There’s a ton of headphone/earphone/canalphone/earbud options out on the market and it can be hard to filter through the crap and find headphones that perform well while keeping aesthetics in mind. The white earbuds that come with Ipods have become a staple on college campuses where they help complete that all important hipster look, but they don’t do much for the music you’re listening to.
A few years ago I came across the Koss SportaPro headphones and was very impressed with their sound and comfort level. I handed those down to the wife to work out with and looked for another pair to use at work (programming requires good tunes). My requirements weren’t too strict:
- Reasonably priced (under $50)
- Good sound quality
- On ear pads to allow in ambient noise (to avoid startling taps on the shoulder)
- Comfortable and easy to put on and remove
These few parameters helped eliminate a lot of products. I eventually ended up looking at the Sennheiser PX 100’s, another pair of SportaPro’s, and Grado SR60’s (pricier and bulkier than I wanted). This review at Dan’s Data finally sold me on the Sennheisers and I couldn’t be happier.
In the 2-3 years I’ve had the PX 100’s I estimate I’ve put 1500-2000 hours of music through them. The best way to describe how they sound is that they don’t sound like headphones. They’re clear and fairly detailed without being fatiguing in the high end and quite possibly pump out the perfect amount of bass. I highly recommend the Sennheiser PX 100’s if you are looking for a good moderately priced pair of cans.
Sennheiser PX 100 (black)
Sennheiser PX 100 (white)
Tagged with: audio, gear, music, review
Posted under: Geek Stuff
Been a month since my last post and much has happened in that time period. Since The Blarg and MRI both updated I’ll finish things off with a sort of sibling blog hat trick if you will.
First off I left my position with the consulting firm I had been with for the past year. My last day was July 6th and I’m taking a month off before starting up at LA County with their Web group. I’m really looking forward to the change, hopefully the work will be more challenging and rewarding. The benefits are excellent and you can’t beat a 2.5 mile commute (I was doing 25 miles each way to Diamond Bar and my gas bill was approaching $180 a month).
Wedding stuff: 4 days and counting and nearly everything is done. Taking time off helped since I was free during the day to do whatever needed to be done. Took some late engagement pictures last week and got those printed up (thank you Richard!), printed up place cards, table numbers, programs and made favors.
Our new place: With my sister, MRI, moving to San Diego they needed to rent out their condo. With Sarah and I getting married we needed a place to rent. To say the least there wasn’t much debate about what we should do. Sarah is already moved into the condo and we’re getting settled in. We have the 2 most important things already: a bed and a HDTV.
Previously mentioned HDTV: My new toy is a 42″ Panasonic Plasma and I’m loving it. We’ve been watching TV on my 20″ LCD for about a year and I was ready for something really nice. Cashed in credit card rewards and got a free HD-DVD player (would have had to spend $100 on a player with HDMI anyways) and I’ve got the receiver already. OTA HDTV and DVDs look gorgeous. Pics of the setup will definitely be posted once I receive my speakers.
Honeymoon: I just need to do some last minute confirmations but everything is booked and we are picking a few things we want to do. I just kind of want to explore and take a bunch of pictures. Kauai and Maui here we come.
Photography experiments: My goal is to come back from Hawaii with a bunch of awesome pics to print and fill our large empty walls with. One of these pics I want to be a nice big panorama and to facilitate that I’m taking a tripod and new gadget to make sure it is perfect.
That’s where the Panosaurus comes in. It positions the camera in the portrait position and you calibrate it to rotate around the nodal point of the lens so things line up properly as you rotate the camera. I’m thinking a 360 view from the top of Waimea Canyon would be pretty sweet. And here’s a quick test I did of my bedroom (12 pics stitched together with a manual exposure, I only have 2 light bulbs in so one side of the room is darker):
On a side note I think it is pretty interesting that you’re possessions can really demonstrate what type of person you are. Some interesting observations about myself/room (I’ll work left to right):
- Homemade rear speaker stand made from metal bookshelf end spray painted white and screwed to wall.
- Box with water bottle wrapped in paper with line and nail in front, Panosaurus calibration equipment.
- Phone which hasn’t actually been plugged in for several months for some reason.
- Numerous pictures of soon to be wife.
- Cluttered desk
- Bookshelf. Normally top shelf dedicated to SNES game collection and other video games. Next shelf dedicated to miscellaneous literature: Greek mythology, WWII and Vietnam books, fantasy and sci fi. Next shelf would be almost completely dedicated to a mostly complete Star Wars book collection. Next 2 shelves are filled with math and programming books. Wow that all just screams nerd.
- Boxes in living room ready to be moved out.
- Boxes in bedroom ready to be filled.
- Wardrobe consisting mostly of t-shirts, that might have to change soon.
That might be it until after the Honeymoon since the next 4 days are going to be pretty busy with Rehearsal dinner and getting all the last minute things ready. In the meantime stick it to the RIAA man and download Prince’s new free album.
Tagged with: gear, life, photography, wedding
Posted under: Life Stuff
I promised Angelo some details about my attempt at installing a new headunit and dash kit in my truck. So here’s my attempt at installing an aftermarket stereo/radio/cd player and auxiliary input for an mp3 player, Ipod or any other audio playing device in my Tacoma.
Dash Kit Info: I got the dash kit from SJ Great Deals. It is the SCOSCHE TA2052B Single DIN Color Match, they also make a single DIN in black (TA2052BLKB) and the double DIN possibly color matched (TA2053B) according to the manufacter’s website.
This is the stock stereo I had to work with. The trend has been towards completely integrating the stereo into a car’s dash, it looks great but as soon as you want to stick a nicer radio in you might be stuck. I got an aftermarket dash kit that is color matched (not exact but good enough) to the silver around the vents.
Step 1 - Rip out climate control, unbolt and remove dash and stereo, unhook everything.
Step 2 - Wire up wire harness so you don’t have to cut any of the factory wiring.
Step 3 - Hookup stereo and test to make sure everything works before putting the whole thing back together.
Step 4 - I’ve got everything in and just need to stick the climate control panel back on. Getting the head unit and hazards/clock panel into the replacement dash was the most time consuming part of the whole project. First I couldn’t get the hazards panel out of the stock dash but managed to pry it out after an hour. Secondly, the installation instructions for the dash kit were pretty brief, I guess you can consider a diagram and a few unintelligible sentences instructions. At this point I had also drilled a hole in the back of the pocket to feed the cable for the auxiliary input through.
Finish - And here is the result of all my effort. With everything put back together I actually like the look of the replacement dash kit more than the original bumpy texture (still on the climate control panel though). Audio quality is marginally better from what I can tell but I still have to tweak but at least I can hook up an mp3 player now. I’ll have to stick new speakers in to get the most out of the new unit.
Not a terribly difficult project but I’m glad I did instead of paying an installer a good chunk of change to do it. I probably got lucky since most dashes aren’t this accessible and easy to work with.
Tagged with: audio, cars, gear, install, stereo
Posted under: Geek Stuff
