Bon Iver, Gracie Abrams, and the National’s Aaron Dessner have released a new song, “Sold Out,” to benefit the gun violence prevention organization Everytown. Though Justin Vernon has often collaborated with Dessner, and Abrams and Dessner are ongoing songwriting partners—not to mention that Abrams has covered Bon Iver’s “Beach Baby”—“Sold Out” is the first formal collaboration between Vernon and Abrams. Head to Bandcamp to buy the song, which has not been made available to stream.
The three artists said in a joint statement that they made “Sold Out” last year in the wake of a school shooting. “We were reminded of it this week as our hearts were broken yet again,” they wrote, apparently referring to the Brown University shooting. “It’s a sad one to share during the holidays, but the world is hurting and we shouldn’t look away. We are proud to support Everytown, an organization dedicated to ending gun violence in America. We are releasing this song to raise awareness of their mission of reducing gun violence. Please visit their website for more information on the unbelievable work they do. Sending so much love to you all.”
“That’s his living room,” Nelson’s lighting director, Budrock Prewitt, told me on the road to Camden. He meant the stage—specifically, a twelve-by-thirty-two-foot maroon rug that Nelson’s crew rolls out at each venue before putting every instrument, amp, and monitor in the same spot as always. Whenever Nelson needs to replace the bus, a company that he’s been working with for decades re-creates the same interior in the next one, as precisely as possible. And Nelson keeps his buses leased year-round, whether they’re in use or not. “They park up and wait for us to come back,” his production manager, Alex Blagg, told me. “My bunk is my bunk.”
“We only go skating because we’re too embarrassed to wear our Christmas sweaters on land.”
Cartoon by Victoria Roberts
Nelson’s band does not have its own name. On ticket stubs and marquees, they’re simply Family, as in “Willie Nelson and Family.” For fifty years, Nelson’s sister Bobbie anchored the group from behind a grand piano. She and Willie had a pact: they’d play to the end of the road. When Nelson’s drummer, Paul English, died, he was replaced by his brother, Billy. Jody Payne was Nelson’s longtime guitar player; now his son Waylon plays in the band. Bee Spears started on bass at nineteen and stayed until his death, at sixty-two. Mickey Raphael, who joined the band at twenty-one, is now seventy-four.
Nelson’s road crew is family, too. His tour manager, John Selman, is the son of Wally Selman, who ran the Texas Opry House; he was hired twenty years ago, straight out of college. Prewitt and Larry Gorham, a Hells Angel who handles security, have been with Nelson since the seventies. So has Nelson’s manager, Mark Rothbaum. Rothbaum’s parents fled Poland in 1937; his mother died when he was thirteen. He stopped caring about school. “I was just fucking angry,” Rothbaum told me. He got a job with a business manager in Manhattan. One day, he saw Nelson behind a glass partition at his office, on West Fifty-seventh Street. “He looked like Jesus Christ,” Rothbaum recalled. “He was glowing.” Rothbaum worked his way into the circle. “I adopted them. But I had to do it. I had to become useful.” He and Nelson have never had a contract. “You couldn’t put a piece of paper between us,” he says.
Family members call this Willie World, and it, too, is elastic. When the steel player Jimmy Day drank his way out of it, Nelson didn’t replace him. The steel parts simply disappeared. When Spears went on tour with Guy Clark, Nelson brought in Chris Ethridge, of the Flying Burrito Brothers, to play bass—and, when Spears called and asked to come home, Nelson welcomed him back and kept Ethridge on. For a while, he toured with two bassists and two drummers: a full-tilt-boogie band captured on “Willie and Family Live,” from 1978. At around the same time, Leon Russell joined them on piano, bringing along his saxophone player and the great Nigerian percussionist Ambrose Campbell. When Grady Martin, the top session player in Nashville, retired from studio recording, he went on the road, too, upping the number of people onstage to eleven. “Willie ran a refugee camp, to some extent,” Steve Earle told me.
Bee Spears died in 2011, Jody Payne in 2013, Paul English in 2020, and Bobbie Nelson in 2022. “The biggest change was Sister Bobbie,” Kevin Smith, who now plays bass, told me. Bobbie outlined the chord structure of every song. After her death, Smith was shocked at how little sound there was onstage. These days, Nelson and Raphael take all the solos. Sets are shorter. Lukas sits in when he’s not out touring on his own; his brother Micah, who plays guitar with Neil Young, joins when he can. But Nelson’s sound has been stripped to its essence. “It’s more like spoken word now,” Raphael said. “Like poetry with a rhythm section.”
Nelson goes from number to number with almost no patter—an approach he learned from the great Texas bandleader Bob Wills, who kept audiences on the dance floor for hours. In Camden, he got through twenty-four songs in sixty-five minutes, pausing only to wipe his brow with a washcloth or to sip from a Willie’s Remedy mug full of warm tea. The set didn’t feel hurried—on “Funny How Time Slips Away,” Nelson gave the song’s ironies and regrets space to sink in—but the crew kept an eye on the clock. After Camden and Holmdel, Nelson was scheduled to play Maryland, Indiana, Wisconsin, and, finally, Farm Aid, at the University of Minnesota: six shows in eight days at the end of eight months on the road. “He just keeps going and going,” Annie said. “He’s Benjamin Buttoning me.”
I ran into Annie in Camden, doing her laundry backstage by the catering station. She and Nelson met in the eighties, on the set of a remake of “Stagecoach.” Annie is two decades younger than Willie. She is sharp, protective, and unflappable, with a wide smile and long, curly hair that she has allowed to go gray. She told me that the build-out for Farm Aid was supposed to have started that day in Minneapolis. CNN was planning a live telecast. But Teamsters Local 320—made up of custodians, groundskeepers, and food-service workers at the university—had chosen that moment to go on strike. Members of IATSE, the stagehands’ union, would not cross the picket line, and neither would Nelson. Cancelling the concert, though, would break faith with the people Farm Aid was meant to serve. “It’s not great for us,” Annie said. “But who really suffers? The farmers. This year of all years.”
All founders have an origin story involving some intractable problem that they simply could not accept. For Rodgers, it was paper. Her mother was a matrimonial attorney, and Rodgers, as part of her childhood chores, organized stacks and stacks of financial-disclosure documents, including for couples getting prenups. There had to be a better way, she would later say. While attending Suffolk University Law School, she took a class called Lawyers and Smart Machines, on how to automate certain legal processes. “They taught us coding, which I did not excel in,” she admitted. That’s where Jaffe, an engineer, later came in, though the two eventually had their own split. (Rodgers preferred not to go into detail.)
