[AtrafCreez]

Hi,
I have the RS 180 and the RS 195. I also asked about amps here because I found to my horror upon purchase that the sound of the RS 195 is very soft...no fear. I live in Israel and the Israeli representative of Sennheiser also found the RS 195 very quiet so he played around and found the answer. Actually the manual itself tells how to fix that problem but when it worked i almost blew my eardrums out.
The Sennheiser factory makes all the RS 195's with a preset that makes the audio soft.
To fix that you must do this :
Press the "Mode" button either on the earphone or on the transmitter for a few seconds, then you may press the volume button to a higher range.
I wrote about this on page 8 of this thread with photos.

The RS195 and all wireless headphones are equipped with the drivers and amps needed. All the experts here explained to me that an amp for the RS195 is as worthwhile as a heart pacemaker for a dead body.
Having changed the factory preset, the audio can go way , way above the level which can ruin my hearing!
I am so happy not to need to worry about the cables, or jolting the cable if it gets caught, the audio is very good.
I listen back and forth to the RS 195 and the RS180. The RS 195 has better bass but all the dials do nothing and as far as I am concerned the very high price of the highest of the line wireless is not worth it. The cost is too high for low production.

 

[AtrafCreez]

The maximum volume again went very low after a few years. I tried again the [above| fix and the maximum volume doubled The Sennheiser factory makes all the RS 195's with a preset that makes the audio soft.
To fix that you must do this :
Press the "Mode" button either on the earphone or on the transmitter for a few seconds, then you may press the volume button to a higher range.
I wrote about this on page 8 of this thread with photos.

 

[AtrafCreez]

The maximum volume again went very low after a few years. I tried again the [above| fix and the maximum volume doubled The Sennheiser factory makes all the RS 195's with a preset that makes the audio soft.
To fix that you must do this :
Press the "Mode" button either on the earphone or on the transmitter for a few seconds, then you may press the volume button to a higher range.
I wrote about this on page 8 of this thread with photos.

The above tip made a universe of difference! ...Not a newbie, just lack audio knowledge so I have another question: My RS 185 and RS 195 are connected to my PC with the analog wire. I found a DAC with Toslink connection . Will that make an audio improvement if I connect with the Toslink wire? Thanks.
By the way, these Sennheiser wireless are so great, please, nobody get them mixed up with wireless bluetooth cans. I can go outside my apartment and hear them

 

[Hammy]

The above tip made a universe of difference! ...Not a newbie, just lack audio knowledge so I have another question: My RS 185 and RS 195 are connected to my PC with the analog wire. I found a DAC with Toslink connection . Will that make an audio improvement if I connect with the Toslink wire? Thanks.
By the way, these Sennheiser wireless are so great, please, nobody get them mixed up with wireless bluetooth cans. I can go outside my apartment and hear them

Your PC's motherboard doesn't have an optical out? If you're thinking of going PC analogue out->DAC digital out->base station digital in, then I don't think that will yield much benefit.

I would try to keep the signal digital for the entire chain. So either check your PC for a digital out or, in lieu of an external DAC, buy a cheap internal soundcard that has a digital out.

Apologies if I misunderstood the question. Digital will always sound better than analogue, in my opinion.

 

[AtrafCreez]

Thank You

 

[Dan279]

Hi everyone - I have recently bought the RS175U and use them solely for watching movies or tv. Since reading through this forum I see a lot of praise for the RS185. I have the means to procure a HDR185 for not too much. I know a lot of people say owning both is good, but given their sole use for movies/tv, how do the RS175 and 185 stack up? Is it a worth while investment? If I did get the HDR185, would I still want to use the 175’s?

thanks in advance

 

[PaulMW]

Hi everyone - I have recently bought the RS175U and use them solely for watching movies or tv. Since reading through this forum I see a lot of praise for the RS185. I have the means to procure a HDR185 for not too much. I know a lot of people say owning both is good, but given their sole use for movies/tv, how do the RS175 and 185 stack up? Is it a worth while investment? If I did get the HDR185, would I still want to use the 175’s?

thanks in advance

As I said in a post here a few years ago: IMNSHO: even though they (all the RS-xx0s&5s) are all reasonably OK, for ≈.5%THD wifi cans as almost everything is nowadays it seems, they aren't a patch on the wonderful RS-220s - which I've got 2x pairs of and very much enjoy using daily. I upgraded from a pair of 185s - which, as I say, at the time I thought were quite good - until I got my first pair of 220s - I immediately then sold the 185s to a friend (for what I'd paid for them).
For some reason Sennh stopped making the 220s 5or6 years ago - they do have a few design features which are slightly less than desirable, they don't have the (now generally expected :-S) long battery life (only ≈5or6hours), and they do tend to "eat" rechargeable batteries at a faster rate than one would like.
But these are only minor drawbacks and the sound they produce is as good as one can get from wifi cans IMNSHO - they're ≈.1%THD - and one can surely hear the difference between that and .5%THD cans!! - qualitywise they're very little short of the set of (wired - I simply can't be bothered with wired cans now) HD-650s of which I also have a pair.

