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New Earbuds Let You Control Your Gadgets by Making Faces

Andy Salisbury — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:19:20 -0500

Now that people wearing white earbuds has become the norm, it looks like inventor Kazuhiro Taniguchi is planning to make us all look goofy again.

With the announcement of some new earbuds that allow facial expressions to let you work your gadgets, there’s a small chance that we’ll be making funny faces for all the right reasons. According to Taniguchi, “You will be able to turn on room lights or swing your washing machine into action with a quick twitch of your mouth... An iPod can start or stop music when the wearer sticks his tongue out, like in the famous Einstein picture. If he opens his eyes wide, the machine skips to the next tune. A wink with the right eye makes it go back.”

While the idea of it is pretty neat, something tells me that most markets won’t be willing to go through this just to skip a track on their favorite playlist.

Image Credit: Physorg

Future Sonics Atrio m8 Earbuds

Michael Brown — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:56:33 -0500

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.

The first thing you notice when you stick the m8s in your ears and hit play is the bass response. We immediately pulled out these earbuds and did a double take to see how they could pump out so much low end. Exceptional bass is one of the attributes we’ve always dug about Shure’s $400 SE530 buds, but they don’t deliver nearly the sonic boom that the m8s produce.

To be fair to Shure, the SE530s deliver more frequency response at the high end of the spectrum, a fact we attribute to the three separate micro drivers in those buds, versus the single driver in the m8s. The bigger the driver, the easier it is to produce low end. A big driver also sacrifices highs, but Future Sonics has achieved a remarkable balance in its design.

Hold the m8s next to the SE530s and you can see where Future Sonics invested most of its manufacturing budget: the drivers. The m8s fit just as snugly and comfortably in our ears, and they were at least as effective at blocking outside noise, but they just don’t look as elegant as Shure’s product.

We listened to a wide variety of tunes encoded in both WAV and FLAC on Cowon’s iAudio7 digital media player (look for our review at www.maximumpc.com). We dug how the m8s were able to deliver each of the musician’s contributions on Betty Davis’s “Git in There” (from They Say I’m Different ). Davis’s predatorily nasty growl is the obvious focal point of this song, and it sounded fabulously seductive on the m8s, but these buds also did full justice to the backup band’s funky drum, guitar, keyboard, and bass work, too. These are some sweet buds.

CES Report: Bits and Pieces

Michael Brown — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:51:43 -0600

Most of the big CES news has already broken, but now that I was able to walk the show floor all day yesterday and found a few new products that haven’t garnered quite as much attention—including a new refrigerator from Whirpool featuring a tablet PC built into the door.

Whirlpool’s CentralPark Connection

I dig the TouchSmart PC that HP gave us for long-term evaluation at Maximum PC Lab North—it’s become the household’s digital hub and host to my WiLife video surveillance camera system. Whirlpool has taken the concept of the kitchen PC in a different direction by building a plug-and-play docking station in the door of its CentralPark Connection refrigerator (model number GD5VVAXT, $1,999 MSRP).

Right now, the CEIVA digital picture frame (a Wi-Fi enabled model with an eight-inch LCD and a $249 MSRP) is the only product you can buy for the docking port, but Whirlpool was demonstrating several other concepts at CES. I found the Clio Vu tablet PC, bundled with Cozi organizational software, to be the most interesting.

Whirlpool is partnering with several companies to develop other products that can be docked to their fridge, including a tempered-glass dry-erase message board and—you guessed it—an iPod speaker dock.

Creative Xdock HD

While it’s cool to be able to download video to your iPod and watch it on your TV, no one would argue that the image quality is fabulous—especially when you connect the iPod to a high-definition TV. Creative aims to solve that problem with a new version of its Xdock wireless iPod docking station, which will be called the Xdock HD.

