Wireless Headphones Mod?

[SpottyJ]

Need some advice from the Club:

I have an 03, Avy with sunroof and the rear console entertainmnt system. No DVD player. And I have an extra set of GM wireless headphones from an Avlanche DVD sysytem.

1) Are the 03' DVD system wireless headphones RF or IR?

2) How can I mod my existing rear console with two headphones jacks to transmitt via an IR or RF transmitter to my GM wireless headphones?

I want to go wireless for the rear passengers as my kids are always yanking on the headphone cords and getting tangles. I would ideally like to keep the option of the plug-in jacks supplemented by the wireless tranmitter option.


Is this just a matter of taping into one of the headphone jack's wiring within the rear/center console and pigtailing off that wiring to a IR or RF transmitter. Is it that simple? Does the transmitter normally need its own power source?

Any thoughts?

Also, where is a good/discreet location for the transmitter?

Thanks for your ideas!

Regards,

SpottyJ

 

[kodiakz]

It is as simple as tying into one of the plugs in the console. However, we have done this on several occasions (mostly furds) and have gotten a noticeable level of noise in the headphones and on some of those we were never able to completely get rid of it. I would probably recommend an IR system as the rf systems are more noise sensitive and may not work very well in that application.

 

[SpottyJ]

Kodiakz

Thanks for the quick reply. Do you know if the OEM/Stock Avalanche Wireless Headphones that come with the DVD system are IR or RF? I am trying to use the ones I have. But, I don't know how to tell which they are. Also, are there many IR or RF channels that I need to be concerned with a frequency match for my headsets to a transmitter?

Thanks again for your comments.

SpottyJ

 

[n8wrl]

This is interesting. I have a pair of Sennheiser RS-65 wireless headphones (RF) I use in the house. When not in use, they sit on the base unit which charges them and is also the transmitter. It uses a 12V wall-wart for power and an 1/8" stereo plug for signal.

I started thinking about this back when we had an Astro with rear-seat audio controls and I think it would be just as do-able in the Av. We travel quite a bit and instead of the headrest-mounted or ceiling fold-down LCD screens we use a cheap 9" 12V TV/VCR strapped to the center console. I've been trying to get some sort of AUX-input support for the 03 radio (6-disc in-dash CD) without OnStar or XM but that doesn't seem to be possible. I was hoping to include the TV's audio as a signal source for the Av's audio system.

Then, figure some sort of mounting place for the headphone base getting 12V from the truck and plugging into the audio from the rear.

I looked into buying a 2nd pair of the headphones from Sennheiser but they wanted as much as a complete set including base/xmitter would cost! So I think buying a 2nd set gives me two headphones and permanent installations in the truck and house.

But, all this takes time and effort and I strung 1/8" stereo extension cords so they stuck out at the top of the seats. This makes for a convenient place for the kids to 'plug in' without cords across thier laps to be yanked out. This seems to be a good solution for now but the wireless sure would be cool!

-Brian n8wrl