Google's Nest Audio has been one of our favorite smart speakers since it came out almost a year ago. When compared to other $100 devices, it packs a lot of value and will be especially attractive for those who already use the Google Assistant a lot. But now you can grab the speaker for even less because Best Buy and B&H Photo have the Nest Audio for only $80. While we did see the speaker drop to $75 ahead of Amazon Prime Day back in June, this is the best price we've seen since then.

The Nest Audio is Google's answer to Amazon's Echo and Apple's HomePod mini and it holds its own against both of those devices. We like its attractive, minimalist design and you have five colors to choose from, so you'll likely find one that fits well with the rest of your home decor. It takes only a few minutes to set up the Nest Audio via the Google Home mobile app, and once that's set, you're able to ask the Google Assistant to play music from a bunch of sources like Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music and Pandora.

If the Nest Audio is your first smart speaker that costs more than $50, you'll immediately notice the difference in audio quality. It's leaps and bounds better as a music player than the Nest Mini or the Echo Dot, and it sounds even better if you have two Nest Audios playing in stereo mode. It even has Media EQ, which adapts the audio to better fit what you're listening to (like music vs. podcasts), and Ambient QI, which changes the Assistant's output so you can hear it better in louder environments.

And as with other assistant-toting devices, you'll be able to call upon the Google Assistant when you have a question that needs answering, when you want to know what the weather will be like tomorrow, when you want to turn on your smart lights and more. If you're an Android user or simply use a bunch of Google services every day, the Nest Audio is one of the best smart speakers you could add to your home that will make it easier for you to access your information at any time.

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Clubhouse revolves around drop-in audio chatrooms, so wouldn't it make sense if they sounded more like rooms? They will now, if you have the right hardware. The company is rolling outspatial audio support to the Clubhouse app for iOS, giving you and participants a more "lifelike" conversation. You might remember who's speaking based on where their voice is coming from, not just what they sound like.

The feature will "slowly" reach all new iOS users starting today, and will be the default experience (you can turn it off if you prefer). Android is "coming soon," Clubhouse said. We've asked the company if you need earbuds or headphones that explicitly support spatial audio, like the AirPods Pro or AirPods Max.

This addition probably won't make you choose Clubhouse over Facebook's Live Audio Rooms or Twitter Spaces. It may give you a reason to stick to Clubhouse, though, and it could be particularly helpful if 'flat' chatrooms feel too detached from reality.

Audio-Technica has pulled back the curtain on its latest set of budget headphones. The $59 ATH-S220BT offers a decent set of features for the price, including a battery life that offers up to 60 hours of use on a single charge, according to the company. You'll be able to add up to 3.5 hours of listening time with just 10 minutes of USB-C charging, Audio-Technica says.

The Bluetooth 5.0 headphones have 40mm drivers, which, Audio-Technica claims, deliver low-latency audio. You can also plug them in using an included 3.5mm cable, which has an in-line mic and controls.

The ATH-S220BT can connect to two Bluetooth devices simultaneously for fast switching between tasks. There's a built-in microphone, earcup controls and Google Fast Pair support for Android devices. Along with Siri and Google Assistant compatibility, there's a "voice guidance" function, which can provide info on the current battery level, pairing status and more.

Audio-Technica

Although the headphones lack higher-end features such as active noise cancellation, they seem worth a look if you're in the market for a budget set, even if the audio quality turns out to be just fine (Audio-Technica says they deliver "excellent sound quality"). They're lightweight too, at just 6.3 ounces or 180 grams.

The ATH-S220BT is available now in a number of color options. You can pick them up in black with dark-gray accents, navy with beige earpads and headband or white with a black trim.

Yamaha is releasing high-end headphones with adaptive audio tech and an eye-catching design to help them stand out in a crowded marketplace. The $499.95 YH-L700A are the latest over-ears to join the exclusive head tracking audio club. Like the Dolby Dimension before them, Yamaha says its new headphones can identify where sound is coming from and re-orientate what you hear on the fly. 

Working in tandem with the 3D audio, the tech aims to deliver an immersive experience that lets you track individual sounds. It all sounds similar to Apple's Spatial Audio or Samsung's rival 360 Audio. Yamaha's feature is called "3D Sound Field" and essentially leans upon its Cinema DSP processing to convert stereo sound into multi-channel audio.

