Posted 08/13/08 at 02:00:00 PM by Tom Edwards

Every once in a while, we actually step away from our computers to get some exercise—and do our best to avoid the cavalcade of cars, bikes, and pedestrians that share the roads with us when we go for a run. Until recently, we had eschewed wearing headphones when we pounded the pavement, but AirDrives earbuds have us rethinking this position. By fitting around your outer ear and lying just in front of your ear canal, rather than inside it, AirDrives allow you to hear the music on your MP3 player but still be aware of environmental sounds, so you’re less likely to be clipped by a car you didn’t hear coming. And although they aren’t inserted within the ear, the AirDrives remain snug, even after a long run, and remain in place much better than designs that lack an over-the-ear loop.

Hit the jump for our full review!

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headphones, reviews, web exclusive, airdrives

Posted 04/16/08 at 04:56:33 PM by Michael Brown

We’ve tested a lot of earbuds over the past few years and invariably find ourselves gravitating toward products at the very high end of that market—we’re talking buds that’ll set you back more than the most expensive iPod. At $200, Future Sonics’s Atrio m8 earbuds certainly aren’t cheap—but they’re competitive with some products that cost twice as much.

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headphones, Earbuds, consumer electronics, enthusiast, bass, in ear headphones

Posted 01/28/08 at 07:59:37 PM by Michael Brown

We’ve never liked headphones that use active noise cancellation because they simply mask environmental noise by generating background hiss. But Creative’s Aurvana X-Fi headphones are almost good enough to win us over.

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headphones, creative, hardware, noise-cancelling, reviews

Posted 11/12/07 at 07:36:10 PM by Michael Brown

The gap between cheap and inexpensive widens to a yawning chasm when you’re talking audio gear, which is why we’re so pleasantly surprised with the Rocketfish gaming headset. We didn’t realize this was a Best Buy private-label product until after we’d given it a listen, but we’re glad we didn’t dismiss it out of hand.

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hardware, usb headset, rocketfish, noise-cancellation, reviews

Posted 11/12/07 at 07:20:36 PM by Michael Brown

One of the reasons we picked Turtle Beach’s Ear Force HPA2 headset as one of the 19 awesome upgrades we recommended in our June 2007 issue was the fact that it’s analog and can be paired with a soundcard. The new Ear Force AK-R8 is USB only, but this enables it to offer some compelling features in addition to fabulous surround sound.

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headphones, surround sound, hardware, turtle beach, usb headset, rumble, reviews

Posted 09/26/07 at 05:07:00 PM by Michael Brown

We reviewed Tritton’s Audio Xtreme 360 headset in our July issue. As you can tell by its model name, that device is aimed as much at console gamers as it is movie watchers and PC gamers. The AXPC is a little simpler, better suited to PC users, and nearly $50 cheaper. But it sounds just as mediocre.

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headphones, hardware, tritton, usb headsets, surround, reviews

Posted 09/14/07 at 03:02:51 PM by Michael Brown

For the price of one set of Shure’s SE530PTH earphones, you could buy two 30GB iPods, 17 sets of Apple earbuds, or 500 encrypted songs from iTunes. A worthy investment or Marie Antoinette­–style consumption?

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headphones, earphones, hardware, shure, push to hear, reviews

Posted 07/31/07 at 07:10:48 PM by Michael Brown

For the price of one set of Shure’s SE530PTH earphones, you could buy two 30GB iPods, 17 sets of Apple earbuds, or 500 encrypted songs from iTunes. A worthy investment or Marie Antoinette­–style consumption? With that question in mind, we couldn’t resist auditioning these pricey phones to the sound of Cake’s Fashion Nugget, ripped and FLAC-encoded, on Cowon’s D2 digital media player. We don’t know if Shure’s BOM (bill of materials) justifies a $500 price tag, but we did have awfully big smiles on our faces after using these earphones.

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headphones, earphones, hardware, michael brown, shure, reviews