How Much Do They Love You?

Conversely...how much do they hate the music you play? If you live with a family - of relatives, housemates, or work colleagues - you will at some stage of the game irritate them to the point of murder. Sometimes it will be your bathroom habits and sometimes what you do with leftovers in the fridge - but nearly all the time it will be what you choose as music. And where and when you choose to play it. You can incite nearly anyone into a frenzy with the " Manamana " song played repeatedly. Fine if you are into psychological torture, but bad for most other family relationships. The answer to the problem is usually to prevent the sound from reaching their ears - if you can do it while enjoying it yourself you have advanced in the world of happiness. I've shown headphones from Sennheiser and other makers here in the this column before. Now it is the turn of Bang & Olufsen. These are not for the film-maker to monitor the sound from their new video camera - that's the Sennie's task. These 'phones are for the consumer of music to surround their ears with it and keep that away from the rest of the household. Elegant looking, phenomenal sounding, the Beoplay headphones wirelessly respond to the signals from your Bluetooth equipment and provide more frequency response than nearly all of us can use, as well as distortion-free volume that cannot escape to irritate others. If you're stylish, they are too - they come in a variety of colours and finishes. They are exceedingly comfortable to wear for long periods of time. No-one will complain to you of anything other than your own happiness. If you are more adventurous, and think your family can stand to hear your music, think in terms of a Bluetooth speaker to pair with your music collection. Big, medium, and little - all are good. The littler ones may be easier to get away with at first - the Beosound Explore and A1 are big enough and smooth enough to play for all with good volume but are small enough physically that you can grab them and run once your music starts to rouse the house. As they are all rechargeable, you can take them down the back shed and play your music to yourself in spite of the rest of them. Note to senior readers: there is no finer moment than when your formerly teenaged children come into your hobby room or den and yell at you to turn down your music. Play your cards right and they'll buy you the Beosound headphones just to get some peace.