TDK WR700 Wireless Headphones Review

Posted on October 3rd, 2011. Written by Ade Magnaye.

A few weeks back, I reviewed TDK’s top-of-the-line headphones, the ST800. Here I review another set of headphones from the company’s Life on Record line, the WR700. To be honest, as interesting wireless headphones are, I’m worried about audio fidelity.

Okay, you’re not supposed to expect CD-quality audio from wireless headphones. That’s just silly. Wireless signals don’t carry audio information as well as regular old copper cables. But then, the WR700 did promise transmission technology developed by Kleer, which is an uncompressed CD quality 16bit 44kHz digital connection.

Unboxing the headphones was a bit of a surprise – I was expecting a huge transmitter that I should connect to my mp3 player. The transmitter was surprisingly small, and runs on two AAA batteries. The headphones fit on my head rather comfortably too – put it on, and after a while I’d even forget they’re on. The right side had volume control buttons, and the left earphone contains two AAA batteries.

So after getting my review unit, I immediately plugged the transmitter into my iPod touch to listen to the Beatles. I was rather surprised that audio quality was rather, well, bad. I was bewildered at the audio quality delivered by the WR700s, and I kept on switching songs and artists, thinking it might be a mistake. But every song was lifeless, flat, and sounded horrible. Disappointed, I brought my review unit home, figuring that I might have to use a better player.

I plugged the WR700 into my laptop and played one of my albums in lossless – and suddenly, I hear it. Great audio quality blaring into my ears. Now I don’t have any idea why the audio quality coming from my iPod is horrible when I plug it into my laptop it’s great. I could talk about iTunes’ bad audio compression, or the iPod’s unbelievably bad amplifiers, but I’d be making stuff up. Besides, I don’t want to use the WR700 when commuting – it looks good. Too good, in fact, and that will make me an easy target for a mugging. Or somebody can just easily grab the headphones and run away, since it’s wireless.

Undoubtedly these are some of the best headphones I’ve used in terms of comfort and audio quality. If you’re in the market for wireless headphones, grad the TDK WR700. They’re worth it.

Here are some product specifications for the TDK WR700:

• Non-compressed Stereo Sound – Preserves original 16-bit 44 kHz-digital audio CD signal quality.  Kleer does not compress the audio prior to transmission resulting in uncompromised quality.
• Dynamic Channel Selection Minimizes Audio “Drops” – Audio streams in the robust 2.4 GHz ISM band.  Dynamic channel selection allows the transmitter to monitor interference and switch to another channel if necessary.
• 10 Meter/33 Feet Transmitter-to-Headphones Range
• Ultra-low Power Consumption – 2 AAA Batteries provide 30 to 40 hours of listening time.
• Includes: Wireless headphones, 2.4 GHz transmitter, jack extension cord, storage case, plus 4 “AAA” batteries.

 

Technical Data
Plug Type:	3.5 mm
Driver Diameter:	34 mm
Frequency Response:	20-20,000 Hz
Sensitivity at 1 kHz:	106 ± 5dB
Input impedance:	32 ± 10% ohms
Transmitter Range:	10 m