Wireless headphones sound terrible with turntable

Irish Guitarist

I bought a new (well, secondhand, but new to me) Technics turntable and amplifier today. I thought while I was at it I would get a brand new pair of headphones. I opted for a pair of Sennheiser RS120 wireless ones.

When I got the headphones home I tried them out on my midi system (I didn't have my turntable and amplifier at this stage as I was waiting for them to be delivered). I turned on the radio, plugged in the headphones and walked around the house with them on. The sound was great.

However when I did get my turntable and amplifier and plugged in the headphones all I could hear was a terrible static noise. After a few minutes of turning the 'tune' knob on the headphones I could hear the faint sound of music. It was a very quiet sound and turning up the volume didn't help. To increase the volume I had to turn the 'tune' knob again. This increased the volume but made the sound quality worse. The sound wasn't very good to start with, and got even worse any time I moved my head even slightly. Moving the receiver did nothing either.

Any ideas what's going on? Are wireless headphones not designed for use with analogue turntables or is something else the problem? Should I just bring the headphone back and get a normal pair (with a wire)?

Custardpi

What kind of amplifier are you using? Does it have a phonostage? If not then that'll be why it's so quiet through the headphones - turning it up really high would just produce distortion, though will raise the sound level. Wired headphones are generally considered to be superior sound quality to wireless ones in the same price bracket but Sennheiser are a good quality brand so they definitely shouldn't sound as bad as you're describing.

Irish Guitarist

Custardpi wrote: »

What kind of amplifier are you using? Does it have a phonostage? If not then that'll be why it's so quiet through the headphones - turning it up really high would just produce distortion, though will raise the sound level. Wired headphones are generally considered to be superior sound quality to wireless ones in the same price bracket but Sennheiser are a good quality brand so they definitely shouldn't sound as bad as you're describing.

The amplifier is also a Technics. I've just tried my old Sony headphones and it sounds better (and louder). Volume wise it's alright with these headphones although there's still a lot of annoying crackly interference. It's not so noticeable on louder records, but acoustic music like Harvest by Neil Young is pretty much unlistenable.

The turntable has an earth wire (like this) that looks like it should be attached to something, but I have no idea to what.

Custardpi

The crackly interference can sometimes be due to a dirty record (or if you're unlucky a scratched one) so that's not necessarily related to your gear. Even new records (due to quality control issues in pressing plants) can occasionally have these problems. Have you tried using the wireless headphones with line-level sources e.g. an mp3 player via the amplifier? Any better? As regards the ground wire any amplifier with an internal phono stage should have a "ground screw" near the phono input that you can attach the ground wire to.

Irish Guitarist

It wasn't a dirty record; there was constant noise through the headphones (both my new and old ones, although the new wireless ones were far worse), even when the arm wasn't down on the record. It turned out it was the earth wire causing the noise (most of it anyway).

I found the ground screw near the phono input. Attaching the earth wire to it stopped the noise. At least it did on my old headphones, the new ones are still picking up some type of interference. I've since read some reviews on Amazon and it seems interference is a common problem so I'm just going to return them.

Those headphones are based on fm transmission as far asI know and are highly susceptiple to interference. Should have gotten the rs160/170/180 which are based on 2.8ghz wifi.

Irish Guitarist

I think the amplifier may have been interfering with the headphones. I brought them back and exchanged them for a pair of Sennheiser HD449s. They're not wireless, but the sound is pretty good.

ZENER

Out of curiosity, how had you connected the Wireless headphones to the amplifier ?

Ken