The Xdock HD features a built-in video scaler that will upscale the iPod’s video output stream to high definition. The demo Creative showed me was in 720p, but a spokesperson for the company told me they’ll support 1080i when the product ships later this spring. I asked several people in Creative’s booth which video-scaling chip they were using, but no one had an answer other than that it wasn’t Creative’s own part. I’ll follow up with Creative after the show to see if I can find that out. Digital video is output via HDMI (with a digital audio stream, of course), and analog video output is via component cables. Digital audio can also be output over a TOSLink jack.

The docking station will also support multiple wireless receivers—and ships with one—for streaming audio to other rooms in the home. Up to four receivers can be controlled independently; the system switches to broadcast mode when you add a fifth receiver. But since there’s only one source—your iPod—all the stations play the same audio. As with earlier versions of the Xdock, the Xdock HD will feature Creative’s X-Fi Crystalizer and X-Fi CMSS-3D signal-processing technology.

The Xdock HD will retail for $400 when it ships this spring; each additional receiver beyond the one shipped with base station will cost $100.

Creative inPerson Video Conferencing System

Creative is dipping its toe into the B2B market with a new video-conferencing system. The inPerson is a wireless VOIP speakerphone system (or you can plug in a headset) with an integrated video camera and a seven-inch display. The system operates on either AC or battery power, rendering it completely portable.

The $700 price tag (plus a $10 per month service fee for Creative’s hosting service) might seem spendy for a consumer audience—especially since you’d need one at each of the end of the call to be useful—but it’s actually quite inexpensive compared to existing videoconferencing solutions. Creative hinted that if the product does well in the business market, they might market it to consumers down the line.

Sennheiser PC 350 Gaming Headset

I’m looking forward to auditioning Sennheiser’s latest gaming headset, the PC 350. This is circumaural model, meaning the ear cups cover your entire ear to block outside noise, with a noise-rejecting boom-mounted microphone.

Sennheiser also showed me a new set of wireless earbuds that are much more discrete than the Etymotic Ety8 earbuds I reviewed several months ago.

Sennheiser’s MX W1 uses a new wireless technology called Kleer, which the company claims delivers much better audio fidelity than Bluetooth. The latter technology must compress the audio signal in order to stream it, which compromises audio quality.

Etymotic Research ety8 Bluetooth Earbuds

Michael Brown — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 13:38:44 -0600

Thanks to Apple’s ubiquitous advertising, you can walk around town with wires hanging out of your ears without getting strange looks from passersby. Etymotic Research’s ety8 Bluetooth earphones shorten the wires, but these anything-but-discreet earbuds are guaranteed to draw a few sets of eyeballs your way.

If you don’t mind the attention, you’ll get to enjoy a great set of noise-isolating earphones that don’t need to be tethered to your iPod. The ety8s aren’t entirely wireless—a shoelace-like cord links the left and right modules—but they use Bluetooth technology for wireless two-way communication via a small transceiver plugged into the iPod’s docking port. The lanyard is just long enough to allow you to turn your head without tugging either module, and when you’re not listening to music, you can drape the ety8s over your neck.

Five tiny buttons on the right module control the iPod’s volume up/down, track selection, play/pause, and previous/next track functions. As small as the buttons are, it took us just moments to blindly locate them and memorize the function of each one—the all-important pause button was the easiest to master. And each button press updates the iPod’s display. The more we used the ety8s, the more we appreciated the convenience of going wireless, whether we were bundling up for a cold-weather outdoor excursion, working out indoors on an exercise bike, or just sitting at our desks.

Only one aspect of the system gave us pause: The transceiver you plug into the iPod is small (1 inch high by 1.5 inches wide) and sturdy, but friction is the only force that keeps it mated to your iPod. We’re just unsure of how well it and the iPod’s docking port will stand up to repeated jostling and knocking around inside a jacket pocket.

The ety8s come with a wide selection of ear tips and do a fabulous job of blocking out background noise; more importantly, they sounded marvelous with everything from Mozart symphonies to Paul Thorn’s wry, whiskey-soaked blues. Yeah, they’re a little geeky, but they’re definitely worth suffering a few stares for.

