I have been through several different wireless headphones in the quest for a really good device that I can listen to my TV to at night and not disturb my roommate (surround sound engineers seem to take pleasure in making sudden very loud noises in the L/R speakers while keeping the center channel volume to low to hear!). These have included:
- RCA WHP150 900Mhz Headphones; analog tuning dial was very susceptible to frequency 'drift'; not rechargeable.
- Sony MDR-IF540RK Infrared Headphones; great sound but I was screwed once I got a plasma TV (IR background noise produce by the display). Had an integrated charger and an auto-off when the headphones were removed from my head.
- Philips SBCHC8430 900Mhz Headphones; decent sound but had intermittent popping sounds; not rechargeable and not comfortable to wear.
- I tried a variety of Bluetooth headsets, but this style of headphones usually don't hold power for very long and is not very comfortably when laying in bed.
Today I found the Sony MDR-RF970RK on sale for $75. So far I am impressed:
- Very good range and no static from frequency drift
- At extreme ranges, static is noise-shaped so it is does not immediately sound like static
- Inductance charging stand with magnetic catch
- Very comfortable
- Auto-off when removed from head
- No background hiss!
The only down side is the audio does not sound as dynamic as wired headphones (or the MDR-IF540RK); there is bass and highs, but it sound almost like there is an equalizer turned on somewhere and the upper mid sounds are dulled. So far I have only tried this with my Mac Mini and iTunes so I will have to try them with other systems and see if this is repeated.
I eventually want to replace these with the Panasonic RP-WF5500, but it may still be a while before these make it to the states (or have these already been replaced by the RP-WF6000?)- and at $250 it will take a bit of courage to finally invest in these...
