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Wireless Headphones - A shopper's guide
Wireless headphones have always been a great idea. You’re not tethered to the audio source, so cable length doesn’t matter. You don’t get tangled up in the cable when you move around, or have it dangling in your field of view when watching something, or have somebody trip over it when they walk between you and your home theatre system.
Several people can listen in at once using different headsets, obviating the need for a splitter. And you can also watch a show or listen to music with different audio levels for different listeners, which is great when you have situations where different people in the house have different volume tolerances – they’re particularly useful when one listener is hearing-impaired but you don’t want to upset the neighbours by jacking up the volume.
But wireless headphones have traditionally had an Achilles heel – the wireless transmission itself. Many wireless headphones use FM radio and infra-red transmission technology, which are susceptible to interference or blocking. Often this is evidenced by a constant low hiss and the occasional pop in the audio. Others may use digital technologies, such as Bluetooth. The problem here is that Bluetooth has only a short range (making it most appropriate for mobile phone and iPod headsets) and its limited bandwidth may mean that the audio has to be compressed, resulting in a loss of fidelity.
The good news is that new technologies have recently become available to fix those issues. Recent headphone releases have used digital transmission technologies from Kleer and other developers that provide excellent range, flawless digital clarity and enough bandwidth over the airwaves to deliver uncompressed audio. In short, you no longer have to sacrifice audio quality to go wireless.