Month Reviewed: February 2007
Verdict: 8
URL: www.etymotic.com

Etymotic ER-6 Isolator

Michael Brown — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 14:26:30 -0500

The relentless snare drum crack on “Jack of Speed” was enough to make some of the lesser earbuds beg for mercy, but the Etymotic ER-6 Isolators delivered it nearly perfectly. More importantly, they served up Beck’s bass with equal authority.

But if you decide to give these buds a shot, make sure the store has a satisfaction- guaranteed policy: Etymotic bundles just two sets of plugs with them. The silicon tips fit us well and did an outstanding job of preventing fan noise and other audio detritus from intruding on our consciousness, but we couldn’t stuff the foam ones in our ears with a jackhammer. This two-sizes-fitsall policy is a let-down for a $140 product. (Note: In print, our review incorrectly reports that Etymotic doesn't provide a carry case for this product; they do.)

Etymotic was also the only manufacturer that didn’t provide a cleaning tool with its product; a replaceable filter is included, instead. When the filter becomes sufficiently clogged with ear gunk—double eew!—to impact the earphone’s performance, you pull it out, throw it away, and snap in a new one. We’re guessing that the process is at least slightly less disgusting than reaming out the earphone itself.

Month Reviewed: October 2006

+ BEE'S WAX: Great sound; even better noise isolation.

- EAR WAX: Limited fit options.

VERDICT: 8

URL: www.etymotic.com

ExtremeMac FS1

Michael Brown — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 14:35:29 -0500

It’s been our experience that you get what you pay for, more often than not. The ExtremeMac FS1 earbuds, however, fall into the “not” territory. The $150 for-sale sign hanging on these little buggers easily qualifies them as the most expensive earphones of the group, but they certainly didn’t sound like it.

While it’s true that bass forms the foundation of most any tune, an audio-production system shouldn’t clobber you over the head with it. Wearing the FS1 buds was like listening to a band while sitting inside the bass player’s amp. The lows in Beck’s “Nicotine & Gravy” were fuzzy, ill-defined, positively amorphous blobs that threatened to smother the song’s inherent complexity and precise timing. And that cracking snare drum attack on Steely Dan’s “Jack of Speed”? Positively neutered.

But there’s one lesson Etymotic could learn from ExtremeMac: There are more than two sizes of ears in the human race, and ExtremeMac provides no fewer than six different earplugs: two foam sets and four silicone. We found a foam set that rendered the FS1 buds very comfortable and blocked nearly all the environmental noise (aside from our fingers tapping on the keyboard), but they sure didn’t help these bass monsters sound any better.

Month Reviewed: October 2006

+ EAR CANAL: Diverse collection of plugs; cool carrying case.

- LOVE CANAL: Passive-aggressive bass response.

VERDICT: 6

URL: www.extrememac.com

Sennheiser MX55 VC Street

Michael Brown — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 14:42:38 -0500

Even after finding a good fit, many people have trouble with earbuds inexorably sliding out of their ear canal. Sennheiser thinks it has the solution—it’s called Twist-to-Fit— but we found this invention to be far worse than the problem.

The MX 55 VC Street’s are an in-ear design, just like the other earbuds here, but the ginormous drivers are so big that your ear canal would have to be the size of Carlsbad Cavern for them to fit.

The Twist-to-Fit design, meanwhile, wouldn’t pass muster under the Geneva Conventions. It consists of a rubber-covered stem rising above the speaker. You place the earbud in your ear and twist to jam the stem into the fold in your ear.

If you can endure the pain, the MX 55’s sound pretty damned good. They deliver solid bass response without losing touch with mids and highs. That’s quite an accomplishment considering their low price tag. And we welcome the in-line volume control on the cable. But we’re convinced that if Sennheiser were to apply its earbud-fit concept to the design of a hammer, it would have you nail the hammer to your hand so it won’t slip out and hurt someone.

Month Reviewed: October 2006

+ EAR CANDY: In-line volume control--great idea!

- EAR INFECTION: Twist-to-Fit: horrible idea!

VERDICT: 4

URL: www.sennheiserusa.com