With Apple’s top-shelf AirPods Max over-ear active noise cancelling (ANC) wireless headphones due for a refresh, competitors keep coming with hot new products.
High-end audio maker KEF jumped into the market for the first time this week with its KEF Mu7 headphones, not long after venerable brand Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) rolled out its newest flagship, the PX8.
UK-based audio specialist Bowers & Wilkins first released its Zeppelin speaker as an iPod dock in 2007. Following a couple of other iterations over the years — the most recent one released six years ago — the airship-shaped powerhouse is back, and refitted for the streaming age.
Damn, I love Bluetooth.
Crap, I hate Bluetooth.
Bluetooth is the Jekyll and Hyde of technology. One minute it is your best friend and confidante; the next it is the most evil of evils. Actually, it is the other way around. As you are trying to find the device, and pair the device, and make sure the device stays paired, Bluetooth is some super-annoying technology. Then, once your devices have made nice, the relationship is repaired.
It’s ludicrous but true: How headphones look can be nearly as important as how they sound. Luckily for anybody who slides a pair of Bowers & Wilkins P7s over their ears, these high-end headphones do double duty. They will bamboozle your ears as well as your eyes.
With a stylish design and sturdy construction of gleaming metal and luxurious sheepskin leather, these aren’t a pair of big, cartoon-like plastic puffballs for your head. The P7s whisper quiet refinement rather than screaming “look at me.” If Beats Electronics’ brightly colored models are like those candy-colored iMac G3s from the ’90s, the P7s are like this year’s stunning iMac with Retina 5K display.
But really, looks are only skin deep. When it comes to music at its most intimate — when the sounds are piped straight from the source and directly penetrate your ear canals — it’s the quality of the audio that matters most.
If you don't have a dedicated roadie or one of those robotic tuning guitars, there's no easier way to tune your ax than with a Snark. Just squeeze the thumb-size mount and slide your headstock between the rubberized grips. Then press the little button on the front of the Snark's colorful LCD readout, pluck a string and get your instrument ready to play.
Lightweight and accurate, the Snark SN-2 All Instrument Tuner works with acoustic or electric guitars and basses, mandolins, banjos, whatever. It's perfect for situations like in-studio radio shows, where you don't want to drag around a stompbox tuner or a large amp that might have one built-in tuner. It also boasts pitch calibration, which lets you tune to something besides A-440, and a metronome that I can't complain about because I've never used it. The Snark SN-2 is a great buy at $39 list (and a steal at Amazon's price of $12.99). — Lewis Wallace
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
