• Chinese researchers have developed 'AccLock'
• This uses your heartbeat to verify your identity
• All it needs is earbuds with accelerometers

Researchers from several universities in China have developed a technology they called AccLock, and it's basically Ear ID. It's a way of verifying your identity using your heartbeat, as detected by your earbuds — even if your buds don't have the kind of built-in heart-rate sensors you get in AirPods Pro 3.

The idea is that your earbuds will be able to recognize your unique palpitations, to verify that you're you, and to unlock access to things like your PC or phone, or perhaps even a smart door lock.

According to the paper, earbuds were chosen because they "remain closely coupled with the wearer during everyday use," so if you're the kind of person who's constantly wearing your AirPods when out and about, you inspired this choice.

In testing AccLock, the researchers did in fact use AirPods, as well as their own custom-made earphones, and so it clearly could work within Apple's system. But it doesn't have to, because it only relies on motion-sensing tech rather than a dedicated heart tracker.

Open hearted

Instead of a dedicated heart-rate sensor, the tool simply uses a motion-sensing accelerometer, the kind of which plenty of earbuds already pack.

An accelerometer is used to measure things like acceleration, vibration and orientation. In earbuds, they can be used for different tools: gesture controls, head tracking or spatial audio, depending on the bud.

Some low-end earbuds may miss them, but generally, it's a common component. And so, in theory, AccLock could work on many earbuds, using the accelerometer to recognize your heartbeat.

Again, this is all hypothetical, but sometimes these studies can mirror what companies are actually considering. For example new research we reported on regarding AirPods with cameras is matched by some reports suggesting Apple is actually considering adding this tech to future AirPods.

• Vollebak reveals a Sonic Jacket with 180 built-in speakers
• It's designed to immerse you in frequencies, not music
• The idea is to help get your brain into "entrainment" states

If you saw the jacket worn in the picture above and thought it looked like something out of a sci-fi movie, you're not wrong. It was designed by a special effects team that's worked on movies such as The Martian, Dune and Marvel projects. But it's no costume.

This is a new technological monstrosity from clothing brand Vollebak, which we previously saw release a graphene rain jacket, and quite a few other novel pieces of science-inspired clothing. This is the Sonic Jacket, and it's a big puffy coat bearing 180 speakers.

That's right, 180 speakers, each one 32mm across, spread across your torso and arms and head. They apparently output a frequency range from 4Hz to 20,000Hz, so they go a lot lower than your average earbuds, with Vollebak claiming "You don't listen to this jacket. You feel it."

Actually, that's the tame part of what it claims. The more notable quote is "Maybe you’ll orgasm. Maybe you’ll shit yourself. Maybe you’ll find God… so maybe you’ll want to be careful where you wear it."

As a tech reviewer, I should probably note: this thing looks about as waterproof as candy floss. With all those wires on its outside, I'd be terrified to wear this in public; it'd catch on just about anything you pass, and I'm scared to think about what a rain shower would do.

You'd expect a novel jacket like this to cost an eye-watering amount — Vollebak's scientific-themed twists on clothing fetch a premium compared to their 'normal' equivalents — but a price hasn't been revealed yet. Instead, you can join a waiting list, with the full price only to be announced when it's on sale.

Listening to a body of work

So, this is basically just a wearable loudspeaker right? Designed to make music feel incredibly immersive, and annoy everyone else on the bus? Wrong: it doesn't sound like this jacket can even play music — and at the very least, it shouldn't.

The Sonic Jacket has a built-in MP3 player and microSD card reader, with Vollebak also working on an app that'll let you control the jacket via Bluetooth. But the brand doesn't talk about these as for music: instead, they're for playing frequencies.

It sounds like the entire point of this jacket to output consistent sound at a set frequency, in order to let you control your mood or awaken certain brain states.

Vollebak refers to "brain hacking" and "entrainment" in the listing page for its jacket, and frequently cites "science" taken from the Pyramids in Giza, prehistoric European ritual sites, Plato and Aristotle, Mesopotamia and Indigenous Australian ceremonies.

Call me a skeptic, but lots of their explanations seem to have one foot in science, and the other in conspiracy theories.

Some neat engineering has been used to make it, though. Apparently, having 180 speakers playing at low frequencies bore a huge fire risk. So the jacket "will exploit one of the strange ways we experience frequency" by outputting two similar frequencies, so your body hears the frequency that exists in the difference.

As you can tell, I'm a little dubious about all the proposed scientific promises of the jacket; anyone who cites the music of the spheres deserves a raised eyebrow or two. But there's something to be said for the benefits of set frequencies — I recently tested Samsung's Hearapy app which uses 100Hz waves to quell motion sickness — and so I'm ready to be proven wrong when this thing does release.

And if anything, I'm glad Vollebak didn't actually release a jacket for playing music on the go. Society already has too many people who watch TikTok out loud on their phone in public, I don't need it coming from a 180-speaker jacket.

(Via Yanko Design)

• Spotify has quietly updated its Listening Stats page
• You can now view the total number of artists and songs you've listened to each week
• There's also a new social feature that lets you compare your stats to your friends

Spotify is packed with all the features you can imagine, but its Listening Stats tool gives you a solid overview of what you’re listening to and how your streaming habits shift from one week to the next — and it’s just got better.

While I was scouring through the r/truespotify community on Reddit, a series of posts about a new upgrade to Listening Stats caught my attention. I didn’t believe it at first, but immediately stood corrected when I took a look at my own account and saw that Spotify has quietly given it a new look, and with new features to match.

First, Listening Stats has received a big design upgrade, and is more visually engaging than before, with bolder text and display cards that are more distinguishable than before, separating your individual stats from each other to give you a clearer overview of your week in music. But it doesn’t end there.

In addition to Listening Stats’ visual glow-up, Spotify has added new data that tells you even more about the quantity of music that you listen to each week. When Listening Stats first dropped, it showed you your top five artists and songs of the week, and that was pretty much it, but now your stats tell you exactly how many artists and songs you’ve listened to week-on-week — including your total number of minutes listened.

There’s also a new social aspect to Listening Stats, which, given Spotify’s commitment to emulsifying social media with its existing roster of features, isn’t totally surprising, but it’s something many users, including myself, weren’t expecting just yet.

While your top artists and songs have their own separate display cards, there are new individual cards that allow you to see who or what your friends have had on repeat during the week or, in my case, spy on your friends for new music recommendations. Now it’s impossible for them to gatekeep artists from you, which is arguably the biggest upside.

It also means you can compare your own stats to those of your friends, including your total weekly streaming minutes, so now you can battle it out to see who’s the more dedicated music fan.

Listening Stats in the process of a rebrand?

Listening Stats joined Spotify’s mobile interface in November 2025 and has since served as a kind of mini-Wrapped feature. As well as the data mentioned above, Listening Stats include special moments to spotlight different aspects of your listening, whether that’s a milestone, a fan moment, or a new music discovery, diving deeper into your weekly soundtrack.

But with the majority of Spotify features, Listening Stats hasn’t updated for a number of users in certain regions, according to the replies in the Reddit threads I’ve read (some users are only now just getting access to AI DJ). That said, Your Sound Capsule is a similar tool to Listening Stats, but it’s only available to Premium subscribers in Brazil, Indonesia, and India — and has been for quite some time.

Your sound capsule (more features) from r/truespotify

Like Listening Stats, Your Sound Capsule spotlights your most listened-to artists and songs but has graphs and other visual elements that dissect your listening habits in detail. It’s unclear why this tool is limited only to the above markets, but some users online believe that Listening Stats is in the process of being rebranded to Your Sound Capsule.

While Spotify hasn’t mentioned anything about this, the latest update to Listening Stats does give the feeling that a larger upgrade is on the way. Design-wise, the Listening Stats tab is a lot more dynamic and bold, and its visual cards have been adopted from those featured in Your Sound Capsule, but I wouldn’t place any bets just yet until Spotify comes out with more details.