Rodgers began developing her platform a few years after graduating from law school, just before her own wedding, to another lawyer. “We were the first couple to use HelloPrenup,” she said. “We were the test case.” She and her husband had met on Match.com—“old school,” she noted—and got married in 2019, in Newport, Rhode Island, at the picturesque Castle Hill Inn, overlooking Narragansett Bay. “Oh, my God, I had the best wedding. I had the best wedding,” she said.
Surveying the scene at Sadelle’s, we guessed where Affleck and Lopez might have sat. “It’s so crowded,” Rodgers observed. “Maybe in the back somewhere.” We started discussing the end of her own marriage. She and her husband had a baby in 2020, and the onset of the pandemic left them without family help. “He’s a patent litigator. He was very busy. I was working as an attorney, plus trying to build this business,” she said. “It was just, like, pressure on pressure on pressure.” They divorced in 2022.
But the COVID lockdown also primed HelloPrenup for success. No one wanted to visit a lawyer’s office. “Everything was becoming digitized in a really rapid way,” Rodgers said. By early 2021, roughly two and a half million women had left the labor force, in what became known as a she-cession. An article on HelloPrenup’s site sounded off: “Who was expected to stay home, watch the kids, become a pseudo-teacher, take care of household responsibilities and manage to still be at their work-from-home desk eight hours a day? Women.” Amid the ashes of girlboss feminism, Rodgers saw opportunity. “Prenups can solve for the motherhood penalty, because you can have an equalization clause,” she told me, explaining that a greater share of assets could compensate for a stay-at-home parent’s lost earning potential.
Rodgers refers to prenups as “the modern vow,” as they can govern finances and other major life decisions during marriage. Couples today want those choices to be made in the spirit of equality and backed by a contract. “They ask, ‘Are our in-laws going to move in? Are we going to buy a house or do the FIRE method and travel the world?’ ” FIRE is a life style popular with millennials and Gen Z marked by extreme saving and aggressive investment; it stands for “Financial Independence, Retire Early.” An elder millennial, I had to look it up.
In February of 1990, it was reported that Donald and Ivana Trump were divorcing, after thirteen years of marriage. The news dominated the headlines. “They ran it before the story out of South Africa,” one outraged New Yorker told a local TV crew, referring to the release of Nelson Mandela from prison that week. People immediately began speculating about the spoils. “It’s not just a marriage on the line. It’s Donald Trump’s reputation as a dealmaker,” the journalist Richard Roth declared on CBS News. The couple had a prenup—and three “postnups”—allegedly granting Ivana around twenty million dollars, a fraction of Trump’s purported five-billion-dollar fortune. “IVANA BETTER DEAL,” read the cover of the Daily News. In a skit on “Saturday Night Live,” Jan Hooks, playing Ivana, balks at the prenup: “That contract is invalid. You have a mistress, Donald.” (There were rumors that Trump had been unfaithful with a Southern beauty queen named Marla Maples.) Phil Hartman, playing Trump, flips through the pages of the contract before saying, “According to Section 5, Paragraph 2, I’m allowed to have mistresses provided they are younger than you.”
The prenup largely held. Ivana got a measly fourteen million, a mansion in Greenwich, an apartment in Trump Plaza, and the use of Mar-a-Lago for one month a year. But it was understandable that the public thought that Trump’s entire empire might be at stake. In the eighties, prenups were usually in the news for getting tossed out. In 1990, Vanity Fair reported that Steven Spielberg was ordered to pay his ex-wife, the actress Amy Irving, a hundred million dollars after a judge voided their prenup, which had allegedly been scrawled on a scrap of paper. (Irving conveyed through a representative that “there was no prenup ever even discussed.”)
Sometimes the axon highways almost seem to pave themselves. My daughter, Laura, began to read all of a sudden, the summer before kindergarten. (“It’s hard to believe that ‘knock’ starts with ‘k,’ ” she said, while following along as I read her a bedtime story about Amanda Pig.) But even she didn’t become a reader entirely on her own. All children have to learn the relationships between letters and meaningful sounds. For some it’s harder than for others. “Maybe instead of four lanes you have two,” Gaab said, “or instead of a smooth surface you have a bumpy one.” Caroline had a large vocabulary, and she was read to as often as Laura was, both at home and at school, and there were just as many colorful plastic alphabet magnets stuck to the refrigerator in her kitchen. But she needed teachers who understood that literacy doesn’t happen naturally, especially for children with dyslexia.
A decade ago, Emily Hanford, a senior correspondent at American Public Media, was researching a story about college-level remedial-reading classes. She became interested in dyslexia and then in literacy generally, and in 2022 she produced an immensely influential podcast series, “Sold a Story,” about reading instruction in American schools. The central argument is that teachers all over the country employ instructional methods and materials that were proved, long ago, to be not just ineffective but counterproductive. Such methods, Hanford demonstrated, are based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how children learn to read. They direct beginning readers to look for hints in illustrations and to make deductions based on context, word length, plot, and other cues, with only incidental reliance on the sounds represented by letters. The idea is that, as children become adept at deduction, the mechanical side will, in effect, take care of itself.
Skilled reading has many elements. A popular metaphor is the “reading rope,” created by the psychologist Hollis Scarborough in 2001. It depicts eight “strands,” which readers weave together as they become proficient. The strands include not just an understanding of the sounds represented by letters and combinations of letters but also such elements of language comprehension as vocabulary, grammar, reasoning, and background knowledge. All the strands are necessary. In Hanford’s view, the ones related to word recognition, including phonological awareness and decoding, have often been neglected. That harms many students and is a disaster for children with dyslexia.
Antipathy to phonetic decoding is sometimes traced to the nineteenth-century American educator Horace Mann, who described the letters of the alphabet as “skeleton-shaped, bloodless, ghostly apparitions” and argued in favor of teaching children to recognize words as discrete units. A later, more powerful influence was Marie Clay, a teacher and researcher in New Zealand, who studied schoolchildren learning to read and concluded, in the nineteen-sixties, that understanding the relationships between letters and sounds wasn’t essential. Hanford, in the second episode of “Sold a Story,” says, “Her basic idea was that good readers are good problem solvers. They’re like detectives, searching for clues.” The best clues, Clay reasoned, were things like context and sentence structure. Frank Smith, a British psycholinguist, came to the same conclusion. He argued that, to a good reader, a printed word was like an ideogram. “The worst readers are those who try to sound out unfamiliar words according to the rules of phonics,” he wrote, in 1992.
There have always been opposing voices. In 1955, Rudolf Flesch published “Why Johnny Can’t Read,” a brutal indictment of “whole word” methods. “If they had their way, our teachers would never tell the children that there are letters and that each letter represents a sound,” Flesch writes. To illustrate the problem, he recounts a story, told by a literacy researcher, about a boy who could read the word “children” on a flash card but not in a book. (The boy explained that he recognized the flash card because someone had smudged it.) Flesch’s book spent months on best-seller lists, but teaching methods like the ones he had seemingly destroyed remained widely used.
