Rating: Summary: Great sound, cheap construction Review: I bought the RS30's over the other brands of wireless headphones because I've been extremely pleased with my other Sennheiser purchases (HD-202, HD-212, MX-400). In those cases, I've found both the construction and sound quality to be well ahead of the pack, especially for the price. In the RS-30's, I had to settle for one out of two. The sound quality is excellent - within a 50 foot radius, you'd never know they weren't an expensive wired set. Reception is good throughout the house, although a little static creeps in at longer distances.However, I was surpised by the cheap plastic and un-upholstered foam construction. Right out of the box, there was a little piece of plastic rattling around inside the headband. I don't see these headphones lasting long, even with gentle use. Also, the battery pack is just a dumb design. You have to remove the battery from the phones and plug it into the base to charge. Well, the base already acts as a cradle for the phones, so how hard would it be to align the contacts on the battery with those on the base, so it will charge on its own?? Cordless telephones have done this for years. In short, I bought this as a gift, and I'll be a little embarassed when I hand it over later today, as it looks like a kmart special. Hopefully, the sound quality will help the recipient overlook the construction.
Rating: Summary: Cuts off with phone use Review: I bought these headphones for my dad and he says that everytime the neighbour picks up the phone, his connection to the base unit is broken. He's able to listen in to their conversations because of the signaling overlap. To fix the problem, he has to get up and hit the channel change button to re-establish the connection. This happens quite frequently and he's very very annoyed. I'll be returning them ASAP.
Rating: Summary: Pretty Darn Good Review: Okay, I'm the type of guy who used to buy an expensive headset. I would be listening, phone would ring, I'd get up, headset would rip off and then I'd accidentally step on it. I was always destroying the headsets I had on. I picked up the Sennheiser RS30 headset a few days ago from J and R. The instructions are bogus. It took me a while to realize the battery was separate and you slip it in and out of the headset. The instructions are worse than some of IKEA's furniture instructions that sometimes are in Finnish. You charge it for 12 hours (mandatory). I used it the first day. Plugged it into the earplug of my small tv jack so I could walk around without the tv blaring in my office (I'm a hypnotist in NYC). I accidentally had it on and went to the bathroom. Now the bathroom in my building is like 1 long NYC block away because it is outside in the hallway all the way on the opposite end of the building. Surprisingly, with several steel girdered buildings in the way, I didn't miss a note or pick up any other reception. Amazing for [the price] unit. Okay, here's the shortcomings. Manual, come on guys. I'm good with electronics, but this is the first time I'm handling a unit like this. You could have gone the extra mile and added a few paragraphs for clarification Second, the battery. Now, I charged it for 12 hours. Got 2 hours use (the battery supposedly doesn't have a memory effect and you can't buy a replacement ANYWHERE but Sennheiser (...). The second day, I got a good 5 minutes out of the charge. Called Sennheiser in New Lyme, CT. Got through in 10 minutes. A wonderful sales girl named Genine (I think that is how its spelled) took my info, etc. and is putting a battery in the mail as we speak. Talk about customer service. This is the kind of company I like to do business with. Try to get Sony on the line. Well, I'm waiting for a new battery and seeing if I can squeeze any life out of the one that came with it, so I can only judge this unit on yesterday's usage which is just what I wanted it for and more. I'm not saying this is as great as a wireless, but if you're like me and sit or step on most of your wired headphones, this is a pleasure. REAL FREEDOM. I may buy another one for the office. John ...
Rating: Summary: good electronics, inferior plastic construction Review: Purchased the RS30 yesterday without seeing the display model as a demo was not available at the store. Had I seen it I might not have purchased it. The headset construction is just junk with a cheap thin foam piece for each ear and one cheap foam piece under the headband. Construction is all cheap thin plastic more toy like than any toy. The picture on the box really looks much better than the actual headset. I expect it to fall apart within 6 months but it's warranted for 2 years. We'll see. The manual is also a joke which consists of a half sheet with one paragraph explanation in six different languages! There is no contact support shown other than a web site and contact phone and address in Germany. No USA contact provided in the literature, just like OEM computer parts. As for controls the volume, on/off and tune are just too small and the tune dial is on the wrong side of the earpiece and hard to reach and control. My older wireless Sennheiser is much better constructed and the controls much easier to operate. The transmitter station is pretty good which they use for the more expensive mode TeaUnlike the more expensive models you cannot charge the batteries in place but requires you the remove the battery from the headset and insert it to the slot provided in the station. Also unlike the older models where you could charge two batteries at the same time you could charge only one. This is unfortunate as the battery only last about 4 hours at best and perhaps only one or two hours after six months of use. You really need a spare and the charger need to charge two batteries at the same time as it takes so long to obtain a full charge. Once you get over the feeling that your head is sandwiched between two cheap foam pieces the sound quality is really good for an entry level wireless headphone. For jazz and pop music which I have on at the moment the RS30 is smooth without any harshness across the frequency spectrum. Sound quality is an improvement over my old wireless Sennheiser. Its more musical than the Bose Lifestyle system I once had which means the RS30 sounds almost as well as a good cheap wired headphone. The new transmitter unit is backwards compatible with my old unit so that I could have two wireless headphone on at the same time tuning to the same or different sound sources. You could conceivably have three transmitter stations (three different channels provides) with multiple headsets - Sennheisers only. I've tried a different brand of wireless but that didn't work with the Sennheiser and in fact only one system could be on at a time but not both. One drawback is that the headphone is an open air type so someone next to you will hear the music so I won't play it loud in bed when the wife is asleep or in the library. Like the old model I also noticed when you move your head or go from room to room the reception may introduce some intermittent noise specially when the battery is low. So far this is only minor nuisance as most of the time the reception is clear. The noise rejection is an improve over the old model. Your mileage may very.
