"Wireless" vs bluetooth

Apr 14, 2013 at 9:39 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 1

x838nwy

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Hi,

While i'm enjoying my (wired) headphone rig at work, i often have to move around my office. So i'm thinking about going wireless... and as a result i'm getting confused... Hopefully someone here can shed some light on my queries so here goes.

There seems to be two types of wireless headphones: 1.) the usual wireless headphones like the RS series from Sennheiser and 2.) the bluetooth kind.

I understand that (1) can use basically any source and (2) needs a bt capable source. But what is actually being transmitted in each case?

I assume the non-bt types somehow convert the analogue signal from, say, the rca inptut, into whatever it is it transmits/receives and then reverse that process at your head and drive the headphones. So essentially, allowing for losses, a better source should achieve a better sound to your ears, right?

But what about in bt headphones? What do they actually transmit/receive? A similar deal to the above or the actual file data? What i mean is, if i play a song from my iPhone, is the transmitted signal the bt version of the iphone's dac output, or would the dac be by-passed and the digital file data sent? If the former is the case, different bt sources will sound different, surely? Also would that mean that regardless of how good a bt heaphone is, it is more source-limited in comparison to conventional wireless headphones? What i mean is while i can (hope to) make the rs 180 sound better by using a better dac or amp, with a bt headphone, i'm basically stuck with my iphone, mbp or whatever with no possibilty of 'upgrading'?

May be i'm just confused... But thanks in advance anyway :)
 

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