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I really wanted to hate the $2,000 earbuds I tried at CES

Look, anyone who is saying they're going to start selling a pair of $2,000 studio monitor-quality in-ear headphones had better show up with the receipts.

He was wondering why, through his in-ear monitors, he had such great-quality music in his ears when he was onstage, but why no consumer product was reaching these levels of audio quality,” van Els told TechCrunch in an interview at CES 2024. My disbelief held until the team offered me a demo, starting with the experience of opening up the magnetic charging case — it unfolds like a Transformer, which turns on a light on the top of the device and boots up the circuits in the headphones. The earbuds feature four high-end balanced armature drivers per ear, produced by Knowles, for what the company refers to as a “concert-like sound.” Of course, the earphones do still rely on Bluetooth technology (5.2 to be exact), which introduces enough latency that they might not be perfectly suitable in live concert settings.

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