Earphones

Undoubtedly, one of the biggest things to happen with in-ear earphones in recent years is customized fitting. Products such as those made by Ultimate Ears, for instance, are made to fit precisely into each user's unique ear structure. The catch is that said users must first pay a visit to an audiologist and get an ear imprint made, send that imprint away to the company, and then wait to receive their custom-molded earbuds in the mail. Canada's Sonomax Technologies, however, has come up with an alternative - earphones that you can mold to your ears by yourself, at home. Read More

Working from the premise that very few people use drawstrings on their hoodies, HB3Labs has developed Hoodiebuddie - a lineup of garments that integrates earbuds into the end of the drawstrings and a 3.5 mm headphone jack in front pocket. Read More

Since the dawn of the Sony Walkman back in the 80s, audiologists have noted an increase in hearing loss among young people. With the current popularity of iPods and MP3 players, that trend shows no signs of abating. Although concerned parents can tell their children to keep the volume down on their personal music devices, such a rule can be difficult to enforce – particularly when childrens’ and parents’ ideas of “too loud” could differ significantly. Etymotic’s ETY Kids Safe-Listening Earphones, however, limit the volume to safe levels, even when cranked all the way up. Read More

You like listening to music while you work out, but you don't like snagging your personal music player's cord with your arms, nor do you like ruining your earphones by getting them all sweated up. Yep, we know how it is. One solution could be to use a pair of JF3 Freedom Bluetooth Buds, that wirelessly receive music from your mobile phone, and are moisture-resistant. You could also get yourself a similar device made by a little Japanese company called Sony, however, as of next month. That's when the latest version of the W Series Walkman MP3 player for sports enthusiasts will be hitting the stores, in a smaller, lighter format. Read More

There are a lot of nice new electronic gizmos that you could buy for 1,000 euro, which currently equals out to about US$1,435. You could purchase the world’s smallest interchangeable-lens camera (the Pentax Q) and have change left over, you could buy six LaCie CloudBox hard drive/cloud storage devices, six HTC EVO 3D smartphones, or you could get yourself a pair of earbuds ... AKG’s K3003 reference class 3-way earphones, to be precise. Read More

There’s no denying that listening to some motivating tunes can help make the time fly by, when you’re working out or going for a run. Probably just about everyone who has ever worn a personal music device when doing so, however, has had this happen at least once: you go to move your arm, and it catches on your earphone cord, causing your earphones to be violently yanked out. JayBird’s new JF3 Freedom Bluetooth Buds are designed to keep that from happening. Read More

There’s something a little disturbing about the thought of jamming something that looks like a bullet into your ears, but then again, MUNITO’s SITi (Standard Issue Titanium) Nine Millimeter Earphones clearly aren’t your grandma’s earbuds. Not only are their metal bodies modeled after 9 mm shell casings, but their flexible tips are actually trademarked as SiliconeHollowPoints. Lest you think that these earphones are all novelty and no substance, however, they do have some half-decent specs. Read More

It’s no big secret that wearing in-ear devices, such as stereo earphones or hearing aids, can cause the ears to hurt over time. According to the engineers at Colorado’s Asius Technologies, however, this isn’t due simply to a poor fit or high volume levels. Instead, it’s caused by an “acoustic reflex,” that no amount of earbud-reshaping or decreases in volume will alleviate. There are reportedly ways of minimizing or even eliminating what’s known as “listener fatigue,” though – these include a flexible membrane, and even an inflatable ear-tip device created by Asius. Read More

Armour Home recently announced that it has been appointed worldwide distributor of Phitek System's BlackBox range of Active Noise Rejection (ANR) headphones and earphones. Phitek says that the level of ambient background noise can reach 60dB in a busy street, 80dB in the office and up to 94dB in the cabin of a passenger jet. The company claims that its technology is capable of reducing ambient noise levels by 90 percent or more, and I've been sent some C18 in-ear phones for review. Read More