Every Reason You Should Go Back to Wired Headphones

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My favorite headphones don’t adhere to recent trends. They’re the Massdrop x Sennheiser HD 6XXs, and unlike the latest from Bose or Sony, they do not ‘actively cancel’ noise; they just blast it into my ears. And with their open-back design, not all of it gets there. Unlike AirPods (vanilla or Pro), they do not play nice with an iPhone at all. Wireless protocols? Please, these babies are wired into my desktop with a 3.5mm plug. And while some headphones will contort into compact shapes and fit inside a carrying case, these cans are remorselessly large and unbending. It’s a decidedly low-tech experience. I can’t recommend it enough.

Don’t get me wrong, AirPods are great. But like many modern gadgets, they’re designed for a specific purpose. When the iPod and its ilk made music mostly mobile for a whole new generation, headphones evolved to match that mobility. Wires that snag on doorknobs gave way to Bluetooth. Form factors shrunk to better suit backpacks and pockets. Once specially designed for pilots, active noise cancellation was turned to attack the sounds of the modern commute. But if you, like me, have not made a commute in over a year, it might be time to re-evaluate your priorities.

Once you’re tethered to a desk with no coworkers in sight, a great number of the advantages of high-end wireless headphones evaporate and a different animal reigns supreme. Wired headphones never run out of battery life. They’re impossible to misplace. Giant ear cups are almost cartoonishly comfortable. And the massive drivers they accommodate sound effortlessly better than anything you can squeeze into a “bud.”

Open-back headphones, the king of the form, take the logic to its excellent extreme. With skeletonized ear cups to let the air flow freely, the speakers can operate at peak efficiency, at the cost of a little sound leakage no one will be around to hear. And they are almost always more affordable than their more portable cousins to boot. Top of the line, wireless noise-cancelling cans like Bose’s Headphones 700 and Sony’s WH-1000XM4 will run you well over $300, even on sale. Airpods Pro clock in at a more modest $249, full price. But for just $220 you can get a roomy pair of HD 6XXs that you will literally never have to charge. And options like the honkin’-huge Audio-Technica ATH-AD700X get you all the way down toward $120 without throwing quality or comfort out the window.

Word of warning: going this route can open a Pandora’s box. A pair of nice wired headphones may lead to a dedicated headphone amp, and the next thing you know, you’re spending four figures on a portable music player with multiple DACs so you can listen to your FLAC files on the go.

Maybe that’s a bottle you’ll enthusiastically uncork. For me, though, it’s about more than just audio quality and comfort. A nice pair of wired headphones is truly a vibe. When I sit down at the desk in my home office, there’s a dozen different things I might do. Maybe I’ll bleed a few hours of my life into Twitter, or stare blankly at my inbox as the number ticks up. Maybe I’ll get right back up, or sink into my phone despite the giant screen in front of me.

But when it’s time to actually get to work, the first order of business is always the same: take my big, old headphones off their nail on the wall, pin the wire under my arm and start typing. At home, surrounded by distractions like the cat and the fridge and literally everything besides what I need to be doing, this ritual is an invaluable part of getting my brain into second gear. No fancy wireless pea-sized jobby can do that.

Massdrop x Sennheiser HD 6XX Headphones

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Do Apple’s HomePods Support Lossless Audio?

Come June 2021, Apple is updating Apple Music in a big way. Specifically, it’s adding lossless audio tracks and making them available to all Apple Music subscribers for free. This means that not only is Apple Music set to become a rival to other lossless streaming services (such as Tidal, Deezer, Qobuz, Amazon Music HD and the upcoming Spotify HiFi), but it’s also going to be the cheapest lossless option — a subscription to Apple Music will continue to cost $10/month.

But can you play that lossless music on your HomePods? No. Not yet.

When this big lossless update rolls out, Apple Music subscribers will gain access to roughly 20 million ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Compression) tracks, with that number set to rise to 75 million tracks by the end of 2021, which are audio tracks that are roughly CD quality (16-bit / 44.1kHz). Apple says that you’ll be able to stream even higher-resolution audio tracks (up to 24-bit / 192kHz), but you’ll need to have an external DAC that supports it to experience them.

Do HomePods Play Lossless Audio?

Not right now, but they will.

Apple initially stated the both the HomePod and the HomePod mini would not be able to play lossless audio tracks from Apple Music, but the company has since backtracked on that statement. Via a support document, Apple now states that with a future software update, both its smart speakers will be able to support ALAC files and thus will support lossless streaming. Currently, HomePod and the HomePod mini only support AAC audio files, which is why they aren’t able to play lossless tracks at the moment.

