear? I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you have only ever used the earbud headphones that came with your phone, but a high-quality headset can sound better than most speakers.

This is honestly one of the weirdest questions I've ever heard. Are you high on Ambian or something?

Well, it could be used for gaming for example, a mains power mouse has no need to be power efficient, so it can use (almost) as much power as required and have a far quicker response time. Also, a $100 set of 2 or 3 speakers will probably sound better than a $100 pair of headphones, and that would increase as the speakers are upgraded with the glass tubes with bits of metal inside, giant vibrating boxes, and dozens upon dozens of small speakers.

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I would hazard to guess that when you don't need more than, at most, a few to a dozen watts of power, you don't need to draw from a 120v or 230v supply that can provide considerably more amperage than the device will ever draw.

Not to mention that unless these devices are being driven by a central power hub, each one would require its own rectifier and transformer to regulate its power supply. Which a computer has integrated anyway.

And, these devices generally are meant for use with a computer, such that they need to be connected to one by some means, usually wired, at which point you may as well tap a few watts from the PC's native power supply, since it's already done the work of making a nice smooth DC output at 5v.

Now, personally I would never wear any headphones directly driven by the grid. I don't need to become part of a 120v circuit and I'd much rather reduce my risk of doing so than increase it considerably.

But that's only because the devices are limited by the smaller amount of power they can draw. If they used mains power, then they could probably make a much bigger speaker, and in much higher quantities of said speakers on the product. Instead of 7 2 watt speakers going into your ear, you could have 20 120w speakers for a total power of 2400 watts, or even more if the owner had a dedicated power supply of more than the usual mains power output.

Instead of a small laser for the mice, there could be an industrial/military-grade laser of the appropriate sort, that could register motions almost instantaneously. Well, maybe not that powerful, but certainly dramatically more powerful than a USB laser.

[Imperial528]

Okay, you must be trolling.

Real life doesn't follow more=better.

More power driving your mouse will just make the components more expensive due to the need to withstand higher loads. It won't make it any more accurate.

[Archinist]

Okay, you must be trolling.

Real life doesn't follow more=better.

More power driving your mouse will just make the components more expensive due to the need to withstand higher loads. It won't make it any more accurate.

No, it will have a better, higher-grade laser that will use more power in return. A very low-power would usually be less powerful than a higher-power laser.

[Dominus Atheos]

Oh OK, you just have no idea how electricity and power works. You're like Tim Taylor and think "MOAR POWER" = better.

"MOAR powerful mouse laser" isn't going to do anything. Mice don't work that way. There are several ways to improve the speed and precision of a mouse, but feeding it more volts isn't going to do shit.

Electricity and power don't work that way!

[Dominus Atheos]

Okay, you must be trolling.

Real life doesn't follow more=better.

More power driving your mouse will just make the components more expensive due to the need to withstand higher loads. It won't make it any more accurate.

No, it will have a better, higher-grade laser that will use more power in return. A very low-power would usually be less powerful than a higher-power laser.

What exactly do you think the difference between a very high power laser and a standard one would be? What do you think the MOAR power one would do better?

[Terralthra]

Since the laser has to be low-power (in lux) so as not to warm up the mousepad below it significantly, MOAR POWER would actually make the mouse work far worse. You'd have to include stepdown circuitry in both volts and amps if it were being run from mains power, not to mention a rectifier to convert AC to DC to run the optoelectronics and probably the laser too. All of these coils will naturally put out a much more significant combination of EM fields. The optoelectronic sensors would have to be shielded, as would any internal cables and any significant traces on the PCB(s).

A mains-powered mouse is a really bad idea.

[Archinist]

Oh, okay then. But the speakers are proven by real life speaker to headphone comparisons to be louder, more powerful, and *generally* better sounding, especially with the extremely expensive speakers ($3,000+), so mains power headphones would probably be better. Or at least the scientists and engineers would find a way, surely. I mean, all that extra headroom must give some sort of benefit.

[Zixinus]

Okay, this is pretty damn stupid even for you. What is particularly stupid is that you insist on this misconception even after it has been pointed out to you.

More electrical power drain =/= more performance. Computer peripherals are not power tools where higher wattage is almost always better.
What you want is better quality headsets, mice, keyboard, etc (paired with higher quality audio sources, better computer performence, etc.).

The main limiting factor there isn't power (and if by some crazy design it is, you can just have them use two USB slots for power like some portable HDDs do) but components and quality of assembly.

So, why are they never seen, except for some dodgey fake Chinese things off eBay, or some obscure industrial items?

Because you are labouring under a terrible misconception and what you are looking at are either scams meant to exploit that or terrible ideas. Most peripherals (even very high quality ones) actually draw less power than what they can get from the computer.

If a peripheral, for some insane reason, really needed more power than what one USB slot can provide they would do what some portable HDDs do and require you to plug it into two USB slots.

It would be like having an entire speaker plugged into your ear, it would be great.

No it wouldn't because your ear can only take so much. Most speakers, headsets, etc. shouldn't even be used at maximal volume to begin with. Putting a high-performence speaker that needed its own plug from the mains next to your ear will only ensure you'll go deaf.

I'm sure they could find similar benefits for the keyboards, mice and other things as well.

What possible benefits could there be for a mouse or keyboard? Keyboards are simply a row of bottons, explain to me please how more electrical power would somehow improve the experience.

