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Acoustic Research AW791 Traditional Closed Wireless Surround Headphones (Silver)

Acoustic Research AW791 Traditional Closed Wireless Surround Headphones (Silver)

List Price: $249.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Sound
Review: I shopped all around!! The AW791 Dolby Digital are the best value on the market. The sound is great, you have the freedom to move from room to room with only minimal sound loss. No "line of site" restrictions like the IR wireless headphones. Two "Digital" inputs and one analog means you can plug in an array of sources. Battery life exceeds all others. They are comfortable to wear for extended periods for the real long movies. The ONLY thing to look out for is the pivot point on each ear piece. It is a weak joint that can break if twisted wrong. Make certain to put on and take off with ease.
All around a great product and if you shop around you will NOT find an exact product like it. Way to go AR!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Sound
Review: I shopped all around!! The AW791 Dolby Digital are the best value on the market. The sound is great, you have the freedom to move from room to room with only minimal sound loss. No "line of site" restrictions like the IR wireless headphones. Two "Digital" inputs and one analog means you can plug in an array of sources. Battery life exceeds all others. They are comfortable to wear for extended periods for the real long movies. The ONLY thing to look out for is the pivot point on each ear piece. It is a weak joint that can break if twisted wrong. Make certain to put on and take off with ease.
All around a great product and if you shop around you will NOT find an exact product like it. Way to go AR!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Hurt my head!
Review: I tested the Advent AW770, Advent AW720 and the RCA WHP160 headphones. The audio quality was comparable on all 3--not bad for a [money]set of headphones, but the Advent phones each had drawbacks. The Advent phones had to be manually tuned to the right frequency. That was just too big a pain in the xxx for me. These, the AW720, were so tight on my head that they hurt! I couldn't find a way to adjust the tension. Unless you have a really tiny head, don't buy these phones! I recommend the RCA WHP160 phones in this price range. --This text refers to an alternate option.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE REVIEWS BELOW
Review: I'm sorry but I don't own the AW791 and neither do the people below, so these reviews should be erased because they are not suitable reviews pertaining to the product AW791 developed by Acoustic Research more like products developed by ADVENT. So they have no baring to the actual award-winning product at all. They should be erased.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: If not for the static...
Review: If not for the static, I would be very happy with this purchase. Despite the size, they are quite comfortable. Connected to a DVD player by coax digital cable, I found the surround effect with Dolby Digital sources to be surprisingly effective. I have not had the batteries die during normal use (3-4 hours). However, the noise/static is very intrusive, and I cannot find a position that reduces it to a reasonable level, even with the transmitter a mere six feet away. I live in an apartment complex, so the 900MHz band is quite heavy with traffic from phones, computer peripherals, etc.; perhaps a homeowner would have better luck.

Positives:
-comfort
-effective surround effect
-battery life

Negatives:
-noise/static even 6 feet away from the transmitter.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not Suitable for Bed Use
Review: My primary use of these is to watch movies while in bed before sleep. Problem is that headphones are so large, uncomfortable. so I made mod to them and installed small minijack in the headphones which allows me to plug in another, smaller headphone set for use in bed. AR should really have thought about it and provided such a jack. Not a major modification to accomplish.

As to quality of headphone sound, do get some "static" or interference now and again when headphones are only 10 feet away from transmitter base station. This product is not 100% clean of static or interference. Interesting though that although get some static or noise only 10 feet away, can actually hear sound in headphones some 100 feet away. Good quality sound reproduction. Have had to replace rechargable batteries once already and have not owned unit a year yet.

Never owned another pair of wirelss and so can not compare to others. Good sound reproduction but not 100 % free of wireless static or interference and whole product is plastic, plastic, plastic and have already broken one side of unit while using in bed. Structurally not the best product I have ever seen.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not Suitable for Bed Use
Review: My primary use of these is to watch movies while in bed before sleep. Problem is that headphones are so large, uncomfortable. so I made mod to them and installed small minijack in the headphones which allows me to plug in another, smaller headphone set for use in bed. AR should really have thought about it and provided such a jack. Not a major modification to accomplish.

As to quality of headphone sound, do get some "static" or interference now and again when headphones are only 10 feet away from transmitter base station. This product is not 100% clean of static or interference. Interesting though that although get some static or noise only 10 feet away, can actually hear sound in headphones some 100 feet away. Good quality sound reproduction. Have had to replace rechargable batteries once already and have not owned unit a year yet.

Never owned another pair of wirelss and so can not compare to others. Good sound reproduction but not 100 % free of wireless static or interference and whole product is plastic, plastic, plastic and have already broken one side of unit while using in bed. Structurally not the best product I have ever seen.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good for the price
Review: Picked up a refurbished pair for... The sound quality is good, thought it took a little time to get the frequency set properly. I don't like the controls as they are small and difficult to adjust. I also think they squeeze the ears a little more than desired; wearing them for extended periods can be uncomfortable. --This text refers to an alternate option.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: AW 791
Review: some of the reviews above are in-accurate.
First off: there is no tuning knob on the base so they (other reviews) must be referencing another model. (aw721?)
This model has three channel selectors

I got mine off ebay for $50.

pro's:
-works great, little hiss when its turned on, but this is because it is auto tuning ( 3 seconds)
-takes digital inputs (optical too)
-volume goes way up.
-comparable if not better than my Sony MDR-CD380
-freedom from my mp3 player, pc, etc
-? interferes with my cell phone's incomming signal. (side-effect, but nice "Feature" ;)

con's:
-feels weak. dont think it will survive a drop or sit-on

-the light on the base when charging does not glow. (I dont know if it should, I must call them)
-Batteries dont seem to charge. Maybe this problem is limited to my set.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: inexpensive and lightweight, with some room for improvement.
Review: the fit is rather comfortable, though the earcups only rotate around 1 axis, versus 2 as in better headphones.

the sound is loud and bright, but reception is not ideal. its not that it ever loses the signal, but rather the noise is often audible, even when used in same room as transmitter. certainly NOT for music buffs, but i bought it for use with television for which this is sufficient.

also tuning is manual, and though you theoretically only need to set it once, it would still make for a sleeker product if it automatically locked to the correct frequency, after all, you don't need to tune your cordless phone do you? battery indicator would be another useful feature that was ommited, the way you find out that battery died is when you suddenly lose reception for no reason, it comes back after you replace the batteries.

this unit features a built in charger, but i use my microprocessor-controlled MAHA charger, and NI-MH batteries.

all in all, you can't ask for more at this price, but you can definitely ask for more :) --This text refers to an alternate option.


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