I’ve reached out to Spotify for a comment on the above, and will update this story if and when I hear more information.

• TechRadar is running a live Q&A about Sony's new wireless headphones
• We've been testing the Sony 1000X The Collexion for close to two weeks
• Our reviewers will be available tomorrow, May 20, from 12pm ET / 17:00 BST

Sony announcing a new pair of headphones would've easily been enough to grab most people's attention, but the new Sony 1000X The Collexion aren't just any new headphones — they're the company's most expensive wireless headphones to date at $649 / £550).

We know you have burning questions about them. What exactly makes them worth the step up from the Sony WH-1000XM6? Are these effectively the Sony WH-1000XM7? Can they really match equally expensive audiophile rivals? These are some of the questions we've already heard, which is why we're running a live Q&A tomorrow, May 20, at 12pm ET / 5pm BST.

For one hour, our expert reviewers will be on-hand to answer everything you want to know about Sony’s new headphones. And you don’t need to wait until the livestream begins, you can submit your questions right now in the comments below, and we’ll answer them during the session.

Joining the live Q&A will be senior staff writer Harry Padoan, who awarded them four stars in his Sony 1000X The Collexion review, where he described the sound quality as being on par with Apple’s AirPods Max 2.

We’ll also have managing editor of home tech Matt Bolton on hand. Matt recently spoke with Sony’s team about the thinking behind the headphones, which the company described as "a collection of 10 years of our accumulated knowledge".

Matt and Harry spend all year testing the best audio gear on the market, so they’ll be able to answer your questions about the Sony 1000X The Collexion’s specs, price, features, sound quality, design, and how they compare with rival premium headphones.

Already read our review and our interview with Sony insiders about the new wireless headphones? Great! Now we want to hear from you. Drop your biggest questions in the comments box above, and let us know what you think of the headphones by voting in our poll.

• Sony unveils 1000X The Collexion headphones for $649 / £550 / AU$999.95, available in May 2026
• Custom 30mm driver, and new processor with DSEE Ultimate and '360 Upmix' spatial audio modes
• Design focuses on comfort, with gentler clamping force and larger earpads

Sony has just unveiled its most expensive (and possibly most-leaked) wireless headphones to date, which it's calling 1000X The Collexion. If you just want to read whether they're any good, then you can go straight to our Sony 1000X The Collexion review, because we've been using them for a few weeks.

But if you want to know more about what makes them different, and why Sony produced them in the first place, stick around here — I spoke to Sony insiders from the UK and Japan to hear more about what makes them worth their high price tag.

And what is the Sony 1000X The Collexion's price tag? That would be $649 / £550 / AU$699 when they're available sometime during May.

That price is a major leap over the $459 / £349 / AU$699 you now pay for the Sony WH-1000XM6. But Sony hopes that you'll think The Collexion (as I'll call them from here) are worthwhile — the company told me "we wanted to go further then ever before, to create something that isn’t just the next in our line-up, but that represents 70 years of audio mastery."

Building on that, Sony's Personal Entertainment Product Manager, Mike Somerset, said: "Is this just the 1000XM7? The answer very clearly is: no. It’s aimed in a totally different direction… We’re bringing some new things to these headphones that we have never done before."

The Collexion being a "different direction" makes them interesting to compare to the XM6, because they're an improvement over the XM6 in several ways — but are actually a step back in others, and that's not an accident. So here are the upgrades and arguable downgrades you need to know about.

1. A striking new look (and case)

The Collexion's look is very Sony if you've been following the evolution of the Sony WH-1000XM5 and then the XM6 — but it's clearly a little more premium and full of flourishes.

Sony says the name for the design "theme" used for The Collexion is: "Resonate".

It comes in Black or Platinum (ie, white) finishes, and a key element according to Sony is that "every visible part is made from two materials," with the intention of creating "contrasting textures".

There's a new case design too, with a handle — it's more 'handbag-like' in some ways.

That even runs through into the metal detail in places — for example, the hinge connecting the earcups to the headband is "hand-polished by skilled craftspeople", and mixes a sand-blasted finish with glossy chrome.

Sony says that the faux leather material alone was two years in development. The company also put in a lot of work, such as working with a split-design battery for the first time, to reduce the thickness of the earcups to just 40mm for a sleeker profile when wearing them — that's compared to 45.4mm in the XM6 cans.

The combination of the slimmer earcups and the metal detailing gives them a look that's more than a little reminiscent of the Sonos Ace, and that's no bad thing.

Sony also said that the goal here was to create a "timeless design", and I think there's something to this: the matte metal headband reminds me of the metal headphones you'd get with a Sony Walkman in the '80s, yet the rest of the design is undeniably modern Sony.

2. A focus on comfort

The redesign isn't just about the aesthetics, of course. Sony also said that it's particularly focused on comfort here, so that you can wear them for hours and hours, and barely notice they're there.

Specifically, the gap in the earpads is larger in these headphones than in the XM6, so they're less likely to touch the outside of your ears, and they give you a little more breathing room — and are likely to fit better with glasses.

The headband is also a little thicker, so the pressure is distributed a little more evenly — and the clamping force of the headband has been reduced, so you'll feel less pressure wearing them. This last point will come back later, though, because it's a double-edged sword…

3. A more powerful processor

Sony is introducing a new audio processor for the first time in The Collexion: the Integrated Processor V3. This is then combined with the same QN3 noise-cancellation processor used in the Sony XM6.

The V3 is Sony's most powerful headphone processor yet, and it means that these are the first headphones to include DSEE Ultimate. DSEE is Sony's audio upscaling tech, meant to take limited-quality Bluetooth streams and to upscale and add back in detail and dynamic range that's been cut out by compression.

"DSEE Ultimate is the best that Sony has ever done, and we’ve never put it in headphones before," the company said — DSEE Extreme was the previous best tech in its headphones, while Ultimate was limited to its music players, such as the Sony NW-A306.

The key difference is that it's powerful enough to upscale both the sample rate and the bit-depth of the sound at the same time — Sony says this is thanks to AI, as so many things today are. Sony says the sample rate will be upscaled to 96kHz, and the 16-bit depth will be upscaled it to 24-bit.

Sony says that it also brought a bunch of other audiophile engineering developments over from the Walkman line to the V3 processor design, including a low-phase-noise crystal oscillator for “perfect timing”, advanced solder containing gold at “key audio points on the circuit board”, and various component optimizations to improve “the signal to noise ratio across all frequencies”.

The V3 processor also enables new spatial modes, so let's get into those, because they're important enough for Sony to have devoted a whole new button to them.

4. Spatial Audio 'Upmix' modes

Sony is going big on spatial audio in The Collexion, and is using the power of the new V3 processor to offer four "360 Reality Audio Upmix" modes, which can take any audio source and turn it into spatial audio, but with a different kind of signature to the space depending on the mode.

There will be a Cinema mode (which the Sony XM6 also have) to feel like you're in a home theater, but now also a Music mode (designed to sound like you're in a live venue), and Game mode. There will also be the great Background Music mode from the XM6, which sounds like you're listening in a café or somewhere with soft ambient music.

There's a new button on the headset to switch between these modes, though by default it'll cycle between Music, Cinema and the mode being off. You can customize it to add Game or Background music in the Sony Sound Connect app.

Unfortunately, we don't think these are very good — you can read all about that in the full Sony 1000X The Collexion review.

I asked Sony why it doesn't support Dolby Atmos for this, since the experience there tends to be great. It said that there were several factors, ranging from how Android itself and different phones deal with Atmos encoding, to what’s possible in chipsets it's using — but Sony also said it wanted to give the same experience to all users, regardless of your device of streaming service of choice.

5. New speaker driver and sound tuning

Sony said that its goal with The Collexion was to "faithfully reproduce sound as the creator intended" and to “allow listeners to relax and immerse yourself in the lingering resonance of the music".

