Posts Tagged headphones
5 Things I Always Pack: Pam Mandel
Pam Mandel is a freelance writer stricken with wanderlust and a bizarre affection for the ukulele. She’s written stories for World Hum, National Geographic’s Intelligent Traveler, MSN, WGBH Boston (an NPR affiliate), Perceptive Travel, and lots of online travel publications. She’s a recovering guidebook author (British Columbia and Hawaii for Thomas Cook). Next up on her travels is Antarctica, as a blogger for TravelWild.
The really cool part? She’s about to start regularly blogging for us here at Practical Travel Gear. We had her give us our picks before that went down though, so here’s what she packs for her worldwide adventures:
1. Noise-canceling headphones
Good news, everyone! The price on these things has come way down since that fancy brand hit the market with their luxury headphones. I’ve got a pair from Able Planet, and while I’ve never compared them with the pricier brands, I can tell you my set really does cut down on noise, big time. They’re on the must have list for long-haul flights; I rarely travel without them. Bonus? They come in plaid.
2. Pashmina shawl
I am not a fancy person, not by a long shot. But that does not mean I can’t appreciate a soft, cuddly, and elegant even, wrap. I have a few of these, they take up almost no space in my luggage. I use them for extra warmth on the plane, as an evening wrap in the tropics, wrapped around my head when I’m somewhere windy and feeling a little bit wacky… they’re versatile and not as expensive as you’d think.
3. Pepto Bismol
Oh so unglamorous. But what’s worse than having to sit through a long bus trip or flight when you need to leg it for the loo every 23 minutes? It’s also good for settling general travel nausea, and hey, it’s pink and comes in TSA-friendly chewable tablets.
4. Merino wool long underwear
Lightweight, warm, washable, not too heavy if the weather goes sunny on you… I don’t leave home without it. I wear the bottoms as leggings under a skirt sometimes, or the whole set as jammies. I pack ‘em even for the tropics, you never know when it’s going to get chilly — sometimes I just wear them as a base layer on a long flight — planes are often too cold. Lots of folks make them, SmartWool (pictured at right) and Ibex are my favorites.
5. A plastic bag
Yeah, yeah, I know, plastic is evil, use something recyclable. Thing is, sometimes there are dirty shoes or a wet swimsuit or a leaky bottle of sunscreen or who knows what oddball item you have to wrap up and keep isolated from the other stuff in your bag? If it’s any consolation, I have started to throw in a reusable shopping bag too. Confession: Sometimes I poach the laundry bags from hotel closets because they’re slightly heavier weight and have those drawstring closures on them.
Pam blogs about Hawaii at Holoholo Wale and Nerd’s Eye View. If asked to list a sixth item, she’d have included her ukulele.
Posted by Kara in General Gear on January 25th, 2011
Kidz Gear Headphones for Young Children
I sure wish I knew about these Kidz Gear headphones when my children were preschoolers. At ages 7 and 9, they’ve now mastered the art of using earbuds. But back when they were little, and we brought a portable DVD player and cassette-tape player on every road, plane and train trip, this kid-sized gadget would have been the perfect fit!
What I like most about these headphones is the soft, padded ear cups that are covered in a leather-like material. The kiddie headphones my toddler kids had for their backseat car use were made of foam, and they picked at those, tearing them easily. The adjustable Kidz Gear version actually looks like “grown up” headphones — with the black and chrome-colored plastic — but they are sized for little heads. The very comfortable headphones (I tried them on myself!) are made for children as young as two to use, and they fold up for easy transport and storage.
The quality is quite good — I tested them with iTunes and my laptop, and compared them with my iFrogz earbuds. The sound coming from the earbuds is crisper and louder, but the headphones absolutely do the job well (especially for children). There is built-in independent volume control, so kids can adjust the sound as they like. But parents should monitor as needed, since the volume can get quite loud if the dial is turned up all the way.
Kidz Gear headphones have a universal plug-in for use in portable DVD players, mp3 players and hand-held video games. You can buy Kidz Gear Headphones from Amazon.com; they retail for $16.99. There’s also a wireless version for $29.99 that are compatible with DVD players installed in most cars, from Acura to Mercedes Benz.
Posted by Kara in Kids and Family on January 15th, 2010
Dear Santa: Can I Have a Faze Headset, Please?
Just in time for holiday shopping, V-Moda has rolled out a new, reasonably-priced headset and microphone combination for the iPhone, iPod and smartphones.
The V-Moda Faze shares many of the best features of its cousin, V-Moda’s Vibe II which we reviewed earlier on Practical Travel Gear. But since St. Nick may be on a tighter budget this Christmas, the $49.99 price tag makes this an even better deal.
Why buy headphones instead of just using the ones that come in the box with iPods and other MP3 players? Because earbuds like the Faze sound better. Period. And if you’re going to invest in a player or fancy phone, at least make sure to get headphones that will do justice to your music collection and calls.
The Faze headphones deliver a full, crisp sound. The bass is very rich, similar to the sound of the Vibe II. Some listeners thought the Vibe II was a bit heavy on bass, but that’s a matter of preference. The mids and highs are clear and sharp on the Faze.
Three different sizes of silicone sleeves are included to fit all sizes of ears. The earbud design does a good job of blocking outside noises—a plus for travelers, especially when listening to your favorite tunes on airplanes or in cars.
But the Faze does more than make music sound good. It includes a built-in microphone for making calls or voice notes. There’s also a call and music control button to switch between talking on the phone and listening to music.
The button can pause music playback, or skip forward and backward through tracks. You can even use the microphone and an iPod Touch to make phone calls with a wi-fi connection and Skype. It’s almost like turning the Touch into an iPhone.
