Just when you thought you’ve seen it all in the world of wireless earbuds, innovation comes out again. This time, that innovation comes courtesy of JVC Kenwood, which recently launched its Victor Wood Master (take out the jokes now) wireless earbuds. The new Hi-Fi wireless earbuds are named so because of their use of wood. But first let’s focus on its true novelty: self-healing paint.
These wireless earbuds claim to be the first to use self-healing paint on the top housing, which is designed to make external scratches on the wireless earbuds “less noticeable over time.” After not really paying attention to my bleeding-edge paint technique, I looked into the whole idea of self-healing paint, which is apparently a real thing, although it seems to be used mostly on cars. I don’t know exactly what type of self-healing paint JVC is using in the Kenwood Wood Master Wireless Earbuds, but self-healing paint on vehicles uses a special polymer composition that, if scratched, allows the paint to reform when heat (like from the sun) is applied.
The general consensus seems to be that it really does help repair small scratches, which is great if you have a Lexus, and now potentially even if you have a high-end pair of wireless earbuds.
Besides the self-healing paint bit, the Wood Master Wireless Earbuds get weird with it in other ways too. As you may have already guessed, the Wood Master features wood extensively and the company is calling it a new “hybrid wood driver.” Like its previous wireless earbuds in the Wood series, the Wood Master uses a “proprietary wood diaphragm technology”, this time made from African rosewood and wood pulp. JVC Kenwood claims that the Wood Master Wireless earbuds retain “the vocal expressivity that is a hallmark of Wood” [series],
I haven’t used any of these wooden earbuds myself, so it’s hard to say what that “expression” actually means in practice, but JVC Kenwood is certainly positioning these as truly hi-fi wireless earbuds in both their marketing and design. The Wood Master uses 10mm drivers and will come in two different colors, both inspired by the instruments. My favorite is the Sunburst, which looks like a sunburst guitar, but also has a black colorway to mimic a piano. Both come with a leather-like charging case that is meant to mimic a hard case for a device. Battery-wise, JVC Kenwood is advertising 7 hours with active noise cancellation on and 14 hours with the charging case. They’re not great people, but they’re not terrible either.
If any of this speaks to you, the Wood Master is expected to launch in Japan later this month for 41,800 yen, or about $270. So… wood you? Or wood don’t you?