Gizmodo: nixon

Lightning Review: Nixon Master Blaster Headphones

Adrian Covert — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:20:00 EDT

Nixon's Master Blaster Headphones are their top-of-the-line, studio quality headphones. In addition to beautiful, lightweight design, these leather-wrapped cans have 50mm dynamic drivers and an analog volume dial built around the speaker cabinet.

Price: $200

The Verdict: There's a lot to love about the Master Blasters. Clearly the name is awesome, but the look and sound of these headphones also rise to the occasion. I particularly love the vinyl record-look on the outside of the cans, and the firm fit that the ball and socket hinge provides. The leather keeps things soft and comfy, and while the lightweight means you can wear them for more than 30 minutes without feeling like a pile of bricks. The rotating volume knob around the speaker cabinet is also a quick and easy way to kill the sound.

As for the sound, the Master Blasters excel in high and mid-range clarity, able to delineate one intricate sound texture from another. On the other end, the bass handling is adequate, if not spectacular. Punchy bass tends to sound lifeless, while rumbling, fuzzy bass has a mild, pleasant resonance. I used Sony's V700dj headphone as a reference pair of headphones, since the two are similarly spec'd. In my brief, very unscientific tests, the Master Blasters were better when it came to the upper range of sound frequencies, but the bass and lower mid-range of the Sony's are noticeably better.

Basically, Nixon's Master Blaster's aren't the cheapest or most portable full-sized headphones around, but if you're willing to pay a little extra for good design and a nuanced improvement in sound, these are well worth considering. [Nixon]

Especially Good For: Horn-based Jazz, Lo-fi Indie, Ambient, IDM, Glitch

Not Really Great For: Dirty South Hip-hop, Dubstep, Metal, Bass music

Watch Concepts Let You Play Pong and Tetris In Style

Adrian Covert — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:40:02 EST

Lysandre Follet's watch concepts assume the identity of a pair of Nixon timepieces, throwing pong or tetris into the inner workings while avoiding excessive nerddom. The watches balance throwback games with simple, clean designs that don't look to irony for their appeal (like the designer retro-reissue of the Casio Databank). If this were ever real, I'd seriously consider buying it. [Yanko Design]

Nixon Lodown For the Global Surfer: 200 Beaches, Good For 15 Years

kevinhall2 — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 22:30:00 EDT

The Nixon Lodown has 15 years worth of preprogrammed tidal info for 200 beaches all the world over. Right at your wrist you can monitor the height of the waves, and don't be afraid to jump right in when the surf looks good—the Lodown has a water resistance rating of 100m. The Lodown's simple presentation of data with its gray-on-black blocks makes it look pretty stylish, but is it $90 worth of stylish?

Any information that doesn't update is susceptible to being regularly faulty, but if you visit a lot of beaches, this might be a neat watch to have. Of course, the Lodown also has the usual frills: A light for the nighttime, an alarm and timer, and the date, Also, you get some colors to choose from, either black, silver, and an off white and blue.

Product page [Nixon via Technabob]

Nixon Watch Doubles as Recorder

Louis Ramirez — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 10:14:22 EST

If those LED watches are still giving you trouble, perhaps you'd be better off with a watch like this. The Nixon Dictator lets you store up to 8 different voice recordings (3.5 minutes total) inside its tiny retro casing. We wish it'd give you a bit more recording time, but for $120 bucks, it's not bad at all. It's available in black or brown. – Louis Ramirez

Nixon Dictator Watch [via The Uber Review]