Sennheiser's new MX W1 earbuds get wireless with Kleer

It's looking like Sennheiser has a trick or two up its sleeve planned for CES this year -- the audio company is about to drop what appears to be the first commercially available pair of standalone wireless earbuds. The MX W1, as the buds are lovingly known, utilize Kleer technology to transmit audio from their dongle (base station?) to your ears. The same technique was used to poorer effect in RCA's S2501 JetStream DAP / earbud combo, which (virtually) lassoed the buds to the less-than-thrilling player. Sennheiser, on the other hand, provides the MX W1's free of a player and ready to be plugged into your unit of choice -- a huge boon for the marketability of this particular product. It should be noted that these appear to be output only, so those looking for a mobile phone solution will have to look elsewhere. Still, for audio enthusiasts fed up with wires, this is likely music to their ears... er, literally.

[Via PC Magazine]

Update: Looks like we've got a price, and it's $600. Zing. Thanks Arief.

[fischju @ Jan 4th 2008 5:09PM]

Argh, should have waited for CES. Just bought some CX300s.

[Carbonize @ Jan 4th 2008 5:11PM]

So is Kleer technology invented by Mental's minions from Serious Sam?

[Kamokazi @ Jan 4th 2008 5:25PM]

Looks promising...I've always been a big fan of Sennheiser's stuff...great sound quality for reasonable prices...hoping these follow the trend.

[torin Vlietstra @ Jan 4th 2008 5:30PM]

Great, another thing for me to lose between the cushions of the couch, seems kinda impractical actually.

[Ray-- @ Jan 4th 2008 5:37PM]

they should have made them bluetooth ftw.

[pquistgard @ Jan 4th 2008 7:09PM]

Yeah. For two years I've been wanting something like this, BUT ON BLUETOOTH! A2DP! so I can use it with my laptop. Guess I'll have to wait some more. And some more (for it to get cheaper)

[allibone @ Jan 4th 2008 9:41PM]

WHat happens when you're out on the street and one falls out of your ears and falls down a sewer drain? Although these headphones sound like a good idea, I don't think they are actually going to be very practical outside your house.

[The E @ Jan 4th 2008 10:37PM]

What happens if we had a "wireless phone" and we dropped it on the street or lost it, maybe we should just stick to Bell South phones. The same argument can be made for any emerging wireless technologies, but the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages over time. I lost a number of headphones due to the wire getting pulled violently from my ears. And lets not even consider all the horrible accidents that have occurred due to tethered wires...

[fischju @ Jan 4th 2008 11:21PM]

Won't happen. Look at the top, these are the "twist" kind. Sennheiser has a couple models of those, check 'em out.

[BigD @ Jan 4th 2008 5:59PM]

Now they just need to start building transmitters inside devices...maybe CES 2009 will reveal a phone or DAP (a mainstream established DAP).

[BigD @ Jan 4th 2008 6:03PM]

I just researched Kleer a little bit....

"The Company is headquartered in Cupertino, California with product development facilities in Ottawa, Ontario."

Cupertino? iPod (iPhone) integration, anyone?

Ontario? Maybe RIM might be interested?

[RubberBinder @ Jan 4th 2008 7:01PM]

I hope CES brings more wireless headphones to the market because currently there are very few that are actually worth buying.

[trancer @ Jan 6th 2008 4:14PM]

what a waste. A2DP please.

[Panathas17 @ Jan 5th 2008 1:51AM]

So is that dock thing actually gonna work with a computer or an iPod maybe....

[Ed @ Jan 5th 2008 4:03AM]

What the heck are those little rubber things behind the ear pieces?

My first thought it was some sort of hybrid bone conduction, but I doubt that.

[fischju @ Jan 5th 2008 12:42PM]

Simliar to these
http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-Twist-Stereo-Sport-Headphones/dp/B000FJEYZS
They twist to fit, so they won't fall out (they are $600 wireless headphones...)

[Kao @ Jan 5th 2008 4:29AM]

Theres been so many concepts floating around for a few years now -- the one that caught my eye the most was the plantronics-versa-wireless-earbuds sad that its been 2 years and still no product has been produced.

Check it out: http://www.stencilp.com/freshgear/2005/11/plantronics-versa-wireless-earbuds.html

[Z @ Jan 5th 2008 7:53AM]

My understanding is that Kleer didn't use BT technology because BT demanded too much power and depleted battery life too quickly, and that BT was overkill and perhaps, too "chatty" simply for one-way audio transfer. What they use requires much less power and consumes less battery life while still offering good sound.

I wish Apple and whomever else would integrate a Kleer wireless chip in their devices. And at the very least, I wish Kleer would come out with some small, sleek, shape and color matched adaptor/receiver to plug into the iPod Touch (for instance), so we could make use of these Kleer earbuds. I've been wanting some nice sleek, wireless earbuds for ages. Personally, I'm so sick of wires. We've cut them with our cell phones, now it's time to do it with our portable media players. All the other BT headphones out there are mostly clunky to work with and goofy looking. Even the few stereo BT earbud solutions have wires between them or wires going to a BT receiver, which to me, defeats the whole purpose. I don't want ANY wires.

With all that said, $600 for this particular Kleer-based Sennheiser product? Yeeeeeah... sure... Try again. A product like this can't be anymore than $100. That is, unless there's some super special audio component here that I'm completely unaware of (over and above Kleer's technology); and I can't possibly think what that would be to demand a $600 price tag.

[Tommy @ Jan 5th 2008 10:49AM]

I current have the Motorola S9 and the Samsung P2 combo. While it's great and sufficient for working out, the volume is a bit on the low side if you are going to use it while riding the subway in NYC. However, there's no problem with audio cutting out. The sound quality is good but cannot compared to my MylarXB earbuds. I give it an 8 in term of sound quality. A 9 for design and function. It works as advertised. Anyone know how to increase the volume output on these?