Lauren Dragan

It’s Earth Day! While you may not have the chance to plant a tree today, you can take a second to do a quick check-in on your green tech savvy. Here’s a few simple ways you can give your home a tuneup. (And maybe even justify buying a few cool new things.)

Looking for a gift for that hard-to-please person? Want to give a present that says, “I know you care about excellent audio?” Is spending $55,000 no big deal to you? Then, pull out your black card, and give the gift of the newest Sennheiser Orpheus. Preferably, to me. (What? It can’t hurt to ask.)

Yup, Orpheus is back, and better than ever. After ten-years-plus in development, and countless rumors, Sennheiser finally has polished all the details from the prototypes and is ready to release Orpheus their final version early next year. I got to hear a pair while sipping some tea in a concrete loft overlooking Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park Lake. Get your favorite beverage and I’ll fill you in.

In typical rock fashion, Fender stage-dove into the headphone world last week, releasing an entire line of in-ear monitors: the brand’s first ever. Fender’s five distinct models are designed to offer something for everyone, and range in features and price from $100-$500. Once thing they all have in common, however, is that they’re all universal fit; no ear moulding required. I got to audition the FXA6, the $400 model, and to talk with the folks at Fender about the entire line, and why they think 3D printing in-ears is the way of the future.

All these years I've been reviewing headphones, and I thought the point was how they sounded. How wrong I was. Stockholm company Happy Plugs has re-educated me on the definition of earbud. According to their philosophy, headphones are "the most contemporary fashion detail of them all."