A year or two ago I tried a set of Beyerdynamic Amiron wifi cans (which had an even slightly better THD figure!) in a shop but the result, on listening to a CD with which I was very familiar, was +/- the same as from my two excellent pairs of 220s - possibly this was because the Beyers were bluetooth cans - and bluetooth is a "lossy" format AFAIK - whereas the 220s use the lossless .wav/SPDIF system.

AAMOI: I find the best way of grading/comparing any audio component is by listening to a piece of harpsichord music which one is familiar with - the almost-vertical rise at the front of the harpsichord waveform (a plucked wire string) severely tests the ability of any audio playback component.

FWIW: I see that there is a new pair of 220s on ebay ATM - 600$4thReich, from memory. A bit dearer than the 350$4thR I paid for my first pair - which were also new - they were "remaindered stock" I think. My second pair were 2ndhand ones - but with all their packaging and in virtually new condition - also from the 4thReich/EmpireofEvil.

So IMNSHO: If you want the best possible sound from a pair of wireless headphones: forget about the RS-xx0s&5s and look for a pair of RS-220s - or a pair of Beyer Amirons.

Cheers
PaulMW (Aotearoa/NZ)

 

[Hammy]

Hi everyone - I have recently bought the RS175U and use them solely for watching movies or tv. Since reading through this forum I see a lot of praise for the RS185. I have the means to procure a HDR185 for not too much. I know a lot of people say owning both is good, but given their sole use for movies/tv, how do the RS175 and 185 stack up? Is it a worth while investment? If I did get the HDR185, would I still want to use the 175’s?

thanks in advance

I was in your situation four years ago when I first purchased my RS185. I use mine almost exclusively for movie/TV watching and have been very happy with them. I chose not to go for the 175 as I had been used to open headphones and generally prefer a wider sound stage over more bass. For reference, the 185s have quite a lot of bass (more than, say, the wired HD598).

One option for you would be to pick up the additional HDR185 headset and pair it with your current transmitter. This may be cheaper in the long run and gives you a nice chance to A/B directly.

A summary of both is available here: https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-wireless-home-theater-headphones/

 

[Foulcher]

Hello,

I am French, so please pardon my expression. Some weeks ago, I bought a RS-175U with a HDR-185 to « replace » my old RS-130. My motivation was a mix of pleasure and practical, because my RS 130 cable started to have damage (again, I replaced one in a far past, seriously this integrated cable design is a joke). RS 130 had Surround which sounded good as well as the main audio quality. Note also that the distance before signal loss was far greater even if the headphone had a constant noise. The new line is very close to Bluetooth range (MDR 1000x) in my environnement but the sound quality is higher (at least for HDR 130 and HDR 185).

So to come to the point of Dan question (as i searched myself information I only found in this forum, so a great thanks, the « pro » reviews were almost all worthles) : yes HDR-185 sound is FAR better than HDR-175 one in any usage. To be honest the HDR-130 is even better, by a great margin in my opinion.
HDR 175 seems to have been optimized to hear voices clearly and basses, so it is OK for TV or games (like FFVII remake) but when immediately put the HDR-185, the sound is so much more detailed and »full ». For music (CD quality) there is no match, the 185 blews the 175 outta water, tested with Hifi and you can hear clear localized details when with 175 the small details seems »blurred ». The close-design of 175 is not even convincing, honestly I do not hear much more external noise with 185, a bit more but generally not. 175 is certainly not as isolated as modern noise cancellation BT headsets. So to sum up I use 175 almost never, spécial l’y considering that you have to hear sound louder to have a decent perceived quality.

Now the 185 is not full y perfect and I generally EQ music (piano of acoustic) a bit, probably due to open design. And here is the irony : the bass mode benefits the 185 more, making the sound seems having more « body ». The surround is also good for some shows like Dark and most bassy things.

For these reasons I do not regret buying the RS175 (the RS185 set is unavaiable everywhere anyway) and the TR175 is’great with HDR185. Of course you can habituate to HDR-175 but when you compare it directly the 185 is far greater. So yes if you use your headset for everything at home you can consider buying a 185 which is a great headset in general, while 175 is just a « practical » TV headset, not really worth the cost for the final sound quality.
If I had to grade stock sound without EQ :

HDR-130 : 3.25/5
HDR-175 : 2.5/5
HDR-185 : 4.25/5

Note that I never used an audiophile wired headset, the best I have being a Senn PC 330 Gaming (close to RS-130 sound quality)
My main complaint about 1*5 series is that the sound, as some people and websites said, seems « darker » (Which is not problematic for Movies/Games but a bit annoying for music). The 130 sound is more « joyful », the EQ helps a bit to adjust 185.

