Bluetooth

Monday

Ross Anderson

The best tech of 2024

Best headphones (and earbuds) Bose QuietComfort Ultra & Austrian Audio Hi-X65 Noise-canceling headphones have gotten pretty great over the past few years, with Sony and Bose neck-and-neck with their various releases. But, to my ear, this year Bose stepped ahead with their QuietComfort Ultra range. They can’t compete with the sound quality of wired headphones — or the ultra-fidelity of the $1,549 Bang & Olufsen H100 — but they have the best sound quality you can get in sub-$1,000 Bluetooth headphones, and the best noise-canceling I’ve ever experienced. Background noise vanishes, and if you’re on a tube or plane, they’re essential.

tech

Thursday

Ross Anderson

These $1,549 Bluetooth headphones might just be worth it

On a sunny Wednesday morning in August, I arrived at the London flagship store of Bang & Olufsen. But, of course, it’s not just a regular shop; it’s an “atelier,” or so I’m told. On the ground floor, you can peruse their range of chic, expensive speakers and headphones, but head upstairs — complimentary coffee in hand — and you can dive into their tailoring service. Do you want all the speakers in your home and office to match the materials and colors of their surroundings? Or match your car? Or what about a particularly beloved artwork? This is where you do that — and their sound will be as moving and astounding as their price tags. But downstairs, one floor below the main sales area, there’s a little preview room, hidden away from the world.

headphones bluetooth

Tuesday

Ross Anderson

Dyson makes headphones again… and they don’t suck

Dyson isn’t the first brand that comes to mind when you’re thinking about buying a pair of Bluetooth headphones. You likely don’t even know they make Bluetooth headphones. And if you do, it’s because their first pair, last year’s Dyson Zone, were the first critically panned headphones released in years. In his review, tech YouTuber MKBHD called them “the dumbest product I’ve ever reviewed.” For the unfamiliar, the Zone has fans and air filters in each earcup, which — through a magnetically attachable mouth visor — filters the air you breathe. But it can’t filter out Covid, is less effective than an N95 mask and using it ruins the Zone’s sound quality, as you’re blasting fast-moving fans right beside your ears.

headphones dyson