I have Sennheiser RS180 headphones that use Kleer technology to transfer digitally the audio uncompressed and bit-perfect. The transfer is bit-perfect from Sennheiser's base station to headphones but the base station has no digital inputs to connect to computer. Only way to connect is via analog inputs.
The market for Kleer-enabled products is not huge. Sennheiser has its RS-headphone-series and Arcam has some products using Kleer. If you want CD-quality wireless transfer, there is not many alternatives. I have also Bluetooth headphones that have Apt-X capability but it still isn't strictly speaking CD-quality.
To get the signal bit-perfect I had to take one step further and remove the analog wires between my computer and Kleer-transmitter. Only USB dongle transmitting Kleer-signal was Arcam rWave so I at first ordered it.
The stick seemed to install ok and I could pair it with my RS-180 but I could never get any sound out of it. I could not even get the Windows audio test sounds out of it. I contacted Arcam or tried to contact but never get any answer...
That was about a year ago and seems rWave is currently discontinued. But then I found out company SMS Audio make wireless headphones with Kleer AND the also have USB dongle as an accessory!
Open Amazon, open your wallet and open your door for delivery guy. Easy as that.
Installation was as easy. Just plug in the dongle and it shows as audio card. It has three selectable sample rates, 32kHz, 44,1kHz and 48kHz. Pairing with RS-180 was easy even when there isn't any manuals. There's only one button. When the LED flashes fast, it's searching for Kleer receivers. When it pairs, it starts to blink at the same time as RS-180. It can be paired with four devices.
And it works! Sound!
Was it worth the 100 euros? Don't know. I had to have another audio card because currently my Fiio E17 headphone amplifier was shared between Sennheiser HD595's and Sennheiser Kleer base station. Now I can have separate signal paths for both. Audio quality-wise Fiio&Sennheiser HD595 is still a better combination than SMSAudio&Sennheiser RS-180. But you notice the difference between the two when you try to walk away from your listening place.
SMS Audio Kleet USB Dongle
Update:Dongle is not completely out of faults. Sometimes when I power up RS-180 it does not connect with dongle. Problem is definitely in dongle because it starts working after I unplug the dongle and put it back in. Have to investigate this further.
The market for Kleer-enabled products is not huge. Sennheiser has its RS-headphone-series and Arcam has some products using Kleer. If you want CD-quality wireless transfer, there is not many alternatives. I have also Bluetooth headphones that have Apt-X capability but it still isn't strictly speaking CD-quality.
To get the signal bit-perfect I had to take one step further and remove the analog wires between my computer and Kleer-transmitter. Only USB dongle transmitting Kleer-signal was Arcam rWave so I at first ordered it.
The stick seemed to install ok and I could pair it with my RS-180 but I could never get any sound out of it. I could not even get the Windows audio test sounds out of it. I contacted Arcam or tried to contact but never get any answer...
That was about a year ago and seems rWave is currently discontinued. But then I found out company SMS Audio make wireless headphones with Kleer AND the also have USB dongle as an accessory!
Open Amazon, open your wallet and open your door for delivery guy. Easy as that.
Installation was as easy. Just plug in the dongle and it shows as audio card. It has three selectable sample rates, 32kHz, 44,1kHz and 48kHz. Pairing with RS-180 was easy even when there isn't any manuals. There's only one button. When the LED flashes fast, it's searching for Kleer receivers. When it pairs, it starts to blink at the same time as RS-180. It can be paired with four devices.
And it works! Sound!
Was it worth the 100 euros? Don't know. I had to have another audio card because currently my Fiio E17 headphone amplifier was shared between Sennheiser HD595's and Sennheiser Kleer base station. Now I can have separate signal paths for both. Audio quality-wise Fiio&Sennheiser HD595 is still a better combination than SMSAudio&Sennheiser RS-180. But you notice the difference between the two when you try to walk away from your listening place.
SMS Audio Kleet USB Dongle
Update:Dongle is not completely out of faults. Sometimes when I power up RS-180 it does not connect with dongle. Problem is definitely in dongle because it starts working after I unplug the dongle and put it back in. Have to investigate this further.
Hey, Thanks for this write-up.
ReplyDeleteI've recently paired the SMS USB transmitter with the RS180 Headphones and it sounds amazing! However, I noticed that the LEFT/RIGHT channels are reversed...
Did you have similar problem? I've tried pairing/re-pairing, uninstalling/reinstalling the USB dongle, etc... Do I you think I have a defective USB dongle?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Best,
-Andy
Wow, you are absolutely right! The channels are reversed. I haven't been using these with movies and never tested the balance.
DeleteIt's easy to fix in my system because the music goes through VST plugins and I just have to flip the channels in one config file but for other people it's not that easy :(
Too bad this KLEER still seems to be a niche market, only two USB dongles available. The Arcam doesn't work at all and the SMS has to be reset once in a while and channels are reversed...I would think these are easy to fix but there seems to be no firmware updates from SMS.
Thanks so much for you help.
DeleteI also tried the Arcam and it didn't work as you had mentioned. I also tried the Focal Transmitter and it worked but it had 2 problems:
1. Signal would be lost for about 1 second intermittingly at random 4-5min intervals. Really annoying.
2. After connecting back from standby mode, headphone volume would reset to MAX LEVEL!! Very dangerous for my hearing.
I ended up returning everything. Although I loved the sound quality of the wireless system, I found it wasn't really as practical as I had wished.
Thanks for all of the helpful information on you site.
Best,
-Andy
Seems Kleer is losing the game. New wireless Sennheisers don't use Kleer anymore but Sennheiser's own protocol. I would have liked a common protocol used by many manufacturers. Kleer(=>SMSC=>Microchip) should have made reference products that actually work even with a little higher prices. But it seems they(Microchip) have an USB stick without covers: http://www.microchip.com/pagehandler/en-us/technology/wirelessAudio/kleernet/dwusb83.html?tab=t1
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