Marshall Amplification, best known for its guitar amplifiers, was sold to the Swedish company Zound Industries. The irony of the situation is that it was Zound Industries that in recent years, since 2010, has been releasing headphones and speakers under the Marshall brand.

The amount of the transaction is unknown, but it is reported that 24% of the shares remained with the Marshall family. By the way, as a result of the merger after the completion of the transaction, a private company Marshall Group will be obtained.

Jeremy de Maillard, who is currently the CEO of Zound, will also become the CEO of the Marshall Group in the future. He does not expect any changes for the two companies, which means that the business will not be significantly affected by the merger. Including there will be no changes in the development process of headphones and acoustic systems.

We haven’t released a single Zound product that hasn’t been approved by a Marshall acoustic engineer. It’s a complete extension of what we do, except we’re one and the same now.

Apple recently released a developer preview of iOS 16.4 that includes references to the new AirPods with model number A3048 and the new AirPods case with model number A2968.

According to well-known analyst Ming Chi-Kuo, we are talking about the fully wireless version of the AirPods Pro 2 headphones with a USB-C connector. Recall that Apple released AirPods Pro 2 with a Lightning connector at the end of last year. Bulk shipments of the new headphones are expected between the second and third quarters of this year.

Kuo didn’t say anything else about the new AirPods Pro 2. It’s not clear if these will be the same AirPods Pro 2 that come in a USB-C case, or if they’ll get some other hardware changes.

Apple is also expected to release the iPhone 15 lineup this year with a USB-C port instead of a Lightning port, with Kuo claiming that Apple currently has no plans to release USB-C versions of the AirPods 2 and AirPods 3.

Huawei introduced the FreeBuds 5 headphones, which stand out with a very unusual design.

As you can see, they look like some kind of frozen liquid, and this is no accident. According to the company, this design was inspired by the so-called Rupert drops – frozen drops of tempered glass, which, due to their internal structure, stand out for their extreme strength.

As for the technical part, they are based on 11 mm drivers, the headphones support L2HC and LDAC, boast an autonomy of 30 hours, but this is taking into account the case, they support fast charging and are protected from moisture (IP54). The company is asking $130 for the device.