Rating: Summary: Great sound when you find reception Review: Sounds great but tweaking in reception can be a pain. Otherwise when you get the channel locked in its as if your listening to a really nice set of speakers. The headset itself is very light, you hardly feel them. They can be a bit warm though because of their circumaural design.
Rating: Summary: Great sound when you find reception Review: Sounds great but tweaking in reception can be a pain. Otherwise when you get the channel locked in its as if your listening to a really nice set of speakers. The headset itself is very light, you hardly feel them. They can be a bit warm though because of their circumaural design.
Rating: Summary: Great for Background Music... Review: The RS-30 headphones are great for listening to music or watching TV, but if you need top quality sound, you'll want to look elsewhere (perhaps Sennheiser's higher quality products). There's a fairly typical amount of background noise with these that you probably won't find in higher end models. The Open-air design of these works quite well for allowing the right amount of outside noise in. I also tried the Advent AW-770 headphones, but in my listening environment I was getting too much static and interference. The Sennheisers don't have near the amount of interference that the Advent pair had. This pair isn't the most comfortable (who can beat a good pair of AKG headphones, that cup the ear, at comfort?), but they are fairly adjustable and manageable. If you'll be listening all day at work, you may want to order another battery for the set, as the shipping battery only lasts a little over 4 hours. **December 10, 2001: Update** Apparently the plastic is a little weak. I was taking them off my head (granted, with one hand), and the left can snapped off right at the joint. I've since tried super-gluing, to no avail. If you get these, you may want to practice taking them off with both hands, one on each side!
Rating: Summary: Cut too many corners Review: The RS30 is the bottom of the Sennheiser wireless headphone line. It replace the RS4. There are 4 variations of the RS30 for which the 900 MHz (US model?) unit has a reception of about 100 ft. while all the other RS30s have receptions about 300 ft. The RS30 and RS4 is compatible in receiving signals from either base units and uses the same battery. There are three selectable channels on the base unit. The RS 30 has a two year warranty but looking at the cheap construction (all cheap plastic, no metal parts) it doesn't appeared to me that it will last 6 months. The RS4 was much better constructed. The volume, tune and on/off on the headphone are too small and just too awkward to adjust, in particular, the tune control. This is not the case with the the RS4. The RS4 is also more comfortable for extended hours or usage. There is a one page manual in six diferent languages. There is a website but no other US contacts provided on the manual. The RS4 has a low level background hiss but much of that is gone on the RS30 although some occasional hiss, clicks and pops still persist. The battery will last 8226t 4 hours at first and within a year or two only last one hour like mine RS4. My local stores that sells the RS30 units don't carry the batteries. Sound quality is not any better than standard cheap wired headphones that come with MP3, portable CD or MD players. I could manage about two hours of usage before the RS30 headset become uncomfortable, just enought for a movie. The ear pads are awful thin and cheap. Too many corners were cut in constructing this headphone. I listen mostly to soft rock, pop and jazz and with respect to that the audio response is smooth throughout the audio spectrum. In summary: poor physical construction but good sound for casual listening.
Rating: Summary: Good Product Review: These headphones are good but, if you are looking for the top of the line headphones then you might want to try some of the companies later models that have more features. They are really good for the purpose that they serve and I am really enjoying my pair
Rating: Summary: mediocre for the price Review: they sound good if you sit perfectly still, but that defeats the purpose of having wireless headphones. i get minor distortion anytime i sit near a device that produces RF interference- like a computer for example. its probably worth it to drop a bit more money and get a nicer pair, like the sonys or sennheiser's top model
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