To do that, it developed a new "bespoke" 30mm driver, which has a similar design principle to the one used in the Sony WF-1000XM6 earbuds: it's a dual-material design, with a very hard central dome to improve detail, and a softer outer edge for better bass response.

The harder center is made using a "unidirectional carbon-layered core composite", which apparently means it's made from long carbon strands — "like hair", Sony said. The XM6 headphones' driver also uses carbon, but a lower percentage of it in the mix of materials (including paper). More carbon means more rigidity.

Sony said that the sound character it's aiming for includes "perfect balance, and really fantastic sound and detail" that is "toned to reproduce the sound as artists intended".

Sony also said that it was focusing on "a wider stage, and greater separation between instruments and vocals" with "a smoother, more pleasant bass" that it described as "appropriate fullness".

In comparison to the XM6, Sony said the older model is "in between the monitor and the consumer" in terms of its profile, and that the sound is "punchier" (which is exactly how my colleague Harry Padoan described the difference in his Sony The Collexion review) — but The Collexion has a wider soundstage and more focus on "natural-feeling" sound.

6. Shorter battery life

OK, it's time to move onto the areas where The Collexion are (arguably) a step down from the XM6 headphones. First up is the battery life, which is rated at 24 hours — Sony's other 1000X headphones have clocked in at 30 hours.

That's below average compared to basically all the best noise cancelling headphones — even Bose, which was happy offering 24 hours for years, raised its game to 30 hours for the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones 2nd Gen. Pretty much the only competitor it's not lower than is the AirPods Max 2, which offers a measly 20 hours.

Sony told me that this change was due to making the earcups slimmer, and acknowledged that it was a compromise compared to the usual amount — but it also noted that it was sufficient for the longest flights.

Sony also highlighted that the batteries can be replaced in the future without trouble, because they're just held in with screws, rather than glued in.

7. Not optimized for noise cancellation

The Collexion have the same general noise-cancellation tech as the Sony XM6 — including the QN3 processor and 12 microphones — plus an improved driver, so you might assume it would Sony's best noise-cancellation yet… but Sony was clear not to expect this.

Sony emphasized that it would still steer you to the XM6 if you want its top ANC power. The reason is that the focus on comfort — elements such as the lighter clamping force and change in earcup material and design — means that these headphones won't have quite as strong a physical seal against outside sounds as the XM6.

Again, in our The Collexion review you'll read they're actually very good for noise cancellation, and are on par with AirPods Max 2 — but yes, the XM6 are noticeably better when it gets loud. It's a fair trade-off for the comfort, though.

8. They're not foldable

This won't be a dealbreaker for everyone, but some people really prefer headphones that fold for travel, and we were really pleased that Sony added this feature back into the XM6 headphones, having dropped it in the Sony XM5.

The Collexion don't fold, but Sony said that portability was something it had in mind when creating the slimmer earcups, and between that and the case being a little smaller, it's still a nice small thing to put in a bag — and also of note for travellers, the wider headband means they're more comfortable to wear around your neck.

• Spotify's glitter ball icon change on iOS is only temporary
• The old icon will be coming back in the next few days
• Many users hadn't been happy with the new look of the icon

If you've noticed that the Spotify icon on your iPhone home screen looks... different, you're not imagining things: the refreshed disco glitter ball look is promoting the company's 20th anniversary and its new Party of the Year(s) feature.

The feature gives you a Wrapped-like experience for your entire Spotify history, but the glitter ball transformation has attracted plenty of criticism. Now, Spotify has confirmed the change is only temporary, and the usual icon will be back next week.

"Alright, we know glitter is not for everyone," the Spotify team said via one of its official social media accounts. "Our temp glow up ends soon. Your regularly scheduled Spotify icon returns next week."

Judging by the reactions to that post, it seems there are a fair few Spotify users who quite like the new look — but overall, the reaction has been mostly negative. "If it's permanent I'll go back to Apple Music," threatened one Redditor last week.

Back to the 1970s

The disco ball icon only showed up on iOS, so if you're an Android user, you might be wondering what all the fuss is about. Some thought the change was a joke, while others complained that it gave the impression that an app update was underway.

Quite a few commenters pointed out that the updated look of the icon was a throwback — not just to the disco era of the 1970s, but also to the more skeuomorphic icon design trend that used to dominate on the iPhone.

When the shiny icon first appeared last week, Spotify wouldn't say one way or the other whether the change was permanent, or how long it might last for. The reaction online seems to have forced its hand.

As for the Party of the Year(s) feature, it has had its critics too. Many users were underwhelmed with the depth of the results, and there was a major Spotify update around the time the feature launched as well — not the best way to celebrate your birthday.

• Jamo launches new portable speakers
• Flex and Flow are portable models designed for outdoors
• Reflect is a bedroom and alarm clock speaker

I feel like I was last writing about new Jamo speakers only yesterday. In fact it was actually a week ago, when the Scandi audio brand came back from the dead to reveal seven new loudspeakers, and I suppose it's now back-er from the dead, with three brand-new portable models.

Jamo has unveiled the HYG family of portable Bluetooth speakers, consisting of three different devices: two outdoor models, one indoor one.

The name comes from hygge, one of the few Swedish words non-speakers know; it's one of those beloved untranslatable phrases that refers to a feeling of cosiness and warmth. And the speakers certainly lean in for that Scandi-chic look.

Before you get over-excited for these speakers, bear in mind you can't buy them yet. They're due to go on sale in July.

Here You Go (HYG)

The outlier of the new trio is the HYG Reflect, which is due to cost $149 / £129 (about AU$260).

This has been designed as a speaker for your bedside cabinet. It functions as an alarm clock, wireless charging pad and, yes, speaker, with dual two-inch drivers and two passive radiators.

Next up, and pictured at the top of this article, is the HYG Flow. It's due to sell for $279 / £239 (about AU$480), which a tempting price when you consider its audio setup is so similar to the far-more-expensive Sonos Move 2.

It boasts twin one-inch tweeters angled away from each other, plus a five-inch woofer — that's the same arrangement as the Sonos, though the actual driver will obviously be different. It's compatible with both Bluetooth 6.0 or an aux cord. It can play with other Jamo Auracast speakers but, unlike the Sonos, there's no Wi-Fi play support, so that's what you get for paying more for the Sonos.

It's ostensibly a portable speaker, weighing 3kg and supporting up to 15 hours of playback, but it only has an IPX2 rating — again, that's weaker than the Sonos.

Finally, there's the HYG Flow, which is the cheapest member of the bunch at $129 / £109 (about AU$220). It's long, thin and light, weighing under a kilogram, and comes in six different hues, about three of which I'm obsessed with.

This offers two 1.5-inch full-range drivers and two passive radiators, connecting in much the same way as the Flow but with a 27-hour battery life. Its IP rating is also IPX7: fine for splashes by the pool, but not for use on a sandy beach.

Prior to the HYG, Jamo didn't have any wireless Bluetooth speakers in its line-up, so it remains to be seen just how well it marries its audio prowess with this functional form factor. July will tell.

• Campfire Audio unveils new Chimera in-ear monitors (IEMs)
• Nine-driver tech includes bone conduction woofer and electrotatic tweeters
• Premium design that makes each unit unique

Everyone's talking about ditching Bluetooth in headphones these days. Well if you're looking for the best wired earbuds around, then Campfire Audio has a very interesting proposition for you, but it'll cost you.

It'll cost you a lot.

The new Campfire Audio Chimera cost $7,500 / £6,999 (about AU$14,000). That's 30 times the $249 / £219 / AU$429 price of the AirPods Pro 3, which I use as a reference since they're the most popular model of buds on the planet. Suffice it to say, they're not for the average consumer — it's likely to be professionals and the most hardcore of head-fi enthusiasts who'll pick them up.

But boy, what you get for that money is hard to argue with. These IEMs look fantastic, made of carbon-fibre and brass, adorned in a magnesium shell. According to Campfire Audio, every single unit made will look slightly different, with the production method resulting in subtle differences.

