Sony MDR-IF540RK Wireless Headphone System with Rechargeable Battery

I love these headphones. I use them at night in bed when my girlfriend is sleeping and she doesn't hear a thing. The sound is surprisingly great and the headphones are very comfortable. The line of sight is flexible - so you can be off to the side and still have reception. The headphones don't look or feel cheap, are not too heavy and the transmitter base looks really sleek. The batteries last a long time before recharging and all you have to do to turn them on is put them on and they turn off as soon as you take them off - very cool feature. The price is great too considering the quality and features - shop around and you'll find better prices.

The extra features of these headphones I use on occasion because they work best for specific content: The SRS surround sound works great with digital music and movies that feature surround sound. The vibration "rumble" function works great with dance and hip-hop music, movies with lots of sound effects and explosions (like Stars...Read more

I have a Sony TV with an integrated infrared transmitter which I've used for over five years. T've gone through about 3 different pairs of wireless headphones and these are by far the best I've used. Reception is great as long as your in front of the transmitter, but that's expected since infrared requires line of sight to transmit (unlike radio signals, which I've also used and in my experience introduce noise). In addition, these headphones cover around my ears instead of pressing against them which makes them more comfortable for use over longer periods (main reason I like these over the others I've had).

I wanted to like this product. I have a set of Sennheiser RS140 wireless headphones that has fairly mediocre performance (lots of hiss and static from the radio transmission.) I was hoping that the IR technology in the Sony headphones would overcome this.

After I plugged my new Sony headphones in and gave them a try with my TV, it was a hundred times worse than the Sennheiser. The sound was mostly static, with faint hints of barely-audible dialog. The sound would improve with certain scenes on my TV, such as dark indoor scenes, but then get far worse during bright outdoor scenes (such as on the beach in an episode of Lost).

After hunting through the manual, I realized the problem: Buried in fine print, there's a statement "Plasma displays may interfere with normal operation of this system."

Sure enough, my Pioneer plasma TV was causing huge amounts of interference with the IR transmission. The bright outdoor scenes apparently generated...Read more