I do not wish to make Mr Van Gogh feel sad, so I will wait until he is out of earshot before spruiking today's goods.
The use of headphones or ear phones for sound reproduction is as old as wireless broadcasting. Indeed, even when there is no radio signal involved, headphones are a valuable means of putting sounds right into the ear - particularly when there is loud external noise trying uto interfere. We've all seen airplane pilots and ship's talkers wearing various forms of headset. And nearly all of them have not been wireless - they've been attached to the switchboard by a sturdy electrical cable.
You can do that at home, too - plug yourself into the hifi or the TV or whatever, and get superb quality sound despite the household din going on round you. And the household may bless yo for it, if you are getting deafer and need to turn your music up a lot more than you used to. They appreciate not hearing opera in the middle of a reality show. No need to ask me how I know this...
But there is a problem. You can be sitting there all innocently listening to the twilight of the gods and the doorbell rings. Or the cat jumps on your lap. Or the cat jumps on your lap when there is a boiling hot cup of tea there already...and you experience a sudden need to leap in the air. If you are attached to the hifi by an electrical cord the situation becomes more complicated than comfortable.
Enter the cordless headphone design. Containing a battery and small amplifiers, it receives a signal from your sound device via Bluetooth and makes the music right where you are - but without tying you to the hifi. It can move with you around the room, music still playing. You are free to mop the tea off yourself and the cat.
Note the Sennheisers. I use a wired pair - slightly tea-stained - at my house and have been delighted with the sound reproduction. Delighted, too, that the ear pads have survived for years without cracking or getting mankey. This set would have enabled me to evade the Siamese assassin before he landed.
The Beoplay HX set is also fitted with noise-cancelling feedback circuitry. It uses up a little more electricity but removes distraction. You'll still get more than a day's play from one charge - if you only use the Bluetooth feature it will be nearly two days. There are four colour combination choices as well.
Some readers will point out that there are other disconnected solution; earbuds and other plug speakers. So there are, but some of us find them to be more of a disturbance inside the ear than the headphones are on the outside. B&O make all sorts anyway, so come down to Wanderlust and try the variety. If you wish to make the cat and tea experiment we'll put down newspapers...
