Archive for the ‘Headphones’ Category

Ultrasone goes ‘airy’ with $329 HFI-2400 headphones

They’re no Edition 8s, but Ultrasone’s newest cans are still aiming to make a believer out of you. The mid-range (by its standards, anyway) HFI-2400 headphones are collapsible, over-the-head cans that promise an “airy tone” from the 40 millimeter drivers. Encased in black and silver, these definitely look the part, and the bundled velvet case and demo CD certainly go a long way towards making you feel like a real epicurean. The pain? Just $329, and they should be up for order as we speak.

Filed under: Portable Audio

Ultrasone goes ‘airy’ with $329 HFI-2400 headphones originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Audiophile List: Ultrasone HFI-2400 Headphones

German headphone manufacturer Ultrasone has announced a new flagship for their HFI line. An open-back pair titled the 2400 with 40mm gold-plated drivers and all sorts of other bells and whistles.

The claim to fame is Ultrasone’s S-Logic technology. I’m sure there’s all sorts of fancy science behind it, but it basically means that the drivers are mounted off-center. This allows the sound to bounce around your head for a bit, instead of being pumped directly into your ears. Supposedly, it gives the effect of a much more three dimensional musical experience. Other high points include a reduced sound pressure level, meaning less strain on your ears. Also, the “MU metal shielding” reduces the amount of magnetic radiation “as much as 98%” So if the only thing holding you back from buying a pair of headphones was the lack of proper radioactive safety regulations, these might be the pair for you.

They fold up into a convenient size, and have a detachable, straight cable. And the technical schematics all say the right things to make a audiophile-level pair of headphones.

Frequency range 10 – 25000 Hz
Impedance 70 Ohm
Sound pressure level 94 dB
Driver 40 mm gold-plated

Headphones like this are an investment. Mostly because you can’t afford to eat for a week after you buy them. The HFI-2400s are available for pre-order at $295.00. Just remember, it could be worse.

NTT DoCoMo’s eye-controlled music interface evolves at CEATEC

NTT DoCoMo’s R&D labs are amongst the busiest in the world, and here at CEATEC the company is showing off a development that it has had in the oven for quite some time. The difference now? Elegance. The eye-controlled music interface that we first spotted in mid-2008 is being showcased yet again here at the Makuhari Messe, but instead of having a short straw-drawing employee stand around with an absurd amount of headgear on, this year’s demonstrator was equipped with little more than a special set of earbuds, a few cables and a swank polo. Put simply, the contraption watched subtle changes in eye movements and altered the music accordingly. A look to the right moved the track forward, while a glance to the left went back a track. The demo seemed buttery smooth, but there’s still no telling when this stuff will go commercial. Still, progress is progress, and there’s a video after the break showing as much.

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Filed under: Portable Audio

NTT DoCoMo’s eye-controlled music interface evolves at CEATEC originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 04:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Giz Explains: Why You Can’t Get Decent Earphones for Less Than $100 [Giz Explains]

Crappy earbuds are killing music. It’s true. The problem is that good earbuds, like speakers, aren’t cheap.

We’re gonna be talking in-ear earbuds—canalphones, really, or in-ear monitors, if you’re snooty—since all the good stuff goes deep into your precious earholes. We aren’t talking about headphones because great headphones aren’t the most discreet things around—can’t defeat physics, children. Unless you derive some sick pleasure from jogging with a pair of giant cans bolted to your head, earbuds are the way to go.

It’s All About the Drivers—No, Not Those Kind

Whether you’re talking about headphones or earbuds, they work a lot like loudspeakers, just miniaturized. The key element in both are drivers, though earphone drivers are a lot smaller, and do a lot less work to make the same music.

There are two main types of drivers: The a dynamic driver works just like a traditional one in big ol’ speaker. The benefit of the dynamic driver is that it produces a nice bass response, though it can be hard to miniaturize.

A balanced armature driver is pretty common in serious in-ear monitors, since it’s easy to shrink down. Originally found in hearing aids, it houses a magnetic armature that moves when an electric current runs through the coil, putting pressure on the diaphragm, creating sound. It can be, and often is, paired with a dynamic driver.

