Headphones

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.

In a crowd, background noise can make it hard to hear people talking. But soon we could be wearing headphones that use AI to filter out noise that’s more than a few feet away, creating a “sound bubble” that lets you focus on your own conversation.

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.

Researchers have used AI attached to off-the-shelf headphones to isolate the voice of one speaker in a noisy crowd just by looking at them. The code for their next-level noise cancelling system is freely available if you want to build your own.

After years of bubbling online rumors, Sonos has finally revealed its first attempt to break into the overcrowded headphone market with the Ace wireless over-ears – which are clearly looking to dethrone the likes of Sony, Bose and Apple.

We’ve tested 50 different waterproof headsets over the years, and a clear favorite emerged when Zygo launched its headphones. This week a 2nd-gen Zygo was announced, with enhanced audio, longer range, longer battery life, and on-the-go charging.

China's Fiio – which recently announced a mechanical keyboard with a built-in DAC – has launched a new flagship desktop media streamer and headphone amp/DAC combo that's dominated by a slick smartphone-like user interface.

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.

Noise-cancelling headphones are great for blocking out the loud talkers and chaotic coffee shops of the world, but what if there are certain sounds that you want to hear? That's where the experimental new "semantic hearing" system could soon come in.

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.

Sony gave us a sneak peek of PlayStation’s first dedicated Remote Play device, then called Project Q, back in May. It's now provided more details and announced that the device, renamed Portal, will launch later this year.

Gaming accessory brand Turtle Beach has announced a new pair of flagship wireless gaming headphones called the Stealth Pro, which are claimed to deliver "the most effective noise-cancellation in a gaming headset."