Yamaha

Overall, the headphones tick a number of boxes. There's "advanced" active noise cancelation (ANC) that can be switched on and off. Here, the system uses an algorithm and internal mics to adaptively remove ambient noise from the playback music signal. 

Plus, there are a range of audio modes that you can enable via an accompanying mobile app, which (along with the advanced ANC) are also available on the $350 YH-E700A headphones. They include a "listening optimizer" that can adjust the sound based on how you wear the headphones; "listening care" that promises a fuller range of audio at lower volumes; and "ambient sound" that uses the mics to capture external sounds and present them in the background of your audio. Yamaha claims you'll get an ambitious 34 hours of listening time per charge, though the jury's out on whether that will withstand rigorous testing.

While they retain some features from Yamaha's other headphones, they don't look like company's prior efforts. Yamaha has switched from round to rectangular earcups that can swivel and fold. Like the headband, they're covered in a foamy fabric. The new headphones are out now at select retailers and on the Yamaha store.

Audio-Technica is giving its wireless M50x headphones a refresh after three years, and the new over-ears include some welcome upgrades that bring them into the modern era. The just-introduced ATH-M50xBT2 maintains the familiar design and 45mm drivers we liked so much, but notably adds a built-in Alexa voice assistant and multi-point Bluetooth pairing. It'll be easier to both ask for help and switch from your computer to your phone, to put it another way.

There are more functional improvements regardless of quality. A low latency mode helps with games and streamed video. Codec support has widened to include AAC, LDAC and SBC, although there's curiously no mention of AptX. The updated USB-C connection gives you three hours of listening with a 10-minute charge, although you won't be plugging in too often when Audio-Technica claims 50 hours of use.

There's still no active noise cancellation, but you do get a cable for wired listening, control over common voice assistants and Fast Pair setup on Android.

The ATH-M50xBT2 is available today for $199. That's slightly higher than the original headphones' $180, but that still makes them a bargain if you're more interested in pure sound quality than ANC or other common frills for over-ear headphones.

DTS has found a way to integrate TV speakers into a surround sound setup. The Play-Fi Home Theater system connects TVs to external speakers over WiFi. The first compatible TVs should arrive in the third quarter of 2021 (in other words, by the end of October).

The company says Play-Fi Home Theater won't require manufacturers or customers to add any additional hardware to their TVs. If you'd rather not use the TV's built-in speakers, you can still wirelessly output the center channel audio to a compatible soundbar or front speakers. The system can automatically adapt to the number of speakers you connect to the TV, and you can build out your setup with more speakers later.

The system, which builds on DTS' long-standing Play-Fi protocol, can connect several other speakers, including up to two subwoofers, for surround sound. You can also play audio from your TV elsewhere in your home if you have a multiroom setup. In addition, you can listen to audio from your TV through headphones via an app. 

The Play-Fi Home Theater approach isn't entirely new. Sony has enabled customers to use compatible TVs' built-in speakers as their surround sound setup's center channel for a while. Competition is almost always a good thing, though, and if DTS can lower the cost barrier for multi-channel audio with its system, so much the better.

It looks like HomePod and HomePod mini will soon have support for spatial audio and lossless audio via Apple Music. The HomePod 15 beta 5 includes options that enable lossless and Dolby Atmos playback.

Not all beta users will see the toggles, according to 9to5Mac. If you're running the latest iOS 15 and HomePod betas, you can check whether they're active by accessing the home options menu in the Home app, tapping your profile, then Media and Apple Music.

Earlier this year, Apple said it would bring Apple Music lossless streaming to HomePod and HomePod mini through a software update, but it didn't provide a timeline. Now, it seems the speakers will be able to stream lossless music soon (unless the option's already life for you in the beta).

Apple is expected to roll out its latest operating systems broadly within the next couple of months. When it does, you'll be able to pair a second HomePod mini to Apple TV for stereo audio.

