Techfixation
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2015
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Hi all, this is my first post on this very informative and awesome site!
I'm someone who's not easily pleased when it comes to tech and I've been busy trawling these pages and numerous review sites looking for a great pair of wireless cans for late night movie watching.
I have been using an extension cord to hook up my Klipsch Image S4 in ear phones to the TV which work great but it's become a real pain having a cable trailing across the living room floor!
I first tried a pair of Sennheiser RS160's which utilize KLEER's lossless digital wireless audio transmission, this produces a better quality signal and most importantly hiss free audio (more on this in a moment).
I was more than disappointed in these Sennheisers especially as they get such great reviews! I found they were seriously lacking in bass and body and actually found them quite tinny an un-exciting even after decent burn in, the soundstage was good but they were a million miles away from the quality of my Klipsch S4's!
I sent the 160's back and ordered a pair of Sennheiser RS170's as they apparently had a better bass and even a bass boost setting which could improve the bass even further. The 170's were certainly a lot better than the 160's with much more fullness and a bit more warmth but they still lacked any real punch and they felt like a much much cheaper pair of phones compared to my very moderately priced S4's!
I was beginning to think this was just how 'Wireless' sound, due perhaps to a lack of power via a wired connection to an amp resulting in a lack of power to the sound!
I thought I'd give wireless one last chance and thought perhaps by upping my budget I might finally find what I was looking for. The next headphones I purchased were the SoundMAGIC WP10's which cost quite a bit more at £240 from Amazon compared to £90 for the 160's and £150 for the 170's. The SoundMAGIC's also utilize KLEER technology like the Sennheisers and like the Sennheisers the signal is virtually hiss free, although I did find the SoundMAGICS did seriously screw with my WiFi and did occasionally drop signal! They were however a decent step up in quality and had a much better sound than the Sennheisers and were also much better built and much better to look at. Unfortunately though they were still nowhere near as good as my S4's, with a lacking bass and still a bit of tinnyness!
It was then that I found a review for the August EP650 Bluetooth headphones, everything I was hearing about them sounded great and the best thing of all they were only £32 from Amazon and certainly worth a punt!
WOW these are the closest thing I've found to the Klipsch S4's...and they're wireless! The bass is amazing and seriously punchy, they certainly don't lack body or warmth, perhaps they could be a little more refined but they are still great for movies with a really exciting sound!
Now your probably thinking that I must have now come to the end of my quest for the perfect wireless movie headphones and at the amazing price of £32!! However the August EP650's have one small but still deal breaking flaw and this flaw is the very reason for not choosing Bluetooth in the first place....background hiss!
The headphones I previously mentioned with KLEER technology have virtually no hiss at but from what I hear all Bluetooth headphones suffer from background hiss to varying degrees. Now when it comes to listening to music this hiss only really becomes noticeable between tracks or when the audio is paused so doesn't become too much of an issue. However while watching movies the hiss is far more noticeable, especially during spoken parts and it's really starting to become a major distraction!
This has got me thinking though that perhaps there are other Bluetooth Headphones out there with great sound but less hiss or even better no hiss??
A couple of threads have touched upon this background hiss but no ones compared which headphones are more prone than others. I’ve also heard many people mention they’re using Bluetooth headphones for watching movies but no ones complained of the hiss which I find strange as apparently some are really bad including the Beats Studio Wireless!
According to Bill-P the hiss is due to there not being enough negative feedback to suppress it. More negative feedback = more current to the circuit (this is independent of current to headphone) = less battery life. So it's more of a "battery life saving" feature.
I’ve shortlisted several Bluetooth headphones which I believe will be great for movies, I’m after phones with decent punchy bass and a warm sound, they also need to be comfortable as they’ll obviously be worn for several hours! Hopefully some of these don't have too much hiss?
The list is;
Philips Fidelio M2BT
Plantronics Backbeat PRO
Logitech UE9000
Harman Kardon BT
Sony MDR-XB950BT (modded)
Please let me know your thoughts on any of these cans and how much hiss they suffer from if any?
Special thanks goes out to Giogio who's been a great help in creating this shortlist with his fantastic thread on a Huge Comparison of [almost] all the best Bluetooth Headphones