You can see how good they look in images; apparently they're designed to catch the light, so will appear even better in person.

The cable included with the IEMs uses four copper conductors, and two 50/50 copper and silver ones. And you get a lot more in the box: loads of eartips (including silicone and foam options), a cleaning tool and cloth, and a carry bag.

But the real draw to the Chimera is the audio.

Driver? I barely know 'er

The Campfire Audio Chimera has not one, not two, not… okay, it has nine drivers. And there are some real surprises in that list.

You're getting a 10mm dynamic driver for low-end, dual-diaphragm balanced armature driver for midrange, two balanced armatures for clarity, four electrostatic "super-tweeters" for high-frequency sound, and a bone conduction driver too.

This latter sounds like one of the most interesting selling points of the Chimera: it'll let you feel, not just hear, low-end sounds, to add a little extra physicality to sub-bass.

That's a bold choice, but it could pay off big time. We've previously knocked the brand's IEMs for their bass, like the Campfire Audio Solaris Stellar Horizon, and maybe Campfire Audio has fixed that problem in style.

For those who don't care about bigger bass, the draw lies in the use of four electrostatic drivers per bud — it's not a tech that gets out much, so we love to see it.

To keep the show on the road, Campfire Audio has given the Chimera a pressure valve to keep the airflow correct, and a tuning damper to make sure sound quality is as good as it could be. Given the specs list, these could sound like some of the best IEMs out there (and you'd hope so, for that price).

• TemPolor Melo-D guitar promises to create entire songs from singing or playing a melody, using AI
• Auto-generated backing tracks and guitar tabulation, too
• $349 early bird on Kickstarter

Ever wished you could get AI to help you play guitar and compose songs? Melo-D promises to do just that. It claims to be the "world's first generative AI guitar", and it can turn your musical ideas into full tracks. It'll even do the singing for you.

The Melo-D looks like a more-advanced Guitar Hero controller and works in much the same way as many MIDI guitars. It has a neck modelled on real guitars with colored LEDs on top to show you where to put your fingers if you're learning to play, and there are six string-like paddles for you to fingerpick or strum. There's a flip-up screen for controlling it, and a companion app for your phone.

You can use that app to generate tunes, for example by singing a melody and getting the app to turn that into notes, which it will then show you on the Melo-D so you play what you sang. And it can generate backing tracks, turn your notes into piano chords or even adding AI vocals.

Melo-D also uses generative AI to create tablature — the little grids that show players where to put their fingers for each chord; upload a track and the AI will turn it into tab that you can then play on your guitar. That makes it really useful for beginners, and bad news for guitar tab websites.

It's all very clever and with an early bird price of $379 it's not too expensive either.

But the big question about any AI music-generating tool is whether it's ethical…

Is generative AI good for musicians?

There's huge debate in music over generative AI, and not just because of AI slop in streaming services. As with other artforms, many musicians have seen their music used without consent or payment to train AI datasets for firms that then profit from their work. So if you care about musicians as well as making music, it's important to know where the AI gets its musical knowledge from.

I asked TemPolor, the creator of Melo-D as well as the Tunee AI service, and it told me that the guitar uses its own TemPolor platform, which is based on royalty-free music. Royalty-free music means music such as public domain, Creative Commons-licensed and library music that you can use without paying for a license. The music you make with the Melo-D is therefore royalty-free.

However, that doesn't appear to be the only dataset here. TemPolor's Melo-D FAQ states that "we power our AI music features using a combination of our own models and select best-in-class third-party AI models, chosen based on the creative scenario to ensure the highest quality output."

The same firm's Tunee service is a multi-agent platform including models that have already been sued by artists claiming copyright infringement.

That's enough to give me pause. As much as I want everyone to experience the joy of making music, I want my favorite musicians to be able to pay the rent too, and there's enough ambiguity in TemPolar's small print that I'm not sure I'd feel ethically free and clear using its AI.

• Xiaomi teases its first clip-style open earbuds
• Launch date unknown, presumed imminent
• Past Xiaomi open earbuds have had sound leakage prevention tech

In 2025, it felt like every tech company felt the need to release open earbuds, and recently brands have been tripping over themselves to release clip-style buds, ranging from Anker, Bose and through the alphabet to (now) Xiaomi.

Chinese tech giant Xiaomi has teased its first open earbuds, sharing on social media platform Weibo a graphic of a half-open case, with the slogan "Brand new form". You can see enough of the enclosed earbuds to suggest these are clip buds (and it's basically the only headphone form factor the brand hasn't tried out yet).

There's not much more to know about the buds just yet, but Xiaomi's expected to launch a new smartphone at some point in May called the Xiaomi 17 Max. It's likely the earbuds will get some screen time at the same launch event.

It's therefore impossible to say what Xiaomi has cooking; from my experience, the brand's audio products remain weaker than the competition, but clip buds are hard to get wrong. And Xiaomi has one piece of tech that could elevate these new buds over the competition…

No noise

Back in 2025, Xiaomi released the OpenWear Stereo Pro, hook-style open earbuds with a whopping five audio drivers. I tested them, and while I didn't love the fit, or audio quality, they had one feature that was unique and really useful.

One of the drivers wasn't for music, but was designed to reduce sound leakage. It basically worked as anti-noise-cancellation; it wouldn't stop you hearing people around you, but it'd stop those people around you hearing you.

Sound leakage is one of the big problems of open earbuds. Since the drivers aren't in your ear, and the sound has to travel across the void between the bud and your ear, audio will invariably be audible to those around you.

Don't expect your guilty pleasure playlist to stay secret, if you listen with open earbuds; my partner is constantly humming along to my music when I'm using them. This didn't happen with the Xiaomi, though, and the driver worked wonders in keeping my private playlists… well, private.

It's hard to say whether Xiaomi will resurrect this tech for its clip-style earbuds, and it's certainly not guaranteed — these kinds of buds have less space for drivers in the bud, compared to hook-style ones, since the driver sits in your ear.

Saying that, the Shokz OpenDots One had two drivers, so it's clear that there's space for a well-engineered clip bud to fit multiple. It's just about whether Xiaomi decides it's a good fit (so to speak).

• Subscribers couldn't access Spotify's Party of the Year(s) tool due to its huge outage
• When the issue was resolved, users were left underwhelmed with what it had to offer
• It didn't give insightful data such as most listened-to genres and behavorial shifts

Spotify’s 20th anniversary celebrations ran into a bit of a brick wall following the announcement of the platform’s latest mobile experience, Party of the Year(s), as many users were left wondering if the service had gone down — in short, it did.

What was supposed to be a day for Premium subscribers to revel in Spotify’s latest music time capsule turned into a frenzy of frustration as many music fans couldn’t access their Party of the Year(s) stats, resulting in a slurry of complaints in the r/truespotify page on Reddit. It could even be that the number of users trying to access the new Wrapped-style experience resulted in Spotify’s going down.

More than 14,000 users issued complaints on Down Detector, which indicated the problems started at around 12pm ET / 5pm BST, but while errors started to drop off for a handful of users, Spotify was still crashing for subscribers several hours later. Thankfully, the platform was quick to jump on the issue, and it took to X to say it had resolved the issues at around 5pm ET / 10pm BST.

A missed opportunity to say the least

With Spotify now running as normal, Party of the Year(s) saw a slew of latecomers but even after all that waiting time, users walked away rather underwhelmed with the outcome.

In a nutshell, Party of the Year(s) is a new mobile experience that gives you "never-shared-before" stats about your entire music journey, going all the way back to the very first day you signed up for Spotify right up to the present day. It’s essentially a Wrapped-style tool, showing you the total number of songs you’ve streamed, your top artists ever, and more.

All sounds good on paper, right? But for some users, these stats simply weren’t enough, as a handful of them took to Reddit to say that they were expecting way more from it.

One of the biggest criticisms highlighted that the feature doesn’t pack in as many stats and as much excitement as Wrapped; “Would have loved some more data included in the story like they do with Wrapped, such as total minutes of streaming and top 5 artists,” said one user.

