Apple hates fake AirPods. Some reports estimate that fake AirPods cost the company an astounding $3.2 billion a year. Unfortunately, Apple isn’t the only entity harmed by counterfeit AirPods and AirPods Pro. You, the customer, could also be affected, and the damages go way beyond the financial. But differentiating counterfeit AirPods from originals can be a tedious process. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be counterfeits to begin with. Read on to settle the mystery as we explore the seven best ways to determine if your AirPods are real or fake....

IKEA has something colorful in store for us, and it involves a collaboration with Teenage Engineering. Without a doubt, the FREKVENS speakers are some of the quirkiest Bluetooth speakers we’ve seen in a while, and they come with a host of other stylish products. The partnership was first announced in June 2017, but it’s only now that we’re seeing the devices actually go on sale at IKEA stores. While Teenage Engineering supplies the audio technology, IKEA handles the home integration and distribution, which begins on February 1....

OnePlus has been known to match its flagship smartphones with fantastic accessories, from its numerous cases to backpacks and earbuds. Missing, however, are true wireless (TWS) earbuds similar to what most audio-centric manufacturers already have. This may likely change at the brand’s next major event. While it’s been rumored for a couple of months that OnePlus has true wireless earbuds in the works, it’s only now that we’re getting a more solid confirmation of when we’ll actually see them....

How do you balance a reputation for crafting the finest high-fidelity headphones with the requirements to compete in a more consumer-oriented product line? Travel-focused, wireless headphones with Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) are the newest rage, traditionally dominated by Bose and Sony offerings. And lately, as is its way, Apple has become a new higher-end option in this emerging market. This growing headphone craze has made audiophile companies consider how they might carve a piece of this lucrative pie....

The removal of the headphone jack from almost all smartphones created a practical problem for consumers. Bluetooth has enabled on-the-go listening without the need for wires, but at the price of compromised audio quality. So what happens when you’re commuting, out walking, or travelling away from home? Fortunately, this problem for consumers is also a great new opportunity for high end audio manufacturers, and there is a plethora of solutions on the market that improve on phone manufacturers’ options....

Hot on the heels of the 5 Balanced Armature (BA) drivers per side, KZ ASF, comes the big brother, 10-drivers per side, ASX model. Sharing the same resin shell topped with a different metal faceplate, and simply more of the same drivers found in the ASF, this new Knowledge Zenith flagship is priced at the upper end of KZ’s market range (USD $100). While it’s certainly a technological achievement to have 20 drivers and 2 crossover circuits contained in (relatively) tiny in-ear monitors (IEMs), one does have to wonder when enough is enough....

Look at Audeze. Endless pursuant of high-end audio and innovators of the planar magnetic driver. Like their namesake, the journey from rags to riches is as epic as an odyssey. Their LCD series of headphones warrant attention and adulation everywhere they go, and just recently they shrunk their planar drivers to make inroads into portable audio. No signs of stopping, then. Doppelgängers Today we take a look at a Monolith M300, a product that looks strikingly similar to the Audeze iSine series, but marketed to consumers....

My college professor once said, a small error is a mistake, whereas a big one is a blunder. The name of my home state, Perak, was born out of a massive blunder. When it was first colonized, there was much activity in the mines, as they were rich with silver deposits. Hence, the area was named Perak, which means silver in the Malay language. It was only later that the precious metal was discovered to be tin, and everyone in the state gave a collective facepalm....

Many praises have been heap upon the Sony WH1000XM3. Sony has come up with an active noise cancellation (ANC) technology that can rival Bose. Some say that it has even surpassed it. However, since the launch of their MDR series (their initial ANC line), Sony has kept the price tag within a premium range (> $300) for the mainstream crowd. You can check the latest price of the Sony WH1000XM3 here....

Choosing between streaming platforms can be confusing. And it certainly doesn’t help that many of them offer seemingly identical features. The same can be said for Pandora and Spotify, two of the longest-running music streaming services. While both share some similarities, each comes with its own brand of uniqueness. In this in-depth analysis, we aim to highlight the unique points of these two popular streaming apps. Hopefully, it’ll help you figure out which streaming platform is best for you....

