wood headphones

WoodTones: A new high for $100 luxury headphones?

I get to hear a lot of headphones. Don't be jealous, most of them are different shades of awful. Some are so bad I yank them off my head in a few seconds, some are just cheap copies of famous headphones, and some are built like crap. The Griffin Technology WoodTones jumped out from the pack: they're beautiful, they're comfortable, and they sound great.

True to their name they're available in Beech, Sapele, and Walnut. Handling these $99.99 headphones, I found the real wood earcups make for a very different feel than the more typical … Read more

These eco-friendly 'green' earbuds deliver oodles of detail

Thinksound's awesome little ts02 in-ear headphones($100) knocked me out in March, so I was eager to hear the company's new model, the ms01.

It doesn't look a whole lot different than the ts02, but that's not a bad thing. Both models are smaller and more comfortable than most in-ears, and both block a good amount of external noise. Almost as much as a noise-canceling headphone, and unlike NC models, the ms01 doesn't run on batteries.

The ms01 in-ear monitor ($100) features an 8 mm high-definition driver, PVC-free cables, and hand-crafted, sustainable, wood ear-pieces. The … Read more

The 404 910: Where we are baked fresh every day (podcast)

When Steve "The Audiophiliac" Guttenberg tells us he has ideas for the 404 Podcast, we listen. We invited him to sit down with us today to talk about Netflix splitting in half, which "high-end" audio manufacturers are making impossible claims about their products, and the headphones that just earned Steve's award for "Worst-Sounding Audio Ever."

Be sure to keep checking The Audiophiliac blog on CNET for the latest hardware reviews and news, and follow up with Steve on Twitter @Audiophiliacman.

The 404 Digest for Episode 910

A $25,000 'bookshelf' speaker from Magico. The award for 'Worst-sounding audio product' goes to... Steve endorses these $74 5.1-channel home theater satellite speakers. And these $1 HDMI cables from Monoprice, too.

Episode 910 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more