[zonic]

Wireless headphones are great, as long as you're sitting next to the receiver. Kind of ruins the point, right? '
 
 
If you move away, the signal degrades because you're using a traditional radio frequency broadcast, like an FM radio. (Not exactly, but it's an okay analogy for now).
 
 
Are there wireless headphones that connect digitally? Im thinking of one of either:
 

1. WIFI Headphones: Connect to your wireless network and let you stream directly to them through your home or office network? Kind of like AirPlay, I guess. 
2. Wireless Radio with a Digital Signal: Digital signals resist degradation and noise, so headphones that transmit their audio digitally would theoretically get better performance and signal strength than traditional RF wireless headphones, from a similarly powered base station. 

 
 
Do either of these exist? Googling for wifi headphones returns only "wireless headphones" results, and they're all RF wireless. 

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

Wireless headphones are great, as long as you're sitting next to the receiver. Kind of ruins the point, right? '
 
 
If you move away, the signal degrades because you're using a traditional radio frequency broadcast, like an FM radio. (Not exactly, but it's an okay analogy for now).
 
 
Are there wireless headphones that connect digitally? Im thinking of one of either:
 

1. WIFI Headphones: Connect to your wireless network and let you stream directly to them through your home or office network? Kind of like AirPlay, I guess. 
2. Wireless Radio with a Digital Signal: Digital signals resist degradation and noise, so headphones that transmit their audio digitally would theoretically get better performance and signal strength than traditional RF wireless headphones, from a similarly powered base station. 

 
 
Do either of these exist? Googling for wifi headphones returns only "wireless headphones" results, and they're all RF wireless. 

There's bluetooth.
 
AKG
Sennheiser
 
And then there's this beast, very well reviewed for a wireless: RS220
 
Very best,
 
 

 

[Mannock]

I was surprised like you there is little market response to this obvious consumer desire.  I wanted a digital connection between my Rhapsody computer w/ range enough to wander all over my house without losing sound.  100m bluetooth came to mind but would have looked at Class N router technology also.  I also wanted to plug in my own headphones.
 
The closest I found is here in a Hong Kong based supplier.
 
 http://www.focalprice.com/MT005B/Mini_Bluetooth_Stereo_Headset_Black.html
 
Amazingly it works.  It is Class 2 10m range, bluetooth ver. 2.0.  I paired it with the Targus USB Bluetooth Adapter ACB20US 100m ver.2.0 w/edr which I found online for about $10.  The edr does include enhanced bluetooth audio.
 
The bluetooth pairing works well.  I can wander from the living room to the kitchen out the front door in the yard without it clipping.  It wont make it upstairs to the far bedroom though.
 
The amplifier in such a small device is as expected as a bit tinny.  My Sansa Clip Mp3 player sounds better.
 
One device I can steer you away from is the Motorola over the collar model.  Older bluetooth technology like here w/ not any better sound, & extremely uncomfortable over the collar receiver.
 
I tested the Targus adapter on Windows 7, & it does not work.  Microsoft does list the device as also not upgradeable to Win. 7.  I have it working on a duel core XP machine.  There are Vista drivers listed on the Targus website.
 
So for $25, Ive got a pretty good sounding, decent range digital headphone.  Maybe this would be good enough for you also for the time being while corporate figures out what we really want which is a 100m Bluetooth 4.0 w/ audiophile amplifier in a beltclip package with standard class AA rechargeable batteries.
 
Best Regards
Mannock

 

[arcanemethods]

Bluetooth contains an audio codec to reduce bandwidth.  I've measured what comes through that codec and it is utter crap if you care about audio reproduction at all.  What I need is a WiFi transceiver and software which intercepts my PC digital audio stream (such as Virtual Audio Cable combined with Audio Galaxy but with a more rational user interface) and send it at full bandwidth over my home WiFi hotspot to a small featureless receiver in my pocket wherein lies the DAC, power and a jack to plug in the 'phones of my choice.  There is absolutely no audio degradation in such a system other than the DAC and amplifier which these days is pretty trivial to get perfect.
 
It is hard for me to believe that such a thing does not exist at very reasonable cost.  The component cost should be about $5.00 given what mobile has done to the cost of the requisite chips.  It's just a really small subset of a 'phone dedicated to audio. 
 
I've actually done this with a Galaxy Vibrant on the receiving end that's no longer in service but it's a kludge, it's too big and power hungry and has annoying dropout issues that it shouldn't.  Hmm, maybe I should buy up the worlds supply of used Android phones with WiFi and re-sell them for this purpose without mentioning the downside. 
 
If anybody wants the gory details how to do this I'll elaborate.

 

[DEPHCONN]

OP - I understand your dilemma. 
 
Best, most versatile solution I've found to date. 
 
Airfoil - http://rogueamoeba.com
 
This VERY useful software forwards any audio source from your Mac and video in some cases. I have an iPhone 4S, connected to a crowded N-2.4Ghz network. Airfoil buffers the audio well and works wonders throughout my workspace. I'm in an temporary living situation now, yet, I look forward to testing this combination over a home-wide WDS/repeater network in my future home (seamless, home-wide audio?), via 5Ghz/N equipped iPhone 5/5S.
 
I don't know the compression/audio quality limitations, but at least the bandwidth is far greater than BT4.0. 
 
Thoughts?
 
//Conn