“We’re only walking to the other end of the cage.”
Cartoon by Lynn Hsu
Today, two of the most popular reading-instruction programs are Units of Study, whose principal author is Lucy Calkins, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College, and Fountas & Pinnell Classroom, by Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell. Both are traceable to the work of people like Clay and Smith, and both are sold by the same educational publisher. They have remained entrenched in school systems even though scientific studies have shown that their theoretical foundations are flawed. Technology that allows researchers to track the eye movements of people as they read has demonstrated, for instance, that good readers actually do decode words by looking closely, if quickly, at letters and combinations of letters. Dehaene writes that “ ‘eight’ and ‘EIGHT,’ which are composed of distinct visual features, are initially encoded by different neurons in the primary visual area, but are progressively recoded until they become virtually indistinguishable.” If fluent readers are able to read familiar words in a way that makes it seem as though they’re recognizing ideograms, it’s because they analyzed them phonetically during earlier encounters, prompting their brains to create permanent neural pathways linking spelling, sound, and meaning.
A jury on Thursday found Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan guilty of a federal felony charge that she obstructed or impeded a proceeding before a U.S. department or agency, while acquitting her on a misdemeanor count tied to concealing an individual from discovery and arrest. Her defense team released this statement shortly after the verdict was read: “While we are disappointed in today’s outcome, the failure of the prosecution to secure convictions on both counts demonstrates the opportunity we have to clear Judge Dugan’s name and show she did nothing wrong in this matter. We have planned for this potential outcome and our defense of Judge Dugan is just beginning. This trial required considerable resources to prepare for and public support for Judge Dugan’s defense fund is critical as we prepare for the next phase of this defense.” The judge did not set a sentencing date. The defense plans to fight the conviction. The maximum penalty would be five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.Watch: Defense attorney Steve Biskupic’s post-verdict reaction:On the prosecution side, interim U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel asked that people keep politics out of the case and the verdict. He said this was not the government trying to make an example of Dugan, but was instead a serious matter they felt necessary to pursue.Watch: Interim U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel delivers remarks after Dugan verdictProsecutors filed the charges after an April 2025 courthouse encounter involving federal agents and a defendant, in Dugan’s court on a state criminal charge, a man they were seeking to arrest. The verdict followed a week of testimony and evidence centered on what jurors heard and saw from April 18, when federal agents came to the sixth floor of the Milwaukee County Courthouse with a warrant to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz.In opening statements Monday, prosecutors told jurors that Dugan “knew what she did was wrong” and argued arrests in the courthouse are “standard and routine.”The defense challenged the interpretation of events and questioned witnesses about courthouse practices, confusion over the courthouse policy for interactions with federal immigration officials. What prosecutors allegedJurors were shown surveillance video and listened to audio from inside Dugan’s courtroom, with prosecutors walking through the sequence in detail.Prosecutors pointed jurors to:Hallway surveillance video showing Dugan confronting federal agents outside her courtroom; there was no audio on the hallway video.Audio from inside the courtroom, played alongside a transcript for jurors to follow, including a moment in which Dugan’s clerk is heard saying, “We have 5 ICE guys in the hallway.”Prosecutors’ interpretation of courtroom audio, including that Dugan called Flores-Ruiz’s case out of order and told his attorney to take him out and return for a rescheduled date, which prosecutors argued was intended to get him out of the area.Evidence and testimony jurors heardThe government’s first witness included FBI Special Agent Jeffrey Baker, who testified about his actions at the courthouse that morning and what he observed. Baker described Dugan’s tone during the hallway encounter, saying, “anger would be the best way to describe it.”Jurors also heard testimony and saw exhibits related to communications among judges about how to handle interactions with federal immigration officials in the courthouse, according to the notes.WATCH FBI agents testify about courthouse confusion during immigration arrestDefense caseAfter the prosecution rested on Wednesday, the defense began calling witnesses Thursday morning. The first defense witness was Milwaukee County Judge Katie Kegel, and jurors were shown an email she sent to fellow judges that was displayed in court and included in jurors’ binders. The final witness for the defense was former Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a lifelong friend who described her as an “extremely honest” person who will tell you exactly how she feels. Background of the caseThe case stems from the April 18 courthouse encounter in which agents from ICE and other federal agencies arrived outside Dugan’s courtroom with a warrant for Flores-Ruiz’s arrest.Prosecutors alleged Dugan directed agents away from the arrest location and that Flores-Ruiz later left through a restricted area before being arrested outside.Flores-Ruiz’s underlying state case involved a domestic violence allegation. In opening statements, prosecutors referenced the charge he faced that day: battery — domestic abuse — infliction of physical pain or injury. Flores-Ruiz has since been deported.
A jury on Thursday found Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan guilty of a federal felony charge that she obstructed or impeded a proceeding before a U.S. department or agency, while acquitting her on a misdemeanor count tied to concealing an individual from discovery and arrest.
Her defense team released this statement shortly after the verdict was read:
“While we are disappointed in today’s outcome, the failure of the prosecution to secure convictions on both counts demonstrates the opportunity we have to clear Judge Dugan’s name and show she did nothing wrong in this matter. We have planned for this potential outcome and our defense of Judge Dugan is just beginning. This trial required considerable resources to prepare for and public support for Judge Dugan’s defense fund is critical as we prepare for the next phase of this defense.”
Adela Tesnow
Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan reacts after hearing a guilty guilty in her federal trial
The judge did not set a sentencing date. The defense plans to fight the conviction. The maximum penalty would be five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.
Watch: Defense attorney Steve Biskupic’s post-verdict reaction:
On the prosecution side, interim U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel asked that people keep politics out of the case and the verdict. He said this was not the government trying to make an example of Dugan, but was instead a serious matter they felt necessary to pursue.
Watch: Interim U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel delivers remarks after Dugan verdict
Prosecutors filed the charges after an April 2025 courthouse encounter involving federal agents and a defendant, in Dugan’s court on a state criminal charge, a man they were seeking to arrest.
The verdict followed a week of testimony and evidence centered on what jurors heard and saw from April 18, when federal agents came to the sixth floor of the Milwaukee County Courthouse with a warrant to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz.
In opening statements Monday, prosecutors told jurors that Dugan “knew what she did was wrong” and argued arrests in the courthouse are “standard and routine.”
The defense challenged the interpretation of events and questioned witnesses about courthouse practices, confusion over the courthouse policy for interactions with federal immigration officials.
What prosecutors alleged
Jurors were shown surveillance video and listened to audio from inside Dugan’s courtroom, with prosecutors walking through the sequence in detail.
Prosecutors pointed jurors to:
Hallway surveillance video showing Dugan confronting federal agents outside her courtroom; there was no audio on the hallway video.
