The life of the audiophile is a tough one. From the constant battle to have the highest-quality music, to the eternal struggle of finding the best quality pair of headphones, the quest is never over.
Essentially however, they're only really looking for one particular thing: a product that does something and does it better than any other product out there.
This means that while we've been making speakers for decades, there's still a black hole for innovation in the world of audio: a place where new ideas can roam free -- from headphones that help protect your ears to ear buds that'll learn about your daily habits.
These experimental pieces of gadgetry are every bit as exciting as the latest pair of Sennheisers, precisely because of what they're not: the latest pair of Sennheisers.
Here are five audio gadgets that do something which we'll bet your headphones or speakers can't do. And while they might not be 'the best' speakers or headphones in the world, they're almost certainly the most interesting.
The Dash are a pair of wireless earbuds that combines some of the most advanced technology to become the smartest pair of fitness headphones.
What can they do that your headphones can't? Well for starters they're wireless, waterproof and tiny. Each one is no bigger than a chunky earbud and yet they pack in the ability to measure your heart rate and your steps.
Dash is also a communication device thanks to a bone-conducting microphone and with 4GB of storage you can cram them full of music and go into the big unknown without a smartphone to worry about.
For starters, there's the name: The ARC Plasma Speaker. Also did we mention the name?
What can it do that your speaker can't? Normal speakers use an electromagnet to control the drums and thus vibrate the air around them into sounds.
The ARC has no drum or electromagnet, instead it uses a single arc of plasma running at 30,000 volts to shift the air around it.
Sure, you're not going to get room-filling sound out of it but if the technology can progress far enough then this is an entirely unique way of producing sound.
The Adel Audio range are a collection of in-ear headphones that offer a very unique solution to a problem that we're all guilty of: listening to our music too loudly.
What can they do that my headphones can't? Quite simply it's called RealLoud. It's a technology developed by sound genius Stephen D. Ambrose and essentially involves creating a second ear drum for your ear.
The second ear drum within the headphones then removes all of the damaging air pressure that causes hearing loss, it then also has the added effect of managing to boost the sound while appearing -- to our ears anyway -- to be quieter. Essentially what that means is, you won't need to have the volume up to hear everything at its best.
The Wearhaus Arc may look a little ostentatious but the truth is this is all about turning headphones into an open social experience rather than simply closing yourself off to the rest of the world.
What can it do? These are arguably some of the most socially-connected headphones in the world. Not only do they wirelessly connect to a smartphone but also to each other.
If you're listening to something incredible and want to share it with someone else, they simply walk up, put their headphones on and tap the connect button on the side and voila, you're listening to what they're listening to.
The ARCHT One is a completely omni-directional speaker. It also happens to look a little like a dalek, which is a good sign in our books.
What can it do that my speaker can't? Well it can go in the middle of a room, May not sound like much but you try putting a conventional speaker there and you'll start running into a world of problems, the most notable of which being that half the room now can't hear any music.
The ARCHT One takes the knowledge learnt from making omni-directional Bluetooth speakers and then applies that to a room speaker.
Rather than trying to fire outwards in as many directions as possible the ARCHT fire upwards, the lid at the top of the speaker then evenly spreads the sound around the room.