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Acoustic Research AW791 Traditional Closed Wireless Surround Headphones (Silver)

Acoustic Research AW791 Traditional Closed Wireless Surround Headphones (Silver)

List Price: $249.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Won't stand behind their product
Review: The headphone swivel is very poorly designed. When you plug them into the base to recharge it puts stress on the swivel. I received a pair as a gift in February 2003 and the swivel broke two months later. I thought it might have been misuse (my grandson had used them once) so I purchased a replacement set. The same thing happened again. I returned them for warranty service and was told by their customer service department that the parent company, Thomson, purchased Acoustic Research in July 2003 and will not honor any warranties on purchases prior to that date. Purchase these at your own risk. Why should you expect them to treat new customers any better?

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Won't stand behind their product
Review: The headphone swivel is very poorly designed. When you plug them into the base to recharge it puts stress on the swivel. I received a pair as a gift in February 2003 and the swivel broke two months later. I thought it might have been misuse (my grandson had used them once) so I purchased a replacement set. The same thing happened again. I returned them for warranty service and was told by their customer service department that the parent company, Thomson, purchased Acoustic Research in July 2003 and will not honor any warranties on purchases prior to that date. Purchase these at your own risk. Why should you expect them to treat new customers any better?

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Painful to wear
Review: The headphones work pretty well. I bought them because I already had Advent wireless speakers, and I wouldn't have to set up another transmitter. The sound quality if fine, and I don't have much of a problem tuning the headphones to receive the signal from the stereo. But, after wearing them for few minutes it gets to be painful. They hurt too much to wear them for more than a few minutes at a time, and there is no way to adjust them so that they don't cause pain! --This text refers to an alternate option.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Seriously flawed
Review: There are a number of glaring flaws with this product. I bought it to plug into my TV so I can watch the Today show in "silence" while working out or walking on the treadmill in our exercise room. I am sorely dissapointed on many levels.

Several reviewers mention the "hiss". The volume control is a cheap resistive control which gets dirt and/or oxide build-up very easily. This causes an enormous amount of static when you change the volume control and the poor connection comes through as "hiss" or static. The solution is to buy "tuner cleaner" at Radio Shack and drench the volume control in it while furiously turning it back and forth until it cleans. But for the price they could use a higher quality part...

There is ironically the same kind of connection problem with the battery. If you use "real" alkaline batteries, it works fine, but the batteries supplied with my unit are real sensitive and sometimes I have to gently tap the side of the battery door to get them to seat right.

The feel of the headphones is like a vice. They are heavy and the grip on your ears is WAY too tight, particularly if those little cartilage flaps in the front stick out like mine do. After wearing these phones for 30 minutes, it starts to hurt.

These phones are maddenly succeptible to interference from each and every other source of 900 MHz device in your neighborhood, like somebody else's phones, cordless telephone, cell phone, police phone, pager, etc. I find standing just 5 feet from the transmitter, all kinds of interference will occur and the sound will come and go. If I walk around the house, I get micro dead zones where if I stand in one place the sound turns to noise and if I move 6" the sound is fine.

The only redeeming value to these phones is that the sound is relatively good.

I would strongly recommend either a wired headphone (and just live with the cord) or one of the much more expensive models with error correction (although since I have no direct experience with them, they might not really be better.)

Knowing what I know now I would not buy these again, but would try for the more expensive "digital" spread spectrum models. At least the sound might be steady and the radio interference would be gone.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very Good And Clear
Review: These headphones are really neat. At first they had a lot of static until I found out that I had to turn my surround sound system to stereo because the audio cables that were plugged in don't support surround and they were trying to send signals to speakers that weren't there. They were then very clear. Every so often you'll come into a little bit of static when listening to CDs while you are moving around but DVDs play crystal clear and the Dolby surround is really neat. I believe that the optical cable that is included really helps with the clarity (and you can only get Dolby with an optical cable or a digital coaxial cable which is not included). All in all I would recommend these to someone who is looking for some wireless headphones.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Wireless tip of the year
Review: This is a good product for less money and it works but remember to tune it in right and fool with it!!! Takes maybe a week but once you get it tuned right I got over 150 ft reception. Now here is my tip...the headphones are just OK so I got a new Sony wireless 900 MHz RF 945RK hoping it would be better the headphones are but the Sony base does not work as well as the Advent so I just tuned my Sony headphones to the Advent base I get over 300 feet reception and have driven off with headphones on down the street..and they still receive over 300-500 feet amazing.

Go with Advent base and Sony headphones ... or at least try it somehow they match well...go figure.

