Headphones Reviews

THIS ISN'T THE EXACT MODEL I HAD. Feel free to ignore my review. However, the only difference is that the transmitter was smaller. I did enjoy using these for awhile, they turned off if I wasn't wearing them and they were dead silent if I was out of range. The quality was actually pretty good, assuming the battery is was charged. They didn't seem to run out of juice for awhile either.

The headphones, however, were not that comfortable. They hurt my ears after about 30 mins. Also, my ear pads tore off after about 4 months of use. I got replacement earpieces and I used them for about another 4 months. One day I just grabbed the headphones to take them off and they broke. I guess I should've taken them off with two hands, but that plastic on top is pretty weak.

So I thought it would be a great item to be able to listen to music in my house and not disturbe my partner. Wrong. I have to stay within the area of the base and no walls can come between the base and I. Maybe they should say something about this when they advertise. I thought it would be just like my cell phone and I could move around the house freely.

We have been using Sony infrared headphones for years. This model is by far the best and simplest to use so far. The major improvements are:

1) As long as you place the headset back on the cradle when you are not using it, you can forget about changing batteries or recharging.

2) A switch on the cradle switches cleanly between 2 program sources, such as 2 TVs or a TV and a stereo.

3) It turns on automatically when you put it on your head, turns off when you take it off.

Looking at some of the reviews I have to point out the difference between infrared (I/R) and radio frequency (R/F) headphones. The Sony is I/R.

I/R works the same way as the common type of remote control. You have to be either in line of sight of the cradle or where the beam can reach you after 1 bounce from a wall. It is more suitable for watching TV rather than listening to stereo unless you are willing to limit yourself to one room.

R/F broadcasts like a radio and has the advantage of at least the potential for working around the house, but introduces the following problems:

1) Tuning to the exact frequency is required and it may need to be retuned as you move around.

2) Potential interference with other R/F sources such as wireless phones.

3) Making sure that the source is strong enough to give you a good signal to noise ratio. This is especially true if you are using them with a TV. This can usually be solved by just turning the TV's volume up.

The expandable two line phone solved all our phone problems. It has been very reliable and I have added to the system so we now have four phones plus the base. A good buy.

This VTech 20-2420 Accessory Handset also works with the VTech 20-2489 Expandable Phone system.

The 20-2489 system is identical to the VTech 20-2481 Expandable Phone system, except that the 20-2489 system has a 20-2420 handset (with stand/charger) included in the box, for a total of *two* handsets, instead of just one.

5 stars because it works well.

This is a terrific, well-priced, and reliable phone. Reception is clear, battery life is adequate and it is simple to use. I have tried many, more expensive systems and the v-tech 2 line is the best. Additional phones can be added seamlessly and you do not need an outlet in every room. The answering machine can be acceseed from any handset and the paging functions work quite well. I now have 5 phones using 2 lines on the system and am very pleased.

Labtec produces some of the best earphones around. These are no exception for the price-I bought mine from Amazon- they are a real bargain. Sturdily built, gold plug, in line volume control and a heavy single sided cord that reaches across most NYC apartment rooms. However I did notice that if someone opens a door or turns on the water it seems amplified while I am wearing these earphones. That can be really annoying ,yet the sound quality is better than some of the 150.00 to 200. dollar set so I guess it is a trade off.
I would not rate these high on the noise reduction level but gave them 4 stars for the great sound quality and other features

These are some decent headphones. Lots of padding on the ears and over the head, they're very comfortable. They block out about 95% of outside noise. And they have a volume control on the 9ft long cord. I have it hooked up to my computer and use it for music and gaming, and the only problem I've had with it is mild distortion when I turn the bass levels up.

Well these are the third pair of headphones I have ever bought. Always in the same price range, but these are the best I have ever bought. The bass isn't all that great but it's everything you can expect from a pair of headphones at this price. I do get a headache from wearing them for over an hour but otherwise I recommend these to anyone looking for a pair of decently priced headphones. Great for games as well as movies.

Having the volume control on the cord is nice, but the ear pieces don't fit my ears well and kept falling out.

i ordered this earphone because i needed $5 more to use a coupon. this one is pretty good. the sound quality is great. i like the small case, but earphone looks a little old-fashioned.

Never fail these head-phones. They block all sounds. Only fault is that leak sound.

My old standard Sony headphones broke while I was on a road trip, and I came across these. They were cheap enough that I didn't have to worry about making too big of a dent in my money. However, I don't think the sound quality is all that great, and wouldn't recommend them to serious listeners.

I'm currently on my second pair of MDR-201 headphones and will be ordering another pair soon. For the low price that these go for, you get a sturdy set of headphones that are comfortable and sound good. I find they last 2+ years with heavy office use. I've tried other budget headphones from other companies (Yamaha, Aiwa) but in most cases they fell apart almost immediately. Also, for those of you out there who've been blessed with a humongous noggin like I have, these are the headphones for you - they fit even my 7 5/8 size head comfortably. The 1-sided cord is also great for avoiding tangles when using the phone. They're well-designed and a great value.

