[GiacomoHoldini]

Halb, thanks for the impressions so far.  My listening is pretty evenly divided between classical and pop/rock.  I'm encouraged by your impression that the RS220 is good with classical, but I'm curious why you think they might not be the best choice for pop and rock.
 
Also, according to the manual, the RS220 modulation is 16-bit at 48kHz, so I would think no matter what source you use, you will ultimately be limited to 48kHz, since ultimately everything you listen to will be transmitted in 16/48.  That will probably be the next step in wireless cans - upping the modulation to 24/96 or 24/192, so they can reproduce hi-res signals.  Personally, I'm content with 16/48, since virtually all of my listening will be off of CD or iPod, but it would seem the RS220 isn't totally future-proofed.
 
Betavince, from one newbie to another, welcome to Head-Fi. 

 

[Ahzari]

I wonder when these will be on Amazon...

 

[mcnoiserdc]

Me too. Anyway here in Europe I don't find it in stock anywhere...
 
Quote:

I wonder when these will be on Amazon...

 

 

[halb]

Betavince: re. Pioneer AirPlay receivers, so far I have been able to use the digital optical audio output on my VSX-1121-K to listen to tracks off a USB drive plugged into the front of the receiver, but I haven't been able to get this to work with AirPlay. Your VSX-1021-K does not appear to have an optical out. I am currently using the analog output (FRONT RCA plugs - I am going to try Zone 2. You have DVR/BDR, CD-R/TAPE and ZONE 2 outputs) of the receiver into the RS 220. I don't know how much this degrades the sound, or if it adds multiple AD/DA conversions, but it does allow me to use the different sound shaping features of the receiver or not (the LISTENING MODE buttons on the bottom of your remote - AUTO/ALC/DIRECT, STEREO, STANDARD, ADV SURR.) The different settings are very useful in bringing different aspect of a specific recording to the foreground without sounding cheesy like my older and much more expensive Yamaha RX-V1 receiver. One or another simply sounds better with any given track. It looks like neither of these machines has a digital coax output - the manufacturer's specs page for mine indicated that it might.
 
GiacomoHoldini: re. rock music with the RS 220, I listened to a lot of rock tracks last night, and was actually very impressed. As an example, Duran Duran's A View to a Kill showed some remarkable nuance to Simon LeBon's vocals that I never knew were there, while really bringing out the bass and synth tracks. Ozzy Osbourne's No More Tears sounds like really good hard rock, but extremely clean if that means anything to you. Heavy, heavy lead and bass guitar sounds. Joni Mitchells' Black Crow and Free Man in Paris have just excellent electric guitar sounds with awesome separation between the little raspy distorted sounds in the left ear and cleaner counterparts in the right in one section in the later song. Jaco Pastorius' bass on Hijera sounds just killer. Bass guitar in general sounds much more detailed and defined than I am used to. I listened to a lot of early The Police, and Sting's bass work just nailed me to the floor. Stewart Copeland's trippy little drum patterns are much clearer than I am used to. The Lover Boy song Take Me to the Top has a really monster deep synth line that sounds very heavy. Courtney Love's screaming vocals on Hole's Violet sound simultaneously raspy and gnarly, and very clear at the same time. I think it's likely that I am simply not used to hearing really good sound reproduction that is not distorted. 
 
One interesting thing about these headphones is that they have noticeably different sound characteristics at different volume levels. It's almost like listening to different mixes at different volumes of the same song. Quieter might make the vocals stand out, and a little louder the guitar sounds, and a little louder a bass track, just as a rough example. I don't know quite else how to explain it.
 
I'm gonna stick with my first impression of the ear cups being a little firm and kind of scratchy, but they are not at all sweaty, and I was able to wear them for many hours yesterday without too much fatigue or discomfort.
 
It's probably too early to really tell, but I think they might be starting to break in just a little bit. Does anyone have any suggestions about leaving them running with any specific music or generated tones to break them in while I'm not wearing them?
 
One thing I'm really bummed about is that it seems as though it is necessary to actually turn on the transmitter at the base station - just turning on the headphones will not send a signal to the transmitter to turn it on. I hope I am mistaken about this, as I really would like to leave the transmitter across the room, but I have run a cable to have it by my listening station so that I don't have to get up and turn it back on every time it times out and goes to standby. The manual states that:
 
 
 If the transmitter doesn’t receive an audio signal for more than
3 minutes, it switches, depending on the setting, to either standby
mode or loop through mode. If the transmitter receivers an audio
signal within the next 10 minutes, it automatically switches on
again.
 
