SENNHEISER RS170 Wireless Headphones $199 Delivered @ DSE

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• 

  Aussietaster on 26/05/2014 - 06:17

  +2

  I have owned a pair of these for the last 5 years. Absolutely brilliant.

• 

  Jabba the Hutt on 26/05/2014 - 06:37

  +3

  Even at this price, too many disadvantages to consider replacing my old analog RS 130s:

  • The transmitter needs to be manually woken from sleep before each use. Fine if you use them once or twice a day, but very annoying if you use them more frequently and intermittently throughout the day. The old models' transmitter automatically wakes on receiving audio.
  • Poor control ergonomics; can accept the good old rotary volume control has to go with the switch to digital, but they did it especially badly by bunching all the buttons together.
  • Slight audio delay; reportedly 20-45ms. That's actually pretty good for digital (vs Bluetooth's ~150ms), but it can still be a problem if you're particularly sensitive to delays and/or other equipment has its own delay which compounds the issue.
  • Base can't be wall mounted.

  The RS 170s have their own advantages, but it's two steps forward, two steps back. Hope Sennheiser gets it right with the next round of digital models.

  • 

    nyamatongwe on 26/05/2014 - 08:51

    I have had the similar RS 160s for 4 years and agree with your first two points. Since I don't use them for video, the delay isn't important to me.

    One advantage of the RS 170 over the RS 160 is the docking cradle appears to be a more robust way of charging. I'm starting to have problems getting a good connection with the power cord.

    The ear pads are also decaying although that will happen at some point with all headphones.

  • 

    elektron on 26/05/2014 - 10:51

    I have these and agree with some of your points, not all of them, however:

    1. If you're using them on and off throughout the day, just turn down the volume on the headset completely (essentially set it on mute) when they're not in use, this way the base does not go to sleep and the discharge rate of the headset is very low.

    2. I know everyone's different, but it only took me a few days to get used to the controls. I agree, the rotary control would have been better, but I have no issues locating any of the buttons by touch.

    3. The delay is only an issue if you want the volume of the TV (or other source) to be on for somebody else in the room. As far as use cases go, that's probably not a very common scenario. I have the analog RS 120 and there is also a delay, so you will have this issue with any wireless technology.

    As an added bonus, the virtual surround sound works quite well with movies.

    Also, they are compatible with additional 160, 170 and 180 headsets. In fact, I added a 180 headset at half the price it would pay for the full set of RS 180 and can take advantage of the virtual surround function absent in the RS 180.

    I agree that some of the ergonomics could be better, but for the price these are excellent wireless headphones.

• 

  natedogg118 on 26/05/2014 - 08:17

  Love these… great for gaming if you dont care about voice chat

• 

  yanman on 26/05/2014 - 10:58

  Awesome headphones… been using mine for about 12 months now - i bought from DWI with an extra set of cans. The wife and I can watch movies without waking the bubbas.

  • 

    giventofly on 26/05/2014 - 14:50

    +1

    Or hearing them wake ;)

    • 

      yanman on 28/05/2014 - 15:41

      No we put the monitor in front of us… can't miss the LEDs

• 

  Kenb0 on 30/05/2014 - 14:40

  Bugger, I wanted a set of these. I forget to check ozbargain for a few days and this is my end result!

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 02/06/2014 - 16:56

    +1

    @Kenb0

    I hope you read this as you can buy it again for $199.

    Tried to PM you but no luck.

    Cheers

    • 

      Kenb0 on 02/06/2014 - 19:47

      Doh!, after I posted that last update, I ended up just ordering it from eglobal for around $205 AUD delivered, seeing as I had a quick look around for prices, and seemed that $200 was a pretty good price for it, and didn't think DSE was going to drop it that low again any time soon.

      No worries, it arrived today and works fine. Comes with a couple of AAA eneloops to power the headphones. Was thinking it was going to come with some nonames, and I was going to replace with my eneloops from recent eneloop buying frenzies, but no need for that now.

      Would have preferred to have the local product for possible warranty issues, but fingers crossed, no issues will happen.

      Thanks for thinking of me :) Also didn't realise I had to enable private messages, so thanks for letting me know. Enabled now!