Are inexpensive wireless headphones worth it or not?

Question

Are inexpensive wireless headphones worth it or not?

Answer 1

You definitely lose clarity and the really bad ones have an annoying hum in the background. If your planning on using them a lot and need cordless, I'd buy better quality. I have a pair of Sennheiser which are very good and I believe they were around $200. Bose also makes a nice wireless pair, so I hear (no pun intended).

There are 2 different types. Radio frequency and infrared. Infrared tend to have better sound but you have to have a line of site to the transmitter. This never worked well for me because I tend to walk around the house while listening.

Answer 2

Besides RF vs. infrared, there are a few more variables on the RF side:

1) Frequency of the RF.  Higher frequency tends to require more line-of-sight than lower frequency.  When I say high, I mean like 5GHz, and low like 900MHz.

2) Some headphones are digital and some are analog.  If you have a choice, get the digital ones.  In general they will have superior sound since noise and multipath distortion won't cause them to lose the signal as easily.  Also, they transmit error correction codes to fix up bit errors (as long as there aren't too many).

There is a limit as to how powerful the RF signals can be by law, and most of the wireless headphones put out the legal limit, as far as I know.

Answer 3

They tend to take more abuse and are more sturdy. I never had any luck with the cheap ones. If you go to Radio Shack they have all qualities and price ranges. I usually go with the middle grade.