The Evolution of Smart Home Technology: What’s Next?
Smart home technology has evolved dramatically over the last decade, transforming how we interact with our living spaces. Initially, home automation was seen as a luxury—an area for early adopters. The first wave included simple systems like programmable thermostats and lighting controls. These basic innovations were designed to increase convenience, save energy, and offer greater control over household environments. But today, the landscape of Top Smart Home Devices has expanded far beyond those humble beginnings. The rise of voice-activated assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple’s Siri helped fuel the revolution. These devices became the central hub for an entire ecosystem of interconnected gadgets, enabling homeowners to control everything from lights and thermostats to security systems and home entertainment with simple voice commands. The ease of integration between devices has made smart homes more accessible and user-friendly, marking a...
Feb 11, 2025
The bad: They sound detailed on first brush but what they actually do (like some dynamic headphones that have electrostatic envy and want to bring out a lot of detail) is wildly overemphasize the treble. It's positively harsh. It simply can't do bass. I ordered one and noticed that on a few songs it would VIBRATE when there was a decent amount of bass. I returned it (excellent service Massdrop) and was going to buy another thinking I had a bad one but managed to audition someone else's AKG K7XX first and it had the same issues. To me it seems like they tried hard to change the character of the headphones by changing the tuning and ended up ruining the headphones because the drivers aren't designed for the tuning they were going for. This is particularly evident with the bass. These drivers basically weren't designed to do bass and by increasing the bass in the tuning the bass frequently gets to levels where the drivers just can't handle it.
I've heard people say it's a monitoring headphone, not a listening one. That's is absolute bull$h!t. If you want something that highlights flaws you are much better off getting a Sony MDR-V6 or Sony MDR-7506 (both are basically the same except the color and model number) at less than half the price. Those emphasize the treble too but still sound good and if you EQ them you can get a really flat response.
It's not even remotely close to as good as the K702 or in the same ballpark as the K712, which I A/B'd it with at the AKG/Harman store in Manhattan. The K702 is pretty good and the K712 was quite excellent, though I probably wouldn't buy either at full retail price. Sorry Massdrop. As far as I'm concerned total fail on this one. Looks like a K712 if you want to look stylish, actual sound quality is not even in the same ballpark.