Phone in your answer, please.

October 3, 2008 7:22 AM

I love my Sennheiser HD 580 headphones, but the cord gets tangled around my chair. Could I switch to cordless headphones with no loss in sound quality?

Usually, I listen to iTunes mp3s and watch videos on the computer as I'm wearing the phones. No high-end sound sources, in other words. The Sennheisers have been more than adequate to the task.

I'd like to switch to cordless headphones, but is the quality degraded by the cordless feature?

If the degradation isn't measurable, what solid, circumaural headphones can you recommend? I spent a sliver less than $200 on the HD 580s, and if I can stay in that parameter--especially with a new pair of Sennheisers--I'd be happy.

posted by Gordion Knott to technology (4 comments total)

In 2006 I bought some wireless headphones and found the static to be unbearable. The sound quality overall was not as good. However, I am comparing a $200 pair of Sony wireless to a $200 pair of Bose wired.

Your mileage may vary based upon your sensitivity to such things. I would recommend if you DO buy some to buy them at a local store, keep the receipt, use them as much as you can for 30 days and then if you don't like them, take 'em back.
posted by arniec at 7:47 AM on October 3, 2008

I've never experienced wireless headphones that have sounded as good as even somewhat cheaper wired headphones. I don't doubt that it's possible though. However, I'd suggest that coming up with a solution with the wire might involve less heartache overall.
posted by wackybrit at 1:09 PM on October 3, 2008

Wireless headphones are terrible, at least in my experience. None I've tried (including some very nice Sennheisers) have compared favorably to a $10 pair of earbuds.

That's "old technology", though. The new digital (bluetooth?) ones might be better.
posted by mmoncur at 2:39 AM on October 4, 2008

I have the newish bluetooth logitech headphones and they work great.
you can get them for around $50 dollars on ebay. They come with a blue tooth dongle that plugs into the stereo hole on your computer or mp3 player. There is no static, its a complete digital link so the the music either sounds fine, or if i move too far away it just cuts out completely. They are also nice because they use standard bluetooth 2.0 so the headphones will also work with your cell phone if it supports stereo headphones (no mic on them, but I can listen to music from a KRZR just fine)
posted by Iax at 2:58 PM on October 4, 2008