SKI --This text refers to an alternate option.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: BEST WIRELESS STEREO HEADPHONES
Review: This is the best WIRELESS HEADPHONE for the money. The sound is crisp and clean. You'll have to use the best connection via digital cable connected directly from the DVD player digital cable output or good cables connected to the 2 audio outs of the DVD player. If you don't do it this way - eg. connecting it to a Receiver or to the back of an HDTV you will get a lot of hiss.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: POOR VOLUME
Review: This item has weaker volume as compared to other wireless headphone units.The other features seemed to work as good as the other units though.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Pros: music, range ; Cons: battery, clarity, durability
Review: This review is for the Advent AW720. Don't buy it.

1. Very weak battery life.

According to the manual, it takes 12 hours to completely charge the Ni-Cd battery and a completely charged battery yields 4 hours of playtime. 12/4 is unacceptable. The weakest of Sony headphones have batteries that charge for 24 hours but yield 30 hours playtime. So if you charge the weakest Sony headphone battery for 12 hours, you get 15 hours, or 3 times the charge! That's more like it! The Advent battery makes you feel limited and I don't like feeling limited. Second, this may sound silly, it costs you to charge the headphones. If I didn't live in a dorm, I'd care! Those nickels can add up!

2. Poor clarity for anything except music (no dvd, videos, etc.)

Really, when I'm not using my headphones, I always have them charging! I always start off with 100% charged battery. And I play around with tuning knobs on both the headphone and the base. I do everything yet I cannot get rid of the "audio scratches" when watching a DVD on tv or watching a video on my computer. True, the careful tuning can get rid of the "hiss" but the "audio scratches" will be there at least every ten seconds no matter what you do when using the headphones for anything but music.

I tried to use the "special connection" (for my dvd player)that they give you rather than the typical headphone jack connection. Batteries were 75% charged. As usual, with proper tuning, the hiss was gone. But the "audio scratches" stayed! Those scratches totally ruin your movie watching experience! Second, I had to crawl down, disconnect the tv audio input nad then connect the headphone input to the dvd. When I finished trying to use the headphone, I had to crawl done again, disconnect and reconnect the tv audio. Who wants to go through that trouble for a "special connection" that doesn't really work? And how is it even possible if the battery is so weak that after half way through the movie it is signifcantly uncharged? Pathetic!

That being said, the sound quality of this headphone is great for music from my computer. No doubt about it. There are very few "audio scratches" there and with proper tuning the hiss will go down. Also, contrary to some reports, these headphones can be very, very loud indeed without being harsh!

3. Not very durable (then again, how many are?)

Close to the ear cup, there is a strip that is very easy to wear and tear. The ear cups themselves are of hollow plastic (although this is OK). Every time I put on the headphone, I feel afraid to break that part. Even the ear cups are poorly connected to the stem (this doesn't seem to be trouble). I admit it is easy to reinforce that weak area near the cup with duck tape and it won't trouble you at all, but who wants that! But then again, how many durable headphones are there? I wouldn't put my money on the RCA 160 Whip or whatever. I'm sure you can find something better anyway.

4. Range is very good!

I live in a dorm where there are thick walls. I can get out of my room and up to 30 (not 300) feet in the hallway and I can listen to music with no trouble. Hey, that's not bad is it, considering the fact that some headphones promise only up to 24 (of course, you know what they promise isn't the same as it really is, so factor that in). I still think 30 feet near thick walls is very impressive. And I'll bet that if it was a more open area, I'd get even better range. Impressive for that and probably top notch!

Conclusion:

Don't buy it. The battery is unacceptable. Very limited play time. And you are limited only to music. You can't watch movies or videos or watch tv with this headphone! Oh no you can't, not without getting an annoying "audio scratch" every the seconds even if the battery if fully charged and you use the optimum connection they tell you on DVD! And that is unacceptable because it ruins your movie experience!

I paid 17 dollars for these headphones right here at amazon (I hear the current price is 64!). I'd say you cap your price to 40 dollars (be patient, there'll be some merchant selling for a 40 dollars or less) and buy a Sony. I hear that even the Sonys are very poor, but at least you get a stronger battery?

Good luck. --This text refers to an alternate option.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: For the price? Not too shabby
Review: Well, years ago, I saw the Sony surround headphones (MDR-DS*) and thought they would be pretty cool. The price scared me stiff.
Now you have these and the Sennheiser RS 65, with similar praise and criticism.
For me, the hiss was annoying, but after laying back to watch my movie, I was able to "retune" the hiss to a decent level, then the movie drowned out the rest. I'm not sure how much if a surround effect there was (I forgot to test that), but the headphones could play action scenes pretty well.
For the prices that they're available for, with included NiMH batteries, it's hard to argue against them.
I'm keeping mine, though I'm hoping to compare to the Sennheisers soon.
How is it that cordless phones are worry free in 900MHz up to 5+GHz, and we can't get decent headphones?


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