Over the years people have been begging Spotify to crack down on genre stats when it comes to Wrapped, and though Spotify knuckled down on this for Wrapped 2025, there was none of this in Party of the Year(s). Not only that, but the experience doesn't outline the shifts in your listening habits over the years which, since it’s an anniversary feature, you’d think would be at its core.

Comment from r/truespotify

I tried out Party of the Year(s) to see what it was all about and I thought it was pleasant, but Spotify missed out on the chance to create something insightful and engaging here — it didn’t really differ from what Prompted Playlists can already do.

I side with the majority of users who want to see more stats about genre and music listening shifts and what impacts them, and since Spotify has endless data on its subscribers, I don’t see why the platform didn’t put the intricate readings at the very forefront of the experience.

Everybody was in a panic as Spotify experienced issues, with thousands of reports that the app was not working earlier today, May 12, 2026.

The music streaming service first confirmed that it was "aware of some issues right now with the app and are checking them out!", but there's no word yet on how widespread the problem was or an estimated time to fix.

The problems began around 12pm ET / 5pm BST, with the first reports of the outage appearing on Down Detector. Reports grew steadily over the next 20-30 minutes, peaking at around 14,000 at 1.20pm ET / 6.20pm BST — then appeared to drop off.

However, more than 2 hours later, there are clearly still some issues, with users in both the US and UK struggling to get the app to load on either desktop or mobile — though offline tunes do seem to work. Eventually, the app on multiple platforms came back to life, and Spotify confirmed the issue was fixed shortly before 5pm ET / 10pm BST.

Ahead, you can read our live reporting on the outage as it happened.

Hi everyone. I'm going to dig into what's going on with Spotify, so stay tuned for updates as I get them.

Okay, so what do we know? Well, outage reports started growing on Down Detector just under an hour ago.

You can see in the screenshot below that the numbers climbed steeply, with more than 14,000 users reporting problems 20 minutes ago.

Spotify has responded to users on X, admitting that it is "aware of some issues" and that it is checking them out.

Spotify sputtering in the US

I no longer subscribe to Spotify myself, but I asked my colleague Lance Ulanoff to try it, and he sent me this:

"Even though I can still open the app in the US, Spotify is struggling to respond to any of my requests. I can't play or search for music.

"The situation is even worse on the desktop. After a long wait, I got Spotify to open in Chrome, but when I tried to log in, I got an error message. No music for me."

Poor Lance, he'll have to do some work instead.

And problems in the UK too

Meanwhile, a colleague in the UK, David Nield, confirmed that it's not working for him either, and that "only offline downloads will play."

Right, big news… Lance says it's coming back. I'm still seeing reports on Down Detector, but they are indeed starting to drop.

What do you do when Spotify goes down?

It looks like this outage may be a relatively short-lived one, thankfully — because it can be hard, being cut off from your favorite music source.

Of course, this isn't the first time, nor will it be the last time, this happens. What do you do with yourself in these situations? Tell us in the poll below.

Okay, you know where I said it was working? Well it now seems not to be again.

Strap in, folks, this could be a long one.

We're definitely still experiencing problems in the UK, where my colleague Roland Moore-Colyer is based (as am I). Here's Roland's update:

"Well dammit. I was just enjoying some old-skool rap, courtesy of my broken Spotify algorithm trying to work out my eclectic music tastes and searches, when Spotify ceased working for me on my iPhone.

"While the outage was brewing US-side, I thought we’d missed it UK side, with Downdetector showing a slowing down of outage reports. But whatever is messing with Spotify seems to have blighted those of us in Blighty once again.

"So right now I’m writing with no musical assistance… someone pray for me."

We've reached out to Spotify for an update, and will let you know if we get a response.

Is it up or down?

Spotify is still mostly working for Lance in the US, but he says he's hearing otherwise from people just a state away.

"Perhaps I have all the bandwidth," he says. "I guess I'll enjoy it while I can.

"Still, not everything is A-OK. I'm currently streaming Bohemian Rhapsody from my iPhone, but the website is not quite in sync."

Spotify continues to struggle in the UK

Back to the UK, and this is what you see when you try to load up Spotify on the web right now. The interface partially loads, but music and podcasts are inaccessible, and everything is very slow.

If you're a Premium user, hopefully you've downloaded some of your favorite playlists for offline use. If not, you might have to wait a while to resume streaming (or just switch to YouTube).

Party off

So here's a thing: it’s Spotify's 20th anniversary today and that saw the company announce its new Spotify 20: Your Party of the Year(s) feature.

This is effectively a tool to show you your data from across your entire Spotify journey, starting from the first day you joined the service until now. it includes your most-streamed artist, the total number of streamed songs, and more.

We have no way of knowing what's caused the current outage, but could the implementation of this new feature have been a factor? I guess we'll find out later…

I said earlier that I no longer have a Spotify subscription, so none of this is directly affecting me — though I do, of course, feel bad for those of you who are unable to listen to your tunes right now.

I made the decision to leave the service in December and now subscribe to Qobuz instead — and I can't speak highly enough of it. Sure, it's not quite as slick as Spotify in some ways, but it fixes many of the personal issues I had with the better-known platform and — most importantly — it sounds absolutely fantastic. Seriously, if you love music and haven't given proper hi-res audio a go, I urge you to give it a try.

As it happens, we have a guide to how to switch from Spotify to Qobuz without losing your playlists.

Stick with mobile

Here's another update from Lance in NYC, who seems to be having a slightly better experience with Spotify than some people right now.

"In my neck of the woods, mobile is now the most consistently trouble-free Spotify experience. The web player tries to keep pace, but can't seem to display anything in the main window.

"It knows I'm listening to Franz Ferdinand, but Spotify can't serve up whatever is supposed to appear front and center.

"The good news is that we still seem to be on the mend. Spotify should soon be back for all. I think."

Here's Roland again with a helpful tip:

"If you have songs downloaded on Spotify they’ll still work as expected, so there’s one way to access some of your playlists. But I’m not 100% sure how many people do this, especially as, I believe, if you do this on multiple devices Spotify will then delete some downloaded songs on some devices; you can only spread the downloads so far.

"I tend to have a couple of downloaded playlists to get the best audio quality without sucking up my useless home internet bandwidth. But I could be in a minority with that. Still it means I have some music to listen to while I’m at my desk."

Search is back on Spotify

Here's Lance again in the US:

"Even though the center screen on the Spotify Web Player has been spotty at best, I have now successfully completed a web-based Spotify search.

"My subject: Best dance music of all time, of course. Can't say I'm thrilled with the results. Spotify gave me my playlist and when I clicked on the "songs" tab, I got, "No Songs found for "best dance music of all time"

"That has to be a mistake, no?

"In any case, search functioning is a very good sign, as the Spotify team scrambles to bring all of Spotify back on line."

There's still no word from Spotify since its initial message that it was experiencing problems, but reports on Down Detector are dropping, in both the UK and US.

Lance says that it seems largely recovered, but that it's still suffering from what could best be described as buffering issues.

"I've bought up a pair of playlists, but instead of instantly playing the songs when I hit play, the streamer appeared to be buffering," tells me.

"The only way to get music playing again is to select a different song in the same playlist. It's surely a quirk of the recovery."

Hello there, Jacob Krol stepping in here to keep tracking the ongoing Spotify situation. And the situation is still best described by the music streaming service's original notice: it's 'aware of some issues right now.'

In the US, Down Detector is hovering at around 3,400 reports of issues, and in the UK, the number of reports is higher at around 6,100 as of the most recent update. Spotify still shows an active, ongoing issue on its own blog-like status page here.

Here in the United States, Spotify appears to be mostly back to normal for both my premium account and my colleague, Lance Ulanoff's, free account. Search has resumed normal, and isn't immediately erroring out. I'm also able to play music, quickly jump between tracks, and browse full playlists.

