Wireless tracking headphones?

Robus

Well-known member
Anyone heard of or tried wireless tracking headphones? All of the wireless headphones I've seen lately are bluetooth. That's not going to work. I prefer to monitor back directly from the audio interface in order to minimize latency. Therefore what I'm looking for would need to have a transmitter that could plug into the 1/4 headphone jack of interface.

Primary applications would be recording vocals and acoustic guitars.
 
Sennheiser G3 300 series IEM system and plug the headphones of your choice into the receiver.

Stereo, analogue and no latency.

Most cordless headphones nowadays are digital which introduce latency.
 
John is correct that a good wireless IEM system like the Sennheiser G3 would be suitable for what you want--but there's an old saying that you can spend hundreds or even thousands on a wireless system that's almost as good as a $20 cable. It's probably worth considering why you really need it to be wireless--there's various things you can do on wired systems (for example a "coily" cable to add range and avoid tangles) that might give you a cheaper solution.
 
Thanks. I had thought about something like the Sennheiser. Expensive though. The reason is that I just dislike tracking with headphones, guitars especially. I find it confining and uncomfortable. I get around it with electric guitar by locating the amp or speaker cabinet in a different room while I monitor through my studio monitors. That solution is more efficient and lets me monitor more accurately than headphones but won't work for acoustic.
 
I like the idea. Not stepping on over' around cords etc. But wonder why you can get a cheap Line 6 wireless that rates "4ms, but wireless headphones seem to be in the '40ms ranges -which would suck ... well real bad.
 
The best digital wireless mics are the Audio Limited 1010 range with a latency of just 2ms.

But - looking at your problem from a different angle.....

If it's your studio and you are mainly in the same place - how about wiring the headphone socket to the ceiling and using a cable of the correct length.

Then the headphone cable would never get in the way. :thumbs up:
 
OT but I'm happy to hear that Audio Ltd are still in operation.

Back in the 1980s I bought 4 of their VHF portable units for use with our crews in London. They worked long and well but eventually we replaced them with some UHF stuff (Sony--designed to work on our Sony cameras) and I gifted the Audio Ltd stuff to a local Amdram group. I haven't heard for a few years but as recently as 2009 they were still working perfectly right down to the original Tram microphones. I have no reason to believe they're not still in use.

That's what I call longevity!

Back on topic, I'd do something like what John suggests before moving to wireless in a studio situation.
 
Thanks all. I figured if there were a lot of good, inexpensive options, I would have heard of them already.
 
OT but I'm happy to hear that Audio Ltd are still in operation.

Back in the 1980s I bought 4 of their VHF portable units for use with our crews in London. They worked long and well but eventually we replaced them with some UHF stuff (Sony--designed to work on our Sony cameras) and I gifted the Audio Ltd stuff to a local Amdram group. I haven't heard for a few years but as recently as 2009 they were still working perfectly right down to the original Tram microphones. I have no reason to believe they're not still in use.

That's what I call longevity!

Back on topic, I'd do something like what John suggests before moving to wireless in a studio situation.
Ya know, I'd thought of that. Kind'a odd, but perhaps viable :D
 
Direct Sound (Extreme Isolation) is supposed to be coming out with wireless iso headphones at some point, but I don't know how close they are to release. I watched a video about them from Winter NAMM, and they looked cool. But I've yet to see any hit the market.
 
...you can spend hundreds or even thousands on a wireless system that's almost as good as a $20 cable.

:thumbs up:

Cords are only a PITA if you don't have them laid out properly, or if too short, or what have you...but I would always rather plug in than use wireless.

At the console, there's a close by connection. For longer runs when I'm tracking, I have some passive headphone boxes I'll put out near to where I'm standing, so I run a line from the headphone amp to the box, and then plug the headphone in at the box.
For tracking guitars, I made a harness that has both guitar cord and headphone extension cord with a female connector that ends up right next to the guitar jack. I then have a very short cord from the headphones to that female connector.
I have headphones that have removable cables...so I can use a long one or a short one.
Works great...the guitar cable and headphone extension cable are both on the same side and move together...there's no headphone cable for me to get tangled up in. :)
 
Direct Sound (Extreme Isolation) is supposed to be coming out with wireless iso headphones at some point, but I don't know how close they are to release. I watched a video about them from Winter NAMM, and they looked cool. But I've yet to see any hit the market.

For tracking they need to be analogue wireless - digital wireless has latency...
 
Then there is the headroom issue (NPI!)
The power levels in portable headphones is necessarily limited by battery size, voltage and weight.
A look at what is required for 'audiophile' headphone amplifiers suggests a drive power of at least one watt per lug for clean peaks. For the very best cans amps, Benchmark e.g. some 4 watts total is available. No wonder peeps are often critical of USB powered H/P feeds of AIs? That has only 2.5W to power everything! (4.5W for USB 3.0 but how many 3.0 AIs are there?)

Dave.
 
It's only a year old.

I bought a "tour guide kit" that included an FM transmitter and ten little FM radios. The reception is not great (kinda noisy depending on where in the room you stand) and they're not super loud, but with my CAD closed-back headphones, they work well enough for most things. I've only had one band use themso far, but nobody really complained, and we got the job done.
 
Thanks, guys. I went with a pair of Sennheiser HD280 Pros. I don't know if they are strictly tracking headphones, but they seem to be versatile and sound good. I do not track in a room with loud amps, so I didn't really need a set of armored headphones. The cord is really only a pain when tracking acoustic guitars.
 
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The HD280s are excellent headphones for the money and provide decent isolation. To be honest to get better levels/isolation you're probably looking at something like the Sony 7506--loud but I prefer the Sennheiser sound.

One idea for things like guitars where the cables can interfere with each other: take a tip from your local TV reporters and get some kind of clip so you can fasten the headphone cable (with enough slack for head movements) to the back of the musicians shirt, then run the headphone cable out of the way behind the player.

Hey! If we're going to embrace thread necromancy we may as well take it all the way!
 
Anyone heard of or tried wireless tracking headphones? All of the wireless headphones I've seen lately are bluetooth. That's not going to work. I prefer to monitor back directly from the audio interface in order to minimize latency. Therefore what I'm looking for would need to have a transmitter that could plug into the 1/4 headphone jack of interface.

Primary applications would be recording vocals and acoustic guitars.
+1 for IEM's. I use Ultimate Ears.
 
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