Sennheiser RS120 926 MHz Wireless RF Headphones with Charging Cradle
by Sennheiser
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List Price: Our Price: $68.00 You Save: $41.95 (38%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $48.01 (click here) Category: Speakers See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Sennheiser RS120 926 MHz Wireless RF Headphones with Charging Cradle
Customer Review: Great for Seniors!
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this set for my 73 year old mother as a Christmas gift, and let me say that she just loves them to death. Her hearing was so bad that she would blast the tv at physically painful levels, and she still couldn't make out what was being said. Now she can hear everything clearly, even dialogues where the people are whispering, and the headset volume only needs to be at a normal level. She finds them very comfortable...she even fell asleep in them the first time she wore them. When she woke up, she kept the headset on, and I didn't notice any ear rubbing or redness when she took them off to go to bed. When I woke up the next morning, she was already wearing them to watch the news.
I also tested the headset before giving them to her, keeping in mind the complaints from other reviewers, and this is what I found:
These phones may not be a good choice for hardcore audiophiles, but for your average, run-of-the-mill consumer this is an excellent headset for the price. The sound quality is good with television viewing, and I only noticed hisses/pops when the headset wasn't receiving a signal. I'm not sure what the issue was with some of the other reviewers' setups, but I can mute the television, or lower the volume to 0 and still maintain a good signal. (I did need to increase the headset volume a little when I went to 0 on the tv, but muted doesn't affect the signal at all.)
Neither of us have put the 150 foot range to the test, but my mom claims that she can still hear the tv from the back of her 60 foot trailer (the charger's in the front), and when she goes outside to get the paper. The power cord for the charger is more than long enough for my purposes, and the headset settles into its cradle almost by itself with the earmuffs contracted. If you keep the muffs extended, you will need to do a jiggle here or there to set it in place. The phones are very comfortable with a lot of cushioning and a loose grip. This may not be good for people with small heads or who will be active while wearing them, but for me, I tend to get headaches with high-tension muffs, so I like them.
Customer Review: Asinine and Occasionally Terrifying
Summary: 2 Stars
Foreword: I use these for my home computer. I'm 23 and a very experienced computer user.
There are a few things about these headphones that make them seem as if they were designed by someone who had never been told what they'd be used for.
Let's start off with the fact that they're wireless headphones, but the charging base has two frustratingly short wires you need to accommodate. There's the obvious input jack that pulls the sound from the computer. It's so short (4 or 5 feet maybe?) that it becomes a real pain to position in a convenient/attractive way in the room. It creates one of those taut, easy to accidentally snag hanging wire situations that has ended in my charging base startlingly slamming to the floor on a few occasions. The charging base needs to be plugged into a wall jack with an equally short cord, however, this one ends in an inexplicably large AC adapter that will require you to shuffle (if not completely unplug) some of your other gadget AC inputs.
Yes, you've heard me right. Amount of wires to deal with on a regular, 2 dollar set of headphones from a 7-11: 1 wire. Amount of wires to deal with on a pair of 70 dollar Sennheisers: 2 wires, both of which are too short and clunky. Am I missing something here?
Perhaps even worse is the auto-off feature of the headphones. If the headphones receive no audio information for about five minutes (i.e. the CD you were listening to ended, the movie you were watching is over and you've fallen asleep in bed), the headphones will shut off to preserve battery life. But rather than just going quiet, you get an earful of unending, louder than holy hell static. So every time your PC goes quiet for more than five minutes and you have those headphones on, get ready to crap yourself when they kick in with horror-movie-level, ear-splitting static.
I know these have gotten great reviews, but most of those come from people who have owned the product for about a week. Over prolonged use, you learn to HATE these things. Do yourself a favor and buy a cheapo, 1-wire, no static pair from anywhere else.
