As much as I might resist, the idea of GOOD wireless headphones would be of interest to me in certain applications, but then when I look for a decent pair, a pile of junk is out there. Does anyone here have suggestions for good quality and very good sounding wireless phones? Sennheiser comes to mind, should run into an extra $300.

 Hey Jeff,

   Good to hear from you. Well, I have the notion of a bit of freedom while listening to music around the house. FWIW, I have found a pair of Sennheiser phones that are wireless. Model 'Momentum 2.0'.... Retail is at $500, but I found a used pair for about $180. It's real tongue in check for me, and since they are over ear, closed back,blue tooth device, time will tell. First off, I don't even know if my computer supports Blue Tooth, so that may be hurdle #1.
In the meantime, I have made a headphone hook for just such an occasion.

The way I deal with it is to use the battery operated "Zen-Head / headphone amplifier" piggybacked with an iPod or smartphone playing uncompressed files, or streaming or whatever I want.

This is a high fidelity approach to wireless.

The first time I tried this, was here in the shop and I was playing some good music and admiring the sonics, thinking how good it was, how close to the tubes it was, and then since the whole rig was in my shirt pocket, I walked outside while the music was playing and I have to say it was weird. The sound quality of the listening room just went right outside with me, and it seemed to defy reality. It definitely bent my brain a little bit.

The problem with wireless or bluetooth is both range and bandwidth. The bluetooth as I understand it is only 256 kBps. I find that 320 is far better sounding or even better is no compression (1144) or even better still is high res files. You would be surprised how good a 24 bit high res download can sound on a battery operated iPod or similar digital player when hooked to the battery operated headphone amplifier... makes you realize that there is no such thing as grain in music or good recordings... grain is an artifact of AC power and power grid harmonics.  Battery Operated Burr Brown Op Amps is the best solid state sound for analog lovers so that is what makes up the Zen Head (model ZH1) headphone amplifier.  A single 9 volt battery lasts up to 50 hours depending on volume.



https://www.decware.com/newsite/zenhead.htm

Steve

What a great thought, as I am listening right now to computer audio for the first time ever. The thinking then, is this  acceptable if I could make it portable? I have a little battery powered Xenos amp that is surprisingly good, but have never owned a cell phone of any kind. Is there yet another alternative for some sort of source to supply audio to the amp?
The bluetooth sound is ok, but only ok. Listening to flac computer files is quite a step up, but still pretty SS sounding.