New tech this week: Meta VR glasses, Beats 360 and a $185 CD player

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13 new gadgets this week and it is a pretty varied list. There is a lot of audio in there, from high end hi fi to cheap Bluetooth transmitters, plus a few wearables. A couple of things stood out to me enough that I wanted to start a thread on them

The headline grabber has to be Meta's new VR glasses. They weigh just 100 grams, look more like glasses than a headset, and have dual 5K displays controlled by eye movement, hand gestures and voice. The battery and computing live in an external puck, which is how they keep the weight down. They cost $1,300 and do not arrive until spring 2027, so this is very much a preview

Meta also has a third generation of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses at $449, with better cameras and microphones, a dedicated Meta AI button and up to nine hours of battery. More interesting to me is the Ray-Ban Meta Audio at $329, which drops the cameras completely and just gives you open ear audio and the AI assistant. That feels like a smart move for people who do not want to be walking around with a camera on their face. It lands on October 13

On the headphone side, Beats has a new flagship called the Beats 360 at $350, with a custom chip and swappable earpads and cushions. Bose has teamed up with Thom Browne on a QuietComfort Ultra with cashmere pads for a frankly silly $950. Fiio has the FT15 open back planars at $500 with real wood cups. That is a lot of choice at very different price points. Headphones seem to be the busiest category this year

The one I am most tempted by is the Fiio DP11, a compact CD player and transport for $185 with a built in DAC and a proper range of outputs. CDs are cheap second hand again and this seems like a tidy way back in. Elsewhere there is a $299 Audioengine A2+ Gen 3 speaker pair, iFi's UP Play Bluetooth transmitters from $59 and a titanium Coros Pace 4 Pro running watch with up to 21 days of battery. Anything on this list catch your eye?

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