Jun 29 2012

nice cans

WARNING: this post contains audio geekery. if you experience vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness, shortness of breath, or temporary loss of vision from geekery, please look away from this post right now.

the humble headphone––nearly everyone sports a pair now, most likely the one bundled with that mp3 player or smart phone. but with advances in audio technology, headphones are not just something that transmits sound anymore; it is a device that, at its best, can transport you to a different world with its startlingly realistic sound. conversely, a crappy pair of ‘phones can be absolutely boring to listen to. for those who enjoy good sound but don’t want to spend a big load of $$ on stereo gear, headphones are a economical way to get the most out of your music. for a cheapskate like me, headphones are a welcome alternative to a typical stereo setup.

for casual use, i generally grab the apple ear buds because it’s inexpensive, fairly durable, and easily replaceable if you do break a pair. plus, they are compact and highly portable, a boon if you’re on the move a lot. but like anything in life, sometimes you want more (moar!). for that reason, i’m typically on the lookout for better cans.

if you ever shopped for headphones, you’ve probably heard of akg headphones, one of the better brands in the ‘phone business. (akg was an austrian company, but now owned by harmon international.) one day i came across a pair of akg k422 online for a good deal; long story short, i ended up buying it after some research.

it seems that the k422 is specially made for the euro retailer Fnac, so you won’t find the k422 on akg’s website. (i’m not too familiar with Fnac, but it’s a french company that operates primarily in europe & has an international presence. i’ve heard that the Fnac is kinda like a combination of best buy and barnes & noble.) i found the k422 on Fnac’s website for around $25 before shipping, and ebay listings sell it between $40-$45 on average. price-wise, the k422 can be considered a budget headphone. below are the basic specs.

style: semi-open-back, supra-aural, folding headphone
impedance: 32 ohms
sensitivity: 125 db/mW
max input power: 30 mv
freq. response: 13 Hz – 27 kHz
weight: 3.7 oz

the k422 is basically a supra-aural, semi-open-back, portable pair of budget ‘phones suitable for small mp3 players or smart phones. but how do they sound?

after i unboxed the ‘phones, i kind of expected the cans to sound just okay, because i thought i might have to burn them in first. i was wrong though; the ‘phones sounded great from the start. the sound was fast, warm, detailed, & pretty transparent, and the soundstage seemed to be quite neutral. there was a very very slight harshness, but i expect that to go away with use. one drawback: because it’s semi-open, your plane/train/bus neighbors will hear your music. if you don’t give a crap about your commute neighbors, go ahead and take the ‘phones with you; otherwise you may wanna leave them home or turn the volume down. i was surprised at how warm & airy the ‘phones sounded; i was expecting a cooler, clearer sound. for budget headphones, the k422 blew me away. and it has bass! very cool.

i don’t have a whole lot to compare with, so i dug out my old sony fontopia mdr-ex81 in-ear headphones (replaced with newer model, no longer made) as well as my sony mdr-v150 supra-aural cans (ditto). here are pics of the fontopia and v150. the fontopia pic is first, & the v150 is second.

for some reason, both the sony ‘phones have this darker, slower sound. while the fontopia was very bass-happy and quite detailed, it couldn’t match the akg’s speed and airiness. and my v150? it was basically like fontopia, but with less of everything. however, the v150 was only $20; at that price, the v150 is a killer bargain. i messed around with some nicer sony ‘phones and they sounded very neutral and beautiful, so this darker slower sound i heard on my sony ‘phones is probably not representative of sony headphones.

next up: those fancy grados with wood earcups, plus headphone amps to power the grado. will look into selling kidneys.

Jun 18 2012

hee hee . . . new product alert

i think i found a product that could be of help.

the gripe water may be perfect for players who are prone to sudden and uncontrollable whining, as well as an excessive need to complain to others about their misfortunes at the table. 😀

since i was curious about the balabushka chalk, i did some more digging online. according to the balabushka cues website,

. . . David Forman, founder of Adam Custom Cues, licensed the name Balabushka from George’s family and now manufactures a line of cues under the Balabushka name as a memorial to one of the greatest figures in modern billiards. (found in the company’s history page)

it is the balabushka cues company that is manufacturing the balabushka performance chalk (msrp $8/box of three). as far as i can tell, the company is based in the US, so the bala chalk is an American product. i can’t tell if the chalk is made in the US or elsewhere, but it doesn’t look like the bala chalk is made by longoni. (incidentally, blue diamond chalks are made in the US with longoni’s formula, in case you didn’t know.) however, i can’t be certain if the balabushka cues company is owned or affiliated with adam cues or adam cues japan. in any case, i didn’t find a link between the balabushka chalk and longoni, so i can safely assume that the balabushka chalk is an independent creation.

my search result seemed to coincide with the information i got from the sales rep i talked to previously, so now i have some idea about the balabushka chalk. based on what i found, i am not going to try the chalk since i didn’t get a rave review from the sales rep i talked to. when i’ve done repeated businesses with a vendor and i trust the company, i tend to take the company’s advice seriously. for now, blue diamond it is. there are other exotic and hard-to-get chalks out there that i’d love to try, but it takes too much effort and money to track them down, so i won’t even start. although kamui chalk still sounds cool, i remain unconvinced that i should spend $30 for one cube. for those fortunate enough to get a free sample, i’m happy for you and i say this without sarcasm or irony. honestly though, i don’t think i’d get it even if i win a 50-million-dollar lotto. just the cheapskate in me, that’s all. your mileage may vary.

oh, i went to a concert a while ago and never got around to post it here. some pictures.

the first of the three bands that played that night.

nowadays all you need to make music is GarageBand and some buddies. 🙂

second band.

third band.

anyway, i had a lot of fun that night.

if you’ve read my recent posts, you’d realize that this post isn’t complete without a food pic. my friendishes and i found a giant boba that we had to try. behold, the pre-carnage.

the post-carnage is too gruesome for human eyes, so i will spare you, gentle readers. this boba is a whopping 32 ounces with about five pounds of sugar; i managed to finish about half. not doing this boba again.

also, if you’re a bingo fan, consider using this alternate board.

Murakami Bingo by Grant Snider. image retrieved from url below:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y5NKtANsmdo/T8ks0LHXRRI/AAAAAAAABHw/UQdVFