Due to the fact that I am a night owl and my wife has to rise early in the morning, I was forced to either turn off the TV or find a pair of headphones to fulfill my movie fix. The headphones also had to be wireless, as all my components are to far away from my recliner. After reading previous reviews here at Epinions, I settled for the RCA WHP 150's. I found them on http://www.ebay.com for a bargain price of $9!
THE SET UP
Well, this paragraph will be fairly short because installation was a snap. Actually, the hardest part was removing all the items from the well-packed box. The receiver is powered by a AC adapter, which simply plugs into the base and into the nearest socket. Next, I installed the two AA Ni-CAD batteries into the headset. These came with the package. The base, or receiver, has two cords, one for recharging the batteries, and the other for plugging into the audio/video unit you choose for your source. Basically, any unit that has components outputs or a headphone jack can be used. The package includes an adapter to get from the receiver's cord down to the yellow and red component outputs. Also, there is a 1/4" adapter for the larger-style headphone jacks. Once the receiver is hooked up to the source, it is just a matter of attaching the receiver's charging cord to the headphones. It is recommended that the batteries initially be charged for 24 hours.
CONTROLS
There are not too many gadgets to cause confusion when using this item. The base has an adjustment knob for tuning the frequency. Also on the base, you will find an LED indicator. It lights up RED when the unit is charging in Rapid-Charge mode, then the light goes off, but the unit continues to trickle charge. The LED indicator turns to GREEN when the headphones are in use and a signal is received. That is about it on the base. The headphones have a volume dial for controlling the sound level without having to adjust the source. There is also a frequency adjusting dial on the headphones for fine-tuning the reception. And finally, there is an On/Off switch. A small LED indicator signals red when the phones are in use. Pretty basic stuff here.
WHAT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR...HOW THEY WORK
I will say that I am satisfied with this purchase. There are some problems that I wish were not an issue, but overall, they do their job, and allow me to watch the tube without waking the wife. Getting the signal exactly perfect can be a challenge. It takes very small adjustments with the dial to get the signal to come in perfectly without any excess his or whine. Occasionally, I just have to settle for a little whine in the background. It is not too bad unless there is a quiet moment during the movie. Reception is pretty good. I can walk around the house without losing the signal or any clarity. If you have them tuned perfectly, the sound is very good.
One of my main complaints with this item is that when you pause a movie, or there is no sound for any reason, the signal disappears and you get nothing but fuzz. When the audio returns, the signal will automatically return, but in the mean time, you either turn the volume down or endure the noise. Once in a while, I will hear an occasional popping noise, but I am unsure what it is. These operate on a 900mhz frequency, which is the same as many cordless phones, so that could cause the problem.
OVERALL IMPRESSION
I would be 100 percent satisfied if the minor issues mentioned above were fixed, but considering I paid less than $10 for these, I am pretty happy. They are comfortable to wear; I have worn them for as long as 5 hours straight. If you hook them up to a stereo receiver, you can also get your music piped to your ears, and I think in my case, the music sounds better than the television. I don't really think that you can get much better than these for this kind of price. There certainly are better options out there, but for the price, these are comfortable, sound good, and give a decent range of reception.