Customer Review: Automatic on/off is a killer
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this wireless headset for watching TV or playing video games while my wife is asleep. It's a noble idea, but I now get the impression that you have to spend >$200 to get a decent pair. These had a few qualities that I didn't like, and one that I absolutely HATED. The minor things: in short, they didn't fit. The part that fits on your ear is flat, and angled odd, so it doesn't stay on your ear if you lean over and it tended to slide forward even while sitting upright. The sound quality was OK, but there was a constant low tone "hum" the entire time they were on. The major thing: the auto on/off switch in the transmitter. I can't stress enough how annoying this is. This is the main reason I decided to return these. The transmitter would turn off automatically while I was using them, followed by a loud annoying static sound. This would happen every 5-10 minutes, and last for about 30-60 seconds. I first thought that I just needed to turn the audio source up more, but that didn't fix it. It seemed purely random. I then switched channels (there are three to choose from on the transmitter) and tuned the headphones accordingly. Same result. I checked to see if the microwave was in use, or any other transmitting electronics in the house were in use, but nothing was. Instead of playing detective for any longer, I decided I had enough. $80 should get you more than this inconvenience.
The good: the charging stand was really easy to use. you could practically throw the headphones onto the stand and it would charge. I just can't see why anyone would have a problem with that feature. Also, the range was good. The same (mediocre) sound quality was delivered at 5 feet to 50 feet in my house.
My solution: I bought a 20' 1/8 jack extension cord instead. I'll use my in-ear phones with the extension and know that I'll be able to hear my media w/out interruption.
Recommendation: either spend $150-250 on wireless set, or just get a long extension chord for your existing phones.
Customer Review: Awesome Wireless Headset!
Summary: 5 Stars
These wireless headphones are really awesome! The base unit comes with a phono plug to 3.5 mm headphone jack adapter, and then a 3.5 mm headphone jack to left/right RCA audio adapter. The base unit has nice, long RCA cables on it. They are not heavily shielded or anything, but they are on par with a good set of headphone wires.
The wireless has worked awesome for me! No static or noise or any interference! I was worried that there might be a slight amount of static due to all of my computer and electronic devices planted only inches away from the Sennheiser base unit. I have not had a single issue at all! Amazing!
The headphones have a on/off switch on the left ear cup. It also houses the 2 x AAA batteries (rechargeable ones that were included). The right ear cup has two dials. One for volume, and one to tune the headphones. The volume is fine, no problems. However, I find the "tune" dial to be a little archaic. The base unit itself has a toggle switch that lets you select between 3 channels. I have 3 units, all set to different channels, so I can tune into which ever one I want to at the time, and my brother and sister can too. I would have preferred a similar switch to have been present on the headphones, even though it is easy as pie to tune the signal in, and you have a good wide range where you get superb sound (unlike some tuning devices where you have that magical sweet-spot that is harder than a fruit-cake to get perfect so you don't have static). The headset itself is also a bit heavy, so if you plan on leaning forward with them on, be ready to keep them from sliding off your head. Not too bad, considering they have batteries and all.
The price is not too bad! And, being made by Sennheiser, these headphones are great! If you are looking for a wireless headset, I recommend these, unless you are looking to spend MUCH more, or are willing to gamble on quality. I was amazed to find the Sennheiser RS120's at such a great price and such awesome performance!
Customer Review: Often Frustrating
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought these to use at my computer because I do not like the feeling of being "tethered" to my PC. I find the sound of these to be very good and I do not have a problem with interference. BUT they are completely frustrating!
First of all, they constantly slide off my head. It was so bad that I thought I had a stretched headset, and convinced Sennheiser to send me a replacement. The replacement is just as bad. Don't expect to use this if you plan to be moving around in the slightest. I'm not a head-banger by any means, but even bobbing your head to the music is a challenge.
The second problem is that they often, for no reason, flat out refuse to play. The on/off light stays off despite them being plugged in and powered on. I have to go through gyrations with the power cord until they decide to start working. I'm not even sure if my fiddling with the cord does anything or if it is just random. Because of the replacement I received, I ended up with a second base unit and transformer, and I have had the problem with both bases and both transformers.
Lastly, the auto-shut-off is very annoying. Often I will pause my music to have a conversation with someone and in the middle of the conversation I will get a blast of static noise in my ear when the transmitter turns off.
Edited 11/13/09: I am still using these headphones 2.5 years after I wrote this original review, so they must not be as bad as I originally wrote. really, the sound is good, and they are very comfortable. I have not had the refusing to play problem lately, so I'm not sure what was going on there. I have moved them a few times since I was having that problem, so perhaps it was just bad location. Battery life has never been a problem and they are still going strong on the original batteries.
I feel the 1-star rating I originally gave was unfair and am increasing it to 4-stars because I really do like these headphones now that I have gotten used to the quirks.