Gadgetory

- Hey guys, this is Austin. And today we're taking a look at my favorite headphones for 2019. Before we get started though, I've got to give a huge shoutout to the sponsor of this video. LG and the LG gram. And not only is this a great laptop to listen to music on as we will be doing here shortly. But importantly, it is also solid laptop. Which I have covered in many videos in the past. Now this is the new 14 inch version. Which is thankfully finally a two-in-one. So of course the gram has had a touchscreen for a while. But having the additional modes make a big difference. You aren't giving up performance either with a full Whiskey Lake Core i7 processor. The real star of the gram though, has always been the battery life, as well as the portability. Now with a massive 72 watt/hour battery, it easily lasts through a full day of use. And importantly because LG marketing people are clever, the gram name is not just for show. This entire laptop only weighs about a kilogram. Which in American terms, is very very light. Or like, two point something pounds. When it comes to a single laptop that does basically everything well. It is hard to go wrong with the LG gram. Headphones on the other hand, are a little bit more complicated. Now there are tons and tons and tons of different options. One of favorite picks is actually one of the cheapest on this list. The OnePlus Bullets at a massive wallet-blistering price of $20. Now don't let the OnePlus branding fool you. Even though these are, of course, made for the OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T. They've worked with every USB-C device I've tried. Including the gram, including the iPad, including Macs and pretty much anything else I've plugged it into. I've gotten that pretty solid sound out of them. Dude, the buildup is real. So the cool thing about the Bullets. Is that well, yes they're not the greatest sounding headphones in the world. They sound surprisingly solid. There's a lot of punches, a lot of bass. But you don't really lose a lot of the high-end. And importantly, you're spending 20 bucks here. I think if I was blindfolded and put these next to like a $70, $80 pair of headphones. I probably would still go with the Bullets. They are really impressive for the price. The only small issue I've run into. Is that sometimes the ear tips actually come off in my ears. But to be fair, I have been using this pair of Bullets for what, 6 months or so now? So it's gotten a little bit on the older, crustier side. But all that being said, you get the inline controls. You get the mic. And, like I said, works on pretty much anything USB-C. If you do have a phone necessarily have a headphone jack. The OnePlus Bullets are a great choice. Unless you use an iPhone. Then this next pair of headphones wasn't originally going to be in this comparison. Until Ken got me a pair for Mystery Tech. These are the Zero Audio Carbo Tenore. It's not a great name. What they are, is a great pair of headphones. So only $40. What you're gonna hear, is not only A a little bit of a better balance sound. They're also really really tiny. But importantly, they have killer isolation. I mean, once you put these things in, it totally drowns out the background noise. Like, Ken say something right now. - [Ken] Hi, how's it going? - Okay, I can hear you, nevermind. If I'm being real, I had never even heard of these headphones until Ken got them from Mystery Tech. But they have a surprisingly good sound. And then again, we're talking about $40. So we're getting a little bit up there in budget. But still, in the grand scheme of things, not too bad. The detail in these headphones, is super impressive. Right? It's not something that I usually have. Because I do usually listen to headphones a little more with the bass. But like, you just hear every little crinkle and crack and pop, and. Sounds like a Rice Krispie commercial. You hear all the music. You hear all the music. For 40 bucks, it's hard to go wrong with the Zero Audio Carbo Tenore. Carbo Tenore. Carbo Tenore. They're good headphones, just buy them. My favorite pair of in-ear headphones right now though, are the Final E4000's. Yet another Mystery Tech item. And honestly, these live in my bag every single day. Some of these other headphones I kind of bring out from time to time. Here we're talking about what I'm listening to. Not only edit on, but also just to listen to music and what-not. Usually the Final's are what exactly land inside my ear canals. That's a little too much detail. But it's fine. - [Ken] Austin. - So what I really like about these headphones, which just makes sense. Is, of course, that audio quality. So not only are they very nicely detailed. But importantly, pretty much everything sounds good, right? So you wanna listen to something a little bit more bass heavy, solid, great. It's got a very special sound there. But also it doesn't lose any of the detail on the highs. I mean, it's just a really solid all-around package. And honestly, that's a big reason why I listen to these, right? They live in my bag, I can edit on them, I can listen to music, podcast. Whatever the case is, I know I can trust the sound to be not only pleasing, but also reasonably accurate. They also do have a detachable MMCX connector. Which means that while it does come with