A portable binaural recording and playback device includes headphones with embedded outside facing microphones attached to a dongle with embedded stereo microphone preamplifier or audio codec containing a microphone preamplifier, analog to digital converter/digital to analog converter (or digital signal processor), allowing for the recording and playback of high quality binaural audio by connecting the dongle digitally to a mobile phone or electronics device, or via an analog cable to a camera or device with an analog microphone input.