Sennheiser RS220 Availability? - Page 26

tracking info has them getting to me tomorrow. will most definitely try them asap

I look forward to hearing how they work for you.

Well guys, got the new cans in. made sure that i charged them fully before using. Sat down last night with a nice glass of Merlot, popped on some Grover Washington Jr. And so far so good. They obviously did not sound as good as the previous ones as the drivers were not broken in yet. But throughout the whole evening, no drops, no hiss, just sound.

 

Now while that sounds great, this also happened to me before if you remember. there were days when there were no drops and other days where it did.

 

I will continue to use these nightly and report back with my thoughts. but so far seems very promising indeed. the luxury of great sound and no wires is truly amazing.

well three days of BLISS! No significant drops (one here and there, but NO WHERE close )

 

No hiss no hum. This is one happy Rican!

That's good news, Rican. How's the range?

II have a small apartment, about 1400 sf, but only if I go to the most remote corner does it drop a little and that is upstairs in the loft's storage area. So I am very pleased with this product now, maybe I had a bad one

My RS220 were dropping a lot but I found that replacing the included rechargeable batteries with Sanyo Eneloop remedied the situation.

They still occasionally drop especially when I am far from the base or close to a WiFi source such as laptop or Squeezebox Controller but nothing heartbreaking.

 

It is a lovely piece of kit and a welcome addition to the Sennheiser family of headphones in my opinion.

 

 

I wonder if the people having the worst issues with dropouts did not follow the instructions to charge the battery before the first usage.

I had no drops with either the 180 and 22 when staying on the same floor. When going downstairs the RS220 dropped more as the 180, surprisingly
 

I'm glad that worked for you, although in theory I don't know why it should have. The batteries included with the RS220 are 1.2v NiMH, rated 950 mAh. Eneloop AAAs are 1.2v NiHM, rated at 800 mAh. In theory, the power output of both batteries should be the same, and shouldn't affect performance, except that the factory batteries should last a bit longer.

 

 

 

Indeed that should be the case but for some reason there was a marked improvement with Eneloop batteries.

I have checked the included batteries on a computerized tester and their capacity is 870mAh, which is normal as they reach their full potential only after a number of discharge cycles.

The only explanation I can think of is that the RS-220 headphone radio circuitry is unusually sensitive to low voltage.

Eneloops have a different discharge curve, it is very flat until the last 25% of the useful capacity.

There are compromises made in the high capacity batteries such as the included ones which result in shorter life, quicker capacity degradation and high self discharge rate.

Eneloops seem to be charging faster, the light goes off sooner on the pedestal. This could be attributed to different charge curve in my opinion.

I also noticed- but I did not verify this and it may well be just a random fluctuation- that the dropouts were less frequent on the digital inputs than the analog one.

GiacomoHoldini,

You sir are a posting monster! I do hope you're gonna be able to get a pair of these soon after all your commentary. I see you're in Portland; I'm actually down in Corvallis (Oregon, USA.)

For all those suffering with dropouts, etc., my sympathies. I wonder if there might be a way to cruft up something along the lines of a tin can wifi antenna. Perhaps a metal mesh strainer or colander on the far side of the base station pointing at the the headphones to try to cut out some of the interference and focus the reception. I guess an experiment might be to set the base in a cardboard box covered in aluminum foil with the open end pointing toward the headset...

I'm in a somewhat rural area with limited wifi around me. I have issues with corruption at the beginning of a song as I am listening to a playlist in Mog, but I think it's Mog's fault.

I still have some issues with hiss as previously described, but overall am still very pleased with the sound quality of my headphones. I certainly do wish for higher resolution, but it's okay for what I'm doing with Mog and AirPlay.

I think absolute sound quality comparisons with high-end wired headphones may be somewhat spurious as these appear to be far and away the best _wireless_ headphones available.

Look, Ma, no wires!

I'm still not satisfied with the comfort, however. I especially keep hoping that Sennheiser will come out with a set of replacement earpads of some buttery-soft cushy leather-like material.

So long,

Hal B.

 

 

This was a really interesting post; if it is an actual fix it would be interesting to try, maybe Sennheiser may even start using the Eneloops..

Hope they're more comfortable than the RS120.  I got those for my late night TV, you get used to them actually, but they feel like bricks against your head.  Still better than my sr125s which feel like knives on my ears after an hour or so