Author: Davos Odioworth

(ENDED) Summary of headphone offers in the official and leaked Black Friday Ads

The 2017 Black Friday is over and so is Cyber Monday. But if you are interested in headphone deals, fear NOT! We got you covered 365x24x7 with our parallel Headphone Deals Blog which also has a full-text FREE RSS Feed so you can follow the action any which way you like…

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Unboxing the House of Marley Uplift II (EM-JE093) earphones

I believe these are the first “wood” earphones I’ve touched if memory serves me well. We have a new unboxing post for you, text and pictures, no annoying audio/video, it is a second generation model, the House of Marley Uplift II (EM-JE093) earphones.

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Unconventional Headphone Hacks

This is a brand new diary-style post that I will keep adding to it over time. As the title suggests, we’ll have unconventional and off-beat headphone hacks. Randomness is key here 🙂 They are posted in reverse chronological order, so the newest ones will appear at the top. You can read them in any order, this is not a book 🙂

#1: BEANIES AS EARPHONE HOLDERS

Do you have earphones that refuse to stay in your ears? Are you looking for a way to “encourage” the earphones not to fall out of your ears so easily? Well, how about a beanie hat? Wearing it on top of the earphones gently holds them in place, so they are less likely to fall out of your ears. Or even if they get out of the ear, they won’t fall on the ground or drop into your drink 🙂

Note though that depending on your situation, they may slightly alter the perceived sound signature, especially if the earphones don’t isolate very well (by design or you can’t find a perfect eartip fit).

This is mayhaps more helpful when the weather co-operates. I’m not sure how many people would be willing to wear a beanie in 100+ F / 40+ C degree weather 🙂

Headphone Jack Crisis Episode II: The Google Menace

Episode I of the “Headphone Jack Crisis” was triggered by Apple when they removed the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 models in the Fall 2016. I never got around to writing about that contemporaneously, but I am writing about Episode II: The Google Menace! About a year after Apple, Google is removing the headphone jack for their new PIXEL 2 flagship smartphones!

LATEST UPDATE: 10/17/17 – this post is presented “diary style”. The latest updates are on top…

THIS IS GOOGLE’S VERSION OF APPLE’S MFI?

Apple has its famous MFI (Made for iPhone/iPod/iPad) program with certified products. Google is now implementing their own [apparently forgetting that they are not an iOS monopoly like Apple], and they now have an official list of “Made for Google” headphones whose common thread so far is supporting “Google Assistant”. The wired headphones on the list have USB-C input, and in addition to the PixelBuds, they have these models so far:

  • Libratone QAdapt In-Ear USB-C
  • TMA-2 Modular Presets
  • upcoming Master & Dynamic earphones? (because the models listed there are all 3.5mm plugs)

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Smartphones with Bluetooth 5

LATEST UPDATE: March 1, 2018 – I need to backfill this but the latest model with BT 5.0 is the ASUS 5Z flagship (Snapdragon 845)…

Bluetooth is a tug of war between convenience and compression. Some vow never to use it on the grounds of the additional compression step. Others will under certain circumstances. Certainly, after one ruins enough headphones and earphones during specific tasks and activities, one may be more inclined to give bluetooth a chance, at least during those activities.

Which brings us to Bluetooth 5, a point of hope and hype that you can listen over bluetooth without noticeably sacrificing audio quality. It is too early to tell as of June 2017, as we only have a couple of smartphones and no headphones supporting Bluetooth 5. But IFA is just around the corner, and so is CES 2018, so we should expect more action on this front in the next few months.

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New Headphones at IFA 2017

LATEST UPDATE on 9/30/17: I fell behind by a few weeks, but now I’m adding more of the IFA 2017 era new headphones 🙂

Another year has flown by, and here we are, it’s time for a new wave of products ushered out in Berlin at IFA 2017 and all around the world at the same time period. CES in Vegas typically brings us a lot of new headphones, but IFA in Berlin too gives us new gear as well!

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  • Schiit Loki Mini hardware equalizer
  • Shure launches bluetooth versions of SE series
  • Bose QC35 II falls in love with Google Assistant
  • Bose joins the Truly Wireless craze
  • Monoprice M565 Open-Back Over-Ear Planars
  • KOSS Two New Gaming Over-Ear Headphones: Open or Closed
  • Sennheiser IE 80 S earphones
  • Beats Studio 3 Wireless Over-Ears
  • Pioneer HDJ-X DJ headphone trio
  • Sony expands 1000X line with WH-1000X M2 ANC/BT Over-Ears, WI-1000X Neckband Bluetooth Earphones, and WF-1000X Truly Wireless
  • Monoprice Monolith M300 planar IEMs
  • Beyerdynamic Aventho Bluetooth headphones
  • Audio Technica $2K ATH-ADX5000 open-back flagship
  • various RHA earphones
  • various gaming headsets

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Unboxing the M-Audio Bass Traveler Portable DAC/amp

We now have another long delayed unboxing post. This was a review sample of the portable M-Audio Bass Traveler DAC/amp combo. It takes one 3.5mm input and has two 3.5mm outputs, a Bass Boost selector, and a volume control knob. Perhaps its main differentiation from other budget portable DAC/amps is the two outputs, essentially a powered splitter.

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