Tune in, block out

Hi, it's Matt, and no, I can't hear you [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Howdy howdy, Pursuitians, it’s [Matthew Kronsberg]( here to talk gear. If you’re like me, crisper air and shorter days have inspired you to step up your productivity a notch. Or at least to feel like you should. But sometimes, a mere mental (or meteorological) shift isn’t enough. You need the right tools. Like many of you, my most essential piece of gear for buckling down and getting stuff done is a pair of headphones. Music helps me block out distractions and achieve something like a flow state. But finding the right pair, once you start factoring in fit, features, style and sound profile, can be a challenge. Where to begin? One place, I humbly submit, is our roundup of [the 12 best over-ear headphones]( which published this week. Three of the top choices [in our roundup]( include Mark Levinson (top), Bang & Olufsen (middle) and Edifier. Photograph by Rene Cervantes for Bloomberg Businessweek. Prop styling by Caylah Leas How We Tested First off, why just over-ear headphones? Why not earbuds, too? For that matter, why not bone conduction? Well, it turns out that fall kicks off over-ear season—at least, that’s what Tony Aama, vice president of New York specialist Audio46, told us. Earbuds and in-ear monitors dominate sales during spring and summer, but when the temperature goes down, headphone sizes (and expenditures) go up. The Grado Labs SR325x headphones (left) and the Focal Azurys, [in our roundup](. Photograph by Rene Cervantes for Bloomberg Businessweek. Prop styling by Caylah Leas Having decided to search just for over-ear cans, our Hong Kong tech columnist [Vlad Savov]( and I tested dozens of options over the last few months. We then narrowed it down to five major categories, covering everything from gaming to serious listening sessions. Prices ranged from $295 for Grado Labs’ SR325x, which are built in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood, to $8,000 for Hifiman’s Susvara Unveiled, whose planar magnetic drivers are so thin, you can see light pass through the headphones.  They did have a few features in common: Both excelled in presenting a spacious, borderline holographic kind of sound (soundstage, they call it). That is, rather than just experiencing a left-right division, you can have the uncanny sense that the musicians are occupying the space around you. This is, in part, thanks to the open-backed designs, which have the side effect of letting some sound in—and out of—the headphones. So, if you use these in an office, fair warning: People will know that you are [always, and forever]( listening to “[I Love You Always Forever.]( [Gamers can’t go wrong]( with either Meze Audio’s 99 Classics (left) or the Audeze Maxwells. Photograph by Rene Cervantes for Bloomberg Businessweek. Prop styling by Caylah Leas But as great as those open-backed models were, they would have been terrible on a long bus trip I recently took. There was engine noise, child noise, people-watching-TikTok-on-their-phones-at-full-volume noise and the constant rustling of bags of chips and other road snacks. But the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra headphones I wore made the ride as quiet as if I were in a car by myself. I would have loved to find some obscure artisanal maker to tout here—I really tried—but sometimes a category leader is a category leader for a reason.   In doing comparisons, we tried to listen to the same songs on each pair. In a previous life, Vlad [put together a solid list of test tracks]( for The Verge. Björk and Aphex Twin are great calls. What else did I listen to? I’m not the biggest Fleetwood Mac fan, but I do love the nutso title track from Tusk. Bone dry drums, acoustic, electric guitars and even the University of Southern California Trojans marching band cover a lot of sonic territory. ([It’s amazing what $1.4 million and mountains of drugs could do in 1979]( I generally advocate choosing familiar recordings for testing sound gear, because there’s nothing better than hearing something new in a song you’ve listened to a thousand times. But I did spend a lot of time soaking in both the sound and the songwriting on the exquisite new record [Woodland]( by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, particularly the close harmonies on the final track, “Howdy Howdy.” Got a question or a compliment? Hit us up at askpursuits@bloomberg.net The Latest From Pursuits-landia [Former Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack Lists $29.5 Million Caribbean Mansion]( [These Are the 50 Best Hotels in the World in 2024]( [The Bitter History of Beer’s Most Essential, Divisive Ingredient]( [These Seven Food Entrepreneurs Are Changing Eco-Conscious Dining]( [New Jersey Has Its Own Posh Downton Abbey—and