It looks like after 10 minutes it turns off, and must be manually turned on again.
 
I started listening with standard batteries yesterday, and am charging the rechargeable batteries that came with the headphones today and giving my ears a break. I tried really hard to fight the temptation to turn them up louder than prudent, and think I'll have to watch out for this in the future.
 
Cheers,
 
Hal B.
 

 

[Ahzari]

Quote:

Betavince: re. Pioneer AirPlay receivers, so far I have been able to use the digital optical audio output on my VSX-1121-K to listen to tracks off a USB drive plugged into the front of the receiver, but I haven't been able to get this to work with AirPlay. Your VSX-1021-K does not appear to have an optical out. I am currently using the analog output (FRONT RCA plugs - I am going to try Zone 2. You have DVR/BDR, CD-R/TAPE and ZONE 2 outputs) of the receiver into the RS 220. I don't know how much this degrades the sound, or if it adds multiple AD/DA conversions, but it does allow me to use the different sound shaping features of the receiver or not (the LISTENING MODE buttons on the bottom of your remote - AUTO/ALC/DIRECT, STEREO, STANDARD, ADV SURR.) The different settings are very useful in bringing different aspect of a specific recording to the foreground without sounding cheesy like my older and much more expensive Yamaha RX-V1 receiver. One or another simply sounds better with any given track. It looks like neither of these machines has a digital coax output - the manufacturer's specs page for mine indicated that it might.
 
GiacomoHoldini: re. rock music with the RS 220, I listened to a lot of rock tracks last night, and was actually very impressed. As an example, Duran Duran's A View to a Kill showed some remarkable nuance to Simon LeBon's vocals that I never knew were there, while really bringing out the bass and synth tracks. Ozzy Osbourne's No More Tears sounds like really good hard rock, but extremely clean if that means anything to you. Heavy, heavy lead and bass guitar sounds. Joni Mitchells' Black Crow and Free Man in Paris have just excellent electric guitar sounds with awesome separation between the little raspy distorted sounds in the left ear and cleaner counterparts in the right in one section in the later song. Jaco Pastorius' bass on Hijera sounds just killer. Bass guitar in general sounds much more detailed and defined than I am used to. I listened to a lot of early The Police, and Sting's bass work just nailed me to the floor. Stewart Copeland's trippy little drum patterns are much clearer than I am used to. The Lover Boy song Take Me to the Top has a really monster deep synth line that sounds very heavy. Courtney Love's screaming vocals on Hole's Violet sound simultaneously raspy and gnarly, and very clear at the same time. I think it's likely that I am simply not used to hearing really good sound reproduction that is not distorted. 
 
One interesting thing about these headphones is that they have noticeably different sound characteristics at different volume levels. It's almost like listening to different mixes at different volumes of the same song. Quieter might make the vocals stand out, and a little louder the guitar sounds, and a little louder a bass track, just as a rough example. I don't know quite else how to explain it.
 
I'm gonna stick with my first impression of the ear cups being a little firm and kind of scratchy, but they are not at all sweaty, and I was able to wear them for many hours yesterday without too much fatigue or discomfort.
 
It's probably too early to really tell, but I think they might be starting to break in just a little bit. Does anyone have any suggestions about leaving them running with any specific music or generated tones to break them in while I'm not wearing them?
 
One thing I'm really bummed about is that it seems as though it is necessary to actually turn on the transmitter at the base station - just turning on the headphones will not send a signal to the transmitter to turn it on. I hope I am mistaken about this, as I really would like to leave the transmitter across the room, but I have run a cable to have it by my listening station so that I don't have to get up and turn it back on every time it times out and goes to standby. The manual states that:
 
 
 If the transmitter doesn’t receive an audio signal for more than
3 minutes, it switches, depending on the setting, to either standby
mode or loop through mode. If the transmitter receivers an audio
signal within the next 10 minutes, it automatically switches on
again.
 
It looks like after 10 minutes it turns off, and must be manually turned on again.
 
