Customer Reviews

Sony MDR-DS3000 Wireless Digital Surround Headphones

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I've had these headphones for about 3 months and I love them.

I listen to music pretty much constantly while I'm working, and though I have some good speakers in my office, I find I focus better with headphones on. I had gotten tired of wired headphones, as the wire always gets fouled up in the chair.

First, the sound quality is excellent. It's not as good as high end speakers, but these headphones are a lot cheaper than high end speakers. I own about 10 pairs of headphones (don't ask) and these are definitely the best.

In the office with these wireless headphones, I can get up from my chair and wander out of the room without taking off the headphones. My office is about 14x14 ft, and the IR signal covers the entire room. I have never had any drop-outs or other interference while in the office. When I walk out of range, the headphones go silent with a slight hiss.

As other reviews have noted, there is a small quiet hiss when nothing is playing. However, the solution to reduce the hiss is not to crank the volume on the headphones, and instead turn up the amplifier. This works exceptionally well. I have these plugged into the headphone jack of a basic $200 receiver.

The other wonderful thing about these headphones is that there is no on/off switch to manage. Instead, the headphones turn off when the inner band of the headphones has no tension on it--in other words, they turn off when they are not sitting on your head. The band is part of the "self-adjusting" feature, and it really works. You just put the headphones over your head, pull the speakers to your ears, and the headphone band adjusts and the headphones power on. This definitely helps with battery life. I haven't really measured the life of the batteries other than to know I only have to charge every now and then.

Although the headphones contain electronics, batteries, and are somewhat large physically, my head does not get tired of them. The earcups are fabric with some padding rather than leather, so my ears don't sweat nearly as much as they do with other leather earcups. Very nice!

The set comes with an optical cable. The back of the base has an optical input and two RCA plugs. I use a 1/4"-to-two-RCA cable from Radio Shack to connect these to my receiver. The base also has a magnet to assist when placing the headphones on the base for charging--the magnet pulls the earcup with the charge connection to exactly the right spot.

Overall, this product is awesome due to its exceptional engineering. The headphones are expensive--no question--but they are worth the money.


P.S. Another reviewer noted that this product doesn't work with Plasma TVs. I don't know anything about that, but that review made me worried if it would work in a room filled with LCDs--my office has many LCD monitors. The good news is--they work fine. Also, I can sit either facing the base station or facing directly opposite the base station and the signal continues to come in fine.

UPDATE July 2008: I've had these over two years now and have been using them perhaps 12-20 hours a week, depending on the week. I'm still on the original batteries; they still hold several days of charge for me. I recently moved into a larger office (13 x 25 with vaulted ceiling) and the stand sits in a corner and covers all the line-of-sight visible areas of the room. Still very happy with these.

UPDATE Nov 2010: I've had these headphones almost 5 years. They are still my favorite and I am still on the first set of batteries--and I use these a lot!

I bought it 2 weeks ago. As soon as I turned it on after connecting to DVD machine, I got this huge noise. I had to put my headphone very close to the base in order for clean sound. Then I read this one line text in the instruction manual that this system uses infrared and does not work with Plasma TV. Sure enough, as soon as I turned off my plasma tv, the sound became clean. But I bought them mainly for watching movies late at night. Now they are really useless to me. If you have a plasma tv, do not buy this!

The headphones sound pretty mellow. I didn't get enough base when playing Return of the King. And the positioning of the sound is really unclear. The only bright side is when listening to stereo audio source, it sounds very clean and natural.

Auto on/off is nice. Putting back to the base to recharge requires practice. It should have more than one digital connection input.

The range on these things is terrible. I suggest putting the receiver up high with nothing blocking its path on any side to maximize the connection; this includes walls, cats, and furniture. That being said, the sound quality is absolutely great. It's like a surround system hooked directly to your brain. Some people complain about a hiss, but that only happens when you're going out of range.

I've had these headphones for just over two years, and I'm happy to see that they're one of the few pairs marketed as "surround sound" that have done quite well. The reason behind that is because they're truly excellent headphones. The range is spectacular and the inputs even more so. You're given the option of RCA and Toslink (optical), which is all you really need.

Movies really do sound like movies...you hear things behind, in front, and to your left and right when you're connected via optical. Take note that DTS also sounds 'boomier' and a tad crisper than Dolby D does, especially in Gladiator.

Honestly, I've nothing to complain about. As a college guy, I couldn't bring my 1010 watt system from home. Which, I might add, never sounded as good as my headphones, mostly because headphones will always have the advantage of being closer to you physically. Listening to music at extremely high bit rates and using the optical connection from my Macbook Pro truly does some incredible things. You'd be amazed at Coldplay's "The Scientist" if you heard it on these headphones. It's indescribable.