I mean, all that extra headroom must give some sort of benefit.

What extra headroom? Making a headset require power from the mains require more components for it to convert power, not less.

Again, as it has been pointed out to you, you want better quality headsets, not more powerful ones.

[Archinist]

Well, I already omitted the mice and keyboards from the list, but I would assume someone would find some sort of niche use for them. However, the speakers could be good, since you could have very loud headphones for very low prices, unlike today's headphones where even a $200 headset is only moderately annoying at the maximum vanilla volume.

[Zixinus]

Then you have been listening to them at far too high a volume for far too long time and have hearing damage. Or have been buying very crappy 200$ headsets. Probably both.

Small bit of advice: if you want to drown out outside noise, like I sometimes want to do, buy a good quality in-ear buds and a more heavy-duty earmuffs. Don't turn up the volume, just block out the noise.

[Tribble]

Jeez, when I was saying "Dumber than Parrots" might be ur new nickname, I didn't think you'd run with it and try to make it happen asap! Were you high when creating this post, or just trolling?

[Archinist]

Then you have been listening to them at far too high a volume for far too long time and have hearing damage. Or have been buying very crappy 200$ headsets. Probably both.

No, my hearing is fantastic for general daily use, I can hear everything that I'm supposed to perfectly fine, so if there is damage it is completely unnoticeable and therefore is not damage but just normal wear and tear. The $200 headsets are good brands, not crappy fake plastic Chinese things from eBay covered in cheap 'gaming' stickers and more plastic, they are good well-branded companies who have a good grand and a great reputation, and the headset itself is quite nice with generally positive reviews from most people on the internet.

There was even a pair of $60 Sony headphones, and you could turn those up to maximum volume and still be able to hear things outside of the headphones. The ones I'm using now you can't really do that, but that's mostly because of the artificial sound-boosting things that make it louder than it should be, and when you turn them up too loud they start to produce static/crackling noises which are extremely distortive.

Jeez, when I was saying "Dumber than Parrots" might be ur new nickname, I didn't think you'd run with it and try to make it happen asap! Were you high when creating this post, or just trolling?

What is so bad about this post? I'm not an engineer or electrician, so how should I automatically know that 240V mains power PC peripherals would obviously be a bad idea? I mean as long as they put a warning in the instruction manual to not pour coke or water onto the keyboard/mouse/headset as people love to do, and also put some extra-bolding on the loudness warning, everything should be fine safety-wise. I mean some people heat their drinking/bathing water by putting a live 240V metal rod connected directly to the power plug straight into a water bucket.

[Bernkastel]

Then you have been listening to them at far too high a volume for far too long time and have hearing damage. Or have been buying very crappy 200$ headsets. Probably both.

Yep, that would sound about right.

Archinist, let me put it this way. I have some headphones that are cheaper than that. My laptop has it's sound set at 50% and my media player also has reduced sound settings. Currently, it tends to be about 45%. I hear everything fine with that. If it's ever on 100%, I'm either going to be hitting mute or ripping my headphones off, because that it is way too loud.

[Archinist]

Then you have been listening to them at far too high a volume for far too long time and have hearing damage. Or have been buying very crappy 200$ headsets. Probably both.

Yep, that would sound about right.

Archinist, let me put it this way. I have some headphones that are cheaper than that. My laptop has it's sound set at 50% and my media player also has reduced sound settings. Currently, it tends to be about 45%. I hear everything fine with that. If it's ever on 100%, I'm either going to be hitting mute or ripping my headphones off, because that it is way too loud.

Well then, that's a bit odd. I guess mine must be designed differently or you're using artificial volume boosters to boost your volume.

[Bernkastel]

Mine are, as far as I'm aware, not boosted. In fact, using a currency converter, the price of mine when new is less than half of those you are having problems with. Anyway, judging by the other's reactions, it's fair to assume you are the only one here who has to have the volume up to 100% to get decent sound. So, again, either you have crappy headphones or you have hearing problems.

[Zixinus]

Or there is something very wrong with your computer's sound card. Maybe look into its settings.

[Bernkastel]

Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah, it's worth checking out.

[Imperial528]

On my PC I use a pair of $25 dollar Sony headphones, have system volume set to the 20-25 range, and I generally still have to lower game volume by as much as 50-75% or even lower, and generally lower video volume by about a quarter or so, else it's just too loud to enjoy.

If you seriously can't hear well with a good headset or headphones, either check out your sound card or see an ear specialist.

You may want to look into noise canceling as well.

[AniThyng]

Jeez, when I was saying "Dumber than Parrots" might be ur new nickname, I didn't think you'd run with it and try to make it happen asap! Were you high when creating this post, or just trolling?

I thought we were going to see star trek brought up as an example of this principle of mains powered keyboards at work...

[aerius]

There's no point plugging your computer accessories into wall power, if you're gonna do it, you need to go all the way and connect it to 600V 3-phase power at the minimum. It'll blow your socks off, guaranteed.

[Starglider]

The decibel output of headphones is deliberately limited to try and prevent people from suing the manufacturer for damaging their hearing.

Good quality headphones actually require less power than typical consumer headphones, because they have a higher sensitivity, which means that they convert electrical energy into sound pressure more efficiently. Note that 'expensive' does not imply 'good', there are a lot of crap headphones sold on brand name.