Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Infrared wireless works just fine, January 22, 2005
The best part of the Koss HB60 is that you can plug any standard headphone jack into the infrared receiver. Thus, with the HB60 you can convert any of the headphones that you already own (and love) to wireless usage.
The worst part about the Koss HB60 is the headphone that it comes with. This thing is designed to be clipped onto your ears, and boy, do they hurt after about 5 minutes! These headphones also have a very strong high frequency boost (which seems to be the standard "Koss sound" - headphones for people with high frequency hearing loss). If you have never listened to Koss headphones, you might think that this hissing sound is due to poor infrared transmission. IMHO, Koss should lower the price of the Koss HB60 and just sell it without this bad headphone.
When I plugged my two Sennheiser headphones (HD545 and HD570) into the Koss HB60, they both sounded great! I can't tell that there is much difference between plugging these headphones directly into the computer/player versus plugging into the Koss HB60. There is very little hissing noise with the Sennheiser headphones plugged in as long as the receiving unit is facing the transmitter directly and located less than about 8 feet away or so. Turn the receiver to face another direction and the hissing increases only slightly, as the receiver picks up the reflected signal off the walls of the room. Step out of the room, or go to a part of the room where the transmitter is not sending any infrared beams, and the signal is completely replaced by static.
The Koss HB60 amplifies the input signal quite a bit, about 4-5 times as loud. This is great if your input signal is fairly weak, such as can happen with some cheap CD players or computers. However, because of this high gain, the amplifier of the Koss HB60 will saturate on the louder pieces of music if you set the input signal strength too high. This will sound like bursts of irregular high frequency static coming through. However, if you set the input signal too low, then there is a slight increase in the hissing sound. So you have to adjust the input signal carefully.
The only really annoying thing about the Koss HB60 is that the belt clip is located directly over the cover for the two AAA batteries. However, the clip is detachable, which, as I only discovered recently, is the real trick to changing batteries on this thing - pull the belt clip off first!
So I took off one star, but otherwise the Koss HB60 is a fine product as long as you understand the inherent limitations of this form of wireless transmission.
I got the Koss HB60 because I wanted to listen to headphones while stringing tennis racquets. I do the stringing in our family computer room, so I can't use the computer speakers most of the time when others are working in the room. The racquet stringing requires some moving around, but mostly I am standing facing in one direction. Thus, I can clip the receiver to the collar of my shirt so that it mostly faces the transmitter. Before, I had plugged the Sennheisers into one of the computers in the same room through an extension cord. This long line was always very messy and easy to step on or get entangled. I ruined at least two of the Sennheiser headphone cords in this fashion by stepping on them and jerking them until they developed an internal break in the wires. Now I can listen to the Sennheisers without worrying about the cord.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Too noisy, December 10, 2004
I bought this set of headphones after going through 2 sets of RF headphones (advent and AR) for use while working out. My RF phones were both a little bulkier than I'd like while working out, and I eventually had problems with both pairs of them losing reception in the middle of workouts after a few months of use (new batteries didn;t help).
I had heard that IR might be a better choice, as the IR signal would generally hold as long as there was a line of sight to the transmitter. I also thought this would be a good unit as it had a seperate clip-on receiver that I could use with any set of headphones, so I wouldn't have to worry about too much sweat eventually causing a problem with the electronics. I also wanted the ability to use lighter phones more condusive for workouts.
I had read that IR wireless phones were generally similar quality to RF phones, the only drawback being the line of sight limitation.
As soon as I tried these phones, though, I was immediately dissatisifed with the amount of background noise with them. No matter how good of a signal I run to the transmitter (without overloading the input, of course), I couldn't get rid of a very distracting hiss. I don't expect wireless phones to be as good as wired ones, but my RF phones were way quieter (until they lost their signal, of course).
I haven't tried any other IR wireless phones, and after reading some good reviews on other units, I can't believe they all sound this bad. There's the possibility that my unit is bad, but so far no response from Koss support.
Right now, I find them completely unusable. If you like tons of hiss, these are for you.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Five stars for uniqueness; almost gave it four, May 2, 2006
I almost gave it four stars but added a fifth star because in all the searching I have done, this is the only product in the market, as far as I know, that has a separate receiver that has an input jack so that you can plug in any headphone.
The advantage of this for me is that I can listen to the TV or my CD player with my favorite earbuds plugged into the Koss receiver. The receiver is small and light-weight and can be clipped onto my exercise clothing, allowing me to do floor aerobics with no problem. It is also tough; I dropped it 5 feet onto a hard surface and thought it was a goner, but it is working just as well as before.
The earbuds I use are comfortable and has high-quality sound. These are not the earphones that came with this Koss unit. Those earphones that came with the unit are extremely uncomfortable and, for me, unusable because of that.
However, other elements make up for this.
Receptivity is good, but, as with all infrared devices, you need to keep the receive and transmitter in line of sight. I can go out of the room and still use this, as long as the door is open and there is a direct line of sight between the transmitter and receiver.
Battery power is very good. Two AAA's have lasted me about twenty hours.
The sound quality is good enough for me. There is always a background hiss that becomes louder as the distance increases between the receiver and transmitter and as the battery wears out, but I can hear the bass and treble ranges well. It seems to not handle the bass as well. Luckily, the hiss becomes less noticeable if you are playing rock. It is more noticeable for classical music but is not a great drawback, at least for me, because I am no audiophile; however, I am still pretty discriminating a music listener and enjoy my music. But I can imagine how it can disappoint if you expect no background noise.
I've found that to decrease the hiss and the vibration from the bass, you need to turn down the volume on the stereo/TV of origin very low, and then to adjust the volume on the infrared receiver to the desired level.
For both the functionality and the uniqueness of the separate clip-on receiver with the output jack, I think this product definitely deserves 4 stars but I gave it a fifth because I was in an unusually generous mood. Koss needs to redesign the awfully painful earphones or just get rid of them.
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