I did ask a few friends, both on the east coast like myself and on the west coast, who are reporting it's working on mobile – iOS and Android – as well as desktop. It is back up and running for my Sonos system as well.

But please do let me know in the comments below if Spotify is working for you and if it isn't where you are.

We're still waiting for further comment from Spotify, as it's been several hours since the initial confirmation that the service was aware of some issues. Even with it returning for me, a colleague, and some friends, it's clear from social posts that Spotify is not back to 100% operation for everyone.

Even with some sharing that Spotify is down on X (formerly Twitter) and on Threads, others are sharing the first song they listened to on the platform as well as how many minutes total they've spent listening.

Certainly an interesting day for an outage.

This post on X likely sums up the day pretty well for Spotify users who are still experiencing issues with the platform — especially if you're keen to see the first song you listened to on the platform.

Down Detector reports for Spotify continue to drop in the United States, now at 622 as of 4:43 PM ET, and in the UK, reports are at 785 as of 4:44 PM ET. Both indicated a sharp drop from the previous thousands of reports we were tracking for issues with the platform.

We're still waiting for further updates from the music streaming platform, though I can tell you it's back for my own premium account in the United States, and Marc McLaren, TechRadar's Global Editor-in-Chief, in the UK, has noted that it's functioning on his free account as well.

Spotify says it's back to normal

Several hours after initially confirming an active issue, Spotify took to X (formerly Twitter) at 4:57 PM ET to write:

"All clear now - thanks for your patience with this! If you still need help, head over to our Community http://community.spotify.com or get in touch at http://support.spotify.com"

Hopefully, this means that if you've been experiencing issues with the music streaming service, it's now back up and running for you. Down Detector reports are still dropping.

Spotify has yet to say what caused this issue, though it did note the extended downtime by thanking users for their patience.

JBL has launched its new Live 4 series of earbuds, with three new pairs available from 12 May 2026.

The new models include: the JBL Live Buds 4, which are a set of compact in-ears; the JBL Live Beam 4, a pair of stemmed in-ears; and the JBL Live Flex 4, which are stemmed semi-open earbuds. Each of these has arrived about two years after their predecessors from the Live 3 series.

JBL’s Live earbuds are known for one thing above all — their touchscreen-equipped charging cases. On previous models, this has enabled users to swiftly adapt ANC, EQ, volume, and more. And JBL has revamped its Smart Charging Case software, and packed the Live 4 models with more features, controls, and customization options than ever before.

But will this be enough to help JBL rival some of the best earbuds from heavy-hitters like Apple and Sony? Well, I’ve seen the new Live 4 series for myself, and I could see some of the additions being a big hit — here’s what you can expect from JBL’s new buds.

Building on success

When we tested out the JBL Live Beam 3 back in 2024, they left quite the impression on us. Thanks to their impressive sound quality, plentiful battery life, and fun feature-packed case, we awarded that model a high 4.5-star rating.

And it really seems that their successor, the Live Beam 4 — alongside the new Buds and Flex versions — are building on a lot of the things we already loved.

First of all, let’s go back to the touchscreen case. Although I’m yet to test the Live 4 series in depth, I was pleased to see that the Smart Charging Case comes with a brand new user interface (UI) alongside a larger screen on JBL’s newest earbuds.

Sure, some would argue that the screen is a little gimmicky, but it provides instant access to customization tools, whereas usually you’d have to withdraw your phone and root around for the JBL headphones app. As someone with way too many audio apps on my phone, I can certainly see the appeal.

JBL has also updated the sound of its Live series, with the new earbuds equipped with “new fidelity drivers” that the audio specialist claims to be “carefully tuned for deeper bass and clearer sound”. Although JBL has employed new drivers, they’re still 10mm and dynamic on the Buds and Beam, and 12mm dynamic on the Flex.

Another area that’s been improved is call quality. Live 4 series models utilize six microphones with new “Perfect Call 2.0” tech, combining a wind-proof design with an AI algorithm for clear quality. Some of the microphones are also used for noise cancelling, which has also been improved according to JBL.

Something that’s largely remained the same, though, is battery life. With the charging case, JBL claims the Buds 4 will provide up to 32 hours with ANC on and 40 hours with it off; that the Beam 4 can manage 40 hours with noise cancelling active and 48 hours without it; and that the Flex 4 will deliver 35 hours with ANC switched on and 50 hours without. That’s similar to what we saw on the previous generation, but remains impressive across the board, especially when you consider that rivals like Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 only deliver 24 hours with the charging case.

The Live 4 series is available in a range of colors, including Black, Blue, Silver, Champagne, Green, Purple, and Orange. They are priced at £179.99 / €199 (about $245 / AU$340). I’ll be reviewing each of the new models in the coming weeks to see if they’re truly worth the money, so keep your eyes peeled for my full thoughts.

• Spotify has launched its new Your Party of the Year(s) mobile experience to celebrate its 20th anniversary
• It shows you data from across your entire Spotify journey, starting from the first day you joined
• This includes your most-streamed artist, the total number of streamed songs, and more

A few weeks back Spotify commemorated its 20th year of being one of the best music streaming services (I know, I can’t wrap my head around it either), but if you thought the platform was done with the celebrations you’d be wrong — it’s just launched the ultimate Wrapped experience.

Ever wanted to know the deep stats from your entire Spotify lifespan? With the new Spotify 20: Your Party of the Year(s) experience, you can.

Launching today (May 12), the new mobile app walk-through gives you a personal insight to your music listening history in Spotify, which includes exclusive data that encompasses your entire music journey from the moment you joined Spotify right up to today. In Spotify’s words, it’s “designed as a personalized time capsule, the experience captures the moments that defined listeners' music journeys, and celebrates the artists and fans who have shaped Spotify and music culture over the past 20 years”.

Although you can use Prompted Playlists to view stats such as your most listened-to songs of a specific year, this experience takes it a step further.

Behind a gold wax seal sits a nostalgic look-back at your first listens and biggest hits, starting with the exact date you joined Spotify which, if you’ve been using it for quite some time, will reveal a little too much about your age. From there, the walkthrough will show you the total number of songs you’ve streamed from your days as a Spotify baby to your days as a power-user — and Spotify compiles your top 120 songs into a playlist with play counts that you can save to your Library as a keepsake.

To top it all off, Spotify reveals the answer to one of your burning questions: who is my most-streamed artist of all time? But not only does it tell you this, it also reveals how many minutes you’ve spent listening to them since you first hit the play button, as well as the very first song that kick-started your Spotify journey.

You can begin your look-back of your listening life by searching for ‘Spotify 20’ or ‘Your Party of the Year(s)’ in the search tab, so it’s very easy to find.

However, this isn’t the first of Spotify’s anniversary celebrations. The streamer turned 20 a few months back, kicking things off at SXSW in March which was followed by a series of posts where it unveiled its most streamed artists, podcasts, and audiobooks of the last two decades.

We also got involved with the celebrations by recapping the platform’s landmark moments, and even sitting down with Sten Garmark, Spotify’s Global Head of Consumer Experience, who discussed how the company created an entirely new business model, in addition to its plans to expand to new formats and combat against AI-generated music.

• New Sony The Collexion headphone renders arrive
• They show product very similar to WH-1000XM6
• A few premium design changes, and two colors

We've been reporting tirelessly on new top-end headphones from Sony that are set to bear the name The Collexion. We've seen them spotted on the head of a Hollywood star and leaked on Sony website listing pages, with a May 19 release looking likely.

But I'd been so caught up in the flurry of leaks, that I'd missed something obvious — and newly-leaked renders courtesy of Android Headlines have highlighted: these headphones look incredibly familiar.

Coming in white and black hues, the Sony The Collexion headphones appear to be gentle evolutions of the Sony WH-1000XM6 and XM5, especially in the looks of the speaker cups.

