Earbuds

Many of us will serve up our favorite tunes using a smartphone, but may be left wanting for sound quality. That's where a portable headphone amp/DAC can help, and the latest model from Fiio promises to satisfy with desktop-level power and performance.

Precious few airlines currently offer Bluetooth connectivity from their in-flight entertainment screens – but that's no longer a problem, thanks to a nifty new breed of wireless earbud that connects to anything with a headphone jack.

Though many of us carry our digital music library or streaming player around with us in the shape of our smartphones, enjoying high quality audio can be problematic. Fiio's KA15 DAC not only levels up the sound but also looks retro cool while doing so.

Many of the gadgets we use every day have a limited shelf life, and often end up as e-waste before their time. The Dutch company that launched a repairable, upgradeable, sustainable smartphone has now taken the challenge to true wireless earphones.

Bose has launched a pair of wireless earphones that don't plug in and cut you off from the outside world, but clasp onto the side of your ears like cuffs. The Ultra Open Earbuds promise both all-day immersive listening and awareness of surroundings.

San Diego's audio gear brand JLab already sells inexpensive but capable true wireless earphones, but is now going premium with the launch of the Epic Lab Edition buds, which feature Bluetooth LE Audio and Knowles tuning.

There are many situations in which blind people don't necessarily have to see what they're holding, they just need it described to them. An experimental new wearable device, known as AiSee, is designed to do that very thing.

The true wireless earphone market has become pretty saturated since the first pair made their Kickstarter debut in 2014, but Huawei seems to have found a way to stand out from the crowd with the fashion-focused FreeClip open-ears.

There's a good chance that the headphone jack of your laptop or PC doesn't offer stellar plugged-in audio quality. Chinese hi-fi brand Fiio is aiming to offer a significant quality boost with a mechanical keyboard rocking its own DAC/headphone amp.

Earlier this year, we introduced solid-state micro-speaker technology from California's xMEMS Labs that's designed to replace coil-based drivers in wearable audio products. Now the company is aiming for satisfying low end with the Cypress speaker.

Smartwatches that can monitor a wearer's heart rate use light pulses to detect changes in blood volume. But research from Google proposes using ultrasound from an earphone's speaker driver to look for tiny deviations in the surface of the ear canal.

Earlier this year we heard about the ear-EEG, a special earbud that reads electrical activity in the brain. Well, scientists have now developed add-on sensors that allow regular earbuds to do so, and to analyze sweat to boot.