Gear Patrol | Spirit of Adventure, Passion for Gear

A touch more advanced

Headphones are the new status symbol in a world where everyone owns the exact same phone. So it’s not surprising that Parrot, maker of a wide range of random accessories for mobile devices including a remote controlled helicopter drone and the Asteroid car audio receiver, decided to enter the fray. Like the $1,500 Zikmu iPod [...]

Ready for the next 20 years

Flash back to 1984. Prince still went by Prince and was ruling the music charts. Ralph put the macho in Macchio by laying the hurt on Cobra Kai. A former hollywood actor was just reaching the middle of his tenure in the oval office. And Koss introduced what would become one of the most iconic [...]

Forget one-size-fits-all

Typically, buying a set of custom molded earbuds from brands like Ultimate Ears (now a subsidiary of Logitech) or Etymotic can take months. That’s because consumers must first visit the Audiologist to have inner-ear molds made, which are then shipped to the headphone company for production. Sonomax’s Sculpture Eers Custom Molded Headphones ($199+) ship with [...]

Home sweet home theater

As rabid movie, music fans and gamers, we’re always on the hunt for gear that can push our home entertainment experience to 11 (much to our better half’s chagrin). This roundup includes some of our favorite home theater products out today that we’d love to host in our living room. Continues after the jump.

Sound Footing

Full-sized, over-the-ear headphones (known as Circumaural cans to you purists) typically provide a level of audio fidelity that measly earbuds can’t match. The trouble is they don’t exactly store nicely when not in use on your desk. These Woo Audio Aluminum Headphone stands ($60-$75) can help remove clutter from your workspace or listening station by [...]

You Mess 'Em Up, It Ties 'Em Down

Dutch designer Michiel Cornelissen has devised a clever product to tame Apple’s ubiquitous ear buds. The CableGuy ($13) features four slots for holding the ear buds and 3.5mm plug in place, leaving room in the middle to wrap up the pesky cord in a nice ‘n tidy fashion. There’s also a built-in clip for attaching [...]

Coming Soon: Portable B&W

We’d be hard pressed to find an answer if you asked us to identify two pieces of audio gear we love listening to more than our Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin or PS5 headphones. But, we doubt you’d ever see us using them. Neither are exactly portable. That may soon change though with the upcoming release [...]

Upstaged

Famous amp maker Marshall shook up the audio world when they released the Marshal Major and Minor headphones. A little over a year later, they’ve now added some phone-friendly additions to their flagship Major ($120) cans in the form of an integrated mic and remote. Both features function as you’d expect, allowing users to answer [...]

Free (Jay)Bird

Jaybird’s new JF3 Freedom Bluetooth Headphones ($100) are built from the ground up to be the workout accessory you’ve always wanted. Their Bluetooth connectivity allows them to connect to your iPhone, or any stereo Bluetooth device wirelessly, which is a huge plus for anyone whose nearly been garotted by their current wired set mid-lift. They’re [...]

Wireless Black Belt

Wireless audio. A convenient technology that, like many modern conveniences, comes at the peril of quality. When it comes to a great pair of cans, we’re a picky lot here at GP and tend to keep ours plugged into an amp via cables — for better or worse. So, when AKG asked us a few [...]

Hassle Free Buds

Claiming any pair of headphones is tangle-free takes some cojones. Wires are wires after all, and the universe tends towards entropy (seriously: that’s the second law of thermodynamics people). Still, the Swedes are particularly talented at leveraging design, and in the case of the a-Jay Four ($75) ear buds, a unique a 5mm flat cable [...]

Headphone Wranglers

Let’s be honest with ourselves. Wrapping headphones around a phone or iPod keeps them organized for exactly 4.26 seconds. Ok so we’re exaggerating — but you get the point. If you’d prefer not to waste another minute of your day untangling headphone cords, then dig into that coin collection and buy a pair of BudTrap [...]

Can stand it

Those headphones you’ve spent hundreds of dollars on deserve more than a place on your end table or desk. Steam molded from a single piece of wood shaped into the shape of an omega symbol the Sieveking Sound Omega Headphone Stand ($179) is offered in 4 different veneers (walnut, zebrano, cherry and maple), and coated [...]

As men, we’ll always be suckers for shiny things. There’s no point in fighting it. Particularly when they can help do things like battle our inbox(s), catch up on missed episodes of the shows we’re too busy to watch, or single-handedly sway the tide of battles using just our thumbs. This gift list is a [...]

Zippidy Do Da

Solving the earbud cord rat’s nest every morning is a daily ritual we see far too often at the gym or morning commutes. Of course, if everyone had Zipbuds ($40) that might be a different case. The zipbuds use a clever integrated zipper wire system that’s made from durable, Kevlar reinforced cabling. Long story short, [...]