Sennheiser RS30 Wireless Headphones

Cheap construction, Interference
Ive had these for about 2 years: they pick up a lot of interference, are hard to tune, and the battery life is terrible. If this is typical of Sennheiser, I wouldn't buy anything from them again.

On the plus side, when they work, they have reasonably good sound. The earpieces are comfortable for about an hour. They are light, too.

The description didn't say "refurbished," but it was
At the time of my purchase, nowhere in this product description did the notorious TigerDirect say that is was being sold as "refurbished," but that is how it arrived. I spoke to Sennheiser and they said that it is possible that even the battery might not have been replaced if the product appeared to have had "light use."

As a matter of interest, Sennheiser nicely told me that they cut corners on this product "to compete with Advent and JVC...." One way they cut corners is to have no covering over the foam inserts. The wireless portion isn't bad, but it looks trashy. Sennheiser should have known better. Now I know better.

It isn't self evident that a substantially discounted product is a refurb. I bought the Sennheiser HD 600 headset through Amazon (from J&R) at a large discount, and it was unquestionably new.

Update: More than 10 days ago I complained to Amazon and TigerDirect about the phones being refurbished, TigerDirect acknowledged the problem and told me to keep them and I would get a refund. (I guess they don't cost the company very much.) But the listing page has still been updated to reflect that buyers don't get new phones.

Further update, Aug 1, 05: Two weeks after TigerDirect said they would issue a refund it has not been done, but they have requested that I remove my negative feedback. A TD phone rep now asks that I forward the email that authorized the refund so that his manager can "take care of it." The main Amazon product listing shows the RS30 as out of stock, and two Marketplace sellers (neither of which is TigerDirect) have it listed as refurbished.

Cuts off with phone use
I bought these headphones for my dad and he says that everytime the neighbour picks up the phone, his connection to the base unit is broken. He's able to listen in to their conversations because of the signaling overlap. To fix the problem, he has to get up and hit the channel change button to re-establish the connection. This happens quite frequently and he's very very annoyed. I'll be returning them ASAP.

Great sound, cheap construction
I bought the RS30's over the other brands of wireless headphones because I've been extremely pleased with my other Sennheiser purchases (HD-202, HD-212, MX-400). In those cases, I've found both the construction and sound quality to be well ahead of the pack, especially for the price. In the RS-30's, I had to settle for one out of two. The sound quality is excellent - within a 50 foot radius, you'd never know they weren't an expensive wired set. Reception is good throughout the house, although a little static creeps in at longer distances.

However, I was surpised by the cheap plastic and un-upholstered foam construction. Right out of the box, there was a little piece of plastic rattling around inside the headband. I don't see these headphones lasting long, even with gentle use. Also, the battery pack is just a dumb design. You have to remove the battery from the phones and plug it into the base to charge. Well, the base already acts as a cradle for the phones, so how hard would it be to align the contacts on the battery with those on the base, so it will charge on its own?? Cordless telephones have done this for years.

In short, I bought this as a gift, and I'll be a little embarassed when I hand it over later today, as it looks like a kmart special. Hopefully, the sound quality will help the recipient overlook the construction.

Cut too many corners
The RS30 is the bottom of the Sennheiser wireless headphone line. It replace the RS4. There are 4 variations of the RS30 for which the 900 MHz (US model?) unit has a reception of about 100 ft. while all the other RS30s have receptions about 300 ft. The RS30 and RS4 is compatible in receiving signals from either base units and uses the same battery. There are three selectable channels on the base unit.

The RS 30 has a two year warranty but looking at the cheap construction (all cheap plastic, no metal parts) it doesn't appeared to me that it will last 6 months. The RS4 was much better constructed. The volume, tune and on/off on the headphone are too small and just too awkward to adjust, in particular, the tune control. This is not the case with the the RS4. The RS4 is also more comfortable for extended hours or usage. There is a one page manual in six diferent languages. There is a website but no other US contacts provided on the manual.

The RS4 has a low level background hiss but much of that is gone on the RS30 although some occasional hiss, clicks and pops still persist. The battery will last 8226t 4 hours at first and within a year or two only last one hour like mine RS4. My local stores that sells the RS30 units don't carry the batteries.

Sound quality is not any better than standard cheap wired headphones that come with MP3, portable CD or MD players. I could manage about two hours of usage before the RS30 headset become uncomfortable, just enought for a movie. The ear pads are awful thin and cheap. Too many corners were cut in constructing this headphone. I listen mostly to soft rock, pop and jazz and with respect to that the audio response is smooth throughout the audio spectrum. In summary: poor physical construction but good sound for casual listening.