Sennheiser RS 4-9 Wireless Headphone

Rating:
Summary: I bought this unit.
Review: First, it's analog. That's important to understand. So if you have anything else in the house running on 900 MHz -- like a cordless phone -- you'll get heavy hissing. You'll have to do a lot of fiddling. If you want to use the headphones only on line of sight -- in front of your TV -- get yourself a cheaper infra-red system. Works much better.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but could use some refinement
Review: Overall the quality and value of these headphones is good but a number of refinements are needed to make them great.

The sound quality is comparable to $30-$40 or so corded headphones. Bass is a bit lacking, as is volume. If you get the volume settings right (high on the stereo, low on the headset) there is little or no hiss. I wish there was a way to turn off or adjust the volume limiter. When watching TV, it often kicks in during loud moments but does not turn off when the volume goes back down so you have to constantly fiddle with the volume control in order to hear everything.

They are light and comfortable for extended periods. They fit very loosely, so they often slide around or fall off when I do too much moving around. I thought the whole point of these things was to be able to move around while wearing them? The tuning knob is also easy to accidentally bump, forcing you to stop and find the signal again.

Reception is very good 90% of the time. I can go into the garage, etc with no loss in quality. Occasionally if you turn your head the wrong way you'll loose signal even if the transmitter is only a few feet away. Once in a while I pick up interference from something else in the area (baby monitor perhaps?) but switching channels fixes that.

Battery life is poor. A fully charged battery lasts approximately 3 hours and only one was included. There is no charging stand where you can put the headphones to charge themselves, you have to actually pull the battery out and put it into the base charger. I bought two extra batteries and find myself constantly shuffling batteries between the headphones and the charger to maximize battery life. I still find myself with 3 drained batteries at the end of the day sometimes because they don't charge fast enough.

If they could fix the 3 main problems (battery life/charge time, loose fit, and volume) I would toss my corded headphones and use these 100% of the time. If you plan to use them for short time periods without moving around too much, they are very handy.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but could use some refinement
Review: Overall the quality and value of these headphones is good but a number of refinements are needed to make them great.

The sound quality is comparable to $30-$40 or so corded headphones. Bass is a bit lacking, as is volume. If you get the volume settings right (high on the stereo, low on the headset) there is little or no hiss. I wish there was a way to turn off or adjust the volume limiter. When watching TV, it often kicks in during loud moments but does not turn off when the volume goes back down so you have to constantly fiddle with the volume control in order to hear everything.

They are light and comfortable for extended periods. They fit very loosely, so they often slide around or fall off when I do too much moving around. I thought the whole point of these things was to be able to move around while wearing them? The tuning knob is also easy to accidentally bump, forcing you to stop and find the signal again.

Reception is very good 90% of the time. I can go into the garage, etc with no loss in quality. Occasionally if you turn your head the wrong way you'll loose signal even if the transmitter is only a few feet away. Once in a while I pick up interference from something else in the area (baby monitor perhaps?) but switching channels fixes that.

Battery life is poor. A fully charged battery lasts approximately 3 hours and only one was included. There is no charging stand where you can put the headphones to charge themselves, you have to actually pull the battery out and put it into the base charger. I bought two extra batteries and find myself constantly shuffling batteries between the headphones and the charger to maximize battery life. I still find myself with 3 drained batteries at the end of the day sometimes because they don't charge fast enough.

If they could fix the 3 main problems (battery life/charge time, loose fit, and volume) I would toss my corded headphones and use these 100% of the time. If you plan to use them for short time periods without moving around too much, they are very handy.

Rating:
Summary: Just what I wanted.
Review: The sound quality of these headphones were decent - but not as good as wired headphones costing half as much. It was still more than enough to satisfy all but a purist.

The transmission was flawless. All throughout my house in any level , I never experienced any interuptions. The rechargable battery that recharges in the transmitter is very convenient - no consumable to buy.

I would give it 4.5 stars, if more granularity was available.

Rating:
Summary: Just what I wanted.
Review: The sound quality of these headphones were decent - but not as good as wired headphones costing half as much. It was still more than enough to satisfy all but a purist.

The transmission was flawless. All throughout my house in any level , I never experienced any interuptions. The rechargable battery that recharges in the transmitter is very convenient - no consumable to buy.

I would give it 4.5 stars, if more granularity was available.