New York-based Master & Dynamic is best known for its premium sound and gorgeous portfolio of audio peripherals.
The price tags on its products also attest to how premium they are.
In fact, if theres anything wevehad a gripe withon its headphones, its usually been theprice.
Photo: Dua Rashid / Gizmodo
It likes to remain exclusive to professionals or real audiophiles.
Recently, M&D gave its most high-end headphones, the $600 MW75, a refresh.
Itembedded the headphones with EEG(Electroencephalography) sensors and rebranded them as the MW75 Neuro for $700.
Photo: Dua Rashid / Gizmodo
The sensors work like a regular EEG test that tracks and records the electrical activity in your brain.
The MW75 Neuro is designed to help you focus better.
The headphones also reward you for your focus, with 100 points being the daily goal.
Photo: Dua Rashid / Gizmodo
At the moment, though, all that data certainly isnt worth $700.
Its simply not enough.
He went as far as to say that he might not even download an app for it.
Photo: Dua Rashid / Gizmodo
Im with my friend on this one.
I found that I had no real reason to keep tracking my focus.
And maybe someone without attention deficit issues might even find it completely unnecessary.
Photo: Dua Rashid / Gizmodo
More importantly, lets not forget that this isnt some sensor attached to your skin tracking you all day.
Its a hefty 378g gear on your noggin, which quickly starts feeling like a burden.
Wearing headphones even when youre not listening to anything is a tiring way of tracking focus.
These are just a few things I struggled with.
I can imagine caps or bandanas being an issue, too.
I often found these out of juice when Id pick them up during my time with them.
The only way to regularly use these with ANC and EEG is to recharge them every day.
affect your focus time.
For that, Id need tech thats a lot more invisible.
To make the overall experience more annoying, the companion app was extremely buggy in terms of connection.
Id have to switch to the controls app, do nothing there, and return to Neurable.
I tried simply waiting on the Neurable app, but that never worked.
On multiple days, it simply refused to recognize the Bluetooth connection.
I tried waiting, rebooting the app, and switching to configs.
Nothing worked, so I eventually gave up on those days.
I deliberately kept my usage pattern real and natural.
It told me I focus best in the evenings.
It graphs out your stats pretty precisely, and I must give them that.
Any dip or spike in your attention is immediately noted and promptly presented when you end the session.
I noticed the attention span metrics helped shame me into focusing eventually.
Seeing Your best attention span was four minutes after ending a one-hour session was pretty embarrassing.
So, I guess I can say it pushed me to focus better most days.
Did it completely transform the way I work, though?
I was hoping its points system would incentivize me to concentrate harder.
It did, but I wish it was a lot less lenient than it was.
I would very quickly hit 100 points, and there wouldnt be much of an incentive anymore.
Im particularly fond of M&Ds decision to include physical buttons on all its products.
Navigating these headphones was a breeze.
Theres also Spotify integration coming, which will inform you what kind of music works best for your focus.
The company sounds hopeful about adding more brain conditions to the headphones, too.
Weve been seeing the trend of unfinished gadgets withHumanes AI Pinand theRabbit R1.
I believe in buying a gadget for what it is today, not what itcanbe tomorrow.
I like the MW75 Neuros design premise.
Im very excited to see how this product evolves in the future.
News from the future, delivered to your present.