I've gone through about half-a-dozen pair of these same 'phones for the last 4 years; I wouldn't think of using any other set while on the move! They're the surest way to wring every last little drop of fidelity from any walkabout stereo, pricey or cheap. I've tried it on an inexpensive Awai, and one of Panasonic's expensive "Shock-Wave" cassette players. These 'phones make either sound terrific.

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.

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 :).

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!

The product itself is quite good and I would recommend it. However, the fact that it is supplied by Office Depot is the problem. Office Depot used poor shipping methods (an envelope with no padding) and also sent an item that had already been opened.

I've tried a few different brands, and this headset by far is the best! Very comfortable to wear for hours at a time, clear sound, excellent sensitivity of the microphone.

this is a good mic
i just got back from our first shoot using this thing insted of onboard camera mics
what a difference
the range in incridble
we had someone just walk out and keep talking, i switched the mic to tele and i could hear him allmost 100 meters away from the camera on headphones
has both tele (for long distance, often picks up to much back ground noise, and is not best for close up situations) and normal(which has decent distance as well and works fine indoors)
the only problem was that we kept getting it in the picture, but thats not a mic malfunction, just me being stupid
the windscreen is very useful, i have allways had trouble with wind using onbard camera mics, and this works much better
yes, it is mono, only putting out sound to the left ear, but using premeire you can just duplicate the left audio track and it comes out fine.

well worth it
only downside is the tele pickup gets a bit fuzzy with background noise

Been using my ATR-55 for over a year. Really like the amplified TELE feature that seems to reach out and grab sounds, without picking up hardly any surrounding noise. But hey, its uni-directional, so that's one of the things it's supposed to do. Nevertheless, the NORMAL zone is about a 120degree V in front of the mic, and the TELE is about a 90degree V-zone. Was videotaping our school's football game, and filmed one half in TELE mode, and the second half in NORMAL mode. The TELE mode was almost eerie, because you could pick up the voices out on the field, but all the surrounding noise (fans) could hardly be heard. The NORMAL mode picked up a little more audience noise, so it sounded more natural, but nevertheless still filtered out the other people talking in the press tower with me. The TELE mode is very nice for lectures, so that it doesn't pick up distracting noises, including that of the camcorder's mechanism - that's why I go this in the first place, because the OMNI-directional microphone in the digital camcorder was picking up too much noise (including its own motor) during really quiet lectures. Just be aware that this unit is _not_ stereo - you should either get a mono-to-stereo adapter to use with it, or set the sound input on the camcorder to mono. Otherwise, you'll just get sound coming out of one speaker on stereo play-back. If you need stereo, get the ATR-25, which is very nice and also uni-directional, but lacks the ATR-55's TELE feature. Basically, TELE was more important to me than stereo, but it might be different for you. I wear headphones plugged into the camcorder while filming, this way I can better monitor the sound pickup, and make a determination between whether TELE or NORMAL is best for any given situation - the difference is noticeable. I gave it four stars because it is very good, but I'm sure units like a nice Sennheiser are better, but for much more money. This is a nice looking, solidly built unit, and a decent value to boot.

GREAT HEADPHONES.REALLY GOOD SOUND
I LIKED THEM ALOT.

good frequency response
very light-weight
very comfortable: does not press ears
seals around ears, shutting out external sounds
nice long cable
at under a score, price is good

I am a frequent music listener (more into metal, hard rock, and techno), and i listen in a lot of different places. I also use headphones frequently when I get yelled at about how loud the music is. I always turn to the LT830's. They have excelent bass, good volume levels, and they are comfortable, allowing you to enjoy listening for hours (jsut makes sure that your ears dont start to sweat, cuz then we'd have a problem).

I really appreciated the great 3d sound for computer games as well. I played dungeon siege the other day with these babies and they were excellent.

The sound chanelling in these headphones is superb, with the left and right chanels clearly being heard out of different ears.

Downsides? Ofcourse. They break REALLY easily. They don't have a sound volume controller on the wire, which most of the competition does now a days, and customer support is terrible (but mostly to your advantage).

I was really angry when I my headphones started to crackle one day, and then the next, I pulled them out of my backpack, and where were the earphones, well, they certainly were not on the headphones!! No. They were lying at the bottom of my backpack, broken off from their supports on the top of the headset. I couldn't believe this, and demanded a second pair. I told them what ones i had, and they were all cool with it. They didn't even ask me for the old ones though. You might as well just tell them that they broke, and then you can have them send one out for free to u! The customer support is that unsecure. (but this is to your advantage people). Next, though, after recieving my "new" headphones, they were not ONLY the wrong version, (I had had the LT830 Special Edditions, which sounded better and came with a free pair of In-Ear headphones), but they were refurbished. Very dissapointed with that.

But even though the tech support was bad, the incredible sound and bass and sound channeling is too hard to turn down. All in all, the headphones are the best you can get (quality wise). If you buy these just make sure that you take GOOD care of them so that they don't break, and make sure they know which pair that they have. Peace.

These headphones were awesome...great sound except that they break real easily and I'm pretty ticked off about that. Thanks Lee