GadgetReview

Over the last couple days, I’ve seen cameras and camcorders made out of Legos, so it really doesn’t surprise me to note the new addition to the Lego electronics family, the Lego earphones.

No, seriously.  They’re called the “Sundries PLAYBRICK”, and with a name like that and a design like that you can probably already guess where they’re from.  I’ll give you a moment to let the collective facepalm die down and tell you that they’re from Japan.  That and I’ll give good odds that the name comes from some frantic lawyer’s cries of “we’re gonna get SUED if we don’t call them something different!”

You have your choice of six designer colors, and they’ll cost the equivalent of $23.  If you want nothing so much out of life as to have Lego earphones, just make your way over to Rinkya, the link to which is below.

Via [Crunchgear]

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This is the first I’ve heard of Acronym clothing, but I’m picking up what they’re laying down, style wise that is.  They’ve got a ton of jackets for the soggy winter months ahead and one jacket in particular that has caught my eye is the GT-J14, a hardshell, Gortex infused jacket.  Style wise it’s very palatable to say the least and something that had me doing a double take was the floating ear buds on the model’s neck.  They don’t come out right and say it, but from the looks of it the jacket’s neck piece has a removable magnetic strip that magically holds a set of ear buds within ears reach.  After all, how many times have you removed your buds only to found the cord tangled or them dragging in the wet snow.

I have no clue on where, when and for how much you can buy this jacket but if you’ve got any ideas please drop us a comment.

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This is probably an idea that should have come along well before now.  What you’re looking at in the pic above is a pair of earbuds that–get this–stop playing when you pull them out of your ears.  Yes, they automatically pause playback when you take them out, allowing you to never miss a beat of all your favorite songs.  They’re the Ericsson MH907, and they only come with one real downside.

They come equipped with motion detectors, and if you have them hooked to an Ericcson phone with a fast port connector, you can actually answer your phone by plugging in your earbud.

They’ll be available on the order of soon and cost fifty five bucks, but the downside is that they’ll only be available for the Sony Ericcson phone.  As soon as someone comes out with an iPod version, I bet you’ll never see them in stores because they’ll be bought out at frantic paces.

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Earphones.  Now that the MP3 fully dominates we are seeing more and more products associated with them.  As a result earphones are being manufactured by a countless number of companies in an attempt to capture even a fraction of the MP3 accessory market.  Although I’ve never heard of Maximo, they reached out and asked us to review their iM-590 earbuds.  I happily obliged.

The first thing I noticed about the 590’s was they were very feature intensive.  They sport a cord clip, several rubberized inserts, a 2 foot extension cable, an airline dual plug adapter, a 2.5mm adapter, and a circular carrying case that holds the inserts and lets you wrap the cable around the inside.  Out of the box the 590’s should have most any scenario covered, minus the 6.3mm adapter.

The clip while functional was a bit ‘chintz’ and a bit too small and slippery for my liking.  Either way a clip is a dire necessity and it does work to provide adequate slack.  The cord is comprised of a braided fabric that is slightly malleable and lends itself to crimping, especially at the base of the input jack.  I would have preferred the cord to have been a little thicker as it still falls into some of the rubber/plastic trappings.  It does have a nice feel, though and is lightweight.

The box states that the 590’s are Enhanced Definition Isolation Earphones.  Listening to them as I write this review, I can still hear incoming messages in iChat on my computer, but I cannot hear my dog’s toenails scraping against the hardwood floors upstairs.  I use earphones for about 30 hours a week when riding my bike or working out at the gym, so active travel and exercise scenarios are my main testing grounds.  The 590’s dealt with wind noise well due to its tiny design and the farther you jam them in your ears the more sound they blocked out.  That leads me to my main problem with the 590’s.  None of the inserts fit me very well and they needed constant adjustment. They seemed to fit better for a moment if I rotated them, but eventually they would slide out.  Sitting still they stay in fine, as they are right now.  So to reiterate, they’re not great for exercise and moving around, but good for fixed postures and sitting still.

On to the good stuff.  The sound of the 590’s is a well rounded spectrum that did well with the majority of my MP3’s.  I listen to mostly high production value metal and the 590’s didn’t leave me hanging.  They did not distort when cranked and presented better bass than expected.  Never shrill, the 590’s had buttery smooth mids and highs.  So if you don’t buy (i.e steal) your music you’re probably going to end up with a collection of MP3’s of varying bit rate and as a rate varying sound quality.  The 590’s feel like they are tailored to this type of digital soundscape and really shine in the audio reproduction department.

So, even though they don’t really work for my type of lifestyle (e.g bike riding, running), I can wholly recommend the Maximo iM-590’s to anyone looking for high quality sounding earphones for under $50.  I see so many suckers with crap earphones (I’m not going to mention any one company name) out and about, and I just chalk it up to them not caring about sound quality.  What would I do if I didn’t care about sound?

Pros:

• Exemplary sound
• Lightweight and Small
• Lot’s o’ features

Cons:

• Not good in active scenarios
• Clip could be better
• Cord crimps too easy

Buy it here for $44!