Audio from inside the courtroom, played alongside a transcript for jurors to follow, including a moment in which Dugan’s clerk is heard saying, “We have 5 ICE guys in the hallway.”
Prosecutors’ interpretation of courtroom audio, including that Dugan called Flores-Ruiz’s case out of order and told his attorney to take him out and return for a rescheduled date, which prosecutors argued was intended to get him out of the area.
Evidence and testimony jurors heard
The government’s first witness included FBI Special Agent Jeffrey Baker, who testified about his actions at the courthouse that morning and what he observed.
Baker described Dugan’s tone during the hallway encounter, saying, “anger would be the best way to describe it.”
Jurors also heard testimony and saw exhibits related to communications among judges about how to handle interactions with federal immigration officials in the courthouse, according to the notes.
WATCH FBI agents testify about courthouse confusion during immigration arrest
Defense case
After the prosecution rested on Wednesday, the defense began calling witnesses Thursday morning.
The first defense witness was Milwaukee County Judge Katie Kegel, and jurors were shown an email she sent to fellow judges that was displayed in court and included in jurors’ binders.
The final witness for the defense was former Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a lifelong friend who described her as an “extremely honest” person who will tell you exactly how she feels.
Background of the case
The case stems from the April 18 courthouse encounter in which agents from ICE and other federal agencies arrived outside Dugan’s courtroom with a warrant for Flores-Ruiz’s arrest.
Prosecutors alleged Dugan directed agents away from the arrest location and that Flores-Ruiz later left through a restricted area before being arrested outside.
Flores-Ruiz’s underlying state case involved a domestic violence allegation. In opening statements, prosecutors referenced the charge he faced that day: battery — domestic abuse — infliction of physical pain or injury. Flores-Ruiz has since been deported.
As Sacks aged, he felt as if he were gazing at people from the outside. But he also noticed a new kind of affection for humans—“homo sap.” “They’re quite complex (little) creatures (I say to myself),” he wrote in his journal. “They suffer, authentically, a good deal. Gifted, too. Brave, resourceful, challenging.”
Perhaps because love no longer appeared to be a realistic risk—he had now entered a “geriatric situation”—Sacks could finally confess that he craved it. “I keep being stabbed by love,” he wrote in his journal. “A look. A glance. An expression. A posture.” He guessed that he had at least five, possibly ten, more years to live. “I want to, I want to ••• I dare not say. At least not in writing.”
In 2008, Sacks had lunch with Bill Hayes, a forty-seven-year-old writer from San Francisco who was visiting New York. Hayes had never considered Sacks’s sexuality, but, as soon as they began talking, he thought, “Oh, my God, he’s gay,” he told me. They lingered at the table for much of the afternoon, connecting over their insomnia, among other subjects. After the meal, Sacks wrote Hayes a letter (which he never sent) explaining that relationships had been “a ‘forbidden’ area for me—although I am entirely sympathetic to (indeed wistful and perhaps envious about) other people’s relationships.”
A year later, Hayes, whose partner of seventeen years had died of a heart attack, moved to New York. He and Sacks began spending time together. At Sacks’s recommendation, Hayes started keeping a journal, too. He often wrote down his exchanges with Sacks, some of which he later published in a memoir, “Insomniac City.”
“It’s really a question of mutuality, isn’t it?” Sacks asked him, two weeks after they had declared their feelings for each other.
“Love?” Hayes responded. “Are you talking about love?”
“Yes,” Sacks replied.
Sacks began taking Hayes to dinner parties, although he introduced him as “my friend Billy.” He did not allow physical affection in public. “Sometimes this issue of not being out became very difficult,” Hayes told me. “We’d have arguments, and I’d say things like ‘Do you and Shengold ever talk about why you can’t come out? Or is all you ever talk about your dreams?’ ” Sacks wrote down stray phrases from his dreams on a whiteboard in his kitchen so that he could report on them at his sessions, but he didn’t share what happened in therapy.
Kate Edgar, who worked for Sacks for three decades, had two brothers who were gay, and for years she had advocated for gay civil rights, organizing Pride marches for her son’s school. She intentionally found an office for Sacks in the West Village so that he would be surrounded by gay men living openly and could see how normal it had become. She tended to hire gay assistants for him, for the same reason. “So I was sort of plotting on that level for some years,” she told me.
In 2013, after being in a relationship with Hayes for four years—they lived in separate apartments in the same building—Sacks began writing a memoir, “On the Move,” in which he divulged his sexuality for the first time. He recounts his mother’s curses upon learning that he was gay, and his decades of celibacy—a fact he mentions casually, without explanation. Edgar wondered why, after so many years of analysis, coming out took him so long, but, she said, “Oliver did not regard his relationship with Shengold as a failure of therapy.” She said that she’d guessed Shengold had thought, “This is something Oliver has to do in his own way, on his own time.” Shengold’s daughter, Nina, said that, “for my dad to have a patient he loved and respected finally find comfort in identifying who he’d been all his life—that’s growth for both of them.”
If you’re looking for an excellent pair of over-ear headphones that stand out in both their sound quality and looks, the Nothing Headphone (1) is currently marked down to just $239 on Amazon, a 20 percent discount from its usual price. It’s one of our favorite wireless headsets, earning the title “Best Looking” while still sounding almost as good as some headsets at twice the price.
Photograph: Parker Hall
Photograph: Parker Hall
Photograph: Parker Hall
The Nothing Headphone (1) has basically every feature you’d expect from a much higher-end offering, including high-resolution audio, the ability to connect to and remember multiple devices, and even object-based surround for watching a movie on a long flight. They’re all controlled through the Nothing app, which is available for both iOS and Android.
Sound quality is excellent, partially thanks to a collaboration with British speaker maker KEF, and these 40-mm drivers have excellent low-mid performance that gives them a unique pop. The soundstage isn’t quite as expansive as some of the very best, but it gets most of the way there without costing nearly as much. Similarly, the active noise canceling doesn’t match the performance on the big hitters like Sony or Bose, but excellent fit and passive isolation pick up the slack.
They have quite a few thoughtful design touches that make them easy to love. A small red dot on the right ear cup makes sure they always go on your head the right way, rather than trying to read a little letter on the inside of a band. The physical controls, a clicky wheel and a flicky knob, combine to open up a surprising amount of interaction, which our reviewer Parker Hall called “some of the best and most intuitive controls ever designed.”
I spotted the deal on Amazon in both the black and white, and while looks are subjective, I think the white pair look pretty dang sweet. If you’re still not sure, pop over to our roundup of the best noise-canceling headphones to help you tune out the sounds of your holiday travel. Just know that you’re unlikely to find a pair that will draw as many jealous looks as these.
