WirelessEarbuds
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Louis Vuitton wireless earbuds will cost you almost $1,000
Louis Vuitton is bringing its luxury brand to the world of audio. The French fashion house is teaming up with New York City-based audio company Master & Dynamic to create Louis Vuitton's first branded earbuds. The Louis Vuitton Horizon Earphones will come in four different colorway designs and are expected to retail for $995, according to High Snobiety.
Xiaomi's true wireless 'AirDots' earbuds cost less than $30
Despite big name partnerships with Microsoft and Facebook, Xiaomi is arguably better known for its super-cheap devices, which span smartphones to activity trackers. The Chinese manufacturer's latest budget offering is a pair of true wireless earbuds (no cables whatsoever here) that cost around $28 (depending on the exchange rate). They're dubbed "AirDots," which sounds confusingly similar to Apple's $159 AirPods.
Jaybird's Tarah Pro wireless earbuds offer 14 hours of music for $160
While true wireless earbuds might be all the rage in 2018, a lot of folks still prefer their audio gear to be tethered. For those people, companies like Jaybird continue to roll out new products with improved features. Today, that company is introducing the Tarah Pro: an upgraded version of its most recent wireless sports earbuds that pack an impressive 14 hours of battery life for $160.
Jabra's Elite 65t are the most versatile headphones you can buy
Let's face it: Most of us don't want to spend our hard-earned cash on multiple pairs of headphones laying around for specific uses. Sure, it's nice to have your travel set, another for the gym and a third for pristine audio at the office, but for a lot of people, that can be overkill. Instead, you need a single set of headphones that can keep the music going comfortably during the day while also standing up to a sweaty workout. You need a set that can do both.
Jaybird's Tarah are $100 wireless earbuds built for sweaty workouts
Jaybird has been a solid option for wireless earbuds for years now, and today the company is debuting yet another model for your workouts. The Tarah Wireless Sport Headphones are built for the gym, complete with an IPX7 rating to ensure you don't run into moisture troubles when things get sweaty. With a design similar to the company's X4 that debuted in August, the Tarah is $30 cheaper at $100. That's also $50 less than the Beats X.
Sennheiser's first true wireless earbuds will cost you $300
Today, Sennheiser introduced the Momentum True Wireless earbuds, which provide stereo sound thanks to 7mm dynamic drivers. These earbuds have a four-hour battery life; the charging case holds an additional eight hours of capacity. They will be available starting in mid-November for $299.95.
B&O's Beoplay E6 wireless earbuds are built for exercise
Bang & Olufsen is wading back into the behind-the-neck-earbud market this fall, too. Not content to release a pair of connected 360-degree home speakers and call it good, the luxury audio company is launching the Beoplay E6 (along with the rest of its fall/winter collection next month). Rather than a rigid neckband, the E6s are tethered via a soft cable. B&O promises five hours of use per charge, and that you can charge the earbuds while using them.
Ascape Audio's earbuds boast wireless sound in a convenient package
If you want to put a little Motown in your ears, the Kickstarter campaign for Ascape Audio's newest Detroit-designed fully wireless earbuds and charging case has finally launched. The pitch is as follows: The AmpPack is a charging case that holds and charges the AscapePod fully wireless earbuds. The AmpPack automatically starts charging the twist-to-lock earbuds as soon as you secure them into the cradle near your phone's earpiece. The case's internal battery has enough power to charge them 20 times, or, it can double the life of your phone battery.
Jabra brings noise cancellation to its behind-the-neck earbuds
Do you like the concept of Apple's BeatsX earbuds, but want something that's better at shutting out external noise and taking phone calls? Jabra might have your fix. It's expanding its Elite earbud line with the 65e, which brings active noise cancellation and higher-quality voice calls (through a three-mic array). It's even promising that this won't hurt your battery life. You should get 8 hours of listening with noise cancellation on, and 13 hours relying just on the passive cancellation of the in-ear design.
Which true wireless earbuds are worth buying?
