Monster's Diamond Tears headphones

In the latest installment of an exclusive interview with our sister publications Dealerscope and CustomRetailer, Noel Lee, the Monster chief executive known as the “Head Monster,” discusses new products for 2012.

In this interview, Lee tells Krissy Rushing about Monster’s new Diamond Tears headphones, as well as the company’s new partnership with the fashion brand Diesel.

Click here to watch the interview.

The Little Birds are lightweight on-ear headphones that are small in almost every sense. The earpieces will feel tiny on almost any adult’s ears, though they could be great for children. The headband is thin, though that doesn’t mean it’s weak. The construction of the Little Birds is all made of steel, so they’re not likely to break any time soon.

The best thing about the Little Bird headphones is that even though I’d say the size makes them great for kids, they still have great sound for the sound and price. The only downside, if you end up buying them for a kid, is that the headphones cost $59.99. But, if you have small ears or don’t mind having small headphones, these are great headphones for you.

On the low end are the Riff earbuds which come in at $19.99. They’ll come in a variety of colors with the buds made of recycled plastic, and the tips made of eco-friendly material as well, called eco-foam. The photos show colored plastic, but it’s probable that they will ship with the same braided cords that are on the current line of earbuds.

A small step above the Riff are the Lively Up earbuds that are made for athletes, and they’ll cost $29.99. They also use eco-foam tips but they’re molded to fit in your ear as you’re running or working out where you have the possibility of the earbuds falling out. The design means there’s a chance for a wider variety of colors, which is cool. Like the Riffs, the Lively Ups aren’t going to be for audiophiles by any means, but they’re good looking, presumably decent sounding earbuds that are relatively inexpensive.

Both of these earbuds are currently under development, and should be out sometime this year.

The smaller speaker is the Djembe, a single speaker that does in it’s own carrying case that includes a carabiner so you can just clip it to your bag. While it is small and requires an auxiliary connection, that doesn’t mean it’s not powered. the Djembe has an internal battery that needs to be either connected to something via USB or powered four AAA batteries. It’s a neat little speaker, and one that can just be thrown into or attached to a bag so you always have a way to share your music with friends.

The other two speakers are the Block Party and the Nomad. Both are portable Bluetooth speaker sets that can also be plugged in a used inside. The Block Party looks almost like it’s the younger sibling to the Bag of Rhythm, with a similar bag style. The difference, of course, is that the Block Party doesn’t have an Apple 30-pin connection, it only has Bluetooth and auxiliary input. It is, however, also a very powerful system for it’s size. The Block party has two 3.5-inch high-definition woofers and two 1-inch tweeters which can produce a lot of sound.

The Nomad is interesting because it can easily be mistake for an iPad bag because it has a canvas flap that covers the speakers. Between the woofers and passive radiators there’s also a pocket that will fir your mobile device so you can make sure it’s never too far from the speaker. Removing the flap will obviously give you a better sound, but the flap can be used to make sure the speakers don’t get damaged at all when you’re use the Nomad someplace outside, say while camping or at the beach.

All three speakers are set to come out sometime in 2012, with prices ranging from $59.99 for the Djembe to $249.99 for the Block Party and $199.99 for the Nomad.

The Rhythm headphones are on-ear headphones with the earpieces entirely covered in canvas so they rest on your ear without looking like they should be over your ears. The headbands are also covered in canvas so you don’t have to see any of the aluminum and steel frame. The design is different from most other headphones, which makes them really stand out among the plethora of shiny metal and plastic headphones.

The Flight are also covered in canvas, though not in its entirety. As opposed to the Rhythm these are over-the-ear headphones that are very comfortable to wear. Out of all of the House of Marley headphones, these are probably the nicest looking headphones, even including the high-end TTR headphones. They might not sound as great, but at half the price, that shouldn’t be expected.

Both the Rhythm and Flight headphones are price at $149.99, and should launch sometime in the next few months.

We mentioned the Yurbuds Inspire Pro Ironman Series sport headphones the other day and while we still need to spend some quality time with them before offering up a full review, we did take a few minutes to take some pictures and build a gallery. That being said, if you were interested in the earbuds after the previous post, here is a bit of a better look…

The design of the Amperior headphones is based on the HD 25 headphones, which are some of the most popular DJ headphones of all time. I was able to listen to them for a minute and they sounded better than a lot of headphones I’ve tried in the past. They also have some great sound isolation, which is surprising given the on-ear design.

Personally, I think Sennheiser might have a ways to go when it comes to making stylish headphones that will appeal to the mainstream. The design is nice, but not nearly as slick as many of the artist-branded headphones you’ll find at CES or your local Best Buy or Apple Store. The Amperior headphones will be available by March of this year in either blue or silver for a price of $349.95.

To be fair the HD 700 headphones will cost $999.95, but you won’t need tons of equipment to get the most out of them. At most you’d need some sort of inexpensive amplifier for you computer to use them properly. The reason for that is simply because most devices you’ll use like a laptop or an iPhone just don’t have the power to deliver the right sound.

Once you get the right stuff to work the HD 700 correctly, you’ll get a great natural sound. Unlike most headphones which put the sound right into your ears, the HD 700 earpieces have curves which makes it sound like the music is coming from in front of you as you’d expect from nice speaker set. The earpieces are also designed in such a way to let as much air flow through as possible so there’s no turbulence inside which can be an issue when you’re working with such high-end headphones.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to test the HD 700 headphones for too long on the show floor, but I will be heading back to get as much with them as I can. Then I’ll be able to speak as to just how great the headphones really are.

The Sennheiser RS 220 is the company’s new, high-end set of headphones that are wireless, but not exactly portable. The RS 220 are audiophile headphones, so they aren’t the type of headphones you’ll be wearing outside of the house. They need to be within 300 feet of the base station in order to work, with line of sight much preferred.

The RS 220 base station has a series of ports on the bottom to take audio from a range of sources. So you plug it into your stereo system or media center to listen to your music or any other sources of audio. With the optical port you could even hook it up to your Blu-ray player for some of the best stereo sound available. At a price of $599.95 the RS 220 headphones aren’t cheap, but great audio rarely, if ever is.

Read [Sennheiser]

CES has plenty of goodies being shown off, some big and some small and it seems that we have seen plenty in terms of fitness related tech this year. And of those items just so happens to be a set of earbuds. But not any set of earbuds, a pair that is designed for those who work out and work out hard. And nicely done, these headphones not only feel durable and comfortable, but they are loaded with cool features. That being said, the pair that we are referring to are from a company called yurbuds, the model is in their Ironman series and are called the Inspire Pro.

Some of the features include how they are both sweat and water resistant, provide “exceptional” sound quality, have an ultra soft comfort fit and “twist lock technology.” Anyway, the folks from yurbuds were kind enough to provide a set for us to review so you can expect more on just how well they perform at a future date. But before we go, lets comment on that twist lock technology, this was described to us as how the earbuds go into place – they actually go over (just outside) your ear and then twist into place. And from the brief time we have used them, that appears to actually work well. But again, a proper review will be coming at a future date.

Additionally, as you can see in the above image — these earbuds have inline controls and a microphone. The inline controls feature three buttons that can be used to control your music and any phone calls. The mic is also a dry-mic so you should not have to worry about excessive sweat and/or a little rain.

Lastly, for those curious, the Inspire Pro headphones are priced at $59.99 and are currently available for sale. Also worth noting, if the earbuds are not your style or you are looking for a similar set without the inline mic, yurbuds has some other options available.

Via [yurbuds]