Sennheiser - RS 275 TV Headphones. Wireless Bluetooth Headphone and TV Transmitter - Black

I got these headphones for my 91 year old mother to use and she loves them. She’s pretty hard of hearing and has been using headphones for watching TV for over 15 years. She’s used various types and brands of headphones during that time and so far, these have been the best she’s used, and she generally doesn’t like the closed over the ear type. I’ve used them too and will compare them to all the headphones I’ve used and reviewed in recent years, and my review will cover that as well. I’m not going to requote specs that are already listed. I’m going to mostly talk about using them, features they have, and how they sound. The primary use of this “system” is for watching TV and there’s a lot to like about the versatility of this kit that includes the headphones and a transmitter. Depending on your TV’s age and connection options, setup can vary, here’s what I found. You can connect it to anything with an audio output. Analog via standard RCA connections or headphone port. Digital via S/PDIF - toslink optical port and HDMI. Optical out on your TV will allow everyone to listen to the TV, if desired, and not the headphone wearer only. The volume to the TV speakers and soundbar (if used) should be independent of the headphones in this configuration. It is on my Samsungs and TCL TVs. You can probably do that with HDMI, HDMI/ARC out as well, but you might need to menu dive on your TV to keep it from auto switching to the transmitter and muting the TV’s speakers. This will vary on TV brands. Analog out should keep a consistent level like optical out but it might change with the volume setting. Again, this can vary by manufacturer and be changeable in a setting menu. Using your TV’s headphone port will likely mute the speakers and most sets won’t let you change that. Some TVs, like a 2013 Samsung we had, only had 2 HDMI inputs. No audio outputs at all. You can’t use this with a TV like that. You can use the transmitter and headphones as a standalone system. Just follow directions for connecting to the TV they will be used with. They come pre-paired and its pretty much plug and play. You can download and install the control app on your phone and pair it to the transmitter to control it, select sound presets, inputs and update its firmware. You can pair headphones to your phone to listen to music and make and take phone calls, adjust EQ settings via presets or make your own and update the headphone’s firmware. You can be listening to what you’re watching on TV and take a phone call without having to remove the headphones if you set them up with app. Of course, the headphones will switch over to the phone call and it gets priority. Phone calls sounded good on both ends of the conversation. As mentioned above, not only can you listen to TV with these, but you can also use them with your phone too. Even if you don’t use the app. Just use a USB-C to USB-C cable to connect them. One thing that impressed me about the headphones is that you can get replacement parts. You can replace the battery and the ear pads, at the very least. This is a bigger deal than you might think. I’ve reviewed a few items, headphones and earbuds, that either broke or quit working. They weren’t handled rough or abused. I liked them and wanted them repaired out of warranty and found out they were disposable products. Yes, $300+ and disposable. I’m talking about Yamaha and Marshall. Sadly, I’m know this is the same with many other companies. So, I consider this a big win for Sennheiser! The quick start will get you up and going, but I highly recommend downloading the instruction manual and reading it first. The transmitter box gets its power from the USB port on the TV and you can charge the headphones with its pass through USB-C port or charge the headphones with any common phone charger. Sound wise, these things sound very good for both dialog on TV, music and phone calls. There are three sound presets on the transmitter box for listening to the TV and she / we liked the middle, dialog enhancing, the best. The surround effects sound like a delay and some filtering is added to widen the field. I thought they sounded strange and didn’t care for it. Overall, they deliver clear dialogue without harshness, and the fit stays comfortable for long sessions. You can switch them on the box or the app. In our case, we use the app because I have the transmitter hidden behind our wall mounted TV. With the app paired to the phone you can adjust the EQ and that can make a huge difference in performance when listening to music. Keep in mind that depending on what music apps you’re using, they may have EQ settings as well, and that can effect how these, or any, headphones sound. Especially if you are unknowingly using 2 EQs in series. If your music app has an EQ, set it to flat, also check for Dolby Atmos and any other audio enhancements and turn them off, then adjust the EQ in the Sennheiser app. You can always go back and turn Atmos and stuff back on to find the sound you like. The music I used to test them was my usual selection of artists: Steel Dan, Alan Parsons, Pink Floyd, Genesis, original LRB and some other artists from ABBA to Zeppelin. They sound plenty good enough for music but not as good as high end headphones meant for listening to music. Bluetooth Auracast is a cool feature that lets others with compatible headphones link into the transmitter and listen to whatever it's broadcasting that you have it connect to. They assume TV and that is the primary use, but remember, you can connect it to any audio source. User can set their headphone’s levels individually with Auracast. My mother, wife and I found the headphones to be very comfortable to wear. Mom has tried several that were too tight and returned over the years. So far, she likes these the best for fit and sound for long sessions of wearing them. The headphones have controls for volume up and down, mute / pause and power. It has voice notifications for certain things as well. See manual for details beyond what I stated. Battery life is said to be about 50 hours and you can set them to automatically turn off when not in use in a set amount of time. We never ran them to they died or even gave a notification, but I know she used them over 2 days on a full charge before charging and never got a notification to charge them. She plugged them up before I had a chance to check the battery life left. Build quality feels good; the headphones are light weight and comfortable to wear for long periods. All necessary cables are included for almost any type of connection you will need. The included stand feels sturdy and the bottom is weighted enough to not tip over easily. There’s also a rubbery mat that covers nearly the entire bottom as well. The only improvement would be to have the stand be able to charge them too. Conclusion: I think these not only hit the mark for what they are marketed for but go beyond that. Especially if you make the best use of the phone app and the options the system offers. Verdict: These headphones do exactly what they promise: reliable, comfortable TV listening for anyone who values clarity over flash.

