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If you've ever flown American Airlines you likely would have seen Bose's marketing genius at work. Starting with Bose's Quiet Comfort headphones in the 1990s, First Class passengers were loaned a pair to use for the flight. This continues today with the current QC2 and QC3 models as loaners in the first class cabin. Additionally, their in flight magazine has many Bose ads. The combination of trial in-plane and good advertising has turned them into a powerhouse claiming their "Better Sound through Research" philosophy brought riches to the company. The truth is Bose products sound pretty good, have decent science behind them, but are very very expensive.

More recent innovation in the headphone industry has led to cheaper active noise canceling headphones such as those from Panasonic, Creative, and several other consumer brands. It has also led to the development of other high-end brands such as Monster Cable's Beats by Dre line of ANC (Active Noise Canceling) headphones. Still, when you get a cheaper product you are often plagued with issues regarding circuit whine which creates a high pitched annoying sound with the noise cancelation turned on, odd harmonics and unbalanced sound output, or lack of comfort. The expensive products are of course very expensive with Monster's Beats by Dre at almost $300. There really is not much in the middle of the pack in terms of cost. Below $100 and above $200 is where most of the popular products lie. That's where Able Planet's line of headphones come in.

MEElectronics is one of our favorite small companies. They make a great line of value headphones that are surprisingly good sounding. With a neutral balance and some neat features such as tunable earbuds, MEElectronics is definitely a group that's innovating like American companies used to. Their product that we most recently got our hands on are their A151 earbuds powered by balanced armature drivers. 

We have checked out every one of Ultimate Ears' universal earbuds over the course of our writing but I've only taken a close look at their Capitol Studios Reference Monitors in the custom in-ear segment. Now it's time to take a look at their flagship 6 driver UE 18 Pro custom in-ear monitors.

This was an incredible hard review to write. Upon first receiving the UE18 monitors I was less than impressed. Coming from the Sleek CT7 and Ultimate Ears Reference Monitors which are two of the best custom IEM in existence, I was hoping for crystal clear sound, deep and thundering bass, and unimpeded treble.  Thankfully, I gave the UE18s a lot of time hoping that they would open up and the sound signature would change. 

Everyone wants a powerful and crisp sounding speaker set as a complement to their computer or television, but not all of us can afford to shell out several hundred dollars.  Enter the Genius brand of speakers, a subsidiary of the Taiwan-based KYE Systems.  Genius has been a leading brand in Taiwan for a few decades, and they have recently been gaining market share in the USA.  Since my current set of 2.1 speakers were getting old (going on 7 years of hard use), Genius was kind enough to send me a set of their SW-G2.1 1250 gaming speakers to review.  As you can tell from the picture (and multiple comments I received), the speakers look really sharp.  But most importantly, how do they sound?