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PlayStation announces official wireless cans for PS3, stereo frags coming September originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 May 2011 05:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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That stretchy, coiled headphone cord might be cool for the club, but sometimes you need to straighten up, fly right, and answer a few phone calls. Enter Pioneer’s HDJ-500T-K DJ headphones. These cans are effectively a standard re-issue of the regular HDJ-500 series, but adding a new swappable straight cord with a microphone and answer button. DJ with the (also included) extendable coiled leash, or enjoy leisure listening and hands-free calling with the straight cord. Pretty simple. Look for these in May for $145, and hit the break for the full press release.

Continue reading Pioneer HDJ-500T-K cans uncoil, answer your phone calls

Pioneer HDJ-500T-K cans uncoil, answer your phone calls originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Apr 2011 23:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Behold Final Audio Design’s latest high-end earphones: the Piano Forte X-VII Series. Each of the four models that comprise the series features a large neodymium magnet driver, nestled inside a rigid metal housing made of alloy powder and natural resin, designed to minimize bad vibrations. The driver is a hefty 16 mm in diameter, and boasts roughly three times the surface area of your garden variety earphones, resulting in enhanced low frequency soundscapes. Final Audio Design also added a proprietary pressure ring to each model’s diaphragm (to ward off sound artifacts), as well as special pressure vents (to optimize air pressure around the diaphragm). Internal air pressure, on the other hand, is kept in check thanks to the X-VIII Series’ metallic earpads, which allegedly allow your ear to naturally adjust to any barometric shifts. Each of the four models comes in a unique metallic housing, reportedly capable of delivering different audio blends. But they all share one important characteristic — they’re really expensive. At the high end of the price spectrum are the X-G and X-CC models, which will put you back some ¥220,000 ($2,668). Bargain hunters, meanwhile, will have to settle for the VIII, priced at a slightly less obscene ¥80,000 ($970). Granted, these earphones may very well warrant that kind of cash and scientific hyperbole, though it’s certainly difficult to gauge their value without taking them out for a spin ourselves.

Final Audio Design’s Piano Forte earphones promise concert hall sound at bank-breaking prices originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 14:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen some rather homely cans in our time — wireless and otherwise — which is why we were delighted to see that Sony’s latest set of 7.1 channel headphones doesn’t sacrifice form for function — at least not on paper. The MDR-DS6500 setup offers up a slew of surround sound modes, including Dolby Digital, Sony’s Virtualphones Technology, a 100-meter (330-foot) operating range, and automatic tuning. Sony’s also promising 20 hours of listening for every three hours the things spend on their charging dock. We’re not sure how much they’ll set you back, but they are set for release sometime this May. Of course, we’ll hold our judgment until we actually hear how they stack up. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Sony’s MDR-DS6500 wireless headphones serve up surround sound in style

Sony’s MDR-DS6500 wireless headphones serve up surround sound in style originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 09:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TDK has slowly been rolling out some of its new audio gear since it first showed off the line at CES in January, but it’s now finally officially announced that the whole lot is readily available across the US and Canada. That includes both its two-speaker and three-speaker Boomboxes, its “room-filling” Sound Cube, a set of high-end headphones, and even a belt-drive turntable — those range in price from $249 for the headphones to $499 for the three-speaker boombox. Of course, while TDK is boasting quite a bit about the sound of the gear, it’s also placing a heavy emphasis on their appearance, for which it can thank design firm Ziba. Don’t miss the more coverage links below for a bit of insight into how it crafted the products.

Continue reading TDK’s new line of Boomboxes and audio gear now officially available

TDK’s new line of Boomboxes and audio gear now officially available originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 03 Apr 2011 23:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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