By Odeisel

If there was ever something that annoys me about portable music, it’s cheap ass headphones. I know sometimes you get caught out there and you have to buy some on the run occasionally, but cheap headphones can totally ruin music for a two big reasons.

You’re probably playing some “music” nobody else likes but thanks to your poorly made headphones, everyone can hear every single word of your crappy music , even on the loud subway, even though you’re at least 10 feet away from others.  Second, you’re already listening to an mp3 and the quality of your music needs all the help it can get to stretch itself into the realm of CD quality sound. (Tough luck trying to get that big echo record sound. We’re out n that). A good pair of headphones can bring out the lows and treble highs without sounding like noise.

You may prefer ear buds with noise reduction or ear muff style over the head phones that block out sound. If you’re at the gym, those may not be the most conducive to getting your workout on (and not breaking your headphones). This column is about introducing you to the latest in headphones of all varieties and brands. Today’s entry: the Kangol x AERIAL7 Collection

Aerial7 has actually been making earphone powered hats for a while now, generally confining their collection to skullies (hood) beanies (hood deficient). They accomplish this through sound disks which are fitted into housings of the hat. For this collection, they have merged their technology with the Kangol brand, which is world renowned and down since LL rocked the bells. The collection includes a wide variety of hat styles including caps, pullover hats and knit styles (Sorry, the terrycloth, bell shaped joints are not available)

I connected the hats to a Blackberry Tour 9630. I turned the volume high and took the dampeners off to see how the sound disks could handle the noise and whether other people could hear it. 

The track I listened to was from the Closed Session project, recorded in Austin during 2010’s SXSW. Fresno’s Fashawn combines with rapper Buff1 and Scheme on this DJ Babu-produced track. The combustible track features low electric guitars, cymbal clashes, tough drums and some ambient sound effects that  at atmosphere to the song.

The sound isn’t as precise as earbuds or pure headphones because the speaker apertures aren’t centered and held over your ears. The disks can slide back and forth inside the hat so you’ll move them over your ears manually. Once in place they sounded pretty good. Not as good as their over ear models, but when you’re trying to combine functionality, you’re bound to give something up. As for the available styles, you be the judge.

Theme Music (prod. DJ Babu) by DeconRecords

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