Customer Reviews:
 Seriously flawed August 2, 2004
18 out of 18 found this review helpful
There are a number of glaring flaws with this product. I bought it to plug into my TV so I can watch the Today show in "silence" while working out or walking on the treadmill in our exercise room. I am sorely dissapointed on many levels.
Several reviewers mention the "hiss". The volume control is a cheap resistive control which gets dirt and/or oxide build-up very easily. This causes an enormous amount of static when you change the volume control and the poor connection comes through as "hiss" or static. The solution is to buy "tuner cleaner" at Radio Shack and drench the volume control in it while furiously turning it back and forth until it cleans. But for the price they could use a higher quality part...
There is ironically the same kind of connection problem with the battery. If you use "real" alkaline batteries, it works fine, but the batteries supplied with my unit are real sensitive and sometimes I have to gently tap the side of the battery door to get them to seat right.
The feel of the headphones is like a vice. They are heavy and the grip on your ears is WAY too tight, particularly if those little cartilage flaps in the front stick out like mine do. After wearing these phones for 30 minutes, it starts to hurt.
These phones are maddenly succeptible to interference from each and every other source of 900 MHz device in your neighborhood, like somebody else's phones, cordless telephone, cell phone, police phone, pager, etc. I find standing just 5 feet from the transmitter, all kinds of interference will occur and the sound will come and go. If I walk around the house, I get micro dead zones where if I stand in one place the sound turns to noise and if I move 6" the sound is fine.
The only redeeming value to these phones is that the sound is relatively good.
I would strongly recommend either a wired headphone (and just live with the cord) or one of the much more expensive models with error correction (although since I have no direct experience with them, they might not really be better.)
Knowing what I know now I would not buy these again, but would try for the more expensive "digital" spread spectrum models. At least the sound might be steady and the radio interference would be gone.
Pros: music, range ; Cons: battery, clarity, durability January 22, 2004
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
This review is for the Advent AW720. Don't buy it.1. Very weak battery life. According to the manual, it takes 12 hours to completely charge the Ni-Cd battery and a completely charged battery yields 4 hours of playtime. 12/4 is unacceptable. The weakest of Sony headphones have batteries that charge for 24 hours but yield 30 hours playtime. So if you charge the weakest Sony headphone battery for 12 hours, you get 15 hours, or 3 times the charge! That's more like it! The Advent battery makes you feel limited and I don't like feeling limited. Second, this may sound silly, it costs you to charge the headphones. If I didn't live in a dorm, I'd care! Those nickels can add up! 2. Poor clarity for anything except music (no dvd, videos, etc.) Really, when I'm not using my headphones, I always have them charging! I always start off with 100% charged battery. And I play around with tuning knobs on both the headphone and the base. I do everything yet I cannot get rid of the "audio scratches" when watching a DVD on tv or watching a video on my computer. True, the careful tuning can get rid of the "hiss" but the "audio scratches" will be there at least every ten seconds no matter what you do when using the headphones for anything but music. I tried to use the "special connection" (for my dvd player)that they give you rather than the typical headphone jack connection. Batteries were 75% charged. As usual, with proper tuning, the hiss was gone. But the "audio scratches" stayed! Those scratches totally ruin your movie watching experience! Second, I had to crawl down, disconnect the tv audio input nad then connect the headphone input to the dvd. When I finished trying to use the headphone, I had to crawl done again, disconnect and reconnect the tv audio. Who wants to go through that trouble for a "special connection" that doesn't really work? And how is it even possible if the battery is so weak that after half way through the movie it is signifcantly uncharged? Pathetic! That being said, the sound quality of this headphone is great for music from my computer. No doubt about it. There are very few "audio scratches" there and with proper tuning the hiss will go down. Also, contrary to some reports, these headphones can be very, very loud indeed without being harsh! 3. Not very durable (then again, how many are?) Close to the ear cup, there is a strip that is very easy to wear and tear. The ear cups themselves are of hollow plastic (although this is OK). Every time I put on the headphone, I feel afraid to break that part. Even the ear cups are poorly connected to the stem (this doesn't seem to be trouble). I admit it is easy to reinforce that weak area near the cup with duck tape and it won't trouble you at all, but who wants that! But then again, how many durable headphones are there? I wouldn't put my money on the RCA 160 Whip or whatever. I'm sure you can find something better anyway. 