Need a new pair of headphones for the end of the year? Plotting an upgrade for a friend or loved one for the holidays? We have you covered. We’ve checked our lists twice for the best black friday headphone deals, from fancy noise-canceling options to open earbuds for workouts, there should be something on sale for everyone.
These are Sony’s top-of-the-line noise-canceling headphones and rank among the best wireless models available. Their powerful processing effectively blocks out the most disruptive ambient noise, while the high-quality microphones ensure clarity on video calls. The audio performance is superb, with custom drivers producing Sony’s signature clean and balanced sound.
Photograph: Ryan Waniata
Photograph: Ryan Waniata
Photograph: Ryan Waniata
Photograph: Ryan Waniata
The Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2 builds thoughtfully on its predecessor with a familiar, comfortable design, vibrant sound, and top-tier noise cancellation. New features are subtle but useful, including the ability to wake and unpair the headphones by simply putting them on or laying them flat. The updates also bring lossless audio over USB-C, a dedicated Cinema mode, and more natural ambient sound controls. Combined with a slight battery improvement, these refinements make the Ultra 2 a compelling package.
Photograph: Brenda Stolyar
While among the most expensive wireless headphones, Apple’s AirPods Max deliver fantastic sound with rich bass, a massive soundstage, and excellent noise cancellation. A standout feature is the large, Apple Watch-like knob for easy volume control. They offer seamless integration with iOS devices and excel with video, using head tracking in certain apps to simulate immersive, object-based surround sound. It’s great for Netflix on flights, though they are a bit heavy.
Photograph: Parker Hall
Photograph: Parker Hall
Photograph: Parker Hall
I’m a fan of these distinctive transparent over-ear headphones, which boast one of the most satisfying physical volume controls I’ve used. Their sound profile was expertly tuned by the renowned hi-fi company KEF.
Courtesy of Sony
It’s no accident that Sony’s headphones are consistently ranked among the best. The WH-1000XM5, while an older model, continue to be one of the finest pairs of wireless noise-canceling headphones you can buy.
Bose continues to defend its noise-canceling crown with the QuietComfort Ultra 2, which builds on a foundation of excellent fit and bold sound. This iteration introduces welcome refinements like wireless charging and more customizable audio. Its phenomenal noise reduction bests the previous model, silencing everything from keyboard clicks to low rumbles. Enhanced processing creates a detailed and immersive soundscape from the same drivers.
Courtesy of Google
This is the older model of Pixel Buds Pro, but they’re still a favorite of ours, and for under $200 they do everything that AirPods Pro do on Android.
Photograph: Christopher Null
Apple
AirPods Pro 2 (With USB-C)
Even this previous generation of AirPods Pro remains a compelling purchase for iPhone users. They feature strong active noise cancellation, good (though bass-emphasized) sound quality, and seamless, instant pairing with the Apple ecosystem.
Photograph: Ryan Waniata
These are a top pick for workout headphones, thanks to their secure ear-hook design and smooth integration with iOS devices, a benefit of Apple’s ownership of Beats.
Courtesy of Amazon
The Soundpeats Capsule3 Pro+ earned a rare 10/10 score for their truly epic audio, which bests everything in their price class. This performance comes from a special driver duo, and they add further value with features like LDAC support, good noise canceling, and a handy app.
Photograph: Ryan Waniata
Soundcore by Anker
Aeroclip
Open earbuds are perfect for listening to audio while staying aware of your surroundings. This model is one of our preferred choices in that category.
Photograph: JLab
If you’re simply looking for an ultra-affordable pair of earbuds to toss in your gym bag, these are currently on sale.
Of course, promise is not the same as deliver—and just as with those soundbars that want to replicate the effects of a surround sound setup, it’s difficult in the extreme to create a sensation of spatial audio without the physical equipment necessary.
For home cinema, the words ‘spatial audio’ can confidently be swapped for ‘3D sound’. Unlike a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound setup, which creates a circle of sound around the listener, a spatial audio system creates a dome, where sound is delivered from above, as well as from the front, sides and rear.
Imagine your 7.1-channel system, and add four overhead speakers that have their own discrete information contained within the soundtrack. What you have now is a 7.1.4 system, and any content that’s been mixed specifically for a spatial audio system has an extraordinary amount of scope for the steering of effects within the dome of sound the system can create.
The best way to achieve a spatial audio effect from height channels is by precisely positioning speakers into the ceiling of your home cinema room. I hardly need to tell you that is is a relatively complicated process, and never what you might be tempted to call “cheap.” That is why a number of loudspeaker brands have developed upwards-firing modules that are designed to sit on top of some of the speaker cabinets in your surround sound setup, and reflect sound off the ceiling in an effort to replicate the effect of overhead speakers. It’s a similar method to those spatial audio soundbars with drivers that face upwards—but obviously on a larger scale.
Does Surround Sound Actually Sound Better?
For the most dedicated movie fans, the answer here is undoubtedly yes—if you choose to invest in a surround sound setup, the sound that accompanies the movies you watch will be completely transformed. Whether it’s right for you, your budget and your space is a very different question, and it’s worth weighing up the other options for improving your home cinema sound before you invest.
Surround Sound vs Stereo Sound
Which is “better” between surround sound and stereo sound isn’t really an absolute here—it’s a bit like trying to decide which is better between apples or onions. It’s fair to say, though, that if your primary interest is in home cinema rather than in music, a surround sound setup is going to bring you far closer to the objectives of the filmmaker (and their sound designer) than a stereo alternative has a hope of doing.
All movie soundtracks will have been mixed to be delivered by a surround sound setup, and that’s true whether you’re getting your movie from a streaming service or via legacy media such as 4K Blu-ray. There will be a stereo downmix available for those listening through a TV or stereo system, of course, but the true intentions of a surround sound mix will only become apparent if it’s heard through a surround sound system.
Surround Sound vs Soundbars
Photograph: Ryan Waniata
For anyone trying to decide between surround sound and a soundbar, what’s best will come down to your budget and/or the space you have—plus how much you really watch movies, and want the full-on home cinema experience. Yes, a soundbar is more convenient than a surround sound setup, and it’s almost certainly more affordable. But is it a surround sound solution? You already know the answer to that one.
In a press statement, Pecknold said “‘Angel in the Snow’ has always been one of my favorite songs by Elliott, one I’d always listen to around the holidays, so it was a huge joy to make this for such a sweet film. It wasn’t even my idea! Took me back to handing out ‘RIP Elliott’ flyers at my high school graduation in 2004. Elliott Smith forever.”
Oh. What. Fun. (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is out December 3 via Sony Music Masterworks. It includes Sharon Van Etten’s recent cover of the Pretenders’ “2000 Miles,” along with contributions from Weyes Blood, St. Vincent, Gwen Stefani, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, and others. See the album details, and listen to Van Etten’s “2000 Miles,” below.
