Audio Technica’s ATH-TWX9 are self-cleaning earbuds

How often do you clean your earphones? If you pick up a pair of these Audio Technica buds you won’t have to worry about that, because they get blasted with UV light for 70 seconds every time you put them back in the case.

We’ve already seen a similar trick from LG, but with mirrors inside to ensure the germ-killing rays reach every crevice, the ATH-TWX9 take things to the next level. Audio Technica reckons they’re 90% effective against staphylococcus bacteria, which can cause ear infections, while it’s 99% effective against E. coli and bacteriophage viruses.

They should sound nice and clean too, with 5.8mm drivers, support for Qualcomm’s aptX Adaptive audio and Sony’s 360 Reality Audio codecs, plus a low-latency mode for reduced lag when gaming. The noise cancelling has five different settings that you can cycle through using the touch controls, but there’s also an app that allows you to tweak it further, or you can just let it automatically adapt to how much racket there is around you.

The case isn’t just for cleaning, of course, with 18.5 hours of charge inside to add to the six hours you get from the buds. You can buy a pair now from Audio Technica for £280.

About

Stuff's other Tom has been writing for the magazine and website since 2006, when smartphones were only for massive nerds and you could say “Alexa” out loud without a robot answering. Over the years he’s written about everything from MP3s to NFTs, played FIFA with Trent Alexander-Arnold, and amassed a really quite impressive collection of USB sticks.