Monster Pays Tribute To Miles Davis

By Lisa Johnston -- TWICE, 10/22/2009

New York - Monster used a panel last night at the CMJ Music Marathon and Film Festival, held here, to introduce the newest addition to its line of earphones.

Noel Lee used a CMJ panel to set the stage for the U.S. debut of the Miles Davis Tribute headphones.Fittingly, the panel was about Miles Davis and the new Monster device is known as the Miles Davis Tribute in-ear headphones.

"This is a way to bring Miles' music to life," said Lee to the panel audience. He pointed to a slide of standard white iPod ear buds and noted that most people in the room probably owned an iPod with such ear buds. "How do you hear all the delicacy and emotion [in Davis' music] with these? You can't do it."

Lee said the headphones, which were created in conjunction with Miles Davis Properties, were inspired by the jazz musician's trumpet, and its case was inspired by a trumpet case. A silhouette of Davis and a gold-etch signature appear on the earpiece.

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The headphones will be available beginning Nov. 15 for a $399 suggested retail. Lee told TWICE that J&R Music will be the first to carry them, and that 1,000 units will initially be serialized. If more are run, Lee said, they will not be serialized.

A 50^th anniversary boxed set of Davis' "Kind of Blue" album comes with the headphones, and it also carries the company's one-time limited lifetime replacement guarantee. According to Monster, the headphones will be replaced one time even if the user accidentally breaks them himself.

Other features include SuperTip ear tips for "superior noise isolation," and a cable-management system with a designed on-cable slider and clip that's said to keep weight off the headphones.