Crave

The Grado PS-1000 headphone

The Grado PS-1000, Sennheiser HD 800, and Ultrasone Edition 8 full-size headphones all sound amazing. They're all expensive to buy, but if you listen to headphones with your hi-fi or computer, they might be worth the investment. Which one is right for you?

That depends. First, they sound very different from each other. To get the full scoop, read my CNET reviews of the Grado PS-1000, Sennheiser HD 800, and Ultrasone Edition 8 headphones.

My personal favorite was the Grado, as it was the most exciting to listen to. It seemed to bring out details more, and its dynamic impact was simply more visceral than the other two headphones. It worked well enough with my iPod, sounded acceptable with my Onkyo TX-SR805 receiver, and best with my Woo Audio WA6 Special Edition headphone amplifier.

The Ultrasone Edition 8

Which reminds me, if you're going to spend big bucks on a headphone, check out dedicated headphone amplifiers. I've blogged about Woo's amps many times, and they offer models starting at $470. I will try to get around to covering other brands soon.

The Ultrasone was the bass champ of the three headphones. If you love bass and you want to feel it, check out the Edition 8. As I said in the review, it gets closer to the full sound of a large floor-standing speaker than the other headphones. It's also the most iPod/MP3 player-compatible deluxe headphone I've heard. I couldn't believe how good it made my iPod sound.

The hand-built JH 13 Pro in-ear headphone.

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)

If you have ears, prepare to open them now.

I've just reviewed a bunch of contenders for the world's best full-size, over-the-ear headphone: Audio Technica ATH-W5000, Denon AH-D7000, Grado PS-1000, Sennheiser HD 800, Stax SR-007Mk2, and Ultrasone Edition 8 headphones--and all boast higher MSRPs than the JH Audio JH 13 Pro in-ear headphone.

Sure, full-size headphones can be used with iPods and MP3 players with varying degrees of success, but they're a lot more of a hassle to lug around than the JH 13 Pro. Honestly, I prefer the sound and comfort of over-the-ear models compared with in-ear headphones. Then again, the JH 13 Pro is a very different type of in-ear design, it uses six drivers--two woofers, two midranges, and two tweeters--to lower distortion compared with other in-ear designs. It's a difference I can hear.

The JH 13 Pro's resolution of fine detail is extraordinary, drums sound more realistic than I've heard from any other type of headphone. The JH 13 Pro is "fast," cymbals' shimmer and sparkle the way they do in real life, and when a drummer whacks his sticks against the drums' metal rims, the sound is more realistic. Dynamic oomph and slam are the best I've heard from an in-ear headphone.

The JH 13 Pro's bass goes deeper than any in-ear headphone to date, but it's the way these headphones decode palpable bass textures that's highly addictive. Electric, acoustic, and keyboard basses sound more different from each other with the JH 13 Pro. Switching over to Monster's excellent new Turbine Pro Gold in-ear headphone ($299) is startling, the Turbines sound mushy and muddled by comparison. The Monster has more mid-bass fullness, which some listeners may prefer. I do not.

The JH 13 Pro's midrange clarity is radically better than any in-ear 'phones I've used to date. Its bass, midrange, and treble are better balanced and accurate than what I'm used to from in-ear designs.

Back in August we wrote about the impending arrival of a new, touch-screen, wireless-enabled e-reader from Irex, and now the company has officially unveiled the product, the DR800SG, which boasts a 8.1-inch screen and costs $399.

While Sprint provides the Amazon Kindle's wireless service, the Irex e-reader will use Verizon for its 3G wireless connectivity. As with the Kindle, the "free" wireless plan offers unlimited e-book and periodical downloads and is included in the price of the DR800SG.

Irex DR800SD digital e-book reader

Irex reps previously said that they would be pairing their new e-reader with a large e-book retailer, and not surprisingly, the DR800SG has a tie-in with Barnes & Noble's e-bookstore. For newspaper and other periodicals, Irex continues an already established partnership with NewspaperDirect, which serves up "1,140 newspapers from 87 countries in 41 languages in their original layout."

Just as importantly, Irex has brokered a deal with Best Buy to sell the DR800SG in Best Buy stores nationwide. According to the New Times, this week "Best Buy is training thousands of its employees in how to talk about and demonstrate devices like the Sony Reader and Irex, and adding a new area to its 1,048 stores to showcase the devices."