Do AirPods, AirPods Pro or AirPods Max Play Lossless Audio?

No, and they won’t be able to.

According to Apple, AirPods, AirPods Pro and AirPods Max (as well as all its Beats headphones) will all not be able to play lossless audio tracks because their Bluetooth connections cannot support it. The kicker is that the AirPods Max will not be able to play lossless audio tracks even when wired into your iPhone, iPad or Mac.

The reason is the AirPods Max only have a Lighting jack and not a 3.5mm jack, so you can’t use Apple’s Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter ($9), which has a built-in DAC that supports lossless audio (up to 24-bit/48 kHz). So if you use Apple’s special adapter you’ll be able to listen to lossless audio on other wired headphones, but just not on its AirPods Max.

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How to Adjust Your TV’s Color Balance Using an iPhone and Apple TV

Apple recently rolled a software update — tvOS 14.5 — to its streaming boxes, both Apple TV HD and Apple TV 4K, giving them the ability to optimize the color balance of your TV. In a nutshell, you can now quickly adjust the picture quality of your specific TV so that the content you watching on your Apple TV looks best.

Here’s what you need

• An iPhone that has Face ID, which is a 2017-released iPhone X or newer. That iPhone needs to be running iOS 14.5 or later, too. It’s necessary because this feature uses the iPhone’s TrueDepth front-facing camera.

• An Apple TV that’s running tvOS 14.5 or later. You don’t need the 2021-released Apple TV 4K to adjust the color balance of your TV. You can do the same thing with an Apple TV HD or 2017-released Apple TV 4K. It just needs to be able to run tvOS 14.5 or later.

• A TV, can be HD or 4K, that doesn’t support Dolby Vision. The truth is that the tvOS 14.5’s Color Balance does effectively the same job as Dolby Vision, which automatically adjusts the colors and brightness of your TV. So if you have a TV that supports Dolby Vision — and Dolby Vision is enabled on your Apple TV — there isn’t any need to adjust the color balance.

How to adjust the Color Balance of your TV

1. Turn on your Apple TV.
2. Open the Settings menu.
3. Scroll down and select the Video and Audio tab.
4. Scroll down to Calibration and select Color Balance.
5. A message will appear on your TV instructing you to bring your iPhone near it. Do so.
6. Once your iPhone is near the TV screen, you’ll see a pop-up notification asking if you want to measure your television’s color. Select Continue.
7. Follow the instructions. You’ll be asked to hold your iPhone inside a silhouette that appears on your TV. It will flash a bunch of colors and afterward your TV will be calibrated.

Once calibrated, your Apple TV will give you the option to view the original and calibrated images so that you can see the difference and choose which one you prefer. Obviously, it’s recommended that you choose the calibrated picture for the best quality picture.

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The 2021 iPad Pro: Here’s How It Compares to Last Year’s Model

Need Help Organizing All Your Online Shopping Tracking Info? This App Streamlines It All

I’m going to go out on a limb and say I’m not the only one who has developed something of an online shopping addiction during the pandemic. Spending that much time at home made me start to see all the things in my apartment I didn’t like, all the gaps in my wardrobe (even though I had nowhere to wear anything) and, like many people, I bought a quarantine cat to keep me company. Ok, I adopted him, but you get it, cats are kind of expensive.

One of the most frustrating things about buying from different retailers online is wrangling all of the tracking numbers and actually remembering what I bought and from what site. There’s a plant coming from Bloomscape, a 40-pound box of litter coming from PetSmart and a pair of pants from Mr. Porter. Where is the tracking number for each one? Will I be home when it gets here? Which email address did I use? You can see how it quickly gets to be too much to keep track of. This is where my new favorite app comes into play, the aptly-named Shop App.

Made by e-commerce giant Shopify, the free Shop App works in step with Shop Pay and Shopify-powered websites to seamlessly update your orders and tracking information within the sleek, well-designed app. The interface is super simple to work with and has a few cool-looking features like an interactive map and photos of what you ordered that move dynamically within each module. You can even shop at tons of places within the Shop App, because of course you can. But thankfully that is a level of addition I have thus far abstained from.

What if everything you order isn’t from a Shopify store? Well, that is okay, too. You can set up the app so that it automatically imports orders from Outlook, Gmail or Amazon accounts along with what is already coming in from your Shop Pay account. Shop Pay is also a breeze to set up: Order once from a Shopify store and all of your info is saved. Then when you enter your email on another shop, you will be prompted to enter a code that has been texted to you and all of your info populates. If you use an email that isn’t automatically uploaded, like an Apple email, you can easily just copy and paste the tracking number into the app.