I started listening with standard batteries yesterday, and am charging the rechargeable batteries that came with the headphones today and giving my ears a break. I tried really hard to fight the temptation to turn them up louder than prudent, and think I'll have to watch out for this in the future.
 
Cheers,
 
Hal B.
 

Thanks for the review..
 
As far as burn-in just leave them running on whatever music you like to listen to at medium listening volume (not too loud- not too soft). I actually have a playlist for burning in, have some bassy tracks and some acoustic tracks and a recorded 2 minute blank track to give the headphone a break every 2 hours. I only leave them running for about 8-10 hours at a time like this and give them a nights rest. From my experience, I never really noticed a huge change in sound after the first 20-30 hours. Some people claim certain headphones need 200-300, I just think thats nuts (but thats just me, I don't know the science behind the audio equipment too much, just basing it on what I hear).
 
I also read that you have to turn on the base station every time you want to pair it with the headphone, thats a little annoying that it shuts off automatically after being idle for 10 minutes, I wonder if there is a way to change that..
 

 

[betavince]

Quote:

Betavince: re. Pioneer AirPlay receivers, so far I have been able to use the digital optical audio output on my VSX-1121-K to listen to tracks off a USB drive plugged into the front of the receiver, but I haven't been able to get this to work with AirPlay. Your VSX-1021-K does not appear to have an optical out. I am currently using the analog output (FRONT RCA plugs - I am going to try Zone 2. You have DVR/BDR, CD-R/TAPE and ZONE 2 outputs) of the receiver into the RS 220.

It's embarrassing that you know my receiver better than I do. You're absolutely correct, the VSX-1021-k has no digital outputs, only inputs.  So I'm definitely limited to an analog hookup.  You're using the headphone out into the supplied "Audio Adapter (2 RCA sockets to 3.5 mm jack plug)" then into the L and R inputs on the transmitter?  I don't see any RCA outputs on the front of your receiver, according to the online manual.  If I nuke my budget and get this I would like to minimize the use of adapters, but haven't been very successful in finding a 1/4" to L and R RCA cable, it's much easier to find a 1/8".
 
 

One thing I'm really bummed about is that it seems as though it is necessary to actually turn on the transmitter at the base station - just turning on the headphones will not send a signal to the transmitter to turn it on...It looks like after 10 minutes it turns off, and must be manually turned on again.
 

I think that's the Sennheiser way.  My RS 160 has the same problem.
 
I really appreciate the detailed information you have provided, particularly your description of the Joni Mitchell tracks.  I'm an old folkie so this is encouraging.  B&H Photo in Manhattan has these in stock and has a wall of headphones available to test out, hopefully the RS 220 is among them.  So that's my next, dangerous step.
 
Thanks for the welcome GiacomoHoldini.  My friends and family think I'm nuts obsessing over headphones.  Here I feel normal.

 

[LiavTeichner]

As a proud owner of the rs 180 I would enjoy some comparison between the rs 180 and the rs 220 (not to mention to obvious digital input of the rs 220).

 

[derbigpr]

Quote:

As a proud owner of the rs 180 I would enjoy some comparison between the rs 180 and the rs 220 (not to mention to obvious digital input of the rs 220).

Haven't heard the RS220, but they are most probably much better sounding, since they're suppose to sound like HD600/650's when properly driven, and RS180 don't sound even as good as HD595 imho.

 

[GiacomoHoldini]

Thanks for the feedback, Hal.  It's nice to see another Duran Duran fan here.  (Police, too, although their fans are easier to come by, and more likely to announce themselves.)

 

[WNBC]

Subscribed, interested in this headphone and comments about it.
 
You can get the cable made to order by small companies like Blue Jeans Cables, Moon Audio, Double Helix Cables, Signal Cable, etc.  You just have to shoot them an email and do a custom order.  Smaller companies have the flexibility because they do most orders as they come in and can send you a paypal invoice for the custom order.  But, definitely more expensive than say the mini stereo to RCA cables sold at Best Buy, Monoprice, etc.    
 
 
Quote:

 If I nuke my budget and get this I would like to minimize the use of adapters, but haven't been very successful in finding a 1/4" to L and R RCA cable, it's much easier to find a 1/8".

