Sony RF810RK RF Wireless Headphones

I read the reviews above and nearly didn't buy these headphones. One reviewer complained about the constant background hiss. When I first used them, I had the same problem. I soon realised that I needed to turn down the volume on the inbuilt control and turn the volume up on the device (tv etc) and the hiss disappeared. Now, even at quiet moments, there is no background noise. As for the battery supplied being the only one you can use, this is not true. You can use AAA rechargeable batteries. I have tried and they work perfectly. A great value-for-money buy and I would highy recommend them. Just play around with the two volume levels till you are happy. I now don't use the inbuilt volume control leaving it set where I found this perfect level and they are great!

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Got to love these headphones and the freedom of movement that a set of wireless headhones give you, I will never go back to using wired phones again. These Sony MDR-RF810RK headphones are brilliant and I don't think you'll find anything better than these at this price, certainly not using wireless technology.

The unit comes in 2 main parts, The FM transmitter, which has x3 connecting leads, one is a mini stereo headphone jack which plugs into your chosen audio device, i.e your TV, Hi-Fi, PC, Laptop, Sound card, Speakers, or any other device that uses a headphone mini-jack, then there is your power connector, and the last lead is for re-charging the batteries which are housed within the headphones themselves. This means that when the batteries are exhausted you plug the phones into the transmitter to recharge them. The unit comes with x2 Sony AAA NiMH 550mAh batteries, the re-charging time is a very long 16 hours, and you can't use the phones whilst re-charging is taking place. A 16 hour charge using the Sony batteries will give you 13 hours of use. I solved this problem by buying a Duracell Battery Charger and 4 Duracell Rechargeable Accu Supreme AAA Batteries. You can find these items on Amazon and I've put links to them after this review. You can use any brand of AAA NiMH re-chargable batteries, you are not limited to using the Sony batteries which are pretty weak at only 550mAh, you can also use regular AAA disposable batteries in an emergency but this is an expensive way to go, I stuck a couple of Kodak disposable AAAs in the headphones and they were exhausted after about 7 hours continual use. Audio transmission is excellent, even through the solid concrete walls in my flat the audio quality is great in every room with no drop outs.

The headphones, these are large and I really do mean large, but they are also very well made, light and very comfortable on my head. I'm wearing them all day with no discomfort whatsoever, the ear cups fit over the ear, the headband adjusts according to the size of your head using an inner headband affair, they are not noise canceling so you will be able to hear extraneous noises in the room such as the phone ringing etc. The left sided headphone houses the battery compartment holding the x2 AAA Sony batteries, you also have an on-off switch and red LED which lights up when you switch the phones on, the charging port is also located on the left headphone. The right headphone has a very useful volume control and a channel switcher for switching between the 2 available channels. In practice I never needed to use this channel switching feature.

Set-up is very easy, simply plug the transmitter into your wall socket or a power extension block, you can place the transmitter virtually anywhere even behind objects out of the line of sight and it will still function perfectly, then plug the mini headphone jack lead from the transmitter into to your chosen A/V device, (your TV, PC, Hi-Fi Amp, Sound card, etc), insert the batteries into the headset, switch them on and your good to go. The transmitter will light up green when it connects to the headset. After a few minutes if no signal is detected the transmitter will automatically go into a power saving mode and the green light goes off, if you then resume using your A/V device the transmitter automatically wakes up instantly with no lag, it's all very clever stuff, I do like this feature but for ultimate power saving it's best to just switch the headphones off using the on-off switch on the left headphone when you not using them.

Sound quality is great, I hooked them up to my to my PC which uses an Asus Xonar Soundcard. They sound better than my wired entry level Stennheiser HD 201 headphones, it all depends on what source you feed them. Freeview Standard Definition TV will always sound average, but watching Jools Holland on BBC iPlayer in HD they sound fantastic, MkV files, MP3s, AVIs, DVDs played from my PC all sound great. I have absolutely no qualms about the sound quality, feed them a good quality source and you will not be disappointed. You can detect some hiss when no audio is playing but if you turn up the volume on your audio device and then turn down the volume on the headphones using the volume control on the headset, the hiss is almost indiscernible and disappears altogether once you start playing the audio.

If your thinking of going wireless I can highly recommend these Sony RF810RK RF Wireless Headphones. Today is Black Friday on Amazon and they've knocked 25% off the price, they are £28.79 with free delivery, but even at the full price you're getting a lot of technology for your money, I would highly recommend these headphones to anyone.

links to rechargeable batteries:

Duracell Rechargeable Accu Supreme HR03 1000 mAh AAA Batteries - 4-Pack
Duracell Value AA & AAA Battery Charger with 4 Rechargeable AA/AAA Batteries

I bought these headphones so I can watch TV in the early/late hours without waking everyone else in the house.

The headphones produced high quality sound with noticable detail over the speakers on my Sony Bravia TV. Until my family tried these headphones we thought the TV sound was OK! It is like having Cinema Sound without the expense.

They are a great product. They are comfortable to wear, with very impressive sound and a built in manual volume control. They work all over the house from the one transmitter that is plugged into the TV headphone socket.

The headphones are reachargeable by plugging in to the transmitter (by a short lead provided) or you can swap out the rechargeable pack for 2 regular AAA batteries. I have tried both options with no issues.

My family are now getting their own sets to operate off the same transmitter, just for the increased listening pleasure and independant volume setting.