Bauhn wireless over-ear headphones

Bauhn wireless over-ear headphones

A quick search on Google will reveal that there is basically no information about these headphones except the offhand blog comment opinions of the few people who have purchased a set. The website and the model number on the base of the unit yields basically no results. In light of this, I decided to right a review..

I'll start by saying that I hate wires. I especially hate wires connecting headphones. The 3 previous headphones on my desk are wired and all of them suffer the same issue. The wire gets in the way when I move my seat forward/backwards, when I lean back in the seat, when I get up off my seat, or when I spin the seat left or right. Due to the location of the audio jack on my PC, this has happened with all of my headphones prior to purchasing the Bauhn wireless headset.


My previous main use headset was a Plantronics gaming headset with integrated microphone on an arm that swung out from the earpiece. It was quite cheap at only $29 or so putting it squarely in the 'value' segment. In saying that though, audio quality was excellent and it had quite a good amount of bass headroom. Unfortunately, the long wire (which initially looked like an advantage) turned out the be it's downfall. The control unit integrated into the wire became caught between the arm of the chair and the edge of the table, and one chair-swivel later and I now had an intermittent right earphone. Maguiver-ing an elastic band onto it gives me stereo about 25% of the time, the other 75% is spent trying to get the wire in just the right place to get stereo again. Very frustrating. Ontop of the mono predicament, the volume wheel on the control unit suffers from the same issue that plagues all analog volume controls. After a while, changing the volume becomes scratchy and there will be positions on the dial which attenuate the volume to barely a whisper.

When I saw that the local Aldi had a wireless headset for around the same price as the Plantronics, I jumped at the chance.

The whole package itself has the ability to run off AAA batteries, as does the base station, so you could potentially use this unit away from a power point. The headset has a rechargeable battery already in it, which I haven't inspected but I'm guessing that the fact you can use AAA batteries in the unit means the rechargeable batteries are standard capacity rechargeable AAAs. The manual in the box states you cannot use other rechargeable batteries other than the ones provided, so I assume the unit has a voltage cutoff below 1.3v (standard alkalines are usually 1.5v and I'm guessing so are the included rechargeables).

Build quality is so-so, but it has flex in the important areas and the earcup padding is amazingly comfortable for such a cheap device. Button locations are logical, even though the LED indicator lights are a bit useless. There is a jack on the headset so you can connect directly to the audio source for a wired experience, which doesn't require power on the headset. A very handy fallback feature.
One thing that might put some off about these is the look. The band on the headset is square and attaches to the outer side of the cups. This causes your head to take on a comical robot look. Not something you would be comfortable wearing out in public except for comical effect.

The base station is quite large but most of that is due to fact it is also the charging cradle. Charging is a bit finicky as after the headset is worn for a bit it no longer lines up properly with the contacts in the base station. A bit of prodding fixes that though so it's not a show-stopper. The initial charge takes 12 hours so it's advised to either set them up to charge before going to bed or as soon as you wake up so they will be charged by the time you get home from work in the evening. After that, charging is on an as-needed basis. There is a channel selection switch on the back of the base station next to the audio in and power sockets. Not the most logical place, but keeps the rest of the unit looking neat and tidy. LEDs on the front of the base station indicate charging status and if the unit has autodetected no audio and moved into power saving mode.

Audio quality needs a bit more explanation. As quality control on cheap devices are usually hit and miss, your mileage may vary if you decide to purchase these headphones.
On my unit, in wireless mode, there is a noticable hiss when no signal is being sent by the base station. When there is a signal, this floor noise is reduced to almost imperceptible, however there is a noticable 'pop' that very frequently occurs which I know is not caused by the PC, or the wire, or the headset, as I have connected this unit up in a wired configuration and there is no 'pop'ing. There is also the same amount of floor noise as my other (wired) headphones. 
When sound is playing such as music, the constant sound drowns out any hiss, but I notice the popping everytime it happens and it happens about once every 3 seconds.