JBL might just have a HiFi tailor-made for the emerging world of high-resolution streaming music. The newly introduced L75ms doesn't have a catchy name, but it combines a slick-looking walnut wood cabinet with a higher-end speaker system that includes both a 32-bit/192kHz DAC and modern streaming audio conveniences. While you can't really use the built-in Bluetooth for lossless sound, you can use the Ethernet and other wired connections to stream top-tier audio, including through AirPlay 2 and Chromecast.

The company even offers a 90-day Qobuz trial to help sell you on the concept.

This could be a sweet-sounding system regardless of the audio source. The L75ms includes a pair of 1-inch titanium dome tweeters with wave guides, two 5.25-inch white cone woofers and a 4-inch mid-range driver, all of them with dedicated channels for amp and DSP tuning. They sit on a "multi-angled" baffle, too. On top of the networking, you'l find a 3.5mm input, a vinyl-friendly moving magnet phono stage and ARC-capable HDMI for connecting to your TV. You can connect an external subwoofer if you need deeper, separated bass.

The L75ms won't ship until the fourth quarter of the year, and it won't be a trivial expense at $1,500. However, it's also a rare combination of high-res audio, streaming support and a relatively compact design that would look right at home in many living rooms. You might not need much else to get the most out of a premium music service.

How do you stand out as a new tech company when the dominant players have huge budgets, thousands of employees and decades of product R&D? That is Nothing’s challenge, and its first product, a pair of true wireless earbuds, makes a pitch for a simplified kind of tech, designed to stand out from the likes of Apple AirPods, Samsung Galaxy Buds and their myriad clones.

Design appears to be very important to Nothing, which has already published several blog posts dedicated to its philosophy and direction — and that’s before the company even launched anything. This is the result. The $100 Ear 1 buds feature active noise cancellation, touch controls, a wireless charging case and a particularly eye-catching see-through design, coming to the US mid-August.

This transparency — a design choice that I love — seemingly resonates with Nothing’s mission to make technology less obvious and more seamless. It makes a statement.

Engadget, Mat Smith

This styling extends to the charging case, which reminds me a lot of Apple’s old wired headphones that used to come packaged with iPhones. They also came in a half-transparent case. Nothing’s Ear 1 case is predictably more complex. The see-through shell has three indented bubbles that keep the buds in place. There’s a red dot both on the right headphone and its socket inside the charger.

Like most wireless earbuds, tiny magnets pull the buds into place, but this time they’re visible. Nothing apparently had to find suppliers to make sure its transparent design would work. The company needed glue that was either invisible or at least more aesthetically pleasing, and according to a spokesperson, these tiny, polished magnets were apparently hard to come by.

So yes, the Ear 1 is all about attention to detail. The case shuts with a satisfying thud, and the snippets of text across the hardware and even the companion app pay homage to retro technology — or perhaps computer interfaces on Alien. These feel like a tribute to see-through tech we’ve seen in the decades past. You might immediately think of those see-through Game Boys from the early ‘90s, but also Apple’s early 2000s eMac all-in-one PC, with transparent casing laid onto white and metal.

Surprisingly, the price is reasonable. These are sub-$100 earbuds, which would put them up against Beats’ latest truly wireless buds and make them cheaper than Apple’s entry-level AirPods. What do you get at this price, though?

While I haven’t had enough time to fully scrutinize sound quality, the Ear 1s sound decent, although there’s no spatial audio functionality which isn’t great for new headphones in 2021. Teenage Engineering, which worked with Nothing on these buds, was responsible for tuning the headphones. The sound is generally clear, but seems to lean toward the mid-range frequencies rather than treble and bass, though you can adjust the equalizer to ramp up either of those levels.

At this price, they predictably don’t stack up against more expensive earbuds like Sony’s WF-1000XM4 ANC buds or Apple's AirPods Pro. But, perhaps thanks to the silicone tips, they definitely sound better than the original AirPods. The Ear 1s are plenty loud, too.

Each bud weighs under five grams, making them lighter than those more expensive options, while still packing active noise cancellation — something Google’s similarly priced Pixel Buds A lack. After several months using the AirPods Pro, Nothing’s debut earbuds definitely feel more comfortable to me.

