July 2nd, 2007
Video: iPhone plug-compatible headphones featured in Altec Lansing's new Upgrader line
Last week, while at Digital Experience in NYC, my multimedia wingman Matt Conner (operating the video camera) suddenly realized he was without headphones. Normally, this might not be a problem. But it was so noisy in the Metropolitan Pavilion (where Digital Experience took place) that he couldn’t hear a thing (and he didn’t trust the visual levels on our camera). Fortunately, Altec Lansing (a division of Plantronics was in the building) and we were lucky enough to kill two birds with one stone. We went over to their exhibit and not only did we locate some headphones to tide us over (see Matt wearing them, right), we found out that Altec Lansing is releasing an entire lineup of new headgear called the Upgrader Line.
The Upgrader Line basically has something for every type of use case. For example, if you’re a business traveler that appreciates the benefits of noise cancellation when flying or in noisy environments, Altec Lansing has some new headphones for you. In the video above, you can see Altec Lansing marketing manager Patrick Beck showing those off (I may have missed it, but they don’t look like they fold up nicely though the way Bose’s Quiet Comfort 2’s and 3’s do).
Also in the lineup are headphones designed specifically to work with the non-standard audio jack found on Apple’s iPhone (the headphones come with a microphone for phone usage built right into the wire hanging out of one ear cup). Also in the lineup are a variety of in-ear, over-the-ear, and over-the-head designs, some of which, according to Beck, inspired by the latest designs in eyewear. One of those was the set of headphones that Matt tried. As you can see in the video, it has a titanium band that’s lightweight and doesn’t lose its shape after being bent. Even though they got him through the night though, Matt’s ultimate opinion was that they weren’t that comfortable on his head.
The lineup is so new that not all of the headphones can be seen yet on Altec Lansing’s Web site. According to Beck, they’ll eventually have an online selector wheel (like the one shown in the video) so that buyer’s can easily identify which of the headphones best suits their usage case.
