Do Wireless headphones have lower quality?

[Tax6132]

Like in bass and response timing? or does it not matter?

 

[Solandri]

Response is just like with wired headphones - varies from model to model. Older bluetooth standards could add discernible compression artifacts to the sound, but newer standards and devices support AptX, which allows transmission of CD-quality sound.

Yes the wireless hop adds a slight big of delay. Usually around 20-50 ms. Your brain is pretty flexible and can compensate for about 250 ms audio delay before you start noticing lip-sync problems. But if you're into competitive gaming and rely on the audio for reaction time (your brain reacts faster to auditory stimuli than to visual), you should probably stick with wired headsets.

https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/2lfpyq/why_do_we_react_faster_to_auditory_stimuli_than/

 

[Tax6132]

Response is just like with wired headphones - varies from model to model. Older bluetooth standards could add discernible compression artifacts to the sound, but newer standards and devices support AptX, which allows transmission of CD-quality sound.

Yes the wireless hop adds a slight big of delay. Usually around 20-50 ms. Your brain is pretty flexible and can compensate for about 250 ms audio delay before you start noticing lip-sync problems. But if you're into competitive gaming and rely on the audio for reaction time (your brain reacts faster to auditory stimuli than to visual), you should probably stick with wired headsets.

https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/2lfpyq/why_do_we_react_faster_to_auditory_stimuli_than/

Are there wireless headphones out there known for super low MS delay?

 

[basroil]

Response is just like with wired headphones - varies from model to model. Older bluetooth standards could add discernible compression artifacts to the sound, but newer standards and devices support AptX, which allows transmission of CD-quality sound.

Yes the wireless hop adds a slight big of delay. Usually around 20-50 ms. Your brain is pretty flexible and can compensate for about 250 ms audio delay before you start noticing lip-sync problems. But if you're into competitive gaming and rely on the audio for reaction time (your brain reacts faster to auditory stimuli than to visual), you should probably stick with wired headsets.

https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/2lfpyq/why_do_we_react_faster_to_auditory_stimuli_than/

1) No, "wireless" doesn't add delay, it's Bluetooth that does, between 10 and 300ms depending on the particular mode of operation and devices. RF/IR wireless usually has microseconds of latency (due to simplified transport and lack of encoding/decoding, just modulation/demodulation) , close enough to zero for anyone but audio technicians and research work.
2) Most studies show that -150ms to +50ms desync is acceptable, but things like movies are typically just +-22ms.
3) Even the best consumer grade bluetooth systems are well behind wired sets of the same cost. Most people won't care, but most will tell the difference all the same.

As for best wireless, http://www.sony.com/electronics/headband-headphones/mdr-1abt/specifications (and MDR-100ABN) are quite comfortable, decent DAC, and overall great build quality, and there's always http://en-us.sennheiser.com/wireless-headphone-headset-bluetooth-noise-cancelling-pxc-550-travel or the QC35

That said, latency is not something usually described on the spec sheet, so if minimal latency and wireless are necessary, consider IR solutions like Sony MDR-DS6000 and Sennheiser RS 180