Despite the lightness, Nothing claims you should get four hours of listening with ANC on, and up to 5.7 hours (340 minutes) with ANC off. The case — which is wider but slimmer than most charging cases — can add up to a total of 34 hours of listening. There’s some fast-charge tech, too: After 10 minutes in the case you can get about another hour of listening time.

The case can be charged through USB-C or Qi wireless charging — another notable addition at this price. The earbuds are also rated IPX4 for sweat and dust resistance, so they can handle workouts that don’t involve too much rain or perspiration. There are touch controls on both buds, and you can slide your finger up and down the stem for volume control, while a single tap will play/pause and a triple tap will skip a track.

Nothing’s buds are compatible with both Android and iOS devices, and you don’t gain or lose anything depending on which mobile OS you prefer. That is, apart from fast pairing, which is coming to Android devices but isn’t yet enabled at the time of writing.

As much as I love the aesthetics of the Ear 1, my first impressions of these earbuds weren’t great. When trying to connect to my iPhone, pairing was a struggle. Once the buds were eventually connected to my phone, Nothing’s headphone app said that the fully charged case was empty — or not even detect it at all. Similar chaos ensued when I tried to shift pairing to my PC and Android phone. Bluetooth connections can be messy — this just seemed like a messier than it should be. The case itself seems to have its own Bluetooth profile, separate from the buds. That might be what makes pairing the headphones so frustrating.

Nothing’s companion app not only offers a different way to switch between noise cancellation modes, but also a way to reassign touch controls on the Ear 1. It’s a refreshing, uncomplicated app. Having wrestled with other headphone apps from Sony and the rest, though some audiophiles might find it a little restrictive.

There are four equalizer presets: balanced, more treble, more bass and voice. However, you can’t adjust the equalizer manually. The Ear 1 does offer a little more flexibility with noise cancellation with light and maximum settings you don’t often see on earbuds.

The Ear 1 has three high-definition mics for voice calls, with Nothing’s own “clear voice technology,” which utilizes algorithms that apparently help isolate and amplify your voice on calls. It should also help cut out wind noise.

I had a mixed experience with the Ear 1 for phone and video calls. With my handset, the three built-in mics coped with the noise of coffee shops and busy streets fine — in fact the people I talked to said my voice sounded particularly clear. When pairing with my Mac, however, audio quality seemed notably worse than other wireless buds and even the MacBook’s built-in mic.

The Ear 1 buds are an impressive debut device. Nothing’s first product launch is all about selling you on its cool — the company offered a limited run of hardware on StockX that seemed plainly targeted at Hypebeasts and early adopters. The design is compelling, and even the specifications are impressive at this price point. Nothing needs to improve on connectivity hiccups and sound quality if it wants to be mentioned in the same tier as Apple, Samsung and Sony, but it’s a bold start.

Nura might be a relatively new name in headphones, but the personalized-audio specialist is already revealing its third model: the Nuratrue. As the name suggests, the latest member of the family is a true wireless set (and the company’s first model without a wired option). As you might expect, Nura’s flagship automatic hearing test (for sound tailored to your hearing) is here, along with many other features the company has already made synonymous with its brand. But with a smaller form factor, are compromises inevitable?

The Nuratrue ($199/£199) is a simplified version of the Nuraphone over-ears and the Nuraloop wireless (but tethered) sports buds. As mentioned, the audio customization feature is present, as is the “ambient” mode — which Nura calls “social mode.” There’s even Active Noise Cancelling and “immersion” mode, which simulates the feeling of being at a live event. The last two are a little simplified compared to their bigger siblings, though.

The original Nuraphone’s immersion mode delivers tactile bass with transducers creating a sensation of volume and presence similar to being in front of a large speaker. On the Nuratrue, it feels more like a bass “boost” feature you might find on an equalizer. Active Noise Cancellation on the Nuratrue works pretty well, but is tied to the social mode feature which means they are activated as a pair. This makes no real functional difference, but something to bear in mind. Battery life is estimated at six hours here and seems accurate, which can be extended to around 24 hours via the charging case.