Runaway success The game has garnered so much popularity that it won the “Game Of The Year” award when it was still in its early access phase! PUBG’s gameplay is surprisingly simple. 99 players are airdropped into an island where they have to scavenge for weapons and armors. The last person standing will be the winner or in PUBG terms, enjoying some chicken dinner. Naturally, PUBG has its dedicated bunch of professional streamers – gamers who make a living via broadcasting their games online....

So you’ve been using your headphones with your Android phones for pretty much everything, until they got a little bit quieter. Now, you can barely hear your music, even when you turn the volume all the way up. This means you won’t hear the crisp details of your music, immerse in your game’s audio, or hear the other person when you’re on the phone. These all sound quite annoying, right?...

In the world of music streaming, Spotify is undoubtedly a veteran with over 13 years in the business. But in a little less than 6 years, Apple Music has been able to position itself as an equally strong competitor. Both platforms have a lot to offer, making the choice that much more complicated. So to help you out with that decision, we took a deep dive into what each platform offers and what’s missing....

Big Picture: The EKSA H1 Plus is a monaural headset equipped with cutting-edge Environmental Noise Cancellation (ENC) to guarantee great call quality even in chaotic settings. Key features: Environmental Noise Cancellation (ENC) The EKSA H1 Plus’s “EKSAtelecom VoicePure ENC” is rated to cut background noise by 99.8%, or more than 45 decibels. With the help of the omnidirectional mic, this technology analyzes all sounds and picks out the human voice above the ambient noise....

Astro and HyperX are two companies that compete to provide effective and affordable gaming headsets. The Astro Gaming A10 and the HyperX Cloud Alpha S are great examples of their efforts. When choosing between these popular gaming headphones, what usually influences the purchaser’s decision is the major price difference between the two. Do the Cloud Alpha S offer additional functionality and sound quality? And if so, are they really worth the bigger price tag compared to the A10?...

If you hear a crackling sound or a dead left/right speaker on your Beats headphones, you may think the only way out is to get rid of them. But Beats headphones aren’t exactly cheap nor disposable for most people. Worse, while there are official repair services from Beats, it can take weeks before you’ll get your headphones back. Even then, you may still end up paying a significant amount of money, which you could use to buy a new pair of headphones instead....

Packaging and Contents The Carot One Audio Revolution Titta is packaged in a small orange cardboard container with an opening tilt-split top (slightly larger than a deck of playing cards) with more than a passing resemblance to a cigarette package. Inside is a small card listing features and specifications, grey foam packaging and one extra set of small-sized rubber tips. What the Heck is Audiophile Class D? The Titta packaging is boldly labeled: Audiophile Class D....

In the past, I have alluded a few times that my dad was the true-blue Hi-Fi enthusiast, with multiple 2-channel speaker sets and all; while I am the impostor of the house still dabbling with portable audio. While he bossed around with old-school big brands like Marantz, Nakamichi and Harman/Kardon, I got my kicks from… Moondrop? The Maiden Hour Today we take a look at their inaugural foray into in-ear monitors (IEMs), the YB04....

Ah, Cowon, never change! While most manufacturers are trying to provide all the bells and whistles, Cowon is keeping things simple and basic. The Korean company focuses on a pure listening experience: put in an SD card, load some music, and go about your business. The Cowon Plenue R2 is a good showcase for Cowon’s minimalist philosophy. It’s priced in the mid-range of the DAP market and, unlike its peers, lacks Android OS, a large touch-screen, and online streaming support....

Let’s be honest with each other. There are far too many companies pumping out inexplicably named IEMs these days to possibly keep track of them all. It’s near impossible to pick the good out from the awful, let alone from the merely average. Prices, build materials, driver composition, and sound quality are all over the map. Chinese manufacturers have significantly changed the IEM market with a flood of new devices appearing every week....