Altec Lansing AHP612 Wireless Studio Headphones

Reviews: Multimedia

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Nicholas Hart
Kurtis
Altec Lansing
Dec. 15, 2006

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Introduction

Headphones. Some like them big, some like small, some people want noise-canceling and some want wireless. Wait! wireless? Yes! Altec Lansing AHP612 Wireless Studio Headphones to be exact. While not exactly portable in the taking-the-bus-to-work sense, they promise to let you roam free of wires when home. No more being tethered to your computer or knocking the headphones off your head when you get carried away with the air guitar.

Altec Lansing claims these headphones will deliver up to 150 feet of range using the 900MHz frequency band. They also claim "a wide frequency response and bass you can feel.' Are you skeptical? Well I don't blame you. But the proof is in the pudding they say, so let's find out if it's that nasty instant tapioca or the made-with-love-cooked-on-the-stove-the-right-way chocolate kind like Granny used to make. mmm!pudding!

First Impressions

The Altec Lansing AHP612 Wireless Studio Headphones come in a large blue box that won't win any product marketing awards but will keep your headphones safe during transit. As these are "studio' headphones they are of course quite large and meant to fit over your ears to help insulate from outside noise interference. The specs state that the heaphones have an adjustable headband but that's not the case in the traditional sense. You don't actually adjust them yourself, rather the inner padded band covers an elastic strap that stretches appropriately to accommodate varying head sizes. This may not sound very appealing but after trying them on myself I put them on my 18month old daughter. She of course took off running for the nearest mirror but surprisingly the headphones stayed put on her little head during the trip.

The finish on the earpieces is a glossy black and each has a few buttons to adjust volume, mute or to power on/off the headphones. The outer headband is approximately ¼" thick matte grey textured plastic and you can also see the antenna wire running along its length from one earpiece to the other. The earpieces are labeled R and L but you will definitely know if you have them on backwards because they just feel wrong that way. Worn the proper way, they are surprisingly comfortable for me even with my glasses on. The elastic band in the inner headband does a good job of carrying the weight of the headphones and the earpieces don't squeeze tightly at all.

The left earpiece has a power button and a link indicator to tell you that it is receiving signal from the transmitter base. The right earpiece has volume controls and a mute button. The buttons themselves are raised and arranged in a single line going up the side of the earpiece and it was very easy to find the correct button to adjust the volume to my liking.

Three rechargeable AA size batteries are included with the AHP612 headphones and they are installed by twisting the left earpiece to reveal the battery slots. I like the idea of these rechargeable batteries as they are standard size/type and could easily be replaced with batteries from your local electronics store or even supermarket. I was worried that the battery weight on one side of the headphones would cause balance issues but Altec Lansing has clearly addressed any potential for problems and balanced the headphones appropriately. The transmitter base serves as a charging station and docking cradle for the headphones when not in use.

The transmitter base is slightly narrower than the width of the headphones so the overall profile of the base with the headphones docked isn't much larger than the headphones themselves. A small antenna sticks up from the middle of the base and a couple of LEDs show when the base is receiving audio from the source and when the headphones are charging.

The back of the base has two RCA-style inputs for audio and a "level' adjustment dial that I will cover later. There is also the DC jack for input power and a switch to select one of three channels to help get the best signal possible. Power is provided to the base by a typical wall-wart DC power supply.

Also included with the AHP612 headphones is an RCA-to-RCA cable and an adapter for a 3.5mm stereo audio jack. That should keep you covered for using the headphones with a computer or game console but a 3.5mm to ¼" stereo adapter would be nice to have for things like a home theater receiver.

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Page 1: Introduction & First Impressions
Page 2: Testing
Page 3: Conclusion

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