When you're listening to speakers, the music stays at the same end of the room no matter how you turn your head. But when you're listening through headphones, sound seems to twist and turn when you do. This is fine for music but unsettling with home theater, where the sound belongs to an image on a stationary screen.
Sony's VIP-1000 Orbit headphone system fixes the problem. When I put on the headset, sound stayed with the screen, even when I faced dead away from it. The secret? Gyroscopes in the earphones that move when you do, sending signals back to a control unit. Digital signal processing (DSP) circuits in the unit process each ear's signal to compensate for head movements. The DSP unit is bulky (about the size of a large shoebox), but at least I don't need to run wires from it back to the set - infrared beams carry the signal.
The DSP circuitry does more than stabilize direction. It also moves the sound from the middle of your head (a common headphone problem) into the area around you. Consequently, the sound is fuller, richer, and more spacious. Three settings match the acoustics of a large concert hall, a movie theater, or a standard room in a house.
Why headphones? Aside from allowing you to watch and listen while your partner sleeps, they provide better sound than any built-in TV speakers I've encountered. Better, in fact, than many other headphones - pleasant and clear, and able to produce throbbing (if not pounding) bass - even when the volume's cranked up.
The drawbacks? Cost (US$749.95) and bulk are the major ones. Since standoffs keep the headphones about an inch from my ears, I look silly wearing them, and there's no insulation from outside sounds. But most troublesome is that while the DSP unit has an input jack for sounds from other sources (such as CDs), there's no output for a second pair of phones for my wife.
Sony VIP-1000 Orbit Video Headphones: US$749.95 Sony Electronics Inc.: (800) 222 7669, +1 (201) 930 7669.
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