Filed under: Portable Audio

JVC’s gone crazy with the noise-canceling cans — it’s just released the new HA-NC80 headphones, which apparently have two different modes for filtering out ambient sound. The short of it is that there’s a “wide” and “low” mode, with the former being better suited to getting rid of a larger range of frequencies (such as those found in an airplane). The “low” mode, however, is best suited for a narrower and lower frequency ranger, such as bouncing around in that city bus on your way to work. These ‘phones will be available starting next month for $60, which is less than Sony’s or Creative’s offerings. Put another way: would you trade 15-20 Starbucks lattes for one month in order to satisfy your aural cravings? We thought so.

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals

There’s nothing like a good pair of headphones that can offer some decent, 5.1-channel surround sound support, along with planet destroying capabilities in a pinch. The new AON MDH-501H/D headphones from Wav-on can take a juicy S/PDIF plug straight from a HD source, which is then decoded for the six internal speakers inside the gargantuan headphones. Of course, with the power requirements of the decoder, along with the extreme bulk of all included components, it’s going to be a bit difficult to take this surround sound gig on the road, but we’re sure plenty of gamers and movie nuts can find refuge in its sound-containing capabilities for late night media consumption sessions. The unit should be available late November in Korea for 149,000 KRW, about $159 US.

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Peripherals, Portable Audio

Listen up folks, while you might look mighty trendy rocking those headphones 24 / 7, you should be well aware by now that prolonged periods of heightened volumes can lead to embarrassing moments of near deafness in the future. While one (probably over concerned) citizen in Louisiana and a swarm of French folk both sued Apple for not providing volume limiters on its earbuds, your kid (or you, too) could be harmfully cranking it to eleven if your DAP doesn’t sport any kind of volume controlling functionality. Ingemi Corp. — where “kids comes first,” mind you — have unveiled the iHearSafe ‘buds which “have patent pending technology to keep the volume below 80 decibels,” regardless of how far you jam that volume knob or incensed you become. Featuring a standard 3.5-millimeter jack, the earbuds are reportedly compatible with any major MP3 player, but priced at just $24.99, we can’t imagine any sort of remarkable sound quality being emitted from these guys, quietly or otherwise.

[Via Techie Diva]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Gaming, Portable Audio

While we’re still not sold on the whole idea of vibrating headphones, it seems that BeCell certainly is, partnering with Tylenol to release its VSG160G head-shaking ‘phones. Just kidding about the Tylenol part, obviously, although you may want to stock up if you’re planning on using these suckers for the full twelve hours the company promises they’ll last. Unlike some other similar headphones, BeCell’s set simply uses some heavy bass to rock your noggin’ instead of built-in motors and, thankfully, include a vibration control setting on the cord for when things get a little too intense. Unfortunately, it looks like we’re gonna have to wait a bit longer to find out how much these’ll cost or when they’ll be available; in the meantime, we suggest hitting your head against a wall to warm up.

[Via CrunchGear]

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Wireless

Although Koss may not be a frequent name here at Engadget, it has hung around and delivered a few quality offerings, the latest of which has been dubbed Cobalt. These wireless streetstyle (i.e. wrap around your dome) stereo headphones aren’t particularly elaborate in any one sense, but they do manage to fold away nicely for portable storage and, of course, sport Bluetooth. While there are quite a few alternatives out there tailored for iPod use, Koss is apparently marketing these as the end-all solution to your wireless earphone needs — by thoughtfully including a USB Bluetooth dongle, a 3.5mm Bluetooth transmitter, a 3.5mm extension cable, and a USB charging cable, you’re able to utilize the ‘phones on pretty much anything. Touted as being right at home on your PC, CD / DVD player, DAP, media player, and basically everywhere you can jam a USB device or 3.5mm jack in, the Cobalt isn’t lacking in the utility department. You’ll get 8 hours of easy listening from the rechargeable battery, and Koss even flaunts its ability to “simultaneously pair” with cellphones in order to both hear callers and listen to music without a hitch (but how much good is this really without a built-in microphone?). If you’re searching for a Bluetooth headset that can play nice with basically any music player, and you trust these things will actually sound halfway decent, the Koss Cobalt can be picked up now for $179.99.

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Filed under: Peripherals, Portable Audio

We can’t say we blame the company for trying to get some while the getting’s good, and Grado certainly isn’t the first high-end headphone producer to cater to the iMarket. Still, it is a tad strange to see the lux brand out of character as they are here. Their normal offerings range from $69 to over $1,000, but their new iGrado “streetstyle” headphones wrap around the rear of your head, presumably to appeal to trendy youngsters, but even at $49 still manage to use the same drivers as the well-respected SR60. The design is most likely tailored for portable use, but it’s impossible to ignore the undeniable “Grado look” that somehow managed to stay in tact. Described as “the high-end sound in the low-end market,” the iGrado should be available in September, and if you can appreciate the style, looks to be a solid offering for the money.