Oh. What. Fun. is directed by Michael Showalter and stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, Dominic Sessa, and others. It hits Prime Video on December 3.
01 The Bird and the Bee: “The Things We Do for Love” 02 St. Vincent: “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” 03 Sharon Van Etten: “2000 Miles” 04 Fleet Foxes: “Angel in the Snow” 05 Uwade: “Step Into Christmas” 06 The Wang Family: “Silent Night” 07 Gwen Stefani: “Hot Cocoa” 08 Weyes Blood: “Snowqueen of Texas” 09 Andy Shauf / Madi Diaz: “Christmas Eve Can Kill You” 10 The Bird and the Bee: “It’s My Life” 11 Jeff Tweedy: “Christmas Must Be Tonight” 12 Lorely Rodriguez: “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” 13 The Wang Family: “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” 14 Dominic Sessa: “The 12 Days of Christmas”
Tems is back with new music. The Nigerian artist has released Love Is a Kingdom, a surprise seven-song EP that follows last year’s Born in the Wild. Find it below.
Tems produced, composed, and wrote Love Is a Kingdom almost entirely on her own. The EP is released via RCA Records and Since ’93.
Tems was nominated for Best Global Music Album at the 2025 Grammy Awards for Born in the Wild. She was also nominated for Best R&B Song, for the album’s “Burning,” and she won Best African Music Performance, for “Love Me JeJe.”
In a press release, Harle said that he is considering Cerulean his debut studio album. “It really is the big one,” he declared. For the new album, the British producer was influenced by Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker, Philip Glass’ Einstein on the Beach, the Dark Souls video game series, and more.
“Crystallise My Tears” is the third preview of Cerulean, following “Starlight” and “Azimuth.” Regarding the new single, Harle said, “I already knew Oklou from our frequent collaboration. I simply sent the song over to her; she nailed the vocal and sent it back. We didn’t have to share many words as we love very similar things about music. She has a particular ability to convey emotion through tone, and I really feel it in this one, there is a surreal alien beauty to her delivery.”
He continued, “I knew Uzo (MNEK) as well; I am honoured to have the king of UK house grace the most house-adjacent track on my album with such a soaring and emotional vocal.”
01 Danny L Harle: “Noctilucence” 02 Danny L Harle / PinkPantheress: “Starlight” 03 Danny L Harle / Caroline Polachek: “Azimuth” 04 Danny L Harle: “Facing Away” [ft. Clairo] 05 Danny L Harle / Julia Michaels: “Raft in the Sea” 06 Danny L Harle: “Island (Da Da Da)” 07 Danny L Harle: “Te Re Re” [ft. Kacha] 08 Danny L Harle: “Laa” 09 Danny L Harle: “O Now Am I Truly Lost” 10 Danny L Harle: “Two Hearts” 11 Danny L Harle / Oklou / MNEK: “Crystallise My Tears” 12 Danny L Harle / Caroline Polachek: “On & On” 13 Danny L Harle: “Teardrop in the Ocean”
Lifeguard have announced a new maxi-single that’s coming out next year. “Ultra Violence” / “Appetite” features 11 songs in a speedy 13 minutes, and will be out both digitally and as a limited 7″ vinyl on Matador. The record opens with the new song “Ultra Violence,” which Lifeguard are sharing today. Give that a listen below.
The “Ultra Violence” / “Appetite” 7″ is available for pre-order through Matador until January 13. Recorded in the band’s own studio Stulogulo by plugging straight into an 8-track machine, the new maxi-single also features dub effects, the sounds of dirty mixing pots, and Echoplexes. In a press release, the band call it “the fully deterritorialized Ripped and Torn; the ripping and tearing of the band-aid.”
The Chicago-based rock and post-punk trio—featuring singer-guitarist Kai Slater, singer-bassist Asher Case, and drummer Isaac Lowenstein—released its debut album, Ripped and Torn, earlier this year, and the group is currently on tour supporting Bar Italia. Lifeguard will stay on the road with the British indie-rockers through the end of November, with upcoming dates booked in Boston, Montreal, Toronto, and elsewhere.
Kneecap have shared a new song that they made with the English DJ and producer Sub Focus. On the track, “No Comment,” they address the terrorism charge that was brought against Mo Chara. Listen to the song, and see the artwork featuring Banksy’s Royal Courts of Justice mural, below.
“‘No Comment’ is all about getting harassed by the British state,” Kneecap said in a statement. “Simple as. Us Irish are well used to it, been happening for centuries. Was a pleasure to work with Sub Focus on this, the man is a legend.”
Kneecap’s Mo Chara was charged, in May, with a terror offense due to allegedly displaying the Hezbollah flag during a November 2024 concert. The charge was dismissed in September, with a judge ruling that the alleged incident fell outside the statute of limitations.
“No Comment” follows “Sayōnara,” a collaboration between Kneecap and Orbital’s Paul Hartnoll.
Did you know that with the right equipment, you can see sounds? The SoundCam Go attaches to your smartphone and helps pinpoint where a sound is coming from. It has any array of 72 directional microphones that work with an app to visualize sounds and their locations. Uses include spotting mechanical problems, finding leaks, and exploring nature.
When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Crowdfunded projects pose a degree of risk for buyers, so be sure to do your research before paying your hard-earned money.
Under the surface are 11 individually powered speakers, including two five-inch woofers, two midrange drivers, two tweeters, and five “full-range” drivers. The collection includes both side-firing and upfiring drivers to bounce sound off your walls and ceiling for surround sound and 3D audio formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.
Around back, you’ll find solid connectivity, including HDMI eARC/ARC for seamless connection to modern TVs, an HDMI passthrough port for connecting a streamer or gaming console, Ethernet, RCA analog connection for a legacy device like a turntable, and a traditional subwoofer that lets you side-step Marshall’s available wireless sub. There’s no optical port, but since optical doesn’t support Dolby Atmos or DTS:X spatial audio, that’s kind of a moot point.
Setup is pretty simple, but the bar’s hefty size adds some complications. At three inches tall, it’s a tough fit beneath many TVs. Conversely, the rubber feet that diffuse its 43-inch long frame from your console offer almost zero clearance at the sides and, unlike bars like Sony’s Bravia Theater 9 or System 6, there’s no way to extend it. That makes it tough to set the bar down properly with all but the thinnest pedestal TV stands, which are becoming common even in cheap TVs. All that to say, there’s a good chance you’ll need to mount your TV to use the Heston.
Like the Sonos Arc Ultra, there’s no remote, meaning adjusting settings mainly relies on the Marshall app. The app is relatively stable, but it froze up during a firmware update for me, and it usually takes a while to connect when first opened. Those are minor quibbles, and your TV remote should serve as your main control for power and volume.
