How Much Does a Good Earpiece Cost?

Actually, quality two-way radio earpieces are not nearly as cost prohibitive as you might expect them to be.

In fact, you can get a professional quality model for as little as just over £10 (not including shipping costs). The linked model even comes with a special noise-reducing microphone included in the price.

Elsewhere, Amazon.co.uk has earpiece and headset deals for as low as £6.00. These won’t be top-end products, obviously, but they are unlikely to let you down either.



As with all things, it depends on what uses you have in mind. If you are unsure as to exactly what your needs are, then it is wiser to spend a little extra (we’re not talking a bank-breaking amount, after all) than it is to buy the cheapest model, saving £7 - £8 in the short term, only to end up disappointed with your final purchase.

You can get a ‘good’ (as in, generally reliable ‘all rounder’) earpiece for £10 - £20. These earpieces aren’t particularly flashy, but they can be relied upon to get the job done. As a general guide, some of the more professional quality pieces available will go up as high as £40 - £50. Depending on what these models are used for, all will do a fine job.

Of course, as with anything, there is a high-end and a low-end to the marketplace. However, unlike some markets, low-end earpieces do not represent an enormous loss in quality. They will work fine for basic/hobby use, but we recommend you spend out towards the higher end of the market for professional usage.

EarpieceOnline is a good place to get your earpiece from, especially since they offer free next day delivery on all their items.



Typically, earpieces are not an expensive item. In fact, they only cost a substantial amount when professional earpieces are bought in bulk for business use. However, the linked site is among the cheapest online and stocks a wide variety of different products.

Of course, all prices listed here are ‘ballpark figures’ unless otherwise stated. The sites/stockists you use may be cheaper, or more expensive, so it will probably pay to shop around a little bit.

If you are able to find any cheaper sites, then you might let us know, that way we can recommend them to other users.

Concept Headphones That Won’t Get You Killed While Biking

“EVERY SINGLE DAY, I see at least five or six people with headphones on while cycling,” says Gemma Roper. The designer and recent graduate of London’s Royal College of Art finds the habit a troubling distraction but also an understandable tactic of using music to soften a harsh daily commute.

The problem is that cyclists also need to stay alert to certain sounds in order to be safe while weaving through traffic. Riding is already dicey in London, Roper says, because the local infrastructure accommodates bus and car traffic over cyclists. The city has seen eight cyclist fatalities so far this year; last year, there were 13. Roper decided that music pumping through earphones shouldn’t contribute to the risk. Her Safe + Sound headphone design uses bone conduction to play tunes through wearers’ cheekbones, instead of directly into their eardrums, so they can still detect ambient noise.

Bone-conduction headphones work by playing soundwave vibrations on top of bones, which then transmit the waves into to the Cochlea, or inner ear, bypassing the delicate eardrum. It could work anywhere on the body but works best near the ear. The technique itself is oldâ€"Beethoven, who was deaf, crafted a crude conductive listening device by biting on a metal rod attached to his pianoâ€"and a few other headphone makers have rolled out models using the technology in recent years.

Roper’s Safe + Sound are made with cycling helmets in mind. Most of the bone-conduction headphones on the market are wrap around the ear (like these, and these), with nodes that rest more or less where a helmet strap would sit. Asking cyclists to layer up headgear is an uncomfortable and unreasonable ask. At the same time, making any modifications to the helmet that might deter a rider from wearing one is out of the question. So Roper created something that could clip onto to a helmet’s straps. While testing out the idea, she also found that asking cyclists to tote around two pairs of headphones will slow down adoption, so her buds convert into a regular pair of headphones; the modular bone-conducting pieces fit magnetically into a pair of gold muffs.

London has yet to pass a ban on wearing headphones while riding a bike, and only five states in the U.S. forbid the practice. For now, Roper’s design, a working prototype, could be the transitional object cyclists need before giving up their headphones cold turkey.

Wearing a headset or a pair of earphones whilst cycling is a dangerous game to play, particularly in busy cities. This headset from broadbandchoices.co.uk is a simple idea and more importantly is safe. 

Haunted Mirror Nets £100 On eBay

A supposedly haunted mirror has been sold on eBay for the princely sum of £100 (I have no idea if that includes P&P).

The London-based pair selling the item claimed that it possessed strange powers, in particular the ability to cause intense pain, a constant feeling of being watched and a “sense of impending doom”.

Joseph Birch, a 20-year-old student and his flatmate, painter Sotiris Charalambous (34) put the mirror up for auction after finally having enough of the paranormal phenomena that apparently accompanied it.

The sale had nothing at all to do with the fact that a student and his painter flatmate live in the enormously expensive centre of London and needed a little extra spending and/or food money. Probably.

The mirror itself is actually quite nice, being described in the item listing as a “beautiful Victorian style mirror” that enjoyed “pride of place in our North London studio apartment for several months”. However, not long after putting the mirror up, the couple began to experience “strange phenomena”.

According to the item listing, "Many times since putting up the mirror, both myself and my flat mate have woken in the early morning hours screaming in pain (...) The mood in the flat turned sour. I felt constantly as if there was a sense of impending doom upon us... Both of us began to feel zombie like, as if drained of all our energy."

As if all that wasn’t bad enough, the mirror is said to cause leg cramps, things going missing, bad luck, misery, financial problems, illness and the aforementioned sense of impending doom.

If I remember my own student days correctly (and I’m sure I do, because they actually weren’t THAT long ago), I endured quite a bit of bad luck, as well as things going missing, misery, financial problems and illness â€" and I think any University student with an oncoming exam or deadline can relate to a feeling of impending doom...

As for screaming in the middle of the night â€" it might be a flashback from living in halls. You try sleeping when your neighbors are partying all night, every night and then setting off the building fire alarm every fourteen minutes â€" you’ll scream too.



Dunno about the leg cramps, though. That part’s a little spooky.

The eBay listing concluded with the words, “I would ideally like it to go to somebody who has experience with the paranormal/supernatural and knows what they are getting themselves in for."

Apparently, that includes paying well over the market value for an item in the hopes that it will cause them pain, financial problems and abject misery. Well, I think its safe to say, that by the time the ‘magic mirror’ arrives at its new home, the pair will have found a satisfied customer.

...Unless the nasty mirror begins to reveal the image of a poor sucker with too much money, that is. Then, he/she might be somewhat disappointed, but as soon as the mood in the house turns sour â€" they’ll have gotten their money’s worth once again.

Anyway, I digress, if you’re upset that you missed out on this ‘one of a kind’ item, head on over to eBay and type in the word ‘haunted’ â€" you’ll be surprised at some of the weird (and wonderful) stuff you can find.