 

[PaulMW]

Like you I am a wireless-headphones-only user now - but as I said in my earlier post on this HeadFi thread: the Sennh RS-220s, which I'm delighted to have two pairs of , are a quantum-leap better than any other wifi cans I've ever used - except for maybe the Beyerdynamic Amiron wifi ones - but they're bluetooth which, besides being a lossy format, is just too much of a hassle for me to be bothered with - they'd probably be fine if you were to drive them from a cancerphone I spose.
The RS-220s have a THD figure of <.1% and almost everything else is <.5% and you can surely hear that difference!! The Beyer Amirons are <.05%, which is nominally better but, because of the bluetooth codec format, in practice they don't sound very much different/better than my pairs of 220s - in an A/B listening test.
The only problem with the 220s is that Sennh don't make them any longer - and so one can only get them secondhand now (eg via ebay etc) - but IMNSHO it is surely worth going to that trouble!! After listening to a pair of 220s you'll just sell whatever pairs of 160s-185s you've got (as I did) or just use them for "rubbish" uses - like listening to radio/TV etc - as I now do with a couple of pairs of 165s which I kept - they have nice little compact base/transmitter units - not like the big/bulky ones the 170-185s have.
Kia ora
PaulMW

 

[Dan279]

I was in your situation four years ago when I first purchased my RS185. I use mine almost exclusively for movie/TV watching and have been very happy with them. I chose not to go for the 175 as I had been used to open headphones and generally prefer a wider sound stage over more bass. For reference, the 185s have quite a lot of bass (more than, say, the wired HD598).

One option for you would be to pick up the additional HDR185 headset and pair it with your current transmitter. This may be cheaper in the long run and gives you a nice chance to A/B directly.

A summary of both is available here: https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-wireless-home-theater-headphones/

I have since bought the HDR 185 to pair with my 175 base unit. I am not disappointed. I much prefer the sound from the 185 for almost every situation. Only for heavy bass movies will I go for my 175. In fact, I barely use My 175 now. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Foulcher]

Yes my RS175 is also never used anymore. I bought a (wired) AKG 712 Pro and honestly the RS185 is close, different but somewhat at the same level for me. I just prefer the brighter signature of AKG better and maybe the soundstage. I also plugged the RS185 to a Marantz CD6006 with jack and the upgrade in soudn quality from an iPhone is there (and it is more than subtle).
I also re-tried my RS-130 and honestly the sound is great, there is a bit of noise but the music itself is brighter and great. Less "full" maybe but I can't believe it costed 2-3* less money. Sad my wire is almost broken...

 

[elkend]

So I just bought a pair of new Sennheiser RS 185's. Using these for gaming, movies (all genres), guitar, piano, music (pop, melodic death, prog metal, prog rock).

This is my first pair of real headphones other than BOSE AE2 and OE2. Still in the mail.

If I can get a pair of used 220's at the same price, should I trade them for the 220's?

How much better would you say the audio quality and soundstage is in a pair of HD 600s? Would you recommend swapping pads out for HM5's right away?

 

[Dan279]

So I just bought a pair of new Sennheiser RS 185's. Using these for gaming, movies (all genres), guitar, piano, music (pop, melodic death, prog metal, prog rock).

This is my first pair of real headphones other than BOSE AE2 and OE2. Still in the mail.

If I can get a pair of used 220's at the same price, should I trade them for the 220's?

How much better would you say the audio quality and soundstage is in a pair of HD 600s? Would you recommend swapping pads out for HM5's right away?

I can’t talk for the other pairs you mention, but I happen to own the RS185 and a pair of HD660s - the soundstage is wider on the RS185 by a fair margin I feel but the sound quality is far superior on the HD660s in terms of music - when it comes to movies, the tuning on the RS185 makes for a much more immersive experience - they are FAR bassier. The HD6 series are known for a lack of low end thump. That being said, I use my RS185’s regularly and absolutely love them - they sound amazing and have always had a reliable connection. I initially had the RS175U but found them to be a bit too bass heavy and even boomy at times, so much so that it made everything darker and less enjoyable for me. The open back nature of the 185’s make for a much more home cinema feel, with the practicalitynof using a headset and not pissing off your wife!

sorry I can’t really help you with the other options you suggested, but this is just my pennies worth - happy to answer any other questions if you have any.

 

[PaulMW]

I'll say it again: none of the xx5s ( and I've had most of them - and still use some of them for "rubbish" listening (eg TV, PC etc etc)) come anywhere near the audioquality of the RS-220s - which I greatly enjoy two sets of and which, sadly, one can only get 2ndhand now .
They (xx5s) are all <.5%THD - which is only OK/bearable if you haven't heard anything better - like the 220s' <.1%THD.
As I now only ever use wireless cans I'm waiting for the time when Sennh will make a new type of <.1%THD) or better ones!