WFH & play at home both need great audio quality

By Puja Gupta 

New Delhi, June 12  It usually happens when we come across a headphone that, in the best way can only be described in one word – Ludicrous. Headphones are like people – even if youve come across many, therell still be those ones thatll leave you stumped. True story. Design, purpose, style, audio quality – who knows what the purpose of these headphones are.

Raghav Somani, Founder and CEO, Headphone Zone, gives us eight headphones that are sure to make your day if you’re looking for the bizarre

Sennheiser Surrounder

The turn of the 21st Century, the early 2000’s sure was a crazy time. Crazy inventions and designs were the norm. Out of this vortex of ingenious innovations came the bulky-looking Sennheiser Surrounder. Technically not a headphone, the idea was to provide a surround sound for gamers. We’re guessing it soon went out of fashion because…. Well look at it! You think you could game for long hours while wearing that?! Frankly, we think the Audeze Mobius is a way more capable gaming headphone. Greater surround and digitally advanced but yeah, none of the crazy design elements of the Surrounder. The very name is a dead-giveaway of its function.

The Soundsight Headphones

Probably a boon for those vloggers and the physically-adventurous influencers who love recording their activities on-the-go, the Soundsight Headphones is definitely a unique one. Claimed to be the first smart headphone that lets you record video in 1080p HD, the headphones also lets you live stream whatever it is that you wish to capture. Compatible with iOS and Android, you can even edit, add effects, trim and even apply music to captured video. Mic, camera, music and Action! – via a headphone.

Digicare Anti-Pollution Mask is Packed with Bone Conduction Headphones

An anti-pollution mask that has bone conduction technology to function as a headphone? This is probably the most apt thing for the current scenario! With looks that seem as if Scorpion and Sub-Zero (from the Mortal Kombat franchise) collaborated for this cool piece of headphone and mask! All we know is if you spot us wearing this and running around yelling “GET OVER HERE!”, kindly bring us in and check our temperature for a fever.

Human Headphones

As far as headphone names are concerned, these are one of the most literal ones we’ve come upon so far. Headphones for humans, we get it. But, what Human Headphones aims at providing is what makes it uniquely interesting. Besides essentially being an over-ear styled true wireless headphone providing great audio, you can also listen to ambient sound and amplify a particular sound you wish to pay attention to. It also claims to translate up to 11 languages in real time. Lastly, the two units clamp together to form a portable Bluetooth speaker. Pretty impressive indeed!

Fowl Play – Weird Bird Headphones

Back in 2012, two scientists – Samuel Sober of Emory University teamed up with Michael Brainard of the University of California, San Francisco – to come up with an experiment to equip birds with specially-designed headphones and check how they respond to different kinds of audio.

No Kidding! They made a detailed report, videos of actually designing headphones for birds and whatnot – you can check it out right here. Here’s a quick summary – if there’s a minor shift in the pitch, birds tend to adjust to it. If the pitch shift is major, they ignore it. Interesting isn’t it!

Now we get that we played a bit dirty by including headphones for the aviary, that too right after a product called Human Headphones. But hey! If this ain’t a unique headphone, we don’t know what is.

AKG K1000

This one is from the vault. Back in the 1980’s the Cold war wasn’t the only competition going on. Electrostatic headphones were still considered difficult to get right and Sony was trying to come up with it’s version. It comes AKG with it’s version with looks that easily split the room. Retro-cool or just weird – the looks were definitely a point of amusement. The AKG 100 can only be powered by a stereo amplifier.

A very unique feature of the headphone was that they could be swiveled, as shown on the picture. This allowed for very unique sound tuning and overall output where openness, forwardness and other elements of music could be changed to suit one’s preference.

Dolce & Gabbana’s “Napa Leather Rhinestone Headphones With Crown”

It is usually understood that the main purpose of a headphone is to be good quality sound. That’s generally what most people consider when buying one. Sure they might look for a few additional features but the sound is usually the top priority.

Right? Wrong, if you consider Dolce & Gabbana’s unique headphone. What’s interesting about this headphone was that despite being a limited edition unit costing USD 8995, it sold out right after Queen Ri Ri, aka Rihanna posted a tweet while wearing them. Simple as that. We got nothing to add to this.

Marek Cina’s ‘Listening to the Sea’ seashell Headphone:

Remember how you’d listen to the sound of the ocean or the sea by placing a seashell close to your ears?

That’s basically where the idea seems to have been born for this unique creation. Featuring ANC and lack of unnecessary wires, the Artist Marek Cina has let the seas inspire him for this creation. We don’t know how well they block out noise but this will definitely up your ranking in the hipster circles for sure.

(Puja Gupta can be contacted at puja.g@ians.in)