Oh! Gizmo

By David Ponce

S1 Audio, a new company with no actual product on the market yet (this comes in Q1 ‘09) makes a set of headphones that are interesting for all sorts of reasons. I’ll focus here on two. First, the good (pictured above).

The BudBud headphones feature some really innovative design. They allow you to share your music easily by virtue of the fact that each bud carries… another bud within it. Should your friend want to listen in on your stuff, just detach each of the conjoined buds and hand them over. The device even features separate volume controls. If my memory is correct, this goes for $40 (like a dumbass, I lost my notes. I’ll update later with correct pricing if I’m wrong).

The not so good now. The NxSET series of headphones are meant to wrap around your neck, and project your music up to your ears. Sure, it lets you still hear your environment, reducing your odds of an unpleasant car-face encounter… But they do increase your odds of a fist-face encounter dramatically. Especially if you plan on listening to this on a crowded public transport vehicle. Don’t get me wrong, there definitely is a market for these, I just don’t know that I want to hang with that crowd. Prices vary depending on what options they have, which are all clearly explained in one of the two press releases I’m pasting after the jump.

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