wireless headphones

The RS-30 headphones are great for listening to music or watching TV, but if you need top quality sound, you'll want to look elsewhere (perhaps Sennheiser's higher quality products). There's a fairly typical amount of background noise with these that you probably won't find in higher end models.

The Open-air design of these works quite well for allowing the right amount of outside noise in.

I also tried the Advent AW-770 headphones, but in my listening environment I was getting too much static and interference. The Sennheisers don't have near the amount of interference that the Advent pair had.

This pair isn't the most comfortable (who can beat a good pair of AKG headphones, that cup the ear, at comfort?), but they are fairly adjustable and manageable.

If you'll be listening all day at work, you may want to order another battery for the set, as the shipping battery only lasts a little over 4 hours.

**December 10, 2001: Update**
Apparently the plastic is a little weak. I was taking them off my head (granted, with one hand), and the left can snapped off right at the joint. I've since tried super-gluing, to no avail. If you get these, you may want to practice taking them off with both hands, one on each side!

I bought the RS30's over the other brands of wireless headphones because I've been extremely pleased with my other Sennheiser purchases (HD-202, HD-212, MX-400). In those cases, I've found both the construction and sound quality to be well ahead of the pack, especially for the price. In the RS-30's, I had to settle for one out of two. The sound quality is excellent - within a 50 foot radius, you'd never know they weren't an expensive wired set. Reception is good throughout the house, although a little static creeps in at longer distances.

However, I was surpised by the cheap plastic and un-upholstered foam construction. Right out of the box, there was a little piece of plastic rattling around inside the headband. I don't see these headphones lasting long, even with gentle use. Also, the battery pack is just a dumb design. You have to remove the battery from the phones and plug it into the base to charge. Well, the base already acts as a cradle for the phones, so how hard would it be to align the contacts on the battery with those on the base, so it will charge on its own?? Cordless telephones have done this for years.

In short, I bought this as a gift, and I'll be a little embarassed when I hand it over later today, as it looks like a kmart special. Hopefully, the sound quality will help the recipient overlook the construction.

I bought these headphones for my dad and he says that everytime the neighbour picks up the phone, his connection to the base unit is broken. He's able to listen in to their conversations because of the signaling overlap. To fix the problem, he has to get up and hit the channel change button to re-establish the connection. This happens quite frequently and he's very very annoyed. I'll be returning them ASAP.