Ears-on with Sanpei Optics' audio sunglasses

General contractor Richard Sanpei came up with the idea for the dual-purpose hinged sunglasses while watching construction workers fumble with their earplugs. (Credit:James Martin/CNET)

The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades. Ideally, they'd have built-in earbuds. And now they do, thanks to Sanpei Optics.

Sanpei uses fancy lingo like "audio-adaptable glasses" and "hinged temple bar design eyewear" to describe its new product, but it's really pretty simple. The glasses look like regular shades, but you can slide the included earbuds into a dock at the end of each arm, pop the securely fixed 'buds into your ears, and connect to your smartphone or other mobile device right from your glasses.

Getting the glasses to fit just so depends on adjusting the aforementioned patented hinged temple bar (tilt it down for a tighter fit, up for a looser feel). That took some fumbling when I first got my hands on a pair of these, but once I'd angled the arms right, the polarized glasses felt lightweight and comfortable. The earbuds rested at a slightly strange angle when attached to the shades, but I'm still not sure if I need to further fiddle with the dock and three sizes of included silicone earbud tips -- or if, like my former CNET colleague Jasmine France, I'm just weird-eared.

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Samsung Wireless Audio Dock (DA-E750)

By Tim Gideon, Will Greenwald

Few speaker systems have illicited as many "oohs" and "aahs" as the has. To be fair, there's a lot to like: dual dock connectors for Samsung and Apple devices; wireless audio streaming via Bluetooth, AirPlay, or AllShare; and two nifty-looking vacuum tubes that emit a soft orange glow beneath a glass cover on the top panel. But now come the "ughs": It'll cost you $699.99 (list), can be pesky to set up, and suffers from occasional distortion at top volumes. At moderate volumes, however, the DA-E750 offers solid audio performance—and did we mention that it's beautiful?

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