You Can Stay There]( [London’s Mansions Are Struggling to Sell]( What Else I’m Obsessing Over People can get pretty opinionated about their headphones, but there’s another category of gear I’m looking at this week that quite possibly inspires an even greater level of fanaticism: e-ink writing tablets. Seriously, if you see someone using a ReMarkable 2 and ask them what it is and why they like it, be prepared to listen. And listen. And listen some more. It’s like asking a true believer about crypto. We reviewed the [Boox Tab Ultra C Pro]( last year. Photographer: Julia Chesky for Bloomberg Businessweek The basic idea is: When you want to just get your thoughts down, writing by hand is better than typing. But for organizing and reorganizing your jottings, digital formats are more effective. E-ink tablets, then, are the best of both worlds: Your scrawls (even my barely legible ones) are searchable, with Kindle-like screens that are easier on the eyes. I loved the [Boox Tab Ultra C Pro]( which brought color and a full suite of apps to what is often an ascetic work environment. Recently, though, Boox took a minimalist turn with [the Go 10.3]( which strips away weight, bulk and color to make for a thin, elegant competitor to the category king, the ReMarkable 2, which is also very elegant and very minimalist. The $380 [Boox Go 10.3 tablet]( is lighter and thinner than an iPad Pro, while still offering Gmail, Microsoft OneDrive and other productivity apps via the Google Play Store. Source: Boox So, I was more than a little surprised when, about a month ago, I was invited to check out the [ReMarkable Paper Pro](. The work environment is still defined for deep focus. But the tablet’s generous 11.8-inch display offers something new: impressively vivid color. It also has a a frontlight, which is barely noticeable under normal conditions, but in bed or a darkened plane cabin, it’s plenty. If reviewing (and marking up) documents with colored charts and graphs is part of your life, this could be a game changer. Also on My Plate When I was at the Fancy Food show earlier this summer, I stopped by BonBon’s booth, where they were previewing flavors such as sour elderflower and wild strawberry. Last month, Bloomberg Businessweek got the scoop on [how online influencers are squeezing the candy supply chain](. Subaru, one of the few automakers to offer the option [of a manual gearbox]( continues to prioritize the technology for its WRX (left) and BRZ models. Photographer: Source: Mazda - I am a longtime manual transmission devotee and drive a verging-on-vintage six-speed Audi A3. Sadistically, I even made my kid learn to drive on it. But I’m feeling a little better after reading the latest from our car columnist [Hannah Elliott about the state of the stick shift]( knowing there may still be new cars on which he can use his old skill.  - The recent Netflix show Kaos didn’t get the attention it deserved. Imagine Succession, but with Greek gods. Jeff Goldblum as Zeus is a strange but ultimately compelling bit of casting. He’s flighty and chatty in the manner that he’s perfected, but with [flashes of menace that are all the more effective for it]( James Dean has been mythologized since his death nearly 70 years ago, [and his estate keeps him employed]( thanks to AI. Photographer: Giacomo Sforza for Bloomberg Businessweek - The only thing I liked more than reading Rosie Schaap’s writing was chatting with her when she’d pull an afternoon shift behind the bar at [South]( my neighborhood watering hole. It’s been a few years since she moved to Glenarm, Northern Ireland, and found love after a whole lot of loss. She beautifully chronicles that journey in her new book, [The Slow Road North](. It’s almost as satisfying as chatting over a Guinness. - [The world has gone mad for Thai baby hippo Moo Deng]( but for me, the moment belongs to Cinnamon, [the escaped Shropshire capybara](. - Speaking of things being released in the UK, [a new season of Taskmaster has dropped]( - So, you choked under pressure? [There’s a reason for that](. Not that I have any experience, of course. - OK, one last point on headphones: [Apparently wires are cool again]( Kids these days … More for you to love If you’re reading online and have gotten this far, you’ll probably enjoy it even more [as our weekly email]( that arrives every Saturday morning.  New for subscribers: Free article gifting. Bloomberg.com subscribers can now gift up to five free articles a month to anyone you want. Just look for the "Gift this article" button on stories. (Not a subscriber? Unlock limited access and [sign up here]( Follow Us Stay updated by saving our new email address Our email address is changing, which means you’ll be receiving this newsletter from noreply@news.bloomberg.com. 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