earphone display

Say what you like about Sony's sound products, you can't deny that they've had some pretty firsts in the headphones arena, like creating the world's first in-ear headphones (in 1982, mind you), the world's first 5.1 digital surround headphones and the first ever digital noise-cancelling headphones. And this month beats by dr dre, their latest line of in-ear headphones - the XBA series, featuring 11 models - have finally come to our shore. There are four "regular" models for your music players, four smartphone versions beats headphones, a Bluetooth version, a noise-cancelling version and a "sporty" model. Using balanced armatures instead of their familiar dynamic drivers, the folks at Sony said that this would be the start of a new direction that the company would be taking.

When we visited their showroom in Tokyo some months ago - where we got a chance to try out all the models - two models stood out for me. The first was the XBA-3. Powered by three balanced armatures (one tweeter Dr Dre Beats, one "full range", and one woofer), the XBA-3 really did live up to the brochure's claim that it would provide a "rich expression through all frequencies". Every little nuance across the frequencies was richly detailed Dre Beats, which was really great for someone who, like me, likes to pick apart the different musical components of a song. (The XBA-4 contains an added "super woofer" armature Beats By Dre, although I felt that was a little unneccesary, because really, do we need that in headphones?)

Unfortunately, the XBA-3 was the first one I tried, which meant that when I heard the base model, the XBA-1, which features only one balanced armature, for "full range", it made the music sound a little thin.

Another model that caught my eye was the sporty XBA-S65, meant for those who like to listen to their music while they workout. It has a few things going for it. One, it has an adjustable strap that ensures the in-ear headphones stay in the ear, no matter what type of ear shape you have, and no matter what activity you engage in. I jumped, jogged on the spot, shook my head and those babies were snug as a bug. I've always had problems with in-ear headphones because my ears are of different shapes, so that's a boon. Also, it's doesn't have those annoying, stiff clips that always dig into the back of your ear, which means you can actually wear this for long periods of time.

Another cool factor: It's washable and waterproof (we tested it by dropping it into a bowl of water) so even if you're sweating buckets, you won't have to worry about moisture affecting the internal electronics.

The downside is that the setup is the same as the XBA-1, but I did ask Sony if they were going to release a version that blended the functionality of the XBA-S65 with the internal make-up of the XBA-3. Sony's reply: "We can't tell you for sure, but we also appreciate all feedback."

Ah, well, we all can dream, right?

The XBA range starts from S$109 for the XBA-1.