earbuds

LAS VEGAS--The Beats and Monster brands are so synonymous that it's hard to believe the relationship is over. After a five-year lovefest that spawned dozens of headphones including the eponymous Beats by Dr. Dre and Lady Gaga's own Heartbeats, Beats is cutting ties and refusing to renew the partnership contract.

According to a report from Businessweek, two anonymous sources confirmed that Noel Lee's Monster Brand and Jimmy Iovine's Beats label severed ties after an irreconcilable dispute over who should get more credit for last year's 53 percent headphone marketshare.

Dre and Iovine remain adamant about their aim to educate young listeners on the value of accurate sound reproduction seemingly lost in this era of awful-sounding Apple ibuds, and they even brought names like Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, and Miles Davis into the fold to help drive sales with cameos in music videos and live DJ sets.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--With so many headphone makers at CES emphasizing brain-vibrating bass, it's great to see the folks at Moshi bragging about precision acoustics in the company's new Clarus flagship earbuds for discerning audiophiles.

A 15mm woofer and a 7mm tweeter in each earbud power the Clarus headphones (Moshu calls this "DynaDuo") for accurate reproduction that shines in warmer genres like jazz, classical, and acoustic music. And Moshi claims the dedicated high-frequency driver with passive crossover lets you hear the recordings the way the artist and producer intended.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--When Tony Stark developed the latest MK VI armor for the classic red and gold Iron Man suit, he probably forgot to engineer a way to listen to music, but Wolfson Microelectronics picked up the slack and is showing off a Digital Silence DS-421D headset here at CES that appears to draw aesthetic inspiration from the superhero's exoskeleton.

Best of all, it features a special "Aeroplane filter" that removes typical aircraft noise, though I doubt it'll overpower the sound of boot-mounted rocket thrusters.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--I am the earbud killer. They fall out. They are uncomfortable. They don't last long in my hands. So far, a set of $60 Ironman series Yurbuds is beating out its predecessors.

Yurbuds earbuds were invented by triathlete Seth Burgett, so overachievement comes naturally. He wanted to design earbuds that wouldn't fall out and wouldn't press on sensitive nerves. That's a tall order.

Yurbuds started out as semi-customized creations. The company matched a photo of your ear to the right earpiece. The new Ironman series contains two different sizes of earbuds. If neither fit right, … Read more

Cell phones and smartphones aren't the only things that phone makers like Samsung sell. The occasional accessory also sneaks out to complement those phones.

Just days before the mammoth Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Samsung is releasing not one, but six.

Four new wired headsets and two new Bluetooth headsets make their debut, ranging from $20 up to $130. They include:… Read more

Your ears have always been good to you, right? So why are you jamming those cheap, uncomfortable, tinny-sounding plastic earbuds into them? You know, the ones that came bundled with your phone or MP3 player, and that consist of about 16 cents' worth of materials.

When it comes to comfort, sound quality, and outside-noise dampening, you can't beat a good pair of in-ear earphones. Like this pair: Newegg has the Klipsch Image S2 In-Ear Headphones for $17.99 shipped. (Earphones, headphones; tomato, tomahto.)

Update: Sold out, I'm afraid. (Keep checking, though, to see if Newegg makes more stock … Read more

The V-Moda Revamp earbuds are a collaboration between V-Moda and HBO for the bloodsucking show "True Blood," but you don't have to be a fan to enjoy them. Aside from a couple small logos on the earbud pieces and the syringe-shaped remote control on the wire, nothing about them looks particularly vampiric.… Read more

Etymotic Research was at the giant IFA consumer electronics trade show in Berlin to debut its new earphones designed to protect children's hearing.

The product, ETY*Kids Safe-Listening Earphones, consists of noise canceling in-ear earphones (or "earbuds") that allow parents to insure that the volume of sound that reaches their child's ears doesn't exceed safe levels. The earphones will be available in October, starting at $49.

In a podcast interview (scroll down to listen) recorded at the Showstoppers press event at IFA, Karnes said that, by proportion of population, there are now more hearing impaired … Read more

The Klipsch Image S4 earphones and the iOS-compatible Image S4i continue to earn their position in our Best 5 Headphones list for their unique conical ear-tips and exceptional sound quality , so it's not surprising the company just released a model for Android users--the Image S4A.

Available now for $99, the S4A headphones come with a unique accessory we don't normally see packaged with headphones: software.

Although not necessary for audio purposes, the Klipsch Control Android app lets you change the functions of the remote buttons--you can specify voice search and commands, auto-dial a phone number, and advance tracks. … Read more