Just recently I was on an airplane, watching the in flight movie and listening to the sound on my headphones. The person in the seat next to me needed to use the washroom so I stood up to move. Unfortunately, the wire caught on the arm of the seat and tore the earbud out of my ear. It was painful and when I sat back down and inspected my earbud I discovered that one of the wires had broken free. This isn't the first time that headphone wires have become entangled and useless.

That's why wireless headphones are so good. Many companies make wireless headphones for a variety of reasons. Check out some of the best names in headphone manufacturing, including Iawa, Sennheiser, Shure, and Koss to see if they create the type of wireless headphone that you want.

Wireless headphones have come a long way! I remember wireless headphones in the 80's had a radio built right in (with a giant antenna) and too two batteries. As you can imagine, those ultra modern headphones looked more like something from a bad science fiction move!

Today, wireless headphones are barely noticeable on a person. If the person uses the earbud or canalbud style of headphones, you can't even tell that they're listening to music (although that might explain why they're dancing around like maniacs).

Wireless headphones are great in the car. If you're driving down the highway and you get a call on your cell phone, having a hands-free option so you can keep both hands on the steering wheel is idea. These are increasing in popularity and you can sometimes see people walking around with small metallic devices on their ear. These hook over the ear and a small microphone reaches to their cheek, which can pick up their conversation.

Wireless headphones are also useful in an office setting where a receptionist has to walk around (perhaps delivering the mail) while still being able to answer the phone.

Although many advancements are being made in the headphone industry, wireless headphones are going to be a fairly basic model at this point in one regard; they may not be completely appropriate for the audiophile just yet. For the person who loves to listen to music and tries to attain a near theatre quality sound, a circumaural headphone might be the best option. However, these powerful headphones require a power source (for example, from an amplifier) and may not receive enough power from batteries in the headphones themselves. This will change in the near future but it may not be there just yet for the true music aficionado.

For the rest of us, wireless headphones are just the right mix of convenience and quality to hear the sounds we want to hear.

One more thing: Remember to keep the volume down a little and save your hearing!