Less Wrong Product & Service Recommendations

lukeprog

I have often benefited from recommendations for Things I Didn't Know I Wanted.

Given that Less Wrong is a community of unusually intelligent, critical, and self-improvement-focused people, I suspect we can generate a pretty helpful thread of product recommendations — perhaps even a monthly thread of product recommendations.

Rules:

Post one product your recommend per comment, so they can be discussed and voted on independently.
Provide a link for purchasing the product.
No books, movies, TV, games, or music. (These should go in other threads, like this one or this one.)

I'll post my own recommendations to the comments section, too.

I have often benefited from recommendations for Things I Didn't Know I Wanted.

Rules:

Post one product your recommend per comment, so they can be discussed and voted on independently.
Provide a link for purchasing the product.
No books, movies, TV, games, or music. (These should go in other threads, like this one or this one.)

I'll post my own recommendations to the comments section, too.

Sennheiser RS 180 Lossless Digital Wireless Headphones (~$330)

These things are so wonderful, I own two of them: one for my computer and one for my TV. I waited months for them to be released - before then, lossless wireless couldn't be bought for any amount of money. Their main attributes are:

Lossless digital - not analog, not lossy compressed digital (unfortunately, their input is analog - as far as I can tell, digital inputs can't be bought for money)
Open-ear - comfortable to wear for hours (warning: leaks sound if others are present in the room, not the best idea for cubicle headphones)
Sounds amazing (I am not an "audiophile" but I know quality when I hear it)
Powered by NiMH AAAs, recharged by contacts in the cradle so you don't have to take them out (I swapped the included batteries for low-self-discharge Eneloop brand batteries, which have higher capacity - it's been years and I haven't had to mess with them since)

Aside from portability (they aren't), their only downside is that they appear to spam the 2.4 GHz spectrum fairly heavily; my iPhone and iPad have occasionally had trouble connecting to wifi while I'm wearing the headphones (I don't yet have a 5 GHz router for the iPad). This doesn't bother me because my computer and consoles are all connected via Ethernet cables (I had to string one 50-foot cable through my apartment, but it was worth it).

I second this recommendation. I've used Sennheiser RS120 Headphones for years and they've been amazing.

They are (according to reviews) approximately similar, but at a ~$70 price point depending on where you get them instead of ~$330.