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Wearables

You want boasting rights and flattering amounts of auditory detail? Look no further than Shure's E500PTH, what's shaping up to be the most hyped and wildly anticipated (or so we're led to believe) earphones of the season. Oh, did we mention they're finally shipping? Sorry kids, only in the UK for now. We spotted these flagship 'buds at CES and now Shure obviously intends to deliver, albeit a few months later than expected. Housing two woofer drivers and one tweeter, the design promises to "change personal audio the way HDTV changed television" (saywha?). Easily among the most elaborate of assurances we've heard, the E500PTH has a lot to prove: the Push-to-Hear (no, this isn't the flipside of PTT) technology lowers music volume to let "environmental ambiance" (um, noise?) seep in, while flipping a switch activates a "so real, you're there" vibe providing two ways to groove. If style's your thing, the E500PTH sports a black and chrome outfit and maintains a low-profile while blocking up to 37db of outside interference (until you hit the PTH switch, of course). If you're ready to hear the touted "revolution" in sound, listen up: this aural pleasure won't come cheap. For the Brits who can grab these immediaitely, it'll cost you £419, while Americans must await a late-July ship date to drop their $500.

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Wireless

Nothing too incredibly exciting here, but Dynamode is getting into the Bluetooth headphone game with the vanilla BT-SHS-W which can work with most music players via a 3.5mm jack. You can also sport these as a hands-free set for your phone, but we’re guessing you might look like you’re talking to yourself even more than usual. Dynamode packed in some iPod-esque music control buttons, but there’s only about 6.5 hours of battery, so you won’t be skipping around your playlists for long. The ‘phones should go for around £60 (around $110 USD) and should be available later this month.

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Wireless

Since Apple's still showing no sign of caving into consumer demand and releasing a Bluetooth-equipped iPod (even a proprietary solution would be a good start -- anything to get rid of that annoying white cord), more and more manufacturers are looking to fill the void with their own workarounds, and now headset giant Jabra has announced plans to throw its own hat into the ring as well. Jabra's "hat" will come in the form of a dock connector-compatible adapter called the A125s, which will work with both the video and nano versions of the iPod, and promises 10 hours of playback or 250 hours of standby time before recharging becomes an issue. Unfortunately for exercise enthusiasts, these won't work at the same time as your Nike+iPod kit, so runners won't be able to cut the cord unless Nike releases its own pair of headphones. You can expect this adapter -- which will join the likes of the D.Muse, icombi, and naviPlay -- to retail for around $75 once it hits stores sometime this August.

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Filed under: Peripherals, Portable Audio

They say you can’t keep a good man down, and so it is with Scandinavian entrepreneur and rabble-rouser Jens Nylander, who keeps popping up with one or another device designed to enhance our portable audio experience. Usually we see Jens hawking digital audio players under the Jens of Sweden brand (now seeminlgly defunct), but today he’s hit us up with a product from another one of his companies called JAYS: a pair of in-ear headphones which promise to reduce up to 90% of the surrounding noise by “producing the sound inside the ear.” Known as the d-JAYS, these phones incorporate a proprietary Sound Isolating System built around a so-called micro armature, which Jens claims, in his typical fashion, will help reduce the risk of a hearing impairment he dubs “iPod ears.” We’ll find out if these ‘phones live up to the hype come August, when they’ll be shipping in a total of five colors (black, white, and three limited-edition shades) for a hundred bucks — although you can get your pre-order on now for a 20% discount.

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Filed under: Portable Audio

While the idea of plugging our headphones into the same jack as every Tom, Dick, and Harry on the subway is slightly off-putting, we can’t fault Pepsi for their innovative new advertising campaign that encourages passers-by to listen to short song snippets from publicly-situated multimedia displays. Close to 100 of the interactive posters have been deployed by Canadian advertising firm BBDO around the Toronto and Vancouver areas, allowing you to quickly unplug from your iPod and jack into 30 seconds of tunes that are meant to whet your appetite for owning the entire track. Once you’re hooked, you’re presumably supposed to go out and buy yourself a bottle of Pepsi, which will contain an exclusive PIN number redeemable on the company’s site for that song you liked along with other music-related swag. The most interesting part about this whole campaign, advertising tricks aside,  is the fact that Canadians actually seem willing to expose their digital audio players in public, while we Americans are doing everything we possibly can to keep those precious ‘Pods under heavy lockdown.