Here are the DR800SG's highlights: ... Read more

(Credit: Altec Lansing)

Back in the 1980s, when portable audio was synonymous with "cassette tapes," boom boxes were a mainstay of music culture. While luggable, battery-powered speaker systems still exist today, they tend to be somewhat dainty iPod speakers. Altec Lansing's $300 Mix iMT800, meanwhile, aims to mix and match the best of the old and new. It has the look and feel of an old-school, crank-it-till-your-ears-bleed boom box--albeit a rather stylish one--but it boasts an iPod/iPhone dock (and it's GSM-shielded to boot, so you don't need to flip the iPhone into airplane mode).

While this can certainly be used as a stay-at-home stereo, Altec isn't shy about mentioning that it also makes for a good party system indoors or outside. On top, you'll find a handle, and you can also pick the unit up using the "grab" handles on the front of the speakers.

While the Mix doesn't have a second iPod dock, it does offer two 3.5-millimeter line inputs that allow your friends to plug in their MP3 players and cue up their playlists. The inputs are conveniently placed at the top of the unit, and there's a depression under the handle that's reserved for parking additional devices. Additionally, the Mix has a telescoping antenna on top of the unit. While there's no AM radio onboard, it does do FM, with four presets available.

So, how does it sound?

Read the full review of Altec Lansing's Mix iMT800 to find out.

Seven channels from one skinny speaker? We'll see.

(Credit: Atlantic Technology)

Atlantic Technology claims its FS-7.0 Surround Bar is the first loudspeaker capable of reproducing all seven channels of a home theater soundtrack from a single wall-mountable enclosure. A matching 8-inch powered subwoofer will be offered for optimal integration with the FS-7.0.

A lot of very expensive soundbars are either tweeterless, or include just one tweeter, like Bowers & Wilkins' $2,200 Panorama. The FS-7.0's front baffle includes three 1-inch soft dome tweeters, for the front left, center, and right channels. The front panel also has a pair of 4x6-inch woofers.

Surround channels use full-range 3.25-inch drivers mounted on the sides of the cabinet. The Atlantic Technology FS-7.0 and SB-800 compact theater system will be available this month at suggested retail prices of $800 for the FS-7.0 in Gloss Black and $300 for the SB-800 subwoofer in matte black.

(Credit: Altec Lansing)

Back in the 1980s, when portable audio was synonymous with "cassette tapes," boom boxes were a mainstay of music culture. While luggable, battery-powered speaker systems still exist today, they tend to be somewhat dainty iPod speakers. Altec Lansing's new Mix iMT800, meanwhile, aims to mix and match the best of the old and new. It has the look and feel of an old-school, crank-it-til-your-ears-bleed boom box--albeit a rather stylish one--but it boasts an iPod/iPhone dock (and it's GSM-shielded to boot, so you don't need to flip the iPhone into airplane mode). The Mix also includes two 3.5-millimeter line inputs, and it has a small remote that clips onto a belt loop or stores in a hideaway slot in the body of the Mix itself.

We'll have a full review of the Mix iMT800 next week, but we've already spent some time listening to it. We can tell you the thing gets good and loud, thanks in large part to its side-firing 5.25-inch subwoofers (one's active, one's a passive radiator). The other feature that hearkens back to its boom box roots: the Mix can run on AC or battery power. According to Altec, it can last up to 30 hours on eight D-cell batteries (alas, there is no rechargeable option).

A couple of notes on the photo above: while it may appear that the black iPod Classic is plugged into a second dock, it's really just resting on top (note the patch cable running from the headphone jack to one of the Mix's two line input jacks). Also, the protective silver bar over the top of the iPhone (docked in the bottom center) looks like it would make it tough to get iPhones/iPods in and out, but it actually slides up and down, making the dock easily accessible.

The Mix iMT800 is available now for $300. That's pricey, to be sure, but it does have a lot more heft and sonic oomph than the Lasonic i931, which is the only other retro iPod boom box we've seen so far.

Samsung Jet photos

Last month we got a sneak preview of the new Samsung Omnia 2 and Samsung Jet. Though only the Omnia 2 is set to come to a U.S. carrier (Verizon Wireless), it was the Jet that arrived on my desk first for a review. As a touch-screen phone with a focus on multimedia, the Jet largely resembles comparable Samsung phones, but it offers a few unique design elements like a hexagonal menu button and an attractive design on its rear face.