Most earbuds just have the one driver, though more and more have multiple drivers. That costs more ’cause it’s harder to cram more than one into a tiny casing meant to rest gravity-free in your ear. With multiple drivers also comes a “crossover network,” circuitry meant to divide music into different frequencies and route them to the appropriate drivers, an additional payload to stuff into that tight space. Once all that is crammed in, however, multi-driver earbuds typically sound better than single-driver ones, because the woofer, tweeter and mid-range horn are more innately equipped to handle their own domains of sound—from boomy bass to sizzly treble.

Among the least expensive multiple-driver earbuds are Apple’s fancier $80 in-ear earbuds, which use two drivers, a tweeter for highs, and another for everything else. It gets more expensive as you creep up. Shure’s three-driver SE530 lists for $500 (but can be found for much less). Ultimate Ears‘ UE-11 Pro, which will run you a ridiculous $1150, come with a correspondingly ridiculous four drivers. That’s one for mid-range and one for highs and two for bass.

Some companies opt for a single driver because they think it’s better, since there aren’t complications with crossover networks, trying to get all the drivers to work together to produce seamless sound. On the other hand, with a single driver, you’re asking one driver to do everything: highs, lows and mid-range, says Stereophile senior contributing editor Michael Fremer Fremer. (Yes, that Michael Fremer.) That’s why , FutureSonics, for instance, makers of pro monitoring gear, charges so much for their single-driver earbuds. “A really good single-driver can sound really good,” says Fremer.

What It’s Made Of, How It’s Made

Besides more drivers, what you get in pricier earbuds is (surprise, surprise) better materials, finer build quality and a more focused design. Michael Johns, headphones manager for Shure—known for earbuds with MSRP ranging from $100 to $500 but rarely double digits—told me that most of the really cheap ($20) headphones on the market are basically rebranded crap from no-name factories, and that when you buy those with suggested retail pricing between $50 and $100, you’re mostly paying for style, not sound. The top-tier brands, of which there are many, tend to design and engineer their own headphones. The expense of that is, unfortunately, passed on to you.

The cost of raw ingredients is also passed to you—the cable material, the magnet behind the diaphragm, the diaphragm material itself, the overall quality of the driver, and the enclosure. (Again, all of the stuff that jacks up the price of higher quality loudspeakers too.) None of that stuff, when it’s well made, is cheap. Fremer says, for instance, that better headphones actually use stronger magnets than cheaper headphones. As you might guess, the more powerful the magnet, the higher the cost.

The Fit

With legit in-ear buds, fit matters a lot, because the seal is critical. Not only does a good seal mean less ambient noise infiltrates your ears—allowing you to keep your volume low while still catching the full dynamic range—but an airtight seal is how you get decent bass response. And you want something shoved deep down inside your ear to be comfortable, as well as fit, so there’s a lot of different kinds of tips earbud makers have come up with. Besides the standard rubber bulb, there’s squishy foam, and the Christmas tree-lookin’ triple-flange sleeves. What works best often comes down to your own ears and personal preference, which is why better earbuds come with a ton of tips.

What Do I Buy?

So, uh, what’s the sweet spot price for great headphones? If Shure and Fremer had their way, everybody would spend upwards of $200 on their earbuds, but if you twist their arm, they’ll agree that $100 is where buds start getting decent. The real trick, according to Fremer, is just getting people to “spend that first hundred bucks.”

The law of diminishing returns tends to kick in above that point: The difference between $300 set of buds and a $400 pair is nowhere near the jump from $20 to $100. Even smaller is the difference in models between generations. The best value on the market might be a previous-gen version of Shure’s 500 series buds at a cut rate ($290), but if you can find $100 earbuds for 70 bucks, it’s even better.

Interestingly, Fremer says what you’re looking for in great earbuds is “a relatively flat frequency response so no frequency is accentuated above another,” so “the product that sounds the best is usually the one that impresses you the least at first.” Buds that tout big bass, for instance, don’t actually have better bass, just more of it. (You can always adjust the EQ if you want more bass.)

Whatever you do, for Christ’s sake—and yours—ditch the iPod earbuds.

Still something you wanna know? Send questions about buds, tips or hot waitresses who deserve big tips to tips@gizmodo.com, with “Giz Explains” in the subject line.

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