In fact, squint and these basically are the WH-1000XM6. It's clear that Sony isn't straying far from past designs with its new cans, which might surprise people hoping for top-end blasters that match the rumored $600-ish price tag — but there are difference in the shiny metallic elements that are really reminiscent of the Sonos Ace.

What's new here?

Let's run through the differences I can see between these rendered headphones and the XM6 cans.

Most comfortably, the headband seems to be made from a different material, with leaks pointing to it being vegan leather rather than plastic as in the XM6. This material is also said to be used for the ear pads.

A new hinge mechanism is at play too, although to see still images, it's hard to tell how it works. At the very least, Sony's attempts to play around with this design element suggests The Collexion could have a sturdier build.

Renders show a USB-C port, but no 3.5mm headphone jack. That's not a surprise, though, because the space where this audio port would be, is obscured in the pictures.

Naturally, under the hood there are probably loads of hardware changes that make these an audible step up from the XM6 — these won't literally be the same headphones (at least, I hope).

But given the high price point mooted for the new headphones, you'd be forgiven for hoping for a more inventive design. The best headphones for audiophiles show their colors with unique designs, flashy patterns or mechanical flair, and if you've paid top dollar for expensive cans, you want to feel it.

Given all the leaks and teases, I'm expecting us to learn more officially pretty soon.

• Shanling releases new, retro EC Play portable CD player
• Lightweight, but with many connection options
• Sells in May for $199 / £209 (about AU$420)

CD players have remained in vogue despite the rise (and fall?) of streaming, but now retro audio tech is making a comeback (including cassette players, somehow), so too are '90s-inspired CD players.

Chinese hi-fi company Shanling has just announced the EC Play, a new and understated disk machine coming in silver, black or green.

It's set to sell from May, for $199 / £209 (about AU$420), less than the firm's higher-end portable players like the ECZero AKM which goes for $319 (about £244 / AU$490).

As you'd hope for a portable CD player, it's a little thing. It measures 14.2 x 12.5 x 2.6 cm — little more than a CD itself — and weighs 418g. That makes it lighter than the average regulation FIFA soccer ball, which are allowed to be between 410g and 450g. [Editor's note: I have no idea why we are now measuring our CD players in soccer balls, but I have decided to allow it.]

It has a clean shell, rather like the FiiO DM13, without the see-through section or design flair we often see from this kind of tech.

Yet a glance at the above picture shows various buttons, displays and ports. The thing may be lightweight, but it hides plenty of features.

A CD player with plenty of tricks

The Shanling EC Play doesn't just work with your standard 3.5mm headphones, but also has a 4.4mm port, and a Coax output too.

If you like retro but you've not gone all the way to the wired-only life, it also handles Bluetooth playback. It supports AAC, LDAC and SBC codecs, and is on the Bluetooth 6.0 standard.

The Cirrus Logic DAC supposedly is designed for a "natural and fun sound", and there's a built-in dual headphone amp that can cater for IEMs and headphones that need a bit more oomph, as well as your standard wired bud.

You can also plug the player into a PC, laptop or phone via USB, and it'll act as a DAC for PCM 32-bit/384kHz and DSD256 playback.

The EC Play's battery life is, according to Shanling, 12 hours. Naturally this'll vary based on how you listen to your music, but it's above average for this kind of gadget.

According to Shanling, the EC Play is designed not for top-end audio specs and unique features, but "to recreate the days of old", which is apparently "when portable CD players were convenient and a common part of daily life".

I'm not holding my breath to see this kind of tech commonly used on public transport, but Shanling's right in one way. Its EC Play seems convenient to use on the go or at home, with that versatility likely to win over some buyers.

• A simple test can see how well you can recognize lossy formats using your own music choices
• Beyond a certain point most people can't easily tell the difference
• High-quality lossless is still the most future-proof format

With music, how good is good enough? When you're listening to digital music, what you hear depends on the original master, the file format and most of all, whether it's lossy — reducing the sound quality to reduce file sizes — or lossless, which is pristine and perfect. If you're serious about sound, lossless is going to defeat lossless every time.

Right?

Perhaps not.

On the r/audiophile subreddit, a user called vlad1m1r has shared a tool that tests how well you can differentiate different quality levels and formats. Can you tell the difference between a lossless FLAC or WAV and a 320kbps MP3, even if it's music you listen to all the time and you know inside out?

According to Apple Music exec Oliver Schusser, most people can't. Speaking to Billboard, he said that "honestly, if we did an anonymous blind test on just an iPhone with headphones… I can tell you most fans wouldn’t be able to tell the difference."

Is he right? It turns out there's an easy way to find out. Vlad1m1r's Flactest runs in your browser and enables you to drag a FLAC, WAV or AIFF file onto the app, at which point it will re-encode it to different MP3 bitrates and play them to you without revealing which one is which.

And at the risk of sounding clickbaity, the results may surprise you. They certainly surprised vlad1m1r, who struggled to tell the difference between uncompressed FLAC and high-bitrate MP3.

Redditors have been having fun with this, and I thought I'd join in. I've got a very nice, Hi-Res Audio-friendly, setup. Are my headphones, speakers and ears good enough to spot what are often very subtle differences?

The trouble with testing

One of the problems of listening tests is that you can't always be sure you're listening to the same version when you're comparing different formats and bitrates. Some releases, especially of legacy artists, have been released multiple times and in some cases remastered, and that's likely to change the sound more than a minor difference in the encoding rate.

The source quality isn't the only factor that'll affect what you hear, of course. The speakers you're using, their placement and the acoustic qualities of your room make a difference, as will the kind of headphones you're listening on, the DAC you have and the volume level you're playing the music at. Those will all shape the sound, too.

Flactest solves a lot of that for testing purposes because all of those things stay constant. You provide a single original and it then re-encodes it in multiple resolutions of MP3 via the same LAME codec, as well as playing your untouched original. What that means is you get consistency: you're listening to the same song from the same source on the same hardware and software as you switch between the five mystery formats it serves up.

It's worth noting that there's another factor at play here, and it will apply to everyone who is no longer a teenager: age. From early adulthood we start losing the top end of our hearing, and that means a 50-something like me won't hear the same highs that I could easily discern at 15. So, if encoding changes are making a difference at the very top frequencies, which is where a lot of digital artefacts tend to live in compressed MP3s, I may not be able to hear much difference.

Sheer FLAC attack

I listened to multiple songs in two ways: on my large Adam studio monitors through an SSL 2 audio interface, and on BeyerDynamic DT990 Pro open-back headphones via an iFi desktop DAC.

My source files were 44.1kHz WAV and 16-bit/44.1 and 24-bit/96kHz FLAC, with songs I've listened to for years — Radiohead, U2, Talk Talk and so on — as well as music I've made myself on my Mac.

The low-bitrate MP3s were easy to spot because they sound atrocious, as if they're being played in the room next door by someone with a really bad hi-fi system. At 16kbps or 64kbps the MP3 compression is really obvious, and there's a noticeable step up in quality when you move to 320kbps on busier tracks where there's a lot going on. The tells are fizzy distorted guitars and acoustic instruments, especially cymbals and hi-hats that get noticeably "splashy" as you reduce the bitrate.

But after 128kbps it got tricky for me. Time and again I often couldn't differentiate between the 320kbps MP3s and the lossless originals.

Perhaps the trick to discerning the differences is to listen to the same music over and over again. When I ran the tests using my own music — songs I'm currently mixing — I got perfect scores. That makes sense, because I've been obsessing over tiny details in those tracks, such as the fizz of a drum machine hi-hat and the punch of a bass guitar, and I've been listening to those things again and again as I try to perfect them. But that's a different kind of listening than when I'm listening for pleasure.

For me at least, the answer is clear: I can't tell the difference between the highest quality MP3 and the same song as a FLAC on my headphones or speaker setup. But that doesn't mean I won't in the future.

No loss

It's well known that with some exceptions, most of us can't hear the difference between a very-high-bitrate lossy file and a lossless one on everyday audio equipment. Once you hit 192kbps or higher it becomes much more about the quality of your components: your hi-fi, your amp, your speakers, your headphones.

