andrewfee
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2006
- Posts
- 43
- Likes
- 10
So like the title says, I hate wires. They always seem to be the first point of failure with headphones and other devices.
My first good pair of headphones were some Grado SR80s, and within a year the cable had developed a problem at the Y split and they were replaced under warranty.
A couple of years later and I was having problems with the replacement pair as well—this time it was at one of the ear cups.
I then had a pair of GS1000s and part of the reason I eventually sold them was because the headphone cord was not easily replaceable and didn't seem any more reliable than the SR80 cord.
For portable use I picked up a pair of cheap Sennheiser CX300-II a while back as a temporary measure, I kept using them longer than intended, and within a year the cable had failed at the point where it connects to the drivers.
More recently I've been using some Ultimate Ears UE700s that I won about five months ago and I'm now losing sound from the left channel. (seems to be a connection problem near the 3.5mm jack) Logitech seem great about sending out a replacement, but I'm not sure that I want to use them because it seems like they'll fail pretty quickly again.
With most headphones I've found that the cables tend to stiffen up after a couple of months, and I'm actually surprised that the point of failure with the UE700s wasn't where they connect to the driver as that seems like a very weak connection as a result of this. If it hadn't failed near the jack I would expect them to have failed here after a few month months of use.
I've also just recently had a Razer mouse die as the cord gave out after a few years of use as well.
So as you can probably tell, I'm getting fed up with cables. It's not that I mistreat things either, I'm very careful to avoid tugging/twisting them, wrapping them up frequently or anything else that might damage them. It's just that everything gets a lot of daily use which puts wear on the cables.
I also hate that with headphones, I need to have a long extension cable stretched across the room most of the time.
I keep things nice and tidy here, all other cables are neatly hidden away, and having headphone cables stretched out everywhere looks a mess.
Are there any options for wireless headphones that actually provide high quality sound?
Older wireless headphones that I tried years ago were terrible, they either required line of sight (IR) or tuning (FM) were heavy and hissed a lot.
I recently tried out the Sennheiser RS170 & RS180 because they seemed like a decent option, but while they were surprisingly light, have a good charging solution (just drop them on a stand without having to plug anything in) and there was no hiss, the audio was very obviously compressed, despite their claims about the Kleer wireless technology being "lossless CD quality." I suppose it's "CD quality" in the way that 128k MP3s are supposedly "CD quality." (i.e. not even close) There was also a distracting delay with the headphones as well—fine for music, not so good for films/gaming.
I do realise that with wireless headphones you have to compromise on amplification because it needs to be self-contained and have a decent battery life without the headphones weighing a ton, but it doesn't seem like there's much innovation in this space, and now more and more manufacturers are adopting the Kleer standard.
With lithium ion batteries and wireless technology capable of 300mbps small enough to fit inside an SD card, it seems like it should be possible to create a system that truly is lossless, but if such a thing exists, I haven't found it.
Are there any options for a high-end wireless headphone that I have overlooked, or do I have to be content with finding a good pair of headphones that have an easily replaceable (and readily available) single-entry cable stretched out across the room? (personally I find dual entry more comfortable, but it's another point of failure I'd want to avoid)
My first good pair of headphones were some Grado SR80s, and within a year the cable had developed a problem at the Y split and they were replaced under warranty.
A couple of years later and I was having problems with the replacement pair as well—this time it was at one of the ear cups.
I then had a pair of GS1000s and part of the reason I eventually sold them was because the headphone cord was not easily replaceable and didn't seem any more reliable than the SR80 cord.
For portable use I picked up a pair of cheap Sennheiser CX300-II a while back as a temporary measure, I kept using them longer than intended, and within a year the cable had failed at the point where it connects to the drivers.
More recently I've been using some Ultimate Ears UE700s that I won about five months ago and I'm now losing sound from the left channel. (seems to be a connection problem near the 3.5mm jack) Logitech seem great about sending out a replacement, but I'm not sure that I want to use them because it seems like they'll fail pretty quickly again.
With most headphones I've found that the cables tend to stiffen up after a couple of months, and I'm actually surprised that the point of failure with the UE700s wasn't where they connect to the driver as that seems like a very weak connection as a result of this. If it hadn't failed near the jack I would expect them to have failed here after a few month months of use.
I've also just recently had a Razer mouse die as the cord gave out after a few years of use as well.
So as you can probably tell, I'm getting fed up with cables. It's not that I mistreat things either, I'm very careful to avoid tugging/twisting them, wrapping them up frequently or anything else that might damage them. It's just that everything gets a lot of daily use which puts wear on the cables.
I also hate that with headphones, I need to have a long extension cable stretched across the room most of the time.
I keep things nice and tidy here, all other cables are neatly hidden away, and having headphone cables stretched out everywhere looks a mess.
Are there any options for wireless headphones that actually provide high quality sound?
Older wireless headphones that I tried years ago were terrible, they either required line of sight (IR) or tuning (FM) were heavy and hissed a lot.
I recently tried out the Sennheiser RS170 & RS180 because they seemed like a decent option, but while they were surprisingly light, have a good charging solution (just drop them on a stand without having to plug anything in) and there was no hiss, the audio was very obviously compressed, despite their claims about the Kleer wireless technology being "lossless CD quality." I suppose it's "CD quality" in the way that 128k MP3s are supposedly "CD quality." (i.e. not even close) There was also a distracting delay with the headphones as well—fine for music, not so good for films/gaming.
I do realise that with wireless headphones you have to compromise on amplification because it needs to be self-contained and have a decent battery life without the headphones weighing a ton, but it doesn't seem like there's much innovation in this space, and now more and more manufacturers are adopting the Kleer standard.
With lithium ion batteries and wireless technology capable of 300mbps small enough to fit inside an SD card, it seems like it should be possible to create a system that truly is lossless, but if such a thing exists, I haven't found it.
Are there any options for a high-end wireless headphone that I have overlooked, or do I have to be content with finding a good pair of headphones that have an easily replaceable (and readily available) single-entry cable stretched out across the room? (personally I find dual entry more comfortable, but it's another point of failure I'd want to avoid)