 

 

[betavince]

Quote:

You can get the cable made to order by small companies like Blue Jeans Cables, Moon Audio, Double Helix Cables, Signal Cable, etc.  You just have to shoot them an email and do a custom order.  Smaller companies have the flexibility because they do most orders as they come in and can send you a paypal invoice for the custom order.  But, definitely more expensive than say the mini stereo to RCA cables sold at Best Buy, Monoprice, etc.    
 
 
 

Thanks. Excellent idea.
 

 

[halb]

betavince,
 
The RS 220 comes with a 3.5mm to 2) RCA jack adapter. However, instead of the headphone jack in the front of the receiver, I'm suggesting you might be able to use one of the three pairs of RCA analog output jacks on the back panel of your receiver. Please see my previous post for more details.
 
I'm working on using a preamp analog out (which, again, you ain't got) for my (active/powered) studio monitor speakers, plus the zone 2 analog out for the RS 220.
 
I think I have been having problems with the HDCP protection setup turning off various outputs at various times because I am using HDMI from a DVR and to my TV.
 
I'm actually going to try getting rid of all the HDMI connections in my system and just going with component video and analog audio to try to speed things up and avoid the whole HDMI/HDCP handshaking process.
 
Hal

 

[betavince]

Quote:

 
I think I have been having problems with the HDCP protection setup turning off various outputs at various times because I am using HDMI from a DVR and to my TV.
 
I'm actually going to try getting rid of all the HDMI connections in my system and just going with component video and analog audio to try to speed things up and avoid the whole HDMI/HDCP handshaking process.
 
Hal

I feel your pain Hal.  HDMI: the connector from Hell.  Steve Jobs called Blu-ray a "bag of hurt", but to me that description applies much more to HDMI. Mixed with HDCP and it's a recipe for disaster. I've on my third receiver because of HDMI problems, the Pioneer is the only one that hasn't given me grief with my setup.  I think switching to component is a wise move.
 

The RS 220 comes with a 3.5mm to 2) RCA jack adapter. However, instead of the headphone jack in the front of the receiver, I'm suggesting you might be able to use one of the three pairs of RCA analog output jacks on the back panel of your receiver. 

 
My interest in the RS 220 is really because of AirPlay.  I apologize for being dense (and for being possibly off topic), but does using the Zone 2 analog out allow you to use AirPlay?
 
Having someone who actually has one of these is really helpful.  Many thanks.
 

 

[halb]

betavince,
 
Zone 2 does output analog AirPlay / HMG, but without the ability to control volume or listening modes. It looks like this may be your only option with the Pioneer VSX-1021-K receiver. Please disregard what I suggested might be possible with the other analog outputs on your machine.
 
I did have to switch the HOME MENU / System Setup / Input Setup Input Skip to OFF for H.M.G. to make it available with the INPUT SELECT buttons on the remote, and to choose the Manual SP Setup / Speaker Setup / Speaker System ZONE 2 setting.
 
All this is finally starting to make sense to me. I can't believe they haven't been able to figure out how to make more usable control systems and documentation. I guess part of the price we pay for such a low purchase price for such a sophisticated piece of equipment is in not hiring good technical writers. I mean, I have a background in digital electronics and a degree in Computer Science, and even a Master's, for crying out loud, and it's still embarrassingly difficult to get through this stuff. The troubleshooting section is especially dense.
 
I just wanna listen to some tunes, man.
 
I see you asked about treble in the RS 220 - sounds good to me as is. I listened to Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights with her high (coloratura?) soprano. Outrageous amounts of treble. Look out for an X-Curve setting in the Home Menu which will attenuate the treble if it is on. You could certainly tweak the treble throughout the Manual MCACC setup.
 
With my VSX-1121-K receiver (that has the preamp outputs,) I am going to order a switch from monoprice to allow me to use the Front pre-out terminals to run both my speakers and the RS 220.
 
None of the Speaker B or Zone 2 solutions will allow for everything to be controlled from the remote.
 
BTW, in case you haven't seen it there is a Pioneer VSX-1021 Owners' Thread here.
 
Good luck,
 
Hal

 

[wbp1]

I have a few customers with Sennheiser RS-170's and RS-180's who were annoyed by the transmitter turning off after 3 minutes, so I came up with a modification which solves this problem.  I installed a small MCU which actually monitors the blinking LED and turns the box back on when it goes off.  It can also put the transmitter back in "multiple receiver" mode if it gets set to "single receiver" mode accidentally.  If you are interested in this let me know.
 
William