With so many flagship phones leaving behind the headphone jack over the past two years, the need for a good pair of Bluetooth earbuds has only intensified. While the first crop of true wireless products had their share of comfort and connection problems, the selection improved dramatically in 2017, with companies like Bose and Bang & Olufsen coming out with sets that gave Apple's AirPods a real run for the money. If you've been holding off on buying a pair because of cost, poor audio or because they just look ridiculous, it might finally be time to make the leap. We consulted reviews from top critics and came up with a list of six solid options that should have something for everyone, whether you're on a budget or prize sound quality above all else.
Qualcomm has a fix for wireless earbuds' biggest problems
While wireless earbuds have come a long way over the past two years, even great ones have issues. They haven't made the leaps in battery life that other wireless headphones have, and given their diminutive size, they're still plagued with wireless reception issues. Qualcomm believes it has a solution with its next wireless earbud chipset, the QCC5100, which will deliver nearly three times the battery life of previous devices, Gizmodo reports. And, perhaps most importantly, it has more wireless transmit power, which means it shouldn't cut out as much when it encounters interference.
Jabra's Elite 65t are affordable wireless earbuds with great sound
Jabra may have just announced its latest totally wireless earbuds at CES, but I got a hold of a pair early and have been using them as primary headphones for about a week. While the $170 Elite 65t that I've been wearing isn't a final model, they still gave me an idea of what to expect when the final version ships next month. Mostly, Jabra proves that you don't need to spend $250 (or more) to get a pair of earbuds that won't get tangled and still sound really good.
Nuheara's wireless earbuds can also help you hear better
Now that the truly-wireless earbuds craze is here, companies are looking to find ways to stand out from the crowd. Thanks to the Over-the Counter Hearing Aid Act of 2017, the US government freed up access to certain assisted hearing devices in a move that should also make them more affordable. At CES 2018, a number of companies are showing the tiny audio devices that can help people hear better, announcing products or plans for gadgets that will offer assistive listening. One of those is Nuheara.
Google made its own earbuds because it killed the headphone jack
Google followed Apple's "courageous" move to eliminate the 3.5mm headphone jack on the Pixel 2, and like the handset itself, Google designed a pair of headphones to (hopefully) best show off Assistant's capabilities. Like real-time translation so you can have a conversation with someone who speaks one of 40 foreign tongues. They're called Pixel Buds, which, let's be honest, sounds adorable. As soon as you pair them with your Pixel or Android phone running Nougat or higher, Assistant is available.
Sony's Xperia Ear is not the hands-free assistant I wanted
In theory, Sony's newest wearable sounds promising. The Xperia Ear is a single Bluetooth earbud that lets you dictate messages, get weather updates and smartphone notifications, and carry out other little tasks just by talking to it. It's like having an Amazon Echo in your ear, except with far fewer skills and third-party integrations. Sony also promises a long-lasting battery that can endure a full workday of talk time with the included charging case, so you can have the assistant ready for your commands all day. Unfortunately, the Xperia Ear simply doesn't do enough to justify its $200 asking price.
Sennheiser's new MX W1 earbuds get wireless with Kleer
It's looking like Sennheiser has a trick or two up its sleeve planned for CES this year -- the audio company is about to drop what appears to be the first commercially available pair of standalone wireless earbuds. The MX W1, as the buds are lovingly known, utilize Kleer technology to transmit audio from their dongle (base station?) to your ears. The same technique was used to poorer effect in RCA's S2501 JetStream DAP / earbud combo, which (virtually) lassoed the buds to the less-than-thrilling player. Sennheiser, on the other hand, provides the MX W1's free of a player and ready to be plugged into your unit of choice -- a huge boon for the marketability of this particular product. It should be noted that these appear to be output only, so those looking for a mobile phone solution will have to look elsewhere. Still, for audio enthusiasts fed up with wires, this is likely music to their ears... er, literally.[Via PC Magazine]Update: Looks like we've got a price, and it's $600. Zing. Thanks Arief.
