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Skullcandy Mix Master ($299)
Mix Master Mike is a west coast turntablist known primarily for his work with the Beastie Boys and winning the DMC World DJ Championships for three years consecutively. This type of music really isn't my cup of tea, but I do think the Beastie Boys are really good at what they do. Skullcandy's Mix Master headphone is a quite similar thing: not my cup of tea, but a really good headphone nonetheless.

The Mix Master is a full-size, around-the-ear, sealed headphone, and has a number of what I thought…

The mid-range is also very good. Just slightly lower in level than the bass, the mids have a slight warm tilt, but the balance of the whole seems very good to me. Something I…

V-MODA Crossfade M-80 ($229) and V-80 True Blood ($199)
Val Kolton, CEO of V-MODA, started the idea of fashion headphones with his company in 2004. I remember when his stuff first started showing up, and I remember thinking the whole fashion headphone schtick was pretty weird. (Well, I'm kind of a geek.) Now, some 8 years later, fashion and celebrity headphones are more the rule than the exception, and upon hearing and holding the new V-MODA Crossfade M-80 and V-80 True Blood headphones I no longer think the idea so weird.…

The goodness doesn't stop with the headphones either. The "exoskeleton" carry case is very nice! This is a clamshell case with zipper closure. The case "exoskeleton" is a fairly rigid synthetic material, pressure-molded to perfectly fit the headphones within. A red velour-like material is molded to the inside of the case, which provides some cushion for the headphones. Two pads are attached to the inside of the case with hook-and-loop, and provide elastic straps to hold down the headphone cables and accessories you might want to carry. Kolton says DJs will often strap their SD cards in…

Koss Tony Bennett Special Edition TBSE1 ($149)
Koss appears to be taking a similar route with their Tony Bennett headphone as AKG did in creating their Quincy Jones cans. Both companies are trying to tempt the Baby Boomers with older celebrities, and both have rebranded existing headphones. In Koss' case, it appears they did a little work spiffing up their DJ100 model.

The TBSE1 is a full-size, circumaural (around…

It's really all about making money ... and the price you'll have to pay for headphones.

Cast your mind back 15 years ... before the iPod. If someone told you they paid $129 for a portable CD player, you'd have thought that was pretty expensive. If they told you they paid $129 for a pair of headphones to go with it, you'd have thought they were nuts. Yet, today, we walk around with $500 iPhones in our pocket and $300 Beats Studios on our heads. In 15 years the culturally acceptable cost of your personal audio rig has…

Monster Beats by Dr. Dre
My experience with Monster and Beats by Dre headphones is that they range from mediocre to abysmal. What I don't understand is how they claim they're all about getting people to hear the sound they hear in the studio, and then they so dramatically change the equalization of the headphones. In a recent interview in Time Out Hong Kong, Jimmy Iovine is quoted as saying:

Soul by Ludacris
Earlier this year Ludacris partnered with Signeo USA, and jumped into the rapper can ring introducing three new headphones under the Soul by Ludacris brand. This was a direct frontal attack to take market share from Dre's Beats. I think they've produced some handsome headphones, and generally I found them to be slightly better than the Beats, but that really not saying much. Here's what the Soul by Ludacris website says about the underlying philosophy behind their headphones:

SMS by 50 Cent
The latest rapper to join the scene is Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson. After a deal with Sleek (a pretty good headphone maker in Florida) fell through early in 2011, Jackson decided to go it alone and started his own company: SMS Audio. He acquired fashion headphone manufacturer KonoAudio in August, and set to work developing his cans. In only four months he has produced his first two products ... very speedy indeed.

These headphone have just arrived at my lab, and I've had time only to measure them and do some comparative listening against some of the other…