Skullcandy is known for their quality headphones. Skullcandy’s Skullcrusher headphones are not new, but I wanted to give them a try and see what all the fuss was about. They don’t have any sophisticated active noise canceling features, but still manage to drown out background noise with a nice level of bass rumbling and sheer over-powering volume. And they do it very well.

The folded headset takes up an amazingly small amount of space. They are pleasingly lightweight and portable, perfect for anyone on the go, especially if you use have a backpack. You get a vinyl protective carrying pouch, one AA battery, a 1/4″ plug adapter and a two-prong plug adapter. I really like the fact that with the included adapters, I’m covered no matter what. The cord is about 5 feet long, so you have plenty of freedom.

The Hive concept is a simulated surround sound speaker system which uses hexagonal honey comb speakers. It’s pleasing to the eye and each cell can pivot or turn for a truly unique customized audio experience.

Think about it this way. Currently, the market only has two options. You can either spread speakers around the room or invest in a sound bar which usually means a long bar housing anywhere between 8 to 30 small speakers pointing in every direction. The Hive takes the sound bar approach, but spices things up with design. Best of all, not many wires. The Hive has 2, one for power, and one to connect to your home entertainment system. Truly a nice concept. And it should confuse any bees that wander into your home.

The idea behind this PLUG + PLAY wireless speaker system is that it would make all of your music available, regardless if it is stored on cell phones, PCs or MP3 players. That would be pretty damn convenient. The transparent speakers deliver high sound quality and also blend into most interiors at the same time. Audio files would be transmitted from a device and PLAY via the small PLUG elements. The plugs would be compatible with many different mp3 players, computers, cell phones and other devices. The end result is a system of speakers with a bluetooth receiver, and plugs as well as a bluetooth sender. Charging would be via the plug dock on the side of the speaker.

There is also a transparent LCD-display in the glass, that gives you the usual information about song title, equalizer, etc. This is a pretty fascinating concept, even though we won’t be seeing it anytime soon.

Normally I’m not a big headphones kinda guy. I mean, I use them fairly often, but I don’t really get much enjoyment out of them as for the most part, one pair always seems pretty much like the other. So I don’t really go out of my way looking for quality and comfort. It’s been my experience that there really isn’t much room for improvement in headphone design.

I was wrong. I can admit it after listening to these headphones. When you plug a pair of Skullcandy icons in and crank up the music, the difference between these headphones and a standard pair is obvious. First, the double headband design and weight of less than 45 grams, makes for an exact fit and total comfort. You don’t even know they are on you and they don’t bother your ears. As far as sound, the 30mm audio driver really does provide absolutely crystal clear and amazing sound.

That’s right, another device that looks like a tasty candy bar. This is Panasonic’s D-Snap SV-SD870N, and it’s a bit slick looking with the display giving it a 2 tone design. It’s a digital player that offers over 100 hours of audiophile quality audio play using noise canceling technology.

It supports most audio formats and you can even record directly to a 2gigabyte SD card. Panasonic will start to ship the SV-SD870N in 5 colors starting April 18th in Japan.

Every now and then I swear I can spot which gadgets potheads are designing. Like this iPod sound bubbler. It looks alot like a bong. In fact, if Cheech and Chong were still making movies, this would probably be featured in some weird scene where their iPod got stuck to their bong, while they trip out about the bubbles matching the rhythm of the music. “Dude, look!”

It’s from Spi and features a column of bubbles that flow out according to the rhythm of the current track being played. Like a Lava lamp, you also get red, yellow and blue lights changing continuously to help create the mood. It works with more then just the iPod, being compatible with just about any other device with a 3.5mm audio output, like CD players and portable media players.

These MiniGod speakers look so freaking cool I want to worship them and I wouldn’t mind doing so from the top of a Pyramid, even if I had to toss decapitated heads down the steps all day to make it happy. But while awesome looking and clearly a real God, the fact that it only requires a 9V battery to operate suggests that the first sacrifice this God made was the sound.

I say who cares. I’ve found my new God. As long as I do his bidding and offer up a fresh 9V battery now and again, I think we’ll get along just fine. If it wants an actual blood sacrifice, well…Let’s just say there’s room for advancement here at the Brick. Hmmm…Who to start with…

At first glance, this little mouse thing is pretty cute with it’s blue glowing eyes, but then you start to wonder if those eyes would pulsate just as your power goes out. Next you are mesmerized and before you know it, you are doing it’s bidding. Hypnotized, you keep buying more, building it’s army. One day soon, when it damn well decides it is ready, the electronic army will launch it’s next offensive from your house. When the last little demon rolls out the door, you will no longer be hypnotized, but you will know what you have done. Drop to your knees, gadget collector. For you have doomed the world. It is appropriate to cry.

Meanwhile in another reality…This tiny mouse from Brando is not a computer mouse. It connects to your iPod, CD, PDA, computer, or other gadget using a 3.5mm stereo audio jack. It’s basically a creepy little speaker.

Sony’s dropping some new, smooth looking Walkmans our way this week led by the NWZ-A820 which features audio and video playback with a 2.4-inch QVGA display at 30 fps, includes EX earbuds and 36 hours of battery life for audio playback, 10 for video. It comes in capacities of 4GB, 8GB and 16GB, is compatible with Windows Media and supports MP3, AAC, WMA, L-PCM formats for audio and h.264/MPEG4 for video. Sony has also added Bluetooth into the mix along with their noise canceling technology.

Sony’s NWZ-A720 series has looks a specs very much like the A820 series but it loses the wireless Bluetooth. Sony also has a NWZ-A820K model that will not only come with the earbuds but also includes a set of wireless Bluetooth headphones to take advantage of the no-wires connectivity.

Sony announced two series A, Bluetooth enabled Personal Media Players: the NW-A820 and NW-A829 in Japan today. Both include a 2.4 inch 320 x 240 LCD display and can playback MP3, WMA, ATRAC,ATRAC Advanced Lossless, Sony PCM, and AAC and HE-AAC audio file formats but doesn’t support DRM on WMA and AAC. They also support video file format in MPEG4, AVHC, H.264 and provide seamless wireless audio video playback to Bluetooth headphones using Bluetooth version 2.0 A2DP/AVRCP.

If you like, you can also get an optional VRC-NW10 dock that has the ability to schedule, record and store TV programs using EPG broadcast television or radio programs. The A820 has 8GB flash storage while the A829 comes with 16GB. Expect to see these around March in Japan. The NW-A820 is priced at 28,000 Yen ($260), NW-A829 at 38,000 Yen ($353) and the optional cradle at 20,000 yen ($186).

If you like your PC to look like retro audio gear you’ll want to check out the Onkyo APX-2 HD audio PC. Onkyo and SOTEC, the Japanese PC manufacturer partnered up on the new APX-2 HD audio PC.

It comes with a Core 2 Duo T5500 @ 1.66GHz, 1 GB of RAM, 500GB of HDD, a digital audio amplifier, an HDD that is stored in a Super Floating HDD Unit, and a noise cancellation box (22dB max) as well as Vista’s volume mixer function and installed Pure Direct Audio Path (PDAP) to prevent audio loss from poor HD audio support. Onkyo worked hard to ensure the APX-2 is as silent as possible. If it sounds as beautiful as it looks, then I’m game.