The Good:
- Cheap. At $29.99, these are probably the cheapest wireless over-ear headphones you could buy from a bricks and mortar store.
- Wireless. Apart from the power cord going from the plug pack to the base station, and the 3.5mm audio jack from the base station to the PC, the headphone experience is a wireless one.
- Comfy. My goodness, I can't stress this enough. These headphones are COMFORTABLE and light. I could wear these the whole 8 hours of battery charge life without breaking a sweat. In fact, the overear design keeps my ears nice and warm in this (southern hemisphere) winter cold. Not sure what is going to happen in summer, but that's what air conditioning is for.
- Ease of use. The simplicity of the controls and lack of customisation options apart from the channel selection means a young, or technically challenged person could use these headphones (although they may need help connecting and setting them up). The push button volume control mean no more crackly or inconsistent volume changes.
Audio and channel scanning controls are easy to use and reach and they have good placement so you can easily use them without seeing them or taking off the headset.

The Bad:
- Initial charge. A 12hour initial charge means you need to leave the unit on for a long period of time, possibly unnatended. The thought of a cheap, electrical device plugged into the mains left unsupervised gives me the chills. I had these charging overnight so I could attend to any type of fire, but now that I think about it, that is just a stupid idea. Much better to be away from a fire than near one. That being said, neither the plug pack or the base station or the headset became remotely hot during the charging cycle.
 - Wireless continuity. When the base station detects no audio coming in, it switches it's signal off. This is a great way to save battery power. It's also extremely annoying. The unit takes a really long time to recognise there is an audio signal after turning off and sometimes, in the case of Diablo 3, it doesn't detect the background music at all. When watching an episode of a television series, if the signal has turned off, sometimes you will need to watch a whole section of intro without sound before it kicks in, then you have to skip back and replay the intro again. This fact alone will be a dealbreaker for some.
- Maximum volume. The maximum volume on the headset isn't very high. This means you will have to turn your system volume up. Be carefully if you switch back to previous headphones as you will blast your eardrums.
- No memory. The headset doesn't remember the previous channel or volume settings. Whenever the headset is turned off, you will need to scan for the channel again, and also set the volume.
- No default channel. Even if you set the basestation to channel 1, the headset won't automatically scan for this when turned on. You need to manually scan each time.
- Useless channel setting. There is an OFF setting on the channel select. This doesn't turn the base station off, it just stops the signal being sent out. WTF?
- No USB cord. While the plug pack is tiny, it still takes up a power socket. The base station states 5V at 500mA. USB could handle that without a problem. A USB power cord would be 10 times more useful for those connecting to a PC, rather than the included RCA to composite adapter, and probably cheaper to produce.
- Ugly. The headset is fugly. No two ways about it
- Not fully enclosed. The cups may look like they cover your entire ear but they cut out less background noise than all the other headsets, which are made up of buds, in-ear, and on-ear. The cups on the Bauhn appear to be purely to locate the drivers at optimal distance from the ears.

Overall:
- Sadly, I cannot recommend these headphones. There are just too many issues with the wireless operation that make it a hassle to use for everyday operation. Even if you only use them on occasion, the constant popping when in use ruins the audio experience, and switching over to a wired configuration defeats the purpose of wireless headsets. I really wanted this to be a cheap and cheerful win for my first set of wireless headphones, but alas I'll need to look elsewhere for my ultimate bargain audio setup.

Score:
5.5/10.

BONUS:
As my final impressions of the headphones were quite negative, I thought I'd detail my plans for the next pair of headphones I will look for. At this stage, the best bet to combat audio interference would be a digital station and reciever setup. Power usage would be down, and audio quality would be phenomenal and clear. I would very much be restricting myself to over-ear designs as on-ear and in-ear designs physicaly irritate my ears after prolonged use. The cups would either need to be active noise cancelling or very well isolated so I can watch shows or listen to music in a noisy environment such as an inner-city apartment. I'm not too concerned with surround sound as most of my source material is in stereo but I wouldn't count it out if it meant compromising on other aspects of the setup. The same goes for integrated microphone. I'm not playing multiplayer online games as much as I used to. Although the Bauhn headphones don't specify what frequency range they operate in, I'm inclined to think 2.4GHz as various comments have indicated the signal interferes with home wireless internet. My next headset should operate outside that frequency as nearby microwave ovens are not shielded. Taking into accound the above, I think I'll be looking at around $300-$400 range. Ouch!