Sennheiser RS 160 Headphones (time for something more fun)

As I work for an internet insurance broker I get cheap car insurance, but I have to wait until the end of the year when I get a refund. This came through in January so I decided to treat myself and Mrs Stace to some nice headphones for in home.

I use Sennheiser ear buds for use with my iPhone and I am really impressed with them, so I started my search there. On the register I saw a review for some new wireless 'phones.

Now, over the years I have always been a little nervous about wireless headphones after using a friends pair and hearing the hissover the music - totally spoint the effect. But the review said they were great, and I liked the technology they used - 44KHz 16bit (ala CD quality) non compressed. So I thought I'd give them a try.

I should have been able to write this last week (they arrived Tuesday) but as I always have things delivered to the office as I am never home during the day I had to wait until I went back after my recent bout of tonsilitis.

Got there today, ripped open the packaging and hoped the rechargable batteries for the receiver had enough charge in them. They did! So I plugged in my iPhone and started playing my latest album - Muse / Origin of Symmetry. I didn't know how much time I was going to get on the batteries so I flicked through my favorite tracks (Bliss, Plug in Baby and Feeling Good).

The sound is stunning, everything you would expect for tripple figure Sennheiser headphones. The bass is rich, the treble is crisp. There is no tinnyness in the top end, and no distortion in the base, even at the volume Muse demands. On top of that my colleague sitting at the next desk heard nothing, neither did I when they tried the set.

And the tramission quality? Flawless. Nearly. There were a couple of times when it sounded like a CD skipping. Whether that was from the iPhone (it does it from time to time) or the headphones I don't know. I'm charging the batteries for the receiver now and then I'll try again on a nice classical CD and see. When paused they are silent, when not paused it's as good as any wired set I have tried.

Set up was simple. Plug the base unit into the power and sound source, put the batteries into the head set and press play in the iPhone. No set up to pair the phones to the base station. I'm almost sure that my parents could cope with it :)

The batteries lasted the whole day in the end, 8 hours of listening almost - on batteries that came out of the packaging. With no pain or discomfort on my ears either.

I'll post an update when I've had them a couple of months - but initial impressions are very positive.

Update: Half way through my second CD now with fresh batteries and it hasn't missed a beat, so I am guessing that it was the iPhone that was struggling not the headphones.