The last pair of JVC earbuds I reviewed I didn’t like so much.  These are much better, and cheaper!  The JVC HA-NCX78 Multi Noise Canceling EarBuds claim to reduce up to 88% of ambient noise interference.  How you could accurately gauge that is beyond me but I can tell you this, these JVC’s attempt to have every angle covered.

…Continue reading: JVC HA-NCX78 Multi Noise Canceling EarBuds Review

When Apple’s Talking Shuffle arrived it practically elicited a mob of towns people toting pitch forks and burning torches because it required the use of Apple’s headphones and their headphones only. Ozaki’s new iCommand Controller breaks us from the shackles of Apple and not only enables any 3rd party pair of buds, but features volume control and play/pause/track buttons.

Of note, many 3rd party headphone manufactures make Gen 3 Shuffle specific buds.

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Leave a comment below or tweet (see widget below) anything, anything at all, and you could win a 1 of 4 Radius Atom Bass Earbuds! Four winners will be chosen at random and the contest is limited to US residents only (sorry, it’s too difficult to ship outside US).  Contest will end 6/2 just before midnight.  Good luck!

For more info about the Radius Atomic Bass Headphones checkout our review here

Abt Electronics has an amazing price for the Skullcandy S4CHBZ-BW Chops Earbuds. These buds fit around your ear making them ideal for excercise and feature 18 – 20,000 Hz Frequency Range and a 3.5mm gold plated jack. They’ve got them for …Continue reading: Skullcandy S4CHBZ-BW Chops Earbuds – $19 Shipped

Small, tiny and light weight are all necessary components for a successful MP3 player. Antares’ KPMP316 Sports MP3 player embodies all of these qualities and is available in 3 sizes (1GB, 2GB and 4GB) and two colors (blue or yellow). The right ear bud contains the player’s controls and a single wire carries the tunes to the opposing ear bud. Toss in a little of the Talking Shuffle’s vocal skills and the Korean company might just have a winner on their hands.

[via PMPToday]

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With nearly an infinite amount of earbuds to choose from, sorting through them all to find good ones can be an arduous task.  I am doing my best to review as many of them as possible to help you find the right ones.  Today I am going to talk about the JVC HA-FX300-T’s and the Radius Atomic Bass earbuds.

These two earbuds couldn’t be more different from each other.  While the Radius ones boast massive amounts of bass, the JVC’s don’t mention that they are consumed by treble.  So much treble in fact they are very shrill at times and become harsh at louder volume levels.

The JVC’s come with 3 sizes of rubberized inserts and one foam one.  While the foam inserts fit fine, they were the most treble stricken.  The rubberized inserts provided a smidge more bass response but not much.  My main complaint about the JVC’s, beyond their lack of sound quality is that they are very slippery to grasp or hold when they are in your ear.  They have this pointed shape that makes it difficult for your pointer finger and thumb to get a hold of to adjust or remove them.  Really annoying.  The cord feels nice and smooth and features a necklace lanyard piece so you can wear it around your neck.  The JVC’s also come with a small and compact eggshell container that holds the earbuds and all of the inserts.  The JVC HA-FX300-T’s are not horrible by any means, but their lack of dynamics and tinny overall feel make them less desirable, especially for the price ($67).

On the other hand, the Radius Atomic Bass earbuds have a ton of bass, but not much else.  They end up being a bit muffled in texture and suffer from some periodic distortion from time to time.  They come with 3 rubberized inserts and stay in your ear very well and don’t require much adjusting.  Lightweight and small, the Radius Atomic Bass earbuds don’t need slack at all, and the cord falls gracefully downward.  Also to be noted is that these earbuds feature iPhone controls and a microphone.   They worked fine, but the double mono channel just sounded so so.

With today’s varying bit rates and the constant fluctuation in regards to MP3 quality, a lot of these judgment calls will depend on your source material.  I consider myself to have a good ear for tone and am very critical when it comes to earbuds, but this review was easy.

Between the two, the Radius Atomic Bass earbuds are the better choice. For one: they are cheaper; two: I would rather be drowning in bass than strangled by treble any day; and three: the Radius earbuds fit, wear, and feel better. Neither of these earbuds have stellar stereo reproduction but the Radius ones clearly stand out as the better pair. Also, as far as 3rd party iPhone earbuds go, I like the Radius ones better than the ZaggBuds.

Radius Atomic Bass iPhone Earbuds:

Pros:

• Bass explosive
• Lightweight
• Unobtrusive

Cons:

• Too bass heavy, not a well rounded sound
• Distorted at times
• That’s it!

JVC HA-FX300-T Earbuds:

Pros:

• Sleek, lightweight
• Many inserts, and a nice carrying case
• ……………….

Cons:

• All treble sound, very harsh
• Slippery, hard to get out of your ears
• Pricey

Buy the Radius Atomic Bass iPhone Earbuds for $39.95 here!

Buy the JVC HA-FX300-T Earbuds for $99 here!