Wi-Fi connection unlocks music streaming via Google Cast, AirPlay, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, and internet radio stations, with Bluetooth 5.3 as a backup. Automated calibration tunes the sound to your room (complete with fun guitar tones), and in-app controls like a multi-band EQ provide more in-depth options than the physical knobs.
Premium Touch
Photograph: Ryan Waniata
The Heston 120’s sound profile impressed from the first video I switched on, which happened to be an episode of Bob’s Burgers. The bar immediately showcased a sense of clarity, openness, and overall definition that’s uncommon even from major players in the space.
Did you know that with the right equipment, you can see sounds? The SoundCam Go attaches to your smartphone and helps pinpoint where a sound is coming from. It has any array of 72 directional microphones that work with an app to visualize sounds and their locations. Uses include spotting mechanical problems, finding leaks, and exploring nature.
When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Crowdfunded projects pose a degree of risk for buyers, so be sure to do your research before paying your hard-earned money.
Former Police Commissioner Andrew Coster. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER
Former Police Commissioner Andrew Coster does not know if he’s “free to comment” on a scathing report by the police watchdog, a spokesperson for him says.
The Independent Police Conduct Authority’s report found serious misconduct at the highest levels of police, including Coster, in relation to police’s response to allegations of sexual offending by former Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming.
Coster was placed on leave from his role as chief executive of the Social Investment Agency, following the report released on Tuesday.
RNZ called and texted Coster on Wednesday and received a text with an email to contact for comment.
RNZ asked for comment on Coster’s actions, whether he would stay in his role at the SIA, and whether he had a message for the woman who raised the allegations.
Do you know more? Email sam.sherwood@rnz.co.nz
A spokesperson then replied: “As has been publicly noted by ministers, this is now an employment conversation between the Public Service Commissioner and Andrew Coster. He will not be responding to media ahead of that process.”
RNZ approached Coster’s spokesperson again on Friday asking for comment on the IPCA’s reports and his actions as the former Police Commissioner.
“Unfortunately, Andrew is not in a position to comment on any of these issues while there is a process underway with the Public Service Commissioner,” the spokesperson replied.
Asked why, and whether Coster was intending on returning to work, the spokesperson replied: “It is not presently clear whether Andrew is free to comment, given his role as a public servant and the process in which he is engaged. He will not be commenting further while this is underway.”
Coster took on the role as Secretary for Social Investment in November 2024, after stepping down as Police Commissioner.
Public Service Minister Judith Collins earlier said it was agreed between Coster and the Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche that Coster would be on leave while Sir Brian undertook his own “investigation”.
She said the report showed a “massive” failure of leadership, and while it was now an employment matter, she said the report spoke for itself.
“If this was me being named in this report, I would be ashamed of myself. And I think that’s what I can say. I would be deeply ashamed.”
Collins said the findings that leadership attempted to influence the investigation into the woman’s complaint and persuade the IPCA that the matter could be resolved quickly were “very serious”.
“Let’s put it this way. If a minister tried to do that, I’m sure that the Prime Minister would have them out the door that way.”
Asked whether she thought it amounted to corruption, Collins said, “If it walks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it’s not looking good, is it?”
While acknowledging the IPCA report did not say it was corruption, Collins said it was “an extraordinary set of events, and extraordinary facts, and it must never happen again”.
She expressed thanks for the people who did stand up and send the matter to the IPCA as a complaint.
A spokesperson for the Public Service Commissioner earlier said it would be inappropriate to comment on any employment matters.
Social investment minister Nicola Willis said she was “shocked and appalled” by the IPCA report’s findings.
“I have conveyed my views to Public Service Commissioner Brian Roche. The matter now sits with him as Mr Coster’s employer,” she said.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell said Coster first briefed him on 6 November 2024 about McSkimming.
“The issues around Andrew Coster, we all now clearly see in that report that yes, without a doubt, he was the leader of the executive. He should be held to account for that, because of what we’re dealing with.”
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My parents always used to say, “You get what you pay for,” and at the ripe old age of 33, I’ve often found that to be true. If you buy a knockoff, that’s usually what you’re going to get: an imitation of something that’s cheaper, but probably not quite as good as the real deal. Usually, that’s what you’re going to get. But not always.
Sometimes, if Soundpeats’ new Clip1 wireless earbuds are any indication, what you actually get (for a lot less money) is your favorite new pair of open-style wireless earbuds for the price.
Soundpeats Clip1
The Clip1 are a great-sounding pair of open-style wireless earbuds with an enticing price.
Sound is excellent
Very comfortable
Volume keeps up with ambient noise
Accessible price point
Not a huge fan of the look
Movie mode sounds… bad
Sorry, Bose
I’ve used a few pairs of open wireless earbuds in my day, and there was always one pair that stood as my favorite: Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds. I personally love Bose’s clip-on design, which is comfortable and (at least in my opinion) looks pretty good—more like a piece of jewelry than a pair of wireless earbuds. Also, Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds shouldn’t work, but they do. The wireless earbuds actually tuck the speaker behind your ear, while a solid plastic lip rests inside and holds the whole thing in place. Despite that strange, very indirect method of delivering audio, they sound great. There’s just one problem, and that’s that they’re kind of wildly expensive.
Coming up on nearly two years since their release date, the Ultra Open Earbuds are still $300. That’s a steep price to pay for wireless earbuds that you’re probably not going to want to use all the time, every single day. But $70? Now we’re talking.
Unlike Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds, Soundpeats’ Clip1 start at less than half the price. While you might be raising your eyebrows, wondering what kind of sacrifices you’re making in the sound department, I’m here to tell you that the Clip1 might be a lot less of a compromise than you’d expect. Immediately upon sliding the Clip1 onto my ears and loading up Spotify, I noticed that Soundpeats paid special attention to fidelity.
I started off with some jazz, Wes Montgomery’s “While We’re Young,” and noticed ample low end and very little distortion even with the volume turned up past 75% on my phone. Guitar tones sounded natural and nuanced, like I was in the room. I could hear subtle string buzzes and even the soft fuzz of the recording process from 1961, an artifact of how the tune was recorded back then. More than a solid start.
Other genres translated equally as well. I listened to some rock songs with a lot more going on instrument-wise and in the production department, and the Clip1 crushed it. In “Castleman” by Floatie, I was able to hear all of the guitar tracks clearly and separately, with very little distortion. Vocals stood apart from the mix but weren’t too pronounced, and the low end was present but not overwhelming. Similarly, with electronic music, the Clip1 continued to impress. I listened to Todd Terje’s “Delorean Dynamite,” and the driving arpeggiated synths sounded perfectly gritty, with shakers and other reverberated percussion came across as atmospheric but well-accounted for.