4. Range is very good! I live in a dorm where there are thick walls. I can get out of my room and up to 30 (not 300) feet in the hallway and I can listen to music with no trouble. Hey, that's not bad is it, considering the fact that some headphones promise only up to 24 (of course, you know what they promise isn't the same as it really is, so factor that in). I still think 30 feet near thick walls is very impressive. And I'll bet that if it was a more open area, I'd get even better range. Impressive for that and probably top notch! Conclusion: Don't buy it. The battery is unacceptable. Very limited play time. And you are limited only to music. You can't watch movies or videos or watch tv with this headphone! Oh no you can't, not without getting an annoying "audio scratch" every the seconds even if the battery if fully charged and you use the optimum connection they tell you on DVD! And that is unacceptable because it ruins your movie experience! I paid 17 dollars for these headphones right here at amazon (I hear the current price is 64!). I'd say you cap your price to 40 dollars (be patient, there'll be some merchant selling for a 40 dollars or less) and buy a Sony. I hear that even the Sonys are very poor, but at least you get a stronger battery? Good luck.
 inexpensive and lightweight, with some room for improvement. November 24, 2003
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
the fit is rather comfortable, though the earcups only rotate around 1 axis, versus 2 as in better headphones.the sound is loud and bright, but reception is not ideal. its not that it ever loses the signal, but rather the noise is often audible, even when used in same room as transmitter. certainly NOT for music buffs, but i bought it for use with television for which this is sufficient. also tuning is manual, and though you theoretically only need to set it once, it would still make for a sleeker product if it automatically locked to the correct frequency, after all, you don't need to tune your cordless phone do you? battery indicator would be another useful feature that was ommited, the way you find out that battery died is when you suddenly lose reception for no reason, it comes back after you replace the batteries. this unit features a built in charger, but i use my microprocessor-controlled MAHA charger, and NI-MH batteries. all in all, you can't ask for more at this price, but you can definitely ask for more :)
 I love these things! April 5, 2003
19 out of 22 found this review helpful
I got these for my 15th birthday and since I'm always up watching movies in the late hours, listening to music around the same time and in close proximity to parents I can't use speakers which I'd always rather have, but can't always. Anyways, I love these headphones. My brother got a pair about 2 years ago and loved/s them, but I had no need really. All of a sudden I'm in his position so my parents got me these about three months ago and haven't proven any huge problems. I had read before on here that people had a problem with them breaking, which mine did not too long ago (and seems too be a common problem), but other than that they're SOOO perfect. I went around the block and they cut out a little bit, but I hadn't tuned them for a month and it was still way above average and far beyond my expectations.
All those other people giving 3 and fewer stars complained about too much and gave them a whole lot less credit than they deserve - technology always has flaws but these are just about top of the line technology even for now. They need to figure out about that little "Frequency Adjust" knob on the back of the receiver and try it out - turn it all one way and it'll work for you up to about 600 feet - or at least it did for me. I hate the breakage, but it's been taped and they work still, so I'd have to give them a 4 7/8 star if I could. I would super-recommend these to anyone who wants or needs them, but be warned about the left side and if you have a fat head like mine they get a little tight after a while.
They came with a standard large headphone jack; a 2-prong wall adapter and an adapter to plug into those excessively large stereo jacks if you have one that big. I never get any hiss unless I'm too lazy to tune (which takes about 30 seconds max - if you know what you're doing), and even then a little turn of a knob fixes everything. My review is super long and you should realize these are great things and take advantage of technology - even if it does break in little places. I LOVE these.
 Painful to wear March 1, 2003
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
The headphones work pretty well. I bought them because I already had Advent wireless speakers, and I wouldn't have to set up another transmitter. The sound quality if fine, and I don't have much of a problem tuning the headphones to receive the signal from the stereo. But, after wearing them for few minutes it gets to be painful. They hurt too much to wear them for more than a few minutes at a time, and there is no way to adjust them so that they don't cause pain!
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