LG mentions studies that claim how earbuds can host more bacteria than a kitchen cutting board, an imagery that’s sure to send shivers down some people’s spines. To remedy that, the new LG TONE Free HBS-FN6’s “UVnano case” uses built-in UV light to kill that bacteria while the buds charge inside. Unfortunately, that UVnano case isn’t available for the lower-end HBS-FN4.

Other than the self-cleaning case, the two TONE Free TWS buds boast of the exact same features, including “Headphone Spatial Processing” or HSP technology from Meridian, promising a sound stage that simulates listening to loudspeakers. The buds don’t feature active noise cancellation but do have noise isolation thanks to the ear tips. Ambient Sound Mode, on the other hand, lets you actually listen to the world around you at the press of a button.

Both models do feature Voice Command to integrate with either Google Assistant or Apple Siri. Despite their diminutive sizes, they support touch playback controls. The buds are, however, IPX4 rated only, so you’ll want to be careful with sudden downpours or stronger splashes of water, let alone accidentally dropping them in the pool, kitchen sink or bath.

Both the HBS-FN6 and HBS-FN4 come in Stylish Black and Modern White colours. LG hasn’t yet revealed the price for these self-cleaning TONE Free earbuds with UVnano case but they are scheduled to become available in South Africa in either August or September. Fingers crossed.

The headphones were introduced to us in an intimate setting at the Core Group’s offices (the official distributors and retails of nuraphones in South Africa) late last year. Since then, we’ve been hooked on our sets and travel with them everywhere. Attachments aside, we had to delve deeper in this review to find out whether the nuraphone G2 live up to the company’s own high standards, and of course, of our readers? We prick up our ears to find out.

First Impressions Count

They say don’t judge a book by its cover and that is especially true with Australian company nura’s crowdfunding success, the nuraphone. On the outside, it looks like any other large over-the-ear Bluetooth headphones but look inside and you’ll see something almost literally out of this world.

The nuraphone feels as solid as it looks. The steel headband has just enough spring to it without fearing it’ll bounce off your head. The silicone rubber ear cups comfortably clings to the area around your ear, which forms the headphone’s passive noise cancellation barrier.

It is, however, as heavy as it is solid. At 329 g, it is on the heavier side even compared to its over-the-ear peers. It’s not uncomfortably heavy, mind you, at least not immediately. Given its heft and the rather unconventional design, you might find yourself wanting to give your ears and head a rest after a few solid hours of use.

The Technology

The nuraphone’s most important design, however, and the part that physically makes its most important feature possible, is what nura calls “inova”. That’s short for “in and over architecture” and it accurately describes the way the headphones combine both over-the-ear cups and in-ear buds in one, creating the out of this world mushroom-like design inside the cups.

The buds hang inside your ear canal but don’t anchor in it as most earbuds do. Instead, they hang from the cups and are almost suspended in the air inside the canal (unless you have a small opening). That means they can jiggle a bit and might get a bit of getting used to, which may add to the slight discomfort from prolonged use.

The design isn’t just for show though. The nuraphone utilizes two audio drivers, 15 mm for the in-ear buds and 40 mm for the over-the-ear cups. Each part delivers different audio ranges as well. The buds deliver the mids and highs while the cups take care of the bass. Specifically, the latter does so through tactile vibrations that “transmit” the audio through your skin rather than directly into your ear. This separation of duties plays an important role in the nuraphone G2’s most important feature: active noise cancellation.

But before we get to the features that most excite us, we have to first talk about what makes the nuraphone really special. And no, it’s not just the design, though that plays an important part. The nuraphone’s special sauce is its personalised audio profiles fine-tuned to your unique ear traits and hearing capabilities.

Many headphones and audio equipment promise such personalise profiles but nura takes that promise to a whole new, automated, and scientific level. It uses the same otoacoustic emission principles used in hearing tests for infants to form that audio profile. In a nutshell, our ears reflect a small amount of sound back out through the canal and those audio signals can be used to determine your particular hearing capabilities. The nuraphone has very sensitive mics inside that listen to this “echo” to develop your profile.

This isn’t completely new, though, as some hearing aids and headphones do offer personalised hearing profiles. The key difference to nura’s proposition is that it does it all for you. When you set up a hearing profile, the mobile app will play some audio samples to listen for those reflected sound waves. All you need to do is to put on the headphones properly (it will tell you if it detects your ears aren’t properly sealed) and it will do all the rest on its own. No answering questions or turning sliders.