If this all sounds like I’m gushing, well, I kind of am. The Clip1 exceeded my expectations in the sound department, and it’s clear that Soundpeats made the effort on a hardware level to deliver. Inside the Clip1, there are 12mm drivers, which are backed up by dual magnets. The use of two magnets, according to Soundpeats, is meant to decrease distortion and deliver a more precise, uniform sound, since the two magnets equate to less variability in the way the wireless earbuds’ diaphragm moves. The results are clear—literally. These are some of the best-sounding open wireless earbuds I’ve used to date, and I’ve used quite a few now from Sony, Nothing, and Bose.
On top of sounding great, I also find them to be equally as listenable in louder volume scenarios as Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds, if not a little more so. Because of the design of open wireless earbuds, no pair will ever be ideal in high-volume situations where you’d want a more traditional pair of wireless earbuds with tips and active noise cancelation (ANC). There’s a middle ground to be struck where you can still hear your audio well while also being able to hear your surroundings, though. In my humble opinion, Soundpeats strikes that balance well.
On the crucial subway test, I was able to hear my post-work Buffalo Bills sports talk podcast while still keeping one foot in the environmental sound. That’s more than I could say for other entrants in the open-ear audio game, which have a bad habit of being drowned out in loud environments.
Which clip gets the comfort crown
Outside of being able to hear your surroundings more, another reason why people buy open-style wireless earbuds is that they’re just a lot more comfortable than using something that gets put inside your ear, even if it’s only a little bit.
While both the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds and Soundpeats’ Clip1 have a similar design (a clip that you wrap around your ear), there are subtle differences between the two you should know. As I mentioned, Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds have a plastic knob that goes inside your ear, while the speaker, a round little drum, actually gets tucked behind your ear. The indirect approach to delivering audio somehow produces solid, well-balanced sound.
Similarly, the Clip1 also tucks around your ear like a clip, but instead of tucking the speaker behind your ear like Bose, the speaker rests in your outer ear in the Clip1, while the battery and magnets actually located behind. I’ve already covered how that design seems to deliver sound, and as satisfied as I am with that end, I’m equally as satisfied with the comfort. The Clip1, like Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds are great to wear over long periods and feel sturdy and comfortable while wrapped around my ears. If you’re the type of person who hates the feeling of shoving silicone tips into your ears like you would with wireless earbuds that have ANC, the Clip1 will feel like a massive relief. The Clip1 might even have a slight edge over Bose, since Soundpeats manages to get the weight of each of its earbuds down to 5g as opposed to Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds, which weigh 6.3g per earbud.
Like Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds, the Clip1 also allows for a good amount of ambient noise bleed, which, in this case, is exactly what’s supposed to happen. While wearing the Clip1, I was still able to hear colleagues and respond to people in my office, while they were unable to hear what I was listening to; in this case, that happened to be a podcast at about 75% volume. While I didn’t test the Clip1 on a bike, I would be more than comfortable wearing these open wireless earbuds in a situation where I needed to hear my surroundings. I
f you’re in need of hands-free controls, the Clip1 also have touch inputs which allow you to double and triple-tap the piece that rests behind your ear on either earbuds to play and pause, and skip tracks respectively. It’s a little awkward at first, tapping behind your ear like that, but once you get the hang of it, they work just fine.
As long as we’re talking about design, it’s worth mentioning one area that I actually don’t think the Clip1 takes the crown over Bose in, and that’s looks. There’s nothing particularly offensive about the Clip1 design, but it’s not my cup of tea if Bose is the comparison. The Clip1 is a little bit lower profile compared to the Ultra Open Earbuds, which is nice, but I actually appreciate the almost cyberpunk look, even if they’re more noticeable when they’re clipped onto your ears. Similarly, the charging case of the Clip1 is fine but very cheap-feeling, thanks to the shiny, smooth plastic as opposed to Bose’s almost matte plastic.
That’s a minor gripe, all things considered, and even more forgivable when you keep in mind that the Clip1 is $70 compared to Bose’s current $300 price tag on the Ultra Open Earbuds.
Battery life and features
Open wireless earbuds may not have the benefit of canceling noise like other wireless earbuds, but that lack of ANC is actually a blessing in some ways, mostly when it comes to battery life. According to Soundpeats, the Clip1 should get 8 hours on a single charge when being played at 60% volume. That battery life tracks in my testing; after more than two hours of listening, I was at about 80%, though I wasn’t listening to audio the entire time (I took some short breaks intermittently).
I wouldn’t call 8 hours impressive by wireless earbuds standards, but it does notably beat the Bose Ultra Open, which get about 7.5 hours on a single charge. For context, some wireless earbuds that I’ve tested this year, like the Technics EAH-AZ100, get 10 hours on a single charge with ANC activated. Again, though, those wireless earbuds are also $300 compared to the Clip1’s $70 price tag, so maybe that comparison is a little unfair. For me, I have no major complaints in the battery life department when it comes to the Clip1; I think they’ll last long enough to satisfy most people.
As for features, there are quite a few things to take advantage of in the Soundpeats app, including the ability to toggle on Dolby audio for “movie mode” and “music mode,” which are meant to provide “immersive 3D sound.” I tested both, and while I could do without movie mode (sorry, I know it’s supposed to give in-movie audio a sense of space, but I think it just makes everything sound worse), music mode actually sounds pretty good. I don’t need music mode toggled on to enjoy how the Clip1 sound, but I do think using it provides a heightened sense of space and atmosphere in most songs.
There are also additional EQ options in the Soundpeats app, including preset EQ for genres like rock and electronic, and even one for enhancing treble, and also a granular 10-band EQ if you’re that kind of person. There is an option to custom-tune the EQ with a hearing test so that the wireless earbuds conform to your specific hearing, but when I tried to take the test, I noticed that lots of the tones being played for me were hard to hear. Picking them up is a lot harder when you’re wearing a pair of open earbuds, where ambient noise is a factor. For that reason, I’m going to go ahead and assume that while you can take the hearing test for personalized EQ on the Clip1, you should make sure you’re in a very silent location when you do so.
As an added bonus, the SoundPeats app also has free, playable white noise for when you just want to zone out (think rain sounds and airplane noises) as well as something called “EQ space” where people can share their custom EQs for things that they like to listen to. Let’s be honest, most people are never going to take advantage of that sort of thing, but having the option is always nice.
As I mentioned previously, there are a lot of open-style wireless earbuds on the market nowadays, so making a decision can be tough. Ultimately, though, the equation is simple. Most people, when it comes to open audio, just want something that sounds good, is audible in a range of settings, and is comfortable and practical in terms of battery life and features.
For the Clip1, all of those boxes are checked, and while the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds still have the edge in terms of design, that only matters if you really care about that sort of thing. For most, the $70 price tag and great fit and sound should be enough to give Soundpeats a shot at being their go-to open-ear wireless buds.
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