Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12/17/review_hauppauge_xfones/
First Review You have to admire Hauppauge's brass. The company known for its TV tuners is marketing its XFones as wireless headphones with Dolby Headphone technology. That's all true: they are headphones, they are wireless and, yes, they do feature Dolby. But this smart sound system comes not from the hardware, but the bundled DVD playback software.
Dolby Headphone is a sound-processing technique that makes for a more 'widescreen' audio experience. According to its developer, it combines a 5.1-channel sound stream with the characteristics of various listening environments to simulate with two speakers the sound you'd get out of six in, say, an auditorium.
As the name suggests, those two speakers are expected to be placed right up close to your ears, and while many products will mix the six sound streams coming off a DVD into two, Dolby reckons its approach makes for a more natural, three-dimensional sound.
Hauppauge's XFones: it's all in the software
There's a good demo of the technology at Dolby's website here (http://www.dolby.com/consumer/technology/headphone.html).
But back to the hardware. The XFones are cans of the kind that completely enclose your ears. The cups are connected by the usual rigid, cable carrying headband, but there's a secondary band beneath it that's elasticated to help hold the 'phones in place. There's no height adjustment as such, so if you head pushes the elastic strip right up to the headband and the cups still don't reach your ears, that's tough.
We found the headphones were comfortable to wear. They'll only move around if you shake your head vigorously. Put it this way: they should stay on no matter how much you find yourself ducking and diving during a gaming sessions, or movie viewing.
The left-hand cup is home to the power button and power light, and beneath the twist-to-unlock-and-remove cushion you'll find spaces for the three AAA batteries that drive the 'phones. Batteries are included in the box.
The right-hand cup has a bass-boost switch and volume control buttons. It also has a light that indicates the 'phones are connected to the USB dongle that takes the sonic output of your Mac or PC and streams it over to the headset. Out of the box, the two units are already paired, but both have a Pairing button - on the headphones it's doubles-up as the bass-boost button - in case you need to re-connect them at some point.
The USB dongle has a second button, for stepping through the channels it uses within the 2.4GHz band. So yes, the XPhones work in the same frequency range as Bluetooth, but they use a different, incompatible wireless technology. That limits you to connecting them devices that have a USB port and are loaded with generic USB audio card drivers.
Both Macs and Windows XP/Vista PCs are, allowing you to plug in the dongle and select it a sound port in the usual way for each OS.
We did get some interference with other devices. Our wireless mouse stopped working, for instance, but a single press of the XFones transmitter's Channel button fixed that. More worryingly our laptop's Wi-Fi lifeline later dropped too. We could only get it back by yanking the XFones transmitter. So this may not be the best product to pick if you use a lot of other wireless devices.
Wireless-by-USB
The XFones themselves are a decent set of wireless stereo headphones. Despite being closed, there's a fair bit of leakage at high volumes. The sound's not bad, but it could be more vibrant. The bass-boost brings music a bit of beefiness without overpowering it. But since the Dolby Headphone isn't part of the hardware, you're only going to get it if you run software that supports the technology. CyberLink's PowerDVD 7 does, and that's the app Hauppauge has chosen to bundle with the XFones.
And it's very impressive. PowerDVD allows you to switch between stereo, down-mixed surround sound and Dolby Headphone, and the difference as you move from one to the other is immediately and starkly clear. Stereo is two-dimensional, and while down-mixing gives you more of a sense of space, there's still the feeling that the sound sources are close to your ears. Dolby Headphones really pulls the sound sources away from your head for a more cinema-like sound.
It's amazing what a difference it makes listening to the likes of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and V for Vendetta when you're used to a pair a bog-standard earphones.
PowerDVD allows you to boost the sound volumes and to apply different room models to the sound output, so you can tailor the sound to suit your personal preferences.
Hauppauge mentions the XFones' Mac OS X support, but while the OS' DVD Player app will down-mix a DVD's multi-channel soundtrack, it doesn't provide the Dolby Headphone experience. Right now, we can't find any Mac app that does. Hauppauge presumably can't either, which is why there's no bundled Mac software. For Mac users, then, the XFones are good, but ultimately just another pair of wireless headphones.
Pack, man
Support for Dolby Headphone is stronger in the PC world, but the crucial point here is that the technology works with any pair of headphones. PowerDVD retails for $50 (£25) so it's certainly cheaper to buy the software and use 'phones you already own or put the £55 difference toward a good-brand set of wired headphones or cans that can be used with a wider range of devices. We tried Dolby Headphone out with a set of regular iPod earphones and you could tell the difference even then. That said, the effect was certainly better with the XFones' bigger drivers.
If you must have wireless 'phones, the XFones aren't a bad place to start. Even without Dolby Headphone, you'll have a job finding a USB wireless ear-enclosing headphone set for this price.
We'd prefer a Bluetooth unit like Logitech's FreePulse - reviewed here (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/01/29/review_logitech_freepulse/) - which works with any device that has a 3.5mm jack socket or has an A2DP wireless stereo facility. But there's no doubt the XFones would make a great addition to a living room PC connected to a big telly.
Hauppauge claims the phones will run for nine hours on a fresh set of AAAs. We got a little less than that - between 8h 30m to 8h 45m, we'd say - but then we were messing with the bass boost feature in the early hours, and that will always increase power consumption.
Hauppauge's XFones are by no means a bad set of cans, but the star here is Dolby Headphone. It's very impressive, but it'll work with any pair of 'phones - all you need is a compatible playback app. If you don't have one, or you just fancy a pair of wireless headphones, then the XFones are a good starter set. But we'd prefer a set that can work with a broader array of devices, and that means Bluetooth.
 | Hauppauge XFones PC-2400 |
| Summary | Nice cans but we'd prefer a set that worked with more devices than just USB-equipped computers... |
|---|---|
| Rating | 70% |
| Price | £80 |
| More info | Hauppauge's XFones page (http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/products/data_xfones.html) |
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