Wireless headphones help you hear your audio system as loud as you want it, and they also give you mobility. These aren't hard to install or use. Wireless headsets use radio to connect to a base station that's connected to your audio receiver.
There's a huge variance in headphones on the market. Some that cover your whole ear and others that fit inside your ear. Some headphones deal with ambient noise and use DSPs (digital signal processors) to process Dolby Digital 5.1.
Look for Dolby Headphones support in your audio system. Dolby has done wonders with this technology application. No matter how many channels or speakers you have in your setup, you still have just two ears through which all the audio is processed.
Dolby Headphone tries to reproduce what is arriving at your ears by using digital signal processors to simulate Dolby Digital 5.1 over the two headphone channels. Dolby Headphone offers three listening modes, each based on acoustic measurements of real rooms:
- DH1 (Studio) is a small, well-damped room appropriate for both movies and music-only recordings.
- DH2 (Cinema) is a more acoustically "live" room, especially suited for music but also great for movies.
- DH3 (Hall) is a larger room, more like a concert hall or movie theater.
All products equipped with Dolby Headphone include DH2. Of those offering two or all three environments, you can easily switch between modes to suit the material and your own preferences. So, if you plan on using headphones a lot, see if your receiver supports Dolby Headphone encoding.
Many wireless headphones on the market today are lousy. Some decent wireless headphones are made by Sennheiser, specifically the RS65 and the RS85 systems. The more costly RS85 system sports a high-performance noise-reduction circuit that gives it better performance at the edge of its operating range. Though pricey, both models work great, and their signals travel far in a home. What's more, you can get an extra headphone for each of the models.
Check out a great online resource/store - HeadRoom - for the latest and greatest in headphones, including some good reviews and information.
