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Rating: 
Summary: Great for movies, not so hot for music
Review: At my house, my wife isn't into music. To be more accurate, she believes that music is noise. That noise shouldn't be loud (which means louder than, say, the dishwasher). Therefore music shouldn't be loud enough to create a reasonable listening experience. Rather than listening to a continual stream of complaining, or having to wait for her to go out; I have tried several different sets of headphones over the last several years. Most have been awful beyond belief. I've currently I have a set of Sennheiser HD590 which are okay. Of late, I've gotten into 5.1 concert recordings. A great example is Eric Clapton's "One More Car, One More Rider" DVD. Listening to this in DTS is great. Even my 2 year old asks to listen to this DVD (he loves to plays air guitar with Eric). However, even the best 2 channel headphones don't recreate the 5.1 experience of Eric Clapton's DVD (or any other good concert DVD's that I have either). So when I ran across the Sony MDR-DS5100 and thought I had found a solution to my problem. Even though the Sony MDR-DS5100 headphones themselves are 2 channel, the wireless transmitter base takes in digital input and uses DSP effects to recreate a 5.1 experience. The reviews I found where universally good. So I figured, what the heck, I can always return them. Boy were my expectations too high. This babies totally mangled the experience of concert DVD's. Even the two channel experience was better than this. None of the settings on the headphone control did anything but change how badly the sound was mangled. I was getting ready to pack them up and take them back, when I tried listening to a DVD movie with a decent 5.1 sound track. It turns out these headphones are pretty good for listening to DVD movies. Since my wife also considers movie soundtracks to be noise (all she does when we go to a theater is complain about how loud it is), these headphones might solve a different problem for me. I don't know if I'll keep them yet, but here is what I've observed: Pros: 1) My Sony receiver silences the speakers when headphones are plugged in, but not the subwoofer (what was Sony thinking??). Using these headphones with the digital out on my receiver solves this mildly annoying problem. 2) The headphones don't sound bad for movies, but don't try them on concert DVDs. You will be sadly disappointed. 3) They are definitely reasonable wireless headphones. I previously owned an older set of Sennheiser RF wireless headphones which were awful (small proprietary batteries, RF drift which require retuning every few minutes, and marginal sound quality). The Sony MDR-DS5100 aren't bad headphones, at least when compared to other wireless headphones I've tried. 4) They have good power management and use standard AA batteries which mean all those rechargeable batteries that I keep around for my digital camera can be used here too. Cons:
1) Price
2) 5.1 Concert DVD soundtracks are mangled beyond belief
3) Price (it's worth mentioning that again). You could buy a couple of sets of Sennheiser HD590 for the price of one of these babies.
Rating: 
Summary: AWESOME sound
Review: I can't believe how good these sound! it is really like seating at the movies.. Note that the digital input is TOSLINK (optical) so your source will need to have this kind or ouput (or get a Coaxial-Optical adapter, just as I did). Trust me, you won't believe your ears!
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, but quite pricey!
Review: I picked these headphones up in Hong Kong back in 1999 for a decent price. Like the other reviewer, I had very high expectations going into this, and I will say they were not completely met. I purchased this set so I could watch TV and movies without disturbing my sweetie :). She goes to sleep an hour or two before I do, so these have been a g-dsend for our relationship. The technology behind this product is incredible.. They are truly digital wireless headphones, employing a unique infrared transmitter base with four receivers (one for each ear front and back) on the headphones. It appears as though it only needs one of these receivers within site of the base at any given time. Range is decent and far beyond what you might expect out of an optical wireless product. Even more impressive is the ability of the headphones to work with a reflection! I'm able to step outside the room and pick up a signal without a direct line of sight to the base (it bounces off the wall!) In standard stereo mode they are a darn good set of headphones. Good range of sound and I believe they also employ some noise cancelling technologies. Surround mode is another story.. Running dolby surround from a non-digital source sounds terrible and murky. Almost sounds like listening to music in a tin bucket :). DVD movies in 5.1 surround aren't bad, but still no replacement for a real home theater system. I still hear a bit of that digital tinnyness when employing digital 'dolby virtual mode.' There are a number of virtual surround modes, including standard stereo mode for CD's, music, and other analog sources. The unit has two input choices - standard analog RCA ports and an optical Sony toslink port. Make sure your DVD player has an optical output for Dolby Digital. Most do, but when I bought these back in '99 I had to buy a $100 coax to optical adapter to get up and running. I'm impressed with these headphones, but the price might make many of you think twice. I'm sure I could have prevented disturbing my sweetie for much less than 400+ dollars :).
Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but quite pricey!
Review: I picked these headphones up in Hong Kong back in 1999 for a decent price. Like the other reviewer, I had very high expectations going into this, and I will say they were not completely met. I purchased this set so I could watch TV and movies without disturbing my sweetie :). She goes to sleep an hour or two before I do, so these have been a g-dsend for our relationship. The technology behind this product is incredible.. They are truly digital wireless headphones, employing a unique infrared transmitter base with four receivers (one for each ear front and back) on the headphones. It appears as though it only needs one of these receivers within site of the base at any given time. Range is decent and far beyond what you might expect out of an optical wireless product. Even more impressive is the ability of the headphones to work with a reflection! I'm able to step outside the room and pick up a signal without a direct line of sight to the base (it bounces off the wall!) In standard stereo mode they are a darn good set of headphones. Good range of sound and I believe they also employ some noise cancelling technologies. Surround mode is another story.. Running dolby surround from a non-digital source sounds terrible and murky. Almost sounds like listening to music in a tin bucket :). DVD movies in 5.1 surround aren't bad, but still no replacement for a real home theater system. I still hear a bit of that digital tinnyness when employing digital 'dolby virtual mode.' There are a number of virtual surround modes, including standard stereo mode for CD's, music, and other analog sources. The unit has two input choices - standard analog RCA ports and an optical Sony toslink port. Make sure your DVD player has an optical output for Dolby Digital. Most do, but when I bought these back in '99 I had to buy a $100 coax to optical adapter to get up and running. I'm impressed with these headphones, but the price might make many of you think twice. I'm sure I could have prevented disturbing my sweetie for much less than 400+ dollars :).
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