Best wireless headphones for TV 2022

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Best Wireless TV Headphones For Gaming

Razer Barracuda Pro wireless gaming headset

Things to consider when picking the best Wireless headphones for TV use

Unlike picking the best OLED TV, where it’s essentially a game of pure specifications, colors, and I/O options, headphones have far more subjectivity and some annoyingly nuanced considerations that must be thought about. Despite the essentially unsolvable issues surrounding subjectivity, we’ve done our best to cover what you’ll need to know regarding sound, connectivity, compatibility, and a few other areas of consideration.

Headphones for TV connectivity: Bluetooth, RF, or IR?

Those of you sued to the normal experience of buying wireless headphones might be surprised to discover that this category isn’t just pure Bluetooth, instead, there are three primary wireless connection protocols that each have their own advantages and drawbacks. We’ll start with Bluetooth, just for a bit of familiarity.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a wireless connection standard anyone with a modern cellphone will be familiar with. It’s convenient, relatively low-latency, and is the most widely supported wireless audio standard in the world. Almost every soundbar out there supports it and even some modern TVs like the LG C2 OLED support it natively, making it without a doubt the easiest wireless headphones solution out there, but there are downsides.

The first one is that Bluetooth has a fairly limited bandwidth, meaning that audio needs to be compressed as it’s sent, leading to a loss in quality. Additionally, Bluetooth can have some pretty noticeable latency, which can become even more noticeable if you have a large enough TV that necessitates being sat a fair distance away. Lastly, Bluetooth can be prone to interference or intrusion, so it’s not the best option if you’re particularly concerned about privacy.

RF (Radio frequency)

This one will be more familiar if you’re a user of a wireless gaming headset as it uses the same technology. the best gaming headsets usually utilize the 2.4GHz frequency of the radio spectrum, and RF wireless headphones for TV are no different, though they sometimes use 5GHz or another section of the wavelength to lessen the chances of interference as 2.4GHz is a pretty busy area of the spectrum these days.

The main benefit to RF headphones is the huge range they’re capable of, we’re talking anywhere up to around 330ft/100m. Of course, you’d have to live in a mansion or enjoy watching your TV from the comfort of a neighbor’s house, but the extra headroom is nice regardless. Additionally, the signal has no problems passing through walls either, so you’ll be able to continue listening during a trip to the fridge, or considering the range, a trip to the corner store.

The drawbacks come in the form of the obligatory base station as no TVs come with RF transmitters built-in, meaning that you’ll need space within cable-length to position it. These base stations typically connect directly to the RCA outputs of the TV or via a special splitter cable that combines them into a single 3.5mm jack. The base station then converts the signal to RF, then sends it to the headphones.

IR (Infrared)

It’s an older data transmission protocol sir, but it checks out. Yes indeed, the same technology used for sharing family guy episodes between phones during class in 2007 is still alive and kicking. What’s more, you’ve probably used it already today as it’s what allows your remote to control the TV.

Despite the nostalgia, infrared has a lot of fantastic benefits, and one huge drawback. The benefits start with the latency, or lack thereof, Given that infrared is non-visible light, it travels just as fast as visible light, so you get an instantaneous connection and transmission. Well not technically instantaneous, but given that light travels at ~300m meters per second, we’ll bet that you won’t notice a delay. Additionally, IR signals don’t interact with radio frequencies whatsoever, so there will be zero interference from other wireless devices.

The drawbacks come as a result of the inherent properties of light, specifically, its straight-line travel. You have to have a direct line of sight otherwise your connection will stop, so you’ll have to keep the remote handy for rapid pauses as there’s no chance of continued audio when going from room to room with IR.

Surround sound

Of course, true surround sound is impossible with headphones, but you can get pretty damned close thanks to today’s headphone dynamic driver technology. This means, if you make the right purchase decision, you can lose little cinematic immersion when it becomes too late in the night (or early in the morning) for the speaker to keep cranking.

Virtual surround sound has become more and more accessible over the last few years, meaning that unless you are very, very tightly constrained by your available budget, you’ll be able to get hold of some. All the best wireless headphones for TV usage should include this as the 3D soundscape of a movie, game, or TV show adds a lot to the viewing or playing experience. This means that we very, very strongly recommend that you get a pair with this capability as you’ll be inf or a far more immersive and enjoyable experience overall.

Comfort

We typically write about gaming-specific technology here at WePC, so we know how important long term comfort is, but it becomes far more vital when talking about the best headphones for tv use as online gaming matches don’t last nearly as long as a move or even an episode of TV, meaning that there are ample opportunities to take readjust them or take them off entirely.

The same cannot be said for TV use as it’s not unusual to watch a 2-hour+ movie in one sitting, so the comfort needs to be top tier for extended sessions. This means we’re looking for headphones with a lot of plushy, high-quality padding. Additionally, said padding needs to be upholstered in comfortable material that won’t cause irritation over long periods of use. This is less important on the headband as most people, the lucky ones, at least, have hair. The earcups are a different story as they directly press onto the area of your head surrounding the ears, meaning that you’ll feel it pretty quickly if it’s not up to scratch.

Battery life

This follows on from the comfort section as the extended periods of TV use necessitate a longer battery life, as trying to settle into a movie only to tether yourself to the base station 40 minutes later will no doubt put a downer on the overall experience. Luckily, increases in wireless communication protocol efficiency mean that generally speaking, battery life concerns are becoming a thing of the past, however, there are still some lemons out there, but you won’t find any on this page. Regardless, it’s something that must be considered when it comes to picking the best wireless headphones for TV usage.