A wonderful additional feature of the Shop App and, frankly, another great excuse to use it, is that Shopify is working to plant mangrove trees in Senegal that will eventually offset the carbon emissions from every order placed through Shop Pay and the Shop App. It is working with WeForest to restore the Casamance Mangroves, which will not only capture CO2 but will grow fish populations, allow for sustainable harvesting and rebuild habitat for endangered species. The current goal is to plant 4.6 million trees before 2022, which seems doable considering how e-comm has boomed in the past year. With all of the buzz around sustainability and some of the claims being dubious at best, it is awesome to see a company that is doing a lot of work for small businesses also do great things for the environment.

Essentially, I got tired of searching my email accounts for tracking numbers. Then I found the Shop App and it’s allowed me to keep tabs on all my packages in one, streamlined interface. Whether you are a rampant pandemic impulse buyer who likes to see a package on your doorstep every day (like me) or just want to ensure that you have a close eye on everything you spend your money on, downloading this app can make your life so much easier.

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The 15 Best MagSafe Cases for Your iPhone 12

Classic Cassette Tapes Are Making a Comeback

A version of this story first appeared in Gear Patrol Magazine. Subscribe today for more stories like this one, plus receive a $15 gift card to the Gear Patrol Store.

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Everything old is new again, and has been for a minute. The staggering resurgence of vinyl, with sales increasing every year since 2006 to a peak of 27.5 million LPs sold in the United States in 2020, is so cemented that it hardly seems fair to describe it merely as a “trend.” Now the humble cassette tape is starting to see a renaissance, drafting in vinyl’s enormous wake.

Sales of cassette tapes in the U.S. have increased by double digit percentages in recent years, according to Nielson reports, and now number in the six figures annually. Though still peanuts compared to vinyl, it’s a marked upswing. And the cassette tape’s comeback is shaping up to be as different as the two formats are.

When the cassette came to prominence in the ’70s and ’80s, it was as much about function as it was about sound. The practical alternatives of the time, reel-to-reel and vinyl, were expensive and bulky where cassettes were affordable, portable and quickly ubiquitous thanks in large part to the invention of the boom box in 1966 and the iconic Sony Walkman in 1979.

But the cassette was doomed to be crushed by what was essentially a better version of itself. CDs were just about as cheap and mobile, with no need to flip or rewind. Even though tape technology eventually grew to match CDs in sound quality, the damage was done. By 2000, cassettes made up less than 5 percent of the market, and the iPod was on the horizon. Barely anybody was buying, selling, making or listening to tapes, much less doing it on principle.

These days, even as the smartphone has essentially become a smaller, better Walkman, the format is beginning to find an audience of enthusiasts.

“The way the tape slowly rotates is just mesmerizing,” says Can Kuang, founder of the Just-Cassette blog and Instagram account, which has 25,000 followers. The comparative warmth of analog sound is part of the draw but, much like vinyl, so is the experience, despite or even because of its flaws. “You get to touch it, hear the mechanical clicks of the cassette player.”

It’s a nostalgia cycle that both feeds on and is fed by some pretty prominent roles in some of the biggest movies and shows of the past several years, including Guardians of the Galaxy, Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why and Better Call Saul. Some of the world’s most popular artists — such as Lady Gaga, The Weeknd, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez and Dua Lipa — have all released cassette tapes of their newest albums. (Sure, plenty of these get no more use than other, non-interactive memorabilia, but plenty of LPs never touch a turntable either.)

Tapes are more widely available than they have been in decades, and in increasingly high- quality forms as well. Producers like RecordingTheMasters manufacture bulk tape and blank cassettes that use a ferric oxide construction to rival the quality of now-extinct chromium dioxide tapes that defined the format’s heyday. The company now produces 30,000 compact audio cassettes per month, up from just 9,000 per month in 2019, according to Jean-Luc Renou, CEO of the Mulann Group, which owns RecordingTheMasters. “Duplication companies are by far the main consumer of our ferric oxide tapes,” Renou says. “Labels and artists are driving the comeback with more and more recorded cassettes.”

Less advanced tapes are also increasingly easy to come by. Taylor Swift’s Folklore album is available for just $20, and there is no shortage of actual vintage cassettes floating around, though the prices of some are going up.