[Via Sagags]

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Filed under: Peripherals, Portable Audio

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Filed under: Peripherals

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Filed under: Portable Audio

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Filed under: Features

Step 1: Modding the Charging Base

First open the recharging base of the wireless headphone set. Our unit had five screws underneath.

Unscrew the circuit board from the back of the unit.

Solder two wires to the circuit board where the recharging wires connect. These two wires are those which you have already soldered to the male end of your socket and plug connectors. This will serve as the power for the rechargeable batteries as we will be destroying the headphone housing to build the speakers.

File a notch in the base to accommodate the charging plug's wires with a dremel or file. Replace the circuit board and close the charging base with the screws you removed earlier.

Step 2: Choose a Speaker Set-up

Next, for the headphone to speaker mod, there are several choices.

1. You may choose to have both left and right speakers in one housing with all of the charging circuits and batteries. (This example is pictured below:)

2. Perhaps you want the speakers to be separate, but cabled between left and right. Half of the circuitry can be placed in one housing, half in the other. (In the example pictured below only one speaker of the two has been completed, the other will hold the loose driver and radio circuitry:)

3. You may want two separate left and right channels in separate housings with separate batteries and circuitry. For this example you will need two sets of headphones. You may choose to place two sets of drivers in each channel's housing. (This example not pictured because it is the same as Example 1 except there are two speakers instead of one.)

4. Maybe your Burning Man friends are putting on the pressure for multichannel audio in your mod. In this case, you can buy six sets of the Sony headphones. The Sony model of cheapest RF headphones has a selector for three different radio channels on the back of the base. In theory this means you can send three sets of stereo which equals six unique channels of wireless audio out. (See drawing below:)

Step 3: Modding the Headphones into Speakers

Take apart the headphones by unscrewing all the screws and popping open the housing. Try to keep the cables between the two sides of the headphones intact. If you need to cut the cables to remove all the circuitry, simply do so and resolder the connections later. Cut the battery housing down around the batteries with a dremel or small plastic cutting saw but keep it intact as well. Create a small plastic box from Plexiglas and first cut a hole large enough to access the batteries. First pictured below is Example 1 with both drivers in the same housing, then Example 2 with one driver in each housing:



Cut a small rectangular hole out of the housing for an on/off switch. This needed to be soldered in place of the spring-based momentary switch in the headphones we used. Our headphone model turned on when the inside band of the headphones were pulled by the shape of the wearer's head. We replaced this with a sliding switch which we then glued into the housing:


Next cut a hole in the Plexiglas box large enough for the speaker housing. Remember that the speaker should be fairly well sealed for resonance purposes. Viewed from the inside, the speaker glued on the hole looks like this, below:


Now solder the other end of the power connector (the female end that fits the connector on the wire now sticking out of the charging base) to wire. Solder the two wires of the power cable to the charging tabs that were in the headphone housing. These tabs were the ones that came in contact with the charging springs when the headphones were placed on the charging base. Two views of the power connector (ours in this case is large and white in the photos) follow showing the tabs where the wires were soldered.


Now test your speaker(s) with your system's base with audio to make sure you haven't forgotten anything. Repeat the steps above for each speaker in your system. You may want to glue down the channel selector dials on the speaker side if you decide to go the multichannel route. Also the volume dial on our sets have been glued to maximum for applications where the speakers are in a public setting. Alternately you may wish to cut rectangular holes in your speaker housing to access the volume and RF channel selection potentiometers.

Some other further development for you electrical engineering types can include creating audio outputs for better speakers and gain stages instead of speakers on the receiving end. Be creative! This How-To is by no means meant to be a finished creative entity.

Leave us feedback if you send some of these bad boys up in balloons in the high desert.

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There are two ways to deal with the rash of iPod thefts plaguing the country. The first is to switch out your shiny white iPod headphones for a set of earbuds that look like they attach to some $5 portable CD player. The second is to get a set of these all-white Brighton over-the-ear noise-canceling headphones. Not only do these things scream out to muggers 'I have an iPod in my pocket,' but they also block out noises up to 15db—which makes you oblivious to the kind soul nearby who is shouting, 'someone is about to snatch your iPod!' They're powered by 2 AAA batteries and get about 100 hours of battery life from a single set. $43 a pair. Now if only they made a set in all black to match your next iPod.

Noise cancelling headphones BI-NCHP [Akihabara]

Specs and pricing on more noise cancelling headphones [Amazon]