The earbuds are made to last, constructed of aluminum alloy with Kevlar-reinforced cables. Besides the iPhone and iPod Touch, they can be used with the Palm Pre, Blackberry and other smart phones, other brands of portable music players and computers for music listening and phone calling. An adapter is included to fit the Blackberry’s non-standard audio plug. The headphones also worked well with my HTC Fuze phone.
The Faze is available exclusively at Best Buy. V-Moda guarantees satisfaction by offering a 30-day, no-risk audition period and backs its products with a one-year warranty.
The earbuds are black (Nero) with silver trim, slightly less bling than the Vibe II. But they still offer premium sound and a full set of features.
For the price, smart Santas will find them hard to beat.
Get the V-Moda Faze at Amazon
Posted by JohnG in Business Gear, General Gear, Travel Light on November 23rd, 2009
Ear Pollution Plugz with Mic Earbuds from iFrogz
I am the first to admit I’m hardly a headphones snob. I’ve been known to use those free or $1 earbuds you can get on airplanes in my iPod. Headphones for music listening are just not something I’m going to spend money on.
That said, I was happy to sample a pair of $19.99 Ear Pollution Plugz with Mic earbuds from iFrogz on my flight this morning. And I’m happy to report that they block out ambient noise — such as chatty passengers next to me — quite well — and better than the $9.99 pair I compared them to (which I’d bought at Wal-mart a couple months ago).
Indeed, the differently sized ear pads do help you figure out what best fits most comfortably in your ear canal (mine are apparently medium sized). I did find that I had to turn the volume up a bit on my iPod when I had the Plugz in — more so than when I had my cheaper ear buds in there.
Regarding the included mic, I tried it with my Blackberry and it seemed to work well during a conversation with my husband on his cell phone. I might also use it for hands-free phone interviews or Skype calls with my family while I’m on the road and they’re back at home. But I certainly would not advocate using the iFrogz ear buds with a cell phone while driving; those suckers block out ambient noise so well, it’s just not safe.
If you’d like to try Ear Polluton Plugz with Mic earbuds yourself, head on over to my blog The Vacation Gals, where we’re giving away a pair. Hurry, though – you’ve got until midnight Tuesday, November 10, to enter.
Posted by Kara in Travel Light on November 9th, 2009
Keeping in Touch: Sony Ericsson Walkman Phone and Bluetooth Stereo Headphones
After owning the portable music market for years with Walkman cassette and CD players, along came the Apple iPod to topple Sony’s domination. Now, Sony Ericsson tries to regain some of its mojo with a media-friendly cell phone and wireless stereo headphones.
The Sony Ericsson W760i is billed as a Walkman phone, positioned somewhere between barebones cellular sets and feature-packed smartphones. If you don’t need all the capabilities of a Blackberry or iPhone or HTC device to stay in touch while you’re on the road, this phone offers features that deserve a serious look.
The W760i handles the basics extremely well. In my hands-on testing, call quality was excellent. The slim, lightweight slider design hides the keypad when not in use. Battery life is respectable, easily lasting two or three days of normal use.
Diving into the features, built-in applications let travelers track appointments and keep up with contacts. Mobile e-mail setup is easy for accounts such as Yahoo!, AOL, Windows Live and major Internet service providers. Some models of the phone allow instant (push) e-mail from Exchange servers. But curiously, the Exchange application is left out of AT&T’s version of mobile e-mail.
You can play your favorite MP3 tunes from an optional memory card (up to 4 GB is supported) and the phone also has a built-in FM radio. For an added cost, more music is available from subscription services such as Napster and eMusic. And MusicID will help identify the title and artist of tunes you don’t know.
With high-speed 3G data, the built-in web browser handles mobile sites and cellular video surprisingly well. The browser even does a credible job on websites not optimized for mobile devices. The screen is not a touch screen, but I found it easy to navigate through the menus with the keys, even when clicking on links and filling in forms.
A built-in camera will record video and 3.2-megapixel still images for sending back those vacation pictures. The unlocked version of the phone will operate with GSM carriers worldwide, which should also be of interest to travelers.
This phone was one of the first to include a shake control, letting you shake or tilt it to advance to the next music track or control some games. The screen auto rotates when the phone is turned sideways. Travelers will also appreciate the flight mode, so applications can be used on airplanes with the phone radio turned off.
There’s also a built-in GPS. But if you want to use it for guided navigation, you’ll pay a monthly fee. My preference is for other GPS apps that are free or involve a one-time cost, such as Garmin Mobile XT which I recently reviewed.
That brings up one of the limitations of this Walkman phone. The operating system means doing without the wide range of applications available for other phones running Windows Mobile, Apple or Android.
A useful companion to the Walkman phone is Sony Ericsson’s HBH-IS800 Wireless Stereo Headphones. Since they are stereo, the two earbuds help block out the roar in crowded airports and other noisy locations. Conversations were understandable on both ends. Several people I called heard a faint static noise in the background.
For listening to music, the bluetooth headphones were not as crisp and clear as wired earbud and microphone combinations such as the V-Moda Vibe II. But the bluetooth headset would be convenient for music listening if you’re moving around a room or taking a jog.
The list price for the wireless stereo headphones is $179.99. The street price for the unlocked phone (if you don’t want to be tied to a specific carrier or contract) is around $250. Currently, AT&T is almost giving it away with a rebate and two-year contract.
Some of the more-demanding, hardcore business travelers—or music lovers who need more than 4 GB of storage—will want more than what this phone has to offer. But overall, the Sony Ericsson W760i Walkman phone has a lot of built-in features that should meet the needs of many road warriors.
Posted by JohnG in Business Gear, General Gear, Travel Light on October 5th, 2009