However, if you run the tests and find you can't tell the difference between lossless and slightly lossy, that doesn't mean you should stick to encoding or buying everything as 320kbps MP3 or the equivalent AAC. High bitrate lossy compression is still lossy, and once musical information is removed you can't get it back.

Upsampling can do a best-guess with impressive results, but it's still only a guess rather than the discarded data. So for long-term storage it's worth saving your digital music in the highest quality lossless format available to you, even if owning a high-end system isn't in your immediate future — because if you get better kit later you may regret not having better quality files.

I know from reviewing high-end headphones and from experiencing proper audiophile systems that cost way more than my car that with the right equipment you'll hear detail that lesser kit keeps buried in the mix.

And that's why I think it's wise to future-proof your digital library. You simply don't know what you'll be listening with in years to come. I thought I was pretty clever ripping CDs to 160kbps MP3 back in the iPod days, because I didn't have good enough hardware to need anything better — a choice I now regret as I've long since binned the original CDs. Today I'm on eBay buying many of them all over again.

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• Sivga unveils M260 wired earbuds with huge 14.2mm driver
• They come in USB-C or 3.5mm versions
• The fit is like the old Apple Earbuds design from before AirPods

It's been 14 years since Apple discontinued its classic iPods earbuds, which had a circular speaker grille — ditching them for the still-sold EarPods — but other brands occasionally still release earbuds in this style, and the latest one takes advantage of the design to whack in a huge driver.

Audio company Sivga has unveiled a new pair of cheap buds which share a lot of design traits with the older earbuds, except their clean white design and the sheer size of the driver involved.

These are the Sivga M260, which are newly on sale in two iterations. There's a version with a 3.5mm plug, which costs $44 / £33 / AU$62, and one that connects via USB-C, which goes for $50 / £38 / AU$70.

We've mostly tested the brand's over-ears, like the classy wooden Sivga Oriole or Sivga Robin SV021 Pro, but it sells plenty of earbuds and in-ear monitors too.

Budget buds with a big driver

The Sivga M260 gets a 14.2mm driver, which is on the big side for in-ear buds like this. It uses a dynamic driver with neodymium magnet and copper composite diaphragm.

According to the brand, the tuning is aimed towards a smooth and natural sound, with controlled bass.

In the box, you get four different pairs of ear pads, so you can make sure the M260 lock in your ears, and to block out a little bit of surrounding sound.

The cable's another element that differentiates this from the cheapie earbuds that came in-box with your iPod. It's a 4N silver-plated, oxygen-free copper cable, and it's detachable from the buds so you can replace the cable or buds if one or the other is damaged (or if you make an upgrade).

There are some small differences between the two on-sale models. The USB-C version has a small control panel, with volume rocker and microphone, and it has a built-in DAC for hi-res audio.

Given how many products are losing the headphone jack nowadays, I imagine most people will opt for USB-C… unless you're one of the people still holding onto your iPod and you want these to bring back that classic feeling.

• Danish brand Jamo returns after hiatus with two new lines
• Concert revive 1990s design, wooden veneer
• Element offer shallow bodies and understated designs

After a 2024 sale of the company threw doubt on its continued existence, legacy Danish hi-fi brand Jamo has proven the skeptics wrong by coming back. And it's not just returning with one product, but a whopping seven.

This is across two families, and one will look familiar to audiophiles. The Concert Legacy series brings back the look of Jamo's older speakers, including the Concert 803, but in a newer form.

There are three models here: the Legacy 8 ($2,999), Legacy 9 ($5,299) and Legacy 11 ($7,999). Each price is for a pair of speakers, and we're waiting on international pricing, but we expect them to be available in plenty of countries.

The Legacy 8 is a passive bookshelf speaker with a 6.5-inch midwoofer and 1-inch dome tweeter. The Legacy 9 is a floorstander that adds two 6.5-inch woofers to the mix, and the Legacy 11 pops in another one of those woofers for good measure.

In the latter two models, the woofers are separated to a lower unit, which is padded with rubber to avoid it affecting your higher frequencies.

Each model comes in a trio of wooden finishes: Onxy, Heritage or Northern Frost.

Keeping it flat

The newer family of devices from Jamo is the Concert Element series. This differentiates itself by taking a Scandi-chic design; each looks like a Lego brick that plays music. They're minimalist and funky.

There are four devices here: the Concert Element 50 ($1,099), Element 70 ($1,899), Element 90 ($2,499) and the subwoofer SW10 ($699, and this price is for just one unit, not two).

With a (relatively) thin design, these devices are designed to fit better in shallow crevices or, in the case of the bookshelf Element 50, on furniture. This model has a 1-inch dome tweeter and 6.5-inch woofer, with a down-firing port.

The next two models are both floor-standers. The Element 70 gets a 1-inch tweeter, 5-inch medium cone and 8-inch woofer, while the Element 90 slightly increases the sizes of those drivers with a 1-inch tweeter, 6.5-inch medium and 10-inch woofer.

As you can probably guess by the prices, these aren't the exact audio equals of the Concert Legacy series, though you'd still expect them to be impressive. It's the design that sets these models apart, with a clean look that screams modernism, and we really like the thoughtfulness around make a more slimline option for narrower spaces.

The Concert Element SW10 offers a 10-inch long-throw woofer, and connects to other speakers by dual RCA / LFE line in.

All of these seven new Jamo speakers will go on sale in August 2026, so you've got a while to save up for them.

• Spotify is bringing AI DJ to more countries, including France and Germany
• Users in these markets have been begging for access for years
• AI DJ is also rolling out in four new languages

Is Spotify’s AI DJ still not available in your country? If the answer is yes, you share a common pain point with a lot of loyal subscribers around the world, but that's about to change as Spotify is expanding its digital maestro to more regions — finally!

After years of only being available in select markets around the world, many subscribers have taken to social media to voice their frustrations (you can see an example of these types of posts below). But that's now changing, as Spotify has finally announced that it will be launching AI DJ in more countries.

I really like the implementation of AI DJ, but it feels a bit basic. Here are some of my ideas to make it feel better. from r/truespotify

Starting today, Premium users in a handful of European regions will be getting the AI DJ treatment, including Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Switzerland. The feature is also rolling out to users in Brazil and South Korea.

In addition to the feature coming to more countries, Spotify is also expanding its language availability to French, German, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese, making it a lot easier for you to cast your voice requests to DJ in your mother tongue.

It’s been quite the slow rollout for one of the best music streaming service's most popular features. Aside from unsupported languages, users around the world have been left bewildered with its slow launch given that AI DJ has been a flagship Spotify feature for the best part of three years.

When Spotify first launched AI DJ back in early 2023, it was only available to Premium subscribers in the US and Canada at first. Shortly after, Spotify expanded AI DJ’s accessibility to music fans in the UK and Ireland, followed by a wider rollout to Australia and New Zealand, as well as select markets in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Even then, AI DJ’s availability still felt quite restrictive and despite these expansions, a lot of users in bigger markets were still left out of the equation. This has mainly affected Premium subscribers in European markets such as France and Germany, and Spotify subscribers haven’t shied from expressing their annoyances.

One Redditor recently said: "I got a notification saying the DJ was there... so I clicked on it, and it said it wasn't available in my country." Hopefully these frustrations can be put to bed now that Spotify is bringing AI DJ to the countries that have been missing out.

We reached out to Spotify who gave us more insight to why AI DJ has taken its time to roll out to more markets, who shared the following:

"To build DJ, we want it to feel like a native experience. So, we went through over 100 auditions, selecting voice talent that felt authentic to each market. From there, the team worked with local teams to help shape each DJ's personality — making sure the tone, warmth, and cultural nuance felt genuinely local, not just translated".

Additionally, the platform also teased new AI DJ developments that are in the pipeline: "Our plan is to continue to gather listener feedback and enhance the DJ experience to make it more interactive for our listeners".