The RS 180 signal drop is like a record skipping vs the RS 220 that feels like an empty second or two lapse on a cell phone. After listening to the 220s, I can say that the 180s experience signal drops as well–they are more subtle and less irritating. There’s a lot that goes on in the 2.4 GHz range–WiFi, Bluetooth, cordless mice, microwave ovens–so I remain a bit apprehensive about it. But the RS 220s are much better, with the drawbacks of shorter range, less battery life, and the darned wireless signal issues.įor me, the trade off is worth it as long as the wireless issues remain infrequent. The 180s seem to be better suited for watching TV and listening to modern pop music than anything with fine detail–and for what they are good at, they are great. The main frustration I had with the RS 180s ($280–$320 street price) is that piano and classical music are quite muddy in them. Do they have the same sound quality as my HD 800 rig? No, but at $600, they are a quarter of the price of my HD 800 set-up, weigh less, and have no wire to the headphones. They are fantastic–These are the best wireless headphones on the market. So if you can solve the signal drops, how are these headphones? Thanks to a post over on, I learned one fellow had changed his wifi network to use Channel 11, which I did as well–and mostly that has solved the drop outs for me. The drop outs were in fact real and serious. I didn’t buy them for a while, fearing those issues were real.īut in a moment of frustration with the RS 180s, I took the plunge (and Amazon has a good return policy).

The new RS 220 model has been out for a year and has received positive reviews by media publications, but horrible reviews on Amazon and in forum discussions due to serious signal drop out issues. Until that time, the audiophile models were the HD 518, 558, 598, 600, 650, 800 (and now, the new 700 model comes in between the 650 and 800 at $1,000). In March 2012, Sennheiser released their first wireless headphones that they segment in their audiophile line-up. It was an easy post to write the RS 180s were the best thing happening for wireless headphones at the time, as far as I know.

Almost two years ago, I wrote a post comparing the Sennheiser RS180 headphones to my really old Sony IR wireless headphones.

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