Need suggestions for work Headphones - Audiobooks - Wireless
Nov 30, 2010 at 3:21 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 3

KhawkRP

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I need some help, and after looking around, this might be the place to get it.  I need some suggestions on a pair of headphones for work, naturally, since that is the title of the post.  Let me give you the basics of what I need.
 
1. I sit at a computer all day long.  To make it through the day without killing people I listen to audiobooks.  The headphones need to be comfortable enough to make it through several hours of wear at a time.  I have a decent sized head, so headphones that would be tight are likely to give me a headache.  Also, most over ear headphones get hot. 
 
2. In order to keep my sanity, blocking out most of the surrounding sound would be helpful, but I still want to be able to hear if someone right out my door says my name, or someone walks in and I am turned around working on a side table where I cant see them. 
 
3. I move around a lot in my office from table to table depending upon what I am working on.  Cords have been an issue in the past, and I prefer cordless.  Its not a requirement, but it helps.  Of course, wireless brings the issue of having a battery that lasts long enough.  If it does have a cord, well.. I need a suggestion on how to keep from rolling over it every five minutes.
 
4. I pull my headphones on and off quite a bit.  Actually, a whole freaking lot.  As the guy in the office that has been there for 15 years, people come to me with questions and problems.  I may listen to my headphones all day long, but when I look down im only 3-4 hours through a book.  For this reason, earbud or in ear headphones are pretty much out.
 
5. I listen to books and music from my laptop.  So its on my computer and always in the same place every day.  I am slightly hard of hearing so if they are really quiet I suppose I iwll have to look into some sort of amp program or buy an amp to set out.  Some sort of volume control would be nice, but I understand better headphones wont likely have that.
 
6. I would leave these headphones at work, so I would rather they not be over say, $150-$200.  Less is of course better.  We dont have a problem with things being stolen at the office, but who knows when that could change.  I would hate to buy a nice set and then have them "dissapear." 
 
Right now I am using a pair of Sennheiser HDR120's.  I like them, they arent too heavy and work fairly well.  However, whenever signal isnt going through (say I pause the book) there's a burst of loud static after 20 seconds or so.  On occasion, if its a quick question, I dont even take my headphones off, I just pause the book, and answer.  I dont always remember to immediatly hit play.  This is a very frustrating issue.  Also, I have had them for several years and they are starting to fail at holding a charge for more than a few hours.  I tried to quick fix this by picking up a pair of Sony DRTB50's for when the power died on my main ones, but I am finding that bluetooth headphones are pretty horrid.  At least these were.  They werent so bad for music with constant sound, but with audiobooks and long pauses between chapters and dramatic pauses well, the sound just wasnt very good.  (Though I hear that KLEER is better?)
 
Currently, just on my own, im looking at either an upgrade to Sennheiser 160's or 180's depending on what kind of deal I can find... or maybe even trying something like their IS-410 simply because I think that they may be comfortable if they dont give me a headache putting pressure on my big head.  (I wish there was somplace near Austin I could try a pair on, but good luck with that it seems.)
 
I know its a long post, and many will probably ignore it, but I figure it is better to give all the info up front.  If anyone has any suggestions please throw them out there.  Im afraid when it comes to headphones I dont know much, so I may be missing several very key options, or for all I know, I may be looking way off in the wront direction.
 
Thanks in advance for any help.
Mike.
 
Nov 30, 2010 at 5:56 PM Post #3 of 3
Thank you for the welcome.
 
I did as you suggested and added wireless to the title, though to be honest I am not entirely sure that wireless is required.  I mean, I never leave my chair... I just know that the last pair I had of wired I ran over the cord every day.  Im not sure if you guys have any tricks for how to deal with cables and the like, but if you do, then I would not have an issue with going corded.  Im sure I could probably get much better corded cables for probably cheaper than a pair of decent cordless.
 

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