what's the deal with RF headphones?

[baronvonsatchel]

The ones with a big antenna/charging base combo, I've seen them mostly marketed as home theater headphones, but I am interested in using them for gaming and music at home (I have in-ears for going out in public). How is the sound quality and latency compared to both Bluetooth (which isn't good enough for gaming) and wired (still the gold standard for quality, but I'm tied to my desk). In one of LTT's Intel extreme upgrades, one of the guys bought a pair but never reported on his experience afterward. And I've never encountered anyone else who uses them to ask.

 

Right now I'm using the Bluetooth version of the ATH-M50x, which I can plug in for high quality or use wireless for mobility, but not both at once. Are RF headphones the best of both worlds, or is my current setup as good as it gets?

[BobVonBob]

Sound quality is just as good as Bluetooth, and they'll probably offer a latency improvement over your current Bluetooth headphones connected to your PC, but you'll probably still be able to detect latency if you're looking for it. It should be good enough for Minecraft or a movie, but if you're a hardcore rhythm gamer a wire is still the way to go.

[Psittac]

I got a pair of these on black friday for my parent's, the biggest benefit in my case was the fact that listening to the same source on two headphones was very simple, just tune them in to the same frequency and voila, my mom could turn hers down and my dad could turn his up.  Also they don't isolate outside noise so they could still talk to each other.

 

Overall they seemed like a solution to a problem more than a hifi experience, being Sennheiser they still sound good but I have far better experiences available to me.  I'm uncertain about BT latency vs RF latency but @BobVonBob sounds like he knows.  However I'm not certain why you can't get quality sound out of BT.  I have a pair of AKG K361-BT and the sound quality is pretty good on them, a little towards the consumer sound signature but still good in my book.

 

IMO: you will have more options with BT than RF so the chances of finding something that sounds to your liking will be easier on BT

[baronvonsatchel]

The thing with BT for me is more about latency. I don't have highly sensitive audiophile ears and I can't detect much difference in clarity between Bluetooth and wired. But Bluetooth is bad for gaming because even the best "low latency" modes have a 1/4 of a second delay.

 

Ultimately I don't think it's worth spending $200+ on a decent pair just to deal with the mild inconvenience of switching between wired and wireless for different use cases. I was just curious if anyone had any firsthand experience since they're vanishingly rare in the real world.

[ShearMe]

1 hour ago, baronvonsatchel said:

The thing with BT for me is more about latency. I don't have highly sensitive audiophile ears and I can't detect much difference in clarity between Bluetooth and wired. But Bluetooth is bad for gaming because even the best "low latency" modes have a 1/4 of a second delay.

what bluetooth headphones are you using with that much delay? Latency is undetectable on my brand-name products 
 

The RF headphones you're describing are kind of a niche and unpopular product simply because of the base station requirement. They don't get much development in the modern age,

[BobVonBob]

1 hour ago, ShearMe said:

what bluetooth headphones are you using with that much delay? Latency is undetectable on my brand-name products 
 

The RF headphones you're describing are kind of a niche and unpopular product simply because of the base station requirement. They don't get much development in the modern age,

A lot of PC Bluetooth solutions are very reluctant to use newer low latency codecs, if they even support them at all. I've got devices with basically imperceptible latency on my phone, but huge latency on my laptop.

[Blue4130]

3 hours ago, BobVonBob said:

A lot of PC Bluetooth solutions are very reluctant to use newer low latency codecs, if they even support them at all. I've got devices with basically imperceptible latency on my phone, but huge latency on my laptop.

It's pretty easy to get a BT5 dongle that supports aptx-ll. I am using one currently. Works great, Not same as wired obviously, but it's almost imperceptible.