The Sennheiser RS 275’s headphones are made for the avid TV watcher that doesn’t want to compromise on sound. I have spent a lot of time and money on my home theater system, but I am constantly faced with times where I can’t really use it. Whether it’s a noisy house, or everyone is asleep, I am often faced with less than ideal listening conditions. I have always wanted to get a pair of headphones to connect to my TV and be able to hear my shows/movies no matter the listening conditions. The RS 275’s are a bundle of the HDR 275 headphones and the BTA1 digital transmitter. Together they allow you to connect to virtually any TV or sound system. The 275’s are releasing alongside the 175’s, which are the entry level offering of the lineup. Design of the 275’s is simple enough. The controls are all contained on the right earcup. The earcups themselves fit nicely around my ears and the padding is a soft, breathable fabric. The headband comes with a leatherette padding that is fairly comfortable. The headset is very lightweight, which makes longer sessions more comfortable. The entire headset is made from plastic that all has a soft touch feel. The earcup connection point (hinge) is also plastic, which gives me some slight cause for concern for its longevity against wear and tear. It does feel robust though, so that should help it survive some abuse. The hinges rotate to allow the headset to lay flat. Battery life is listed at 50 hours, which is more than enough to get me through a few weeks of listening. The headset has a 50m (over 160ft) range to the bundled transmitter, so moving out of signal range will be difficult. The 275’s have 32mm drivers vs. the 40mm of the 175’s. These drivers come with a 106 db sensitivity (114 for the 175’s). As far as connectivity goes the 275’s can be simultaneously connected to the transmitter and another Bluetooth device like your phone. That’s how I have it connected right now. This allows me to answer a call while watching TV or seamlessly switch over to watching something on my phone. The Transmitter itself allows for multiple connection options and can switch sources. The transmitter can connect through HDMI via the ARC (audio return channel) input on your TV, optical S/PDIF via TOSLINK cable, USB audio, or through 3.5mm headphone connection. I have moved the transmitter between 2 TV’s – 1 of which I connect to my AV receiver, and the other TV to its optical output. In both cases I am utilizing my HDMI ARC input, so I didn’t utilize that connection. If I decided to hook it up to my last TV, that would be an option. I purchased extra cables to be able to swap the transmitter between TV’s easier. Controls on the headphones are pretty simple. There’s volume up and down, and a 3rd button in between the volume controls meant for multimedia (play/pause, skip forward/backward) controls to your phone. The power button can be double tapped to provide a battery indicator. That’s really it for the headphones. The transmitter has the aforementioned source selection button – unfortunately there’s no indicator light showing the source you select, so you just have to cycle through. The other button is the sound mode button. There are 4 modes – nothing, virtual surround, speech clarity, and surround+clarity. I have mine normally set to virtual surround just based on the content that I am watching later at night (dumb action movies mostly). If I am watching a regular TV show I will change it to surround+speech to bring a little more clarity to the dialogue. I have toggled off the virtual surround in a few instances where it sounded muddy, but I think that was down to the source material not being mixed for surround all that well. Sound clarity while watching my shows is great. I still prefer my surround sound system, but the headphones provide a significant improvement during those times where listening conditions aren’t the greatest. I basically use them almost every night I watch shows on my own, and its nice that I can get up and go to another room without really missing anything. I have been able to turn off subtitles, which I basically had to have on when I watched TV at night. The headphones deliver the sound clearly and plenty loud enough for me. I usually keep them around halfway up. The headphones don’t really provide great environmental isolation, so if it gets loud in the room I will bump the volume up a bit. Since I am usually the only one watching TV in these situations I haven’t felt the need to invest in another headset for my partner. However, the transmitter supports adding multiple Auracast compatible headphones if the need arises. I did note a couple of odd things with the headphones. When listening to content from my phone the headphones sound flatter than they should. I downloaded the SmartControlPLus app to mess with the EQ’s, but even then the headphones didn’t really “come alive” like they do when connected to the transmitter. This may be addressed with updates because the headphones really sound great when connected to the transmitter. The other odd thing I have noticed is I will randomly get a disconnect from the transmitter, and lose sound for 5-10 seconds. Its only happened a few times in 15-20 hours of usage, but its still odd. Overall, the RS 275’s are a pretty good TV headphone. I really love my home theater system, but I would gladly listen to these headphones at night. I really appreciate being able to turn off the subtitles, and these headphones are more than comfortable to use for hours. The bundle comes with a pretty nice headphone stand as well, which is appreciated. Battery life is excellent, and they have great connectivity range. The headphones, via the transmitter, have so many ways to connect to your TV. This is really a good all-around solution for anyone wanting to try out headphones for their TV viewing.

Great sound, easy to connect with the TV, great quality!