The test takes at most two minutes and you can have three unique profiles at a time. You can switch between profiles any time but that requires doing it on the mobile app. You should try to do the hearing test in a quiet room and make sure you don’t have a cold or any other illness, as it will produce a completely different profile because of how those affect the flow of sound in your ear. That said, it does mean that, even if you’re sick, you can still get a highly personalised and accurate hearing experience tuned for your condition at the time. Just remember to switch back to a “normal” profile when you get well.

On another note, it’s harder to review headphones with personalised audio profiles exactly because those can vary from person to person. Comparing them with generic headphones would be unfair and turning off the profiles on the nuraphone G2 produces one of the flattest and least convincing results that doesn’t do a sub R7000 headphone any justice. In fact, it would be insulting.

The most glowing appraisal of the nuraphone G2 would have to be that it delivers exactly as promised. It creates a hearing profile fine-tuned to your acoustic sensibilities that won’t work with someone else’s (you can let them create their own profile to test it, though). But when the profile is in use, the effects are breath-taking. Vocals and instruments are crisp and clear. Mids and bass are solid and literally palpable. And thanks to the dual drivers, the two don’t drown out each other.

In addition to keeping audio ranges separate, the second, over-the-ear driver also has some special tricks. Nura calls it “Immersion Mode” and it lets you experience what it would be like to be at the front of the crowd, like in a concert. It does so by cranking up the bass using an actuator in the cups. Considering how sound is there delivered through the cups, you literally feel the music on your skin. It’s a double-edged sword. It works as advertised but it does also increase the vibrations you’ll feel. For almost all cases, turning it off or even just at half intensity was good enough.

None Of The Noise

The duality of the nuraphone G2’s “inova” feature also comes into play in the latest firmware update.

Most ANC implementations cancel out low-frequency noise by applying an opposing wave. While effective, this method tends to produce a high-frequency “hiss” as a side effect. The nuraphone’s implementation, however, is different. It simply doesn’t deliver the low-frequency noise to your ear, thanks to the fact that it never delivers low-frequency ranges to your ear in the first place. The result is a different kind of ANC that’s a bit milder than the competition, but still works well enough. The passive noise canceling produced by the earbuds and cups also do a good job at blocking out higher frequency sound.

The major G2 update also introduced a new feature that could be seen as the anti-thesis of active noise cancellation. Nura calls it “Social Mode” and it lets sound in instead of blocking them out. More specifically, it uses the headphone’s mics to allow voice to pass through uninhibited and lowers the audio volume automatically. As you can probably guess, it’s meant to be used for making conversations less painful. In practice, however, it isn’t as impressive as the ANC implementation and the volume doesn’t go low enough to hear words clearly. You might be better off taking off the nuraphone in the process. Fortunately, it’s smart enough to pause the music when you do.

The nuraphone G2’s design is pretty minimal. It has no buttons and doesn’t even have any lighting. The latter is perhaps one of its biggest design flaws, with no immediately clear way to see how much battery you have left or if it’s on or not. Not that you’d have to worry about the nuraphone’s battery life as it can go on and on. It promises 20 hours of continuous use and you’re unlikely to use it that long for your own comfort. In other words, it goes on and on and on.

What the headphones have in lieu of buttons and indicators are touch-sensitive surfaces and motion sensors. Much like the Samsung Galaxy Buds. Take off the nuraphone and it will pause playback. Put them back on and you will be greeted and informed about the current battery level, which is the only way you’d know without looking at your phone. The problem with such automated features is that they can sometimes fail. For example, the nuraphone might mistakenly interpret hanging around your neck as being on your head.

Of course, you could also just tap on either of the two flat circles on each ear cup. These are touch-sensitive surfaces that can be assigned any control, including Immersion Mode, Social Mode, and, with the latest G2 update, volume up or down. Sadly, their vocabulary is limited to single and double taps for a total of only four actions.

At R6999, the nuraphone G2 isn’t exactly wallet-friendly and there might be more affordable alternatives that offer some features with a bit of compromise. The R5499 Beats Studio 3 Wireless Over Ear Headphones is still widely regarded for its ANC capabilities and there are even cheaper headphones with “good enough” performance to satisfy some audiophiles.

