ultimate

Ultimate Ears has been a familiar name to musicians and other audio professionals for a decade, but the company has gained quite a following with its consumer line as well. Earphones in its Metro.fi, Super.fi, and Triple.fi lines range in affordability and scale nicely from discerning listeners to audiophiles. Falling in toward the middle of the bottom is the $129 Super.fi 4, a stylish, low-profile set that comes with a reasonable array of accessories. The earphones offer some of the clearest audio we've come across, but getting a secure and comfortable fit is a challenge … Read more

Donald and Jasmine discuss the very first headphone Prizefight. Also: a really cheap wearable MP3 player, more headphones for kids, and a sweet Bluetooth speaker. Listen now: Download today's podcast

Prizefight: Bose QuietComfort 3 vs. Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7

Philips GoGear SA2825

Logitech Pure-Fi Mobile

Sony MDR-22KD children's headphones

Ultimate Ears Super.fi 4

There seems to be a headphone for every purpose nowadays. You have headphones for the gym, headphones for the plane, and even earbuds that work underwater. There are also headphones made especially for the little ones in your life, although the choices are limited. Given the concerns over audio volume and hearing damage, it's not terribly surprising that headphone sets for children are few and far between. Luckily, more and more headphone manufacturers are taking advantage of volume-limiting technology to offer child-friendly models. One such company is Ultimate Ears, which has released the Loud Enough Earphones, a $40 pair … Read more

We wish the U.K.'s John Lewis would expand to the States, just so we could keep up with the department store's latest kitchen creations. Last year we were smitten by its fridge-based wine cellar, and now they've done it again.

The "Ultimate Kitchen Combo" lives up to its name as a 4-in-1 system that includes an electric oven, a steam oven, a wall-mounted coffee machine, and a 19-inch LCD TV. Perhaps most impressive of all, this Rube Goldberg-sounding mashup of appliances looks surprisingly uncluttered, resembling some sort of high-tech art gallery.

When all this … Read more

We got an e-mail Tuesday announcing that ESPN's Wi-Fi remote was going on sale just in time for Father's Day. The remote is simply called ESPN The Ultimate Remote, which shouldn't be confused with another heady remote, Logitech's The One.

While The Ultimate Remote did make an appearance at CES in January, we really hadn't heard anything about it. It looks somewhat like one of Logitech's last-generation Harmony remotes, but it's apparently made by tvCompass, "a provider of digital media solutions."

On paper anyway, ESPN The Ultimate Remote looks like a … Read more

VRX may have trumped other racing simulators with the "Triple Screen Limited Edition 001," but what about gamers who would rather take their skills to the air? The aptly named HotSeat, which is no stranger to ground racing either, has taken its efforts aloft in a big way with its latest Flight Sim Ultimate Chassis."

In addition to the panoramic view created by its three 22-inch LCDs, the chassis features six speakers, 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound, and a custom quad-core PC with 4GB of memory and a 512MB Nvidia graphics card. And Dvice says the … Read more

Jeremy Kipnis' $6 million home theater caused quite a stir back in February; so much so that he's now proposing guidelines for others to build a dream home theater for a mere 1 percent of his original price. Kipnis didn't recommend much in the way of specific brands or models of equipment, just the design goals for a $60,000 ultimate home theater.

Here's a brief rundown of what you would need to get close to the performance of Kipnis Studio Standard:

All of the speakers must be identical.

The six or seven-channel layout must be completely … Read more

If you're one of those gamers for whom a beat-up old BarcaLounger doesn't cut it, I might have just the fancy alternative for you.

If, that is, you don't blanch at the notion of forking over $300 for a chair that has little purpose other than indulging your greatest gaming needs.

I present the Renegade, the latest in the Ultimate Game Chair series.

This little beauty, which I am currently not sitting in, is a monument to everyone's inner level-70 World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade player.

What does your 300 clams buy you besides 50 pounds … Read more

I-mate may be the leading wireless device manufacturer in the Middle East, but it doesn't enjoy quite the same popularity here in the United States. However, today's announcements are sure to turn some heads here. I-mate introduced its Ultimate line of four handhelds at the fall CTIA 2007 show, which including the Ultimate 6150, 8150, 8502, and 9502. All are quad-band smartphones running Windows Mobile 6 but have varying form factors to meet people's different needs. Here's the breakdown:

I-mate Ultimate 6150: Traditional PDA-like design with a 2.8-inch, 65,000-color touch screen, integrated Bluetooth and … Read more