Most of the standard features like the music player, 5-megapixel camera, and personal organizer are nothing new, but the Jet does offer a few things unseen on previous Samsung phone. This first is an upgrade to Samsung's signature TouchWiz interface. TouchWiz 2.0 offers a number of improvements including a three-page menu design for both the home screen and the main menu and a unique interface for accessing media features.

The Jet also uses its accelerometer in new ways. The Motion Gate feature lets you control various phone functions by flipping, tapping, and twisting the phone. That's all pretty cool, but we especially liked the new Speaker Call feature that automatically routes calls to the speakerphone when you remove the Jet from your ear and place it flat on a surface.

The HTML Web browser gets a welcome upgrade of its own. Thanks to Samsung's new Dolfin browser, we now can zoom in on a page by tapping the display and swiping our finger. It's makes for a better experience than using the magnifying glass controls on other Samsung touch screens.

Though most of the new features aren't perfect, they are more than welcome. We always berate Samsung for producing too many handsets that resemble each other, so we're glad to see some real innovation. The Jet isn't a speakerphone, but feature are plentiful, and performance was mostly satisfactory. You'll have to buy it unlocked in the United States for around $525, and it's not optimized for U.S. 3G networks. Check out our Jet review for the full story.

The Woo WES: eight tubes on top, two in the lower half.

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)

Lucky me, I've reviewed most of the world's very best headphones, including the Audio Technica ATH-W5000, Denon AH-D7000, and Sennheiser HD 800. But now there's something even better: the Woo Audio WES headphone amplifier ($4,500) and Stax SR-007Mk2 headphone ($2,410). The complete review can be found on the Home Entertainment Web site.

Yeah, it's a lot of dough, but the Woo/Stax combo creams the other contenders for world's best headphone sound, and the pair goes for less than the price of a world class, high-end camera, like the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III. The camera's great now, but in a couple of years it'll be hopelessly out of date. Great audio is simply a better long-term investment.

Stax headphones use a very different operating principle than dynamic headphones (pretty much every headphone from lowly earbuds to full-size headphones are dynamic designs). Stax has been making electrostatic headphones since 1960 in Japan, and the company's current flagship model, the SR-007Mk2, is what I'm using with the Woo WES amplifier. The Stax is a big and comfy design.

The Stax SR-007Mk2 headphone

(Credit: Stax)

The Woo WES is an all-triode tube drive, fully balanced design; the prototype unit I'm reviewing has a total of 10 tubes (four EL34 power tubes, four 6SL7 drive tubes, and two 5AR4 rectifier tubes), but production models will have 11 tubes. It works with Stax and Sennheiser electrostatic headphones only. The machined, all-metal dual chassis is beautifully crafted.

The WES, like all Woo amps, was designed by Wei Wu, and handcrafted in Woo Audio's factory in New York City. Each WES will be built to order over a four-day period; it's slated for release in October 2009. The preintroduction price is $4,500, and full retail is expected to be $4,990. Woo prices start at $470 for the WA 3. All Woo Audio electronics are sold direct from the factory, the waiting list is three to four weeks.

A look inside reveals no circuit boards; all wiring will be "point to point." That's a very expensive way to manufacture amplifiers, but Woo Audio thinks point-to-point wiring makes for better-sounding amps. The amp also features handmade inductors, and even the machined cone feet are designed specifically for the WES.

The clarity of the Woo/Stax combo with acoustic jazz mimics the way live, unamplified music sounds in a good concert hall or club. The Woo/Stax is the closest thing to being there I've heard to date.

The symmetrical cabling detaches from each open-backed ear cup, a little like Apple's MagSafe power cables--accidentally trip over the cable and it pops out instead of breaking. Click on the image above to see more pictures of the headphones.

(Credit: Crave UK)

Crave UK flew all the way to Germany last week to hear what was promised to be the best headphone in the world--the greatest, most paradigm-shifting personal audio equipment man has ever seen. With his ears.

After an afternoon of listening tests at Sennheiser HQ with Professor Sennheiser himself, even Sceptical Cat (she travels everywhere with us) admitted she was close to believing the company's claim. They're the successor to the superb HD 650s, Sennheiser's new flagship headphone--Damen und Herren, the $1,400 HD 800s!