Mystery Headphones

June 8, 2017 2:26 PM

Hey, folks. I found these headphones in the free box at work. They have a USB-C charging port at the bottom, along with an on-off switch. The only maker name is the logo on the side (in the picture). I've tried googling Alil headphones to no avail, tried Amazon and TinEye image searches. Anone ever seen or heard of these mystery brand headphones? Brand name or pointer to website would be helfpul. Do they come from the other parallel dimension Earth where we have Pres. Clinton? Thanks for your help!
posted by Philbo to Technology (11 answers total)

Best answer: Maybe this? Looks like the company isn't around anymore, so I couldn't find much information on the product, but image-searching "Accidentally Extraordinary" turns up a lot of headphones that look like yours.
posted by ectabo at 2:45 PM on June 8, 2017

Best answer: Looks like their Twitter is more helpful than their (defunct) website.
posted by suedehead at 2:50 PM on June 8, 2017

Response by poster: Yep, that must be it. It never would have occurred to me that the second letter is a sideways E. anybody know anything more about them?
posted by Philbo at 4:27 PM on June 8, 2017

Looks from my research that AE just slapped their brand on generic wood headphones sourced from the Chinese OEM supplier eSmooth. These sorts of vanity audio startups come and go. Esmooth may also be out of business but their products were very cheap.
posted by spitbull at 4:53 PM on June 8, 2017

looks like this might be them on head-fi.
posted by namewithoutwords at 5:47 PM on June 8, 2017

Yeah they are Esmooth OEM cans, this model. However I was wrong about ESmooth, which is Taiwanese not PRC.
posted by spitbull at 5:57 PM on June 8, 2017

They do not have a USB-C port.
posted by dmd at 6:10 PM on June 8, 2017

Response by poster: No, they really do. They're the bluetooth version. I can't find the exact ones from eSmooth, but here's a video from AE advertising the bluetooth version, and here's the shipping announcement. They don't seem to be holding a charge, though. Ah well.
Thanks everyone for the investigation work!
posted by Philbo at 6:14 PM on June 8, 2017

Weird. So they took a cheap OEM headphone, removed the micro-USB port, added a USB-C port, put it on Kickstarter, and claimed they're theirs? Is that the story?
posted by dmd at 6:11 AM on June 9, 2017

Response by poster: Oh, sorry. Yes, it was a micro-USB port.
posted by Philbo at 9:12 AM on June 9, 2017

That makes much more sense.
posted by dmd at 10:31 AM on June 9, 2017