But “good enough” isn’t “great”. The nuraphone G2, fortunately, delivers on everything it promises so it isn’t exactly wasted money. You’d be hard-pressed to find headphones that offer such accurate hearing profiles that need neither your input nor that of a professional to create. And you’d be even more hard-pressed to find a company that is willing and able to deliver software updates that completely change the gaming, making you feel like you bought an upgraded pair, all for the price of free.

The nuraphone G2 headphones are available from your nearest iStore for R6999.

Marshall certainly has the fact that it’s been waist deep in the music industry for 55 years going for it, but can these Monitor headphones stand out in a sea of other high-end sets? From a design standpoint, Marshall certainly seems to have things on lock. The images Marshall has shared show off an aesthetic reminiscent of the company’s amplifiers, and you could certainly do worse if you were looking for a snazzy pair of headphones. These also have the distinction of being the first over-the-ear headphones Marshall has ever produced.

Marshall has outfitted this set of Monitors with Blutooth aptX, which it says will offer a higher bitrate for better listening. Beyond that, Bluetooth aptX should also do something to combat desyncing issues between audio and video while granting the headphones a 9m wireless range.

What’s particularly impressive, though, is Marshall’s claim that these headphones will last “30+ hours” on a single charge. Your mileage will likely vary, but if real-world times come in anywhere close to 30 hours, that will be a great thing indeed. When they do eventually need more juice, you’ll recharge them through microUSB, though you can also use the 3.5mm jack to turn them into a pair of wired headphones.

So, it would seem that Marshall has crafted a pretty decent pair of headphones with its Bluetooth Monitors. If you’d like to try a pair for yourself, you can pick them up from Marshall’s website starting today. Get ready to plop down some cash, though, because these headphones will set you back R3200.

The level range consists of appropriately-named options for over-ear, on-ear, in-ear and Bluetooth speaker listening. I had my share of fun with the Level On-ears’. While mostly plastic, these cans do have some nice faux-leather ear cups and a nicely finished headband and wear comfortably. There are some silver accents, too. In fact, I’d argue this keeps up the premium appearance a lot better than some of Samsung’s other devices, which, rightly or wrongly, have earned a reputation for feeling chintzy. That’s not the case here, though.

The Level On has the usual bulkiness you’d expect from wired over-ears, but once I got used to the weight (my usual pair isn’t nearly as light), they’re actually quite comfy. They don’t feel like they’re pinching my head, and the ear cups and headband are both nicely padded. What about the audio? Well, I actually prefer the Level On than to my sponsored Beats (I’m hiding). There’s no escaping the fact that Samsung is positioning the Level Ons directly against the Beats Solos — both headphones are on-ears, with similar sized earscups, both are made largely from plastic with a rubber padded underside to the headband, and both models fold up for easy storage. The Level On headphones, while a bit far from the best I’ve heard, provide clear tones and are capable of a blistering volume (if you can handle it) without distorting when plugged in. Those who scoff at Beats’ bass-heavy tuning will find solace here, but I tend to prefer a bit more bump than the Ons have to offer. Treble and the mid-range are instead favored, and it’s particularly noticeable when streaming hip-hop tracks, like the last Kendrick Lamar LP, for example. Even better when you have AKA’s Run Jozi on repeat.

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They’re not a set of headphones that will turn heads when walking down the street — the Beats logo on the side of the Solo 2s at least attempt to add some cred. The white model – which I had for review – with its two-tone effect, has more going for it. The cord is removable — meaning it can safely pop out of the headphones themselves when you inevitably get it caught on a door handle — and features an inline remote, with media controls. Annoyingly, the controls are designed to work mainly with Galaxy phones, and will only work to an extent with other Android phones.

Pairing the headphones with a MacBook Air, iPhone 5s and Moto X didn’t produce a max volume that I’d think some would favor — it’s somewhere close to the middle when the unit is plugged in. The black plastic design of the Samsung Level On headphones may be rather plain, but they’re inconspicuous and the folding mechanism makes them easy to pop into a bag. Fans of electro and rock are sufficiently catered for in their sound quality, although audio purists won’t be too keen on the muddy low end or the lack of clarity and sparkle in the high end.

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The total lack of iPhone support kills the Level On headphones’ appeal for non-Android users, and they need to be quite a bit cheaper for their uninspiring audio quality to be acceptable. With so many other great on-ear headphones in the same price range — such as the superb Beat Solo2, to name just one — the Samsung Level Ons are tough to recommend to anyone but die-hard Galaxy fanatics. After about a day and a half, I was looking.

The Level Ons retail for R1800 at DionWored