2-for-Tuesday: Able Planet Stereo Headphones

  • You get two of these headsets, because when have you ever said “I’m sure glad I don’t have an extra pair of headphones”?
  • Lightweight enough to wear all day, bulky enough to warn people that you’re not in the mood for their shit
  • Balanced full-range sound for music: in other words, the bass doesn’t overwhelm the details of the highs and lows
  • Frequency response: 20Hz-20kHz, sensitive to 100db
  • LINX Audio was originally developed for people with hearing problems, so it’s probably not just marketing BS
  • Swivelly, flexy boom mic compatible with pretty much every phone, computer, gaming console, and pop-star fantasy
  • Model: TL210M (short and unique, which is all we ask from a model number)
see more product specs

A "Do Not Disturb" sign for your head.

Uh-oh, fellow misanthropes, introverts, and antisocial types. The New York Times is onto us. They’ve tumbled to our little secret: that sometimes we wear headphones with no sound playing through them, to keep people from talking to us.

It’s not just for warding off creeps on the bus anymore. The headphone ruse has evolved into an essential survival tactic in the open-plan cybersweatshops of today. If you can’t build a wall around your desk anymore, at least you can build a symbolic wall around your skull.

And the bigger the wall, the better. Earbuds aren’t gonna do it. That annoying co-worker may not even notice them as they head toward you across that big room - or, anyway, can plausibly claim they didn’t. You need an unmistakable declaration that your attention is closed for business. You need headphones.

For those times when you’re actually listening to something, these Able Planet headphones sound pretty sharp. The bass is fully present but doesn’t overwhelm the crispness and clarity of the music, like so many headphones do these days. And they’re great for hearing voices, of course, as befits both the company’s roots in enhancement devices for people with hearing difficulties, and these headsets’ telecom functions.

But however they sound, their padded on-ear cups and conspicuous boom mic send a clear visual signal: I’M BUSY. LEAVE ME ALONE.

Office doors may come unhinged. Cubicle walls may crumble. But they can have our headphones when they pry them from our cold, dead ears.

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  • on this deal.

And you bought...

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  • That’s $20356 total.
  • (including shipping)

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