“I know that cassettes from certain artists such as Michael Jackson, Madonna and Whitney Houston are selling for much higher prices than the others,” Kuang says. “If you search on eBay you’ll see that most of the old cassettes go for around three dollars, or ten dollars for ten. The ones I mentioned usually go for [between] ten and forty dollars.”

Quality players, however, are much scarcer. While the vinyl resurgence motivated manufacturers like Pro-Ject, Technics and Marantz to build new-age turntables, Kuang says the only sources of new cassette tape players are crowdfunded projects and small Chinese manufacturers.

It’s a chicken-and-egg problem that has sent diehards toward vintage tech, which can be a bit of a crapshoot. You can find refurbished cassette tape players on auction sites like eBay and Yahoo Japan, as well as on social media like Instagram and Facebook. But most vintage cassette tape players are pretty difficult to come by at the moment. Worse yet, they are generally much more complicated and expensive to repair than a turntable.

“I’ve seen prices of high-end Walkmans such as the Sony DD9, DC2, DD100 triple in the last two years,” Kuang says. You can find budget alternatives at retailers like Urban Outfitters and Tesco, but these options are only really suitable for dabblers, not audiophiles.

It’s a conundrum that may explain why the cassette’s rebirth has been more muted than vinyl’s, so far. You may not be able to add a tape deck to your home stereo just yet, but there’s never been a better time to dig up that old Walkman for a nostalgic spin.

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5 New Gadgets to Have on Your Radar This Week

A lot happened this week in the tech world. Star Wars Day came and went. Bill and Melinda Gates announced that they are separating. And there were a bunch of rumors about the upcoming Apple Watch, as well as rumors of a folding iPhone. But there were a few cool gadgets that were released, too.

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BenQ TK700STi 4K Projector

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The BenQ TK700STi is a new 4K HDR projector that’s a great fit for gamers who own latest-generation consoles, like the Xbox Series X or PS5. It can produce a native 4K picture — so there’s no need for upscaling, which is what most so-called 4K projectors do — so that games designed for those next-gen consoles can be shown off in all their HDR glory. The catch is that the TK700STi supports HDMI 2.0 rather than HDMI 2.1, meaning that it can only produce a 4K picture at 60Hz rather than 4K at 120Hz (but very few games actually take advantage of that yet). Few people will care about that those when looking at this 100-inch (max) screen.

Price: $1,699

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Nebula R2-D2 Capsule II Portable Projector

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Nebula (and its parent company, Anker) celebrated Star Wars Day by releasing a R2-D2-inspired version of its miniature portable projector. The Nebula R2-D2 Capsule II is exactly the same as the company’s other Capsule II portable projectors — a max 100-inch picture, Android operating system, built-in speaker, 200 lumens of brightness and a bunch of connectivity options — but also has a R2-D2 paint job and makes some droid-like noises when you start it up. The catch is that the R2-D2 model costs $700, while the normal model costs $580. (However, if you order before May 9 you can get $80 off the special edition model by using the code: WSMAY4TH.)

Price: $700

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Toshiba C350 Series of Smart TVs

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Toshiba announced its new line of 4K smart TVs this week that promises a lot for every little. Each 4K TV supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision (but not HDR10+) and runs on Amazon’s Fire TV operating system. The C350 Series comes in a range of sizes (43″, 50″, 55″, 65″ and 75″), but the kicker is the 43″ model starts at $350, making it one of the cheapest 4K smart TVs that supports HDR that you can buy. These 4K TVs are available for preorder right now and will start shipping at the end of this month.

Price: $350+

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Hisense Dual-Cell LCD TV

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Hisense gave us a first look at its upcoming TVs that are poised to rival OLEDs. They’re called dual-cell LCD TVs and, by sandwiches two liquid crystal panels on top of each other, they’re supposedly able to achieve OLED-esque levels of contrast, brightness and overall picture quality. The 75-inch TV will be available this summer and cost a cool $3,500. CNET‘s David Katzmaier has the full details, which you can read by clicking the link below.

Price: $3,500

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Google Pixel Buds A-Series

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Google didn’t officially announce new wireless earbuds this week, but one of its official Twitter accounts (@Android) briefly did. Yep, for about 10-minutes, the company’s tweet announcing the all-new Pixel Buds A-Series was live. They look very similar to the company’s existing Pixel Buds, but the “A-Series” designation suggests that they’ll be more affordable than $179, which what the current Pixel Buds demand. The Pixel Buds A-Series will support fast pairing with Android devices and come in an all-white color — but that’s really all we know so far.

You can read the full story on the leaked wireless earbuds on 9to5Google, below.

Price: TBD

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