And by the way, I'm a slight audiophile.

You seriously can't go wrong with these headphones. And $65 for each additional pair of headphones, allowing you to add as many as you want to one base station? Even better...good idea for families in apartments.

Incredibly advanced technology, incredible sound, and incredible results. Can't go wrong here.

Oh, and they're extremely comfy.

Performs VERY WELL with no hiss or static. Battery life was less than expected, but overnight charge and we're good to go.

Remember, if you are using optical cable for sound, to order "splitters" because you will need to split the signal between the input to your Home Theater system and these headphones, as most HT systems do NOT have an "output" for optical cable - - - only multiple INPUTs.

This system is well worth the investment if you have a room with terrible acoustics like I do. They not sound great but are so comfortable that you forget they are on. The only thing I would improve is the tricky part of landing the recharging contacts on the built in recharger. It is not easy to hit the mark so that they begin charging.

Another improvement to consider would be to put another optical jack to enable you to connect from a second source like a DVD player. Mine is connected to the cable box. Otherwise this is one sweet setup and the 5.1 optical input is really clean. A great product and listening experience and affordably priced.

I got the Sony MDR-DS3000 Infrared Wireless Digital Surround Headphones and an additional Sony headset for myself as a Father's Day gift in 2004 (from Crutchfield- Amanzon did not carry at that time). This is a long time ago for consumer electronics.

They continue to please. We have two sons less than 4 years old and my wife and I use them nightly to enjoy 24 and Lost and DVD's while our home remains quiet and boys slumber. It has altered our lifestyle (with these headphone = great sound! Without headphones. . well have you ever try enjoying "24" with close caption and volume on ultra-low? It sux goat balls)

Build quality and sound quality are excellent. Battery life is amazing- typically over 30 hours of use prior to recharging. Infrared tranmission is far superior to radio waves.

I will repeat if and when these need to be replaced.

UPDATE December 2010. OK, no joke. The same headphones and the original sony rechargable batteries continue to work wonderfully. Despite 6+ years of use (14-20 hour a week), they are wonderful. Batteries still last for 20+ hours without charge. Sound dynamics is great for all media including 5.1 surround sound.

The original pair has outlived two upgrades of HDTV and performs to perfection. Stunning. Purchased my pair in 2004 and a pair for my parents home in 2007.

I am getting an additional set of the same unit for another TV location in the house.

The specification of the unit is quite complete. With a wide range of supported surround sound formats from Dolby Digital to DTS II, running an optical cable from your DVD to the base will help enhance the viewing experience with some impressive surround effects and the base will indicate with surround sound format it is decoding when you put it on the digital mode.

There is another set of RCA jacks for the connection from one other analog source i.e the cable box. This flexibility expands the unit's usefulness as I could also use it to watch TV at night and hear it without waking the whole house or keeping my wife awake. Now, because the base unit can support more that one headset, I could always grap the headset from the other location and share the movie or TV sound with my wife, still without waking the kids.

I occasionally listen to CD's using the unit as well, and the handy "music" mode will produce a surround effect that is more suitable for just music. I usually turn the surround off when I use it in this manner, and without going through the amp, I am getting a sound that is straight from the CD without any processing, i.e no adjusted bass or treble, etc, and the sound is quite good too.

Go for it if you want a good set of surround sound headphones with flexibility to use it for non-movie listening.

I don't often write reviews, but seeing that there were none for these headphones, I'll give my input.

Sound quality is quite good. Make sure that you switch the dB setting on the back of the unit to high; by default it is lowered (maybe for safety reasons). When you increase the volume on the headphones themselves there is a noticeable hiss. If you make sure that your source is at maximum volume, this will increase the quality of the sound and reduce significant hiss.

I use these mainly for music, but when I tested a movie, the surround was very good.

The effects on the unit (cinema and music settings) are a total waste of time and effort. I never use them.

Batteries last for a long time. I've had several 5-6 hour sessions and had them last the whole way through.

My biggest grip is the charging stand. Sometimes it takes me up to a minute to get the headphone contacts to connect to the base. It's _very_ annoying.

In conclusion, I'm happy with my headphones. The line of sight issue with IR does not bother me at all since I'm usually just sitting at my desk or in front of a projection screen. Recommended.

Acoustically and ergonomically, the MDR-DS3000 is all that Sony claims it is. However, if you want additional headphones (MDR-IF3000) you will have to charge them one at a time on the base station, because no separate battery charger is available. With prolonged use and/or many headphones, juggling multiple headphones on one charger is sure to fail. If you need multiple headphones, perhaps a product line that provides extra battery chargers as well as extra headphones would be preferable.