James Trew / Engadget

If you were a fan of the Nuraloop, you might have expected the Nuratrue to be broadly the same, minus the connecting cable. But you’d be wrong. The new buds barely share any visual or physical DNA with their cabled sibling. Instead the Nuratrue has a much larger, circular body which sorta looks like you’re wearing “plugs,” but in the middle of your ear. This extra size might sound like a negative, but it makes them easier to touch (for controls) and likely helps keep them wirelessly connected to each other.

That “touchability” is important, as, like most TWS earphones, it’s how you’ll interact with them — in particular, for activating things like immersion or social mode. (ANC can only be toggled via the app it seems, and as mentioned disables social mode with it). In my testing with them the touch was more responsive than most other TWS headphones I’ve tried, especially the tricky double-tap which I find often requires a few attempts to register correctly. As with all Nura headphones you can easily assign different tasks to either side for both single and double taps, making it easy to have the controls you use the most at hand (or finger, technically).

Obviously, the main selling point here is Nura’s proprietary audio personalization. The ability to create personal hearing profiles is kinda Nura’s whole thing. It’s a feature you see on other brands, too, but Nura’s is the simplest and, in my experience, the most reliable. Mostly, because it doesn’t involve any subjectivity. Just pop the buds in your ears, walk through the profile creation process in the app and the headphones do everything else. Most other similar “tests” require you to tell the app how well/if you heard something. As someone who’s done more than their fair share of hearing tests, I always start imagining phantom sounds and worry that affects my results.

James Trew / Engadget

Cool features are… cool and all, but you probably just want to know how they sound? I guess the smart answer is, that will depend on your ears. The slightly more helpful answer is that, for me, the personalized audio definitely puts the Nuratrue above most of the TWS headphones I have tried. It’s not that they have better bass or polished treble, although those would be fair statements, it’s more that they feel neutral and balanced.

Whereas “unpersonalized” buds may be technically balanced on a graph, I know that my hearing isn’t perfect and thus might be slightly worse at certain frequencies. With Nura’s personalized tuning, it’s hard to know what frequency curve I am getting, or even if that’s what my hearing really “needs” but what I do know is that I like it!

Now, I guess I should also say that I am never sure just how effective Nura’s hearing test really is. The company claims that it uses otoacoustic emissions to determine the characteristics of your hearing. The same test is sometimes used to determine cochlear hearing loss in newborns. That said, every time I’ve been to an audiologist (which is more times than I would like) I have asked them about using OAE tests for headphones, and all of them have been skeptical it can be done on hardware at this price. When I asked Nura about this, they gave the following reply:

“The OAE signal produced by a person's ears is indeed faint - much like the signals of GPS satellites are faint by the time they reach the Earth's surface. That's why GPS-enabled devices of 20-15 years ago were much larger, less accurate, and took longer to acquire a signal than today's smartphones or even smartwatches. Similar advances in signal processing have enabled the huge improvement in GPS device performance and the quick & reliable measurements of OAEs in devices as small as Nuratrue.”

In short, the company claims that advances in technology have allowed for the test to be practical in small, consumer devices.

James Trew / Engadget

Back to the physical design briefly. It might not be for everyone, but it feels very much in keeping with Nura’s apparent mission to do things a little bit differently. I’ve never really found a TWS design that I think has fully cracked it (although Jabra’s Elite 75t comes close?), and that’s true here. But, as mentioned earlier, I do appreciate the large surface area for controlling playback or activating/deactivating the extra features. Extended wear remains comfortable, and the fit works well for my ears.

If I had one minor gripe, it’d be the maximum volume. It’s not low. In fact, for me, it’s more or less ideal for comfortable, extended use. It’s just that, “comfortable” is the maximum, so when a song comes on that I really love and I decide that, heck, I can crank this one up a bit before going back to normal levels… there’s nowhere to go. Again, this might not be an issue for you. I’ll be the first to admit I probably haven’t done my ears any favors over the years, but it was something I noticed fairly quickly in my time with the Nuratrue.

In an ocean of true wireless headphones, it’s hard to stand out. But Nura’s personalized audio is certainly enough to do just that. Of all the “customizable” headphones I’ve tried, Nura’s are still the ones to beat. And with the Nuratrue priced at least $80 cheaper than the flagship models from Sony, Sennheiser and Bose, that’s just another easy way for the company to garner attention.

The Nuratrue is available starting today.