a 3.5mm cable. You can swap it out for either a USB-C or something like Lightning. So, the main takeaway here, is if you have a little bit of a budget. These are absolutely killer for everything that you listen to. That sounds really aggressive, but it is true. I love these headphones. I seriously love them. Like, you'd have to really step it up with Mystery Tech to get me to give these up. Now these next pair of headphones, are by no means new. But they've been in my rotation for years now. These are the Grado SR80e's. And I think I did my first video on these like, back in 2015. And they're definitely a bit on the speciality side of things. Again, you're getting a very unique sound with these guys. Plus, you're getting a very cool retro style. Now with an open back design, the main downside here is also one of its main strengths. It has excellent soundstage and it does sound very very different than most closed back headphones. And even a lot of in-ear headphones. But that downside, is that everyone else is going to hear exactly what you are listening to. Lemme demonstrate. Oh no. Wait. No! It's rattling! Okay, so here's a little inside baseball. So we actually shot this video a few months ago. And due to some time constraints we actually had to reshoot it. Because some of the headphones changed. In that video, I broke my last favorite pair of headphones. The Status CB-1's. They literally just broke. They were completely fine five minutes ago. Do you see that, where it snapped? It's like a cursed video, man. It's just taken another victim. So I guess normally what I would say, is that the Grado SR80e's have that super impeccable sound. And especially if you have something like a Dragonfly. Like a really nice DAC. It will really make these things come alive. But I guess the downside, is a little actually the same downside mentioned in my very first video. They are very retro-looking headphones. But build quality is what I would say. Straight out of 1983. So you wanna go fully wireless? Well the next item I would recommend, and hopefully these don't break. Are the brand new Airpods 2. Now the original Airpods, I got a ton of use out of, right? I mean, sure they don't sound amazing. But importantly, the actual just the seamlessness of how they work. Especially back when they first came out. I mean, mind you, this is almost three years ago. Was totally game-changing. Now with the Airpods 2, it's a little bit more of a subtle upgrade, it's not really a huge difference as far as the audio side of things. But we do get some nice additions. Also, man, these pair so fast. I literally pulled that out of the case and it was already done. (case click) I mean as far as audio quality goes, these aren't any better than the original Airpods, right? And to be fair, these are the same price. So the main difference here, is that you can pick up the wireless charging case version. Which is cool, although it's like 40 extra dollars. But really the main difference with the Airpods 2. Is that they sync a little bit faster. And they have a couple of additions, like Hey Siri. But realistically, I mean, they just replace the old Airpods and they do exactly the same thing for me. So, they're just a little faster. The cool thing about these, though, is just how seamless they are. So right now I'm listening to music. If I take it out, it automatically pauses my music. I can very easily just sync one Airpod if not both at the same time. And it's all connected to my iCloud account. So between phone, Mac, iPad. Whatever the case is, everything just works super seamlessly. And that's really the key to this. The most expensive pair of headphones this round up. Are also probably the best all-arounders. These are the Sony 1000XM3's. Now this is a pair of headphones which I think a lot of people have gotten excited about. Now they're expensive, right? I mean these are what, like 300, 350 bucks? - [Ken] Yeah. - Now of course, this is a pair of Bluetooth headphones. But you can connect it over a normal 3.5mm jack. What's nice about them, is that they have kind of cool features. So they charge via USB-C, they last up to hours on a charge. And on top of that, they have straight up the best noise cancellation I've ever heard on any pair of headphones, ever. It even has some cool things, like if you hold your hand on the side, it will turn on ambient mode. Which then allow you to hear your surroundings. Pull it away, and your music cranks right back up. There's so much cool stuff here. Oh, also I should probably mention. They sound really good, which is a very important component of a $300 pair of headphones. I should've mentioned that first, I think. There's a little bit of an emphasis on the bass side of things. But they do sound pretty good. But the main thing here, is that if you're interested in something that's a little bit on the noise canceling side of the spectrum and you've got some budget for it. The 1000XM3's are totally dope. So those are my picks from my headphones of 2019. As always, links to everything including the dope LG gram will be in the description. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go waste a lot more money on buying more headphones. So I can do this video again in 2020. Or more specifically, Ken is going to go waste a bunch of more money. (laughs)