Sennheiser RS130

After this rather long and comprehensive round of tests, here are the results - The RS130, in keeping with the Sennheiser brand name has excellent audio playback. The simulated "soundstage" or depth of the audio playback of the RS130 is also very good. The highs, mids and lows are clear with no bleed-in. The SRS works as advertised and broadens the standard two channel stereo signals, to a much larger area, making the listener feel like he is in a nice large concert hall.

For our second test, we simply tested the wireless range of the headphone and level of interference the RS130 would pick up. Here we ran into some major problems. The RS130 seems to attract and pickup on every little RF interference, that one can think of. It got so bad we had to move it to different PCs and a better series of soundcards, before we were able to carry out our review in peace. Once it found a good sound source, the RS130 really came into its own. It performed admirably and we found that the wireless range that has been advertised by Sennheiser is actually on the mark, provided you live in a warehouse. In an open area, the Sennheiser performs remarkably well. However the moment it encounters interference, such as a wall or a large cupboard it begins to hiccup and the sound quality slips rapidly.Our final test consisted of testing the battery life of the product. Here the RS130 was bang on target, easily achieving a very good battery life of nearly 20 hours. This is an excellent figure and shows some good battery management.

The RS130 as an audio product is a study in contradictions. On one hand, it offers excellent audio playback wirelessly, however its wireless nature attracts every stray RF signal that might be bouncing around, be it a mobile looking for a signal or a cordless phone talking to its base.

Ultimately keeping everything in mind, we still rate this headphone as recommended. If you are an audio enthusiast and have the Rs. 10,500 required to purchase this headset--- go for it. The RF issues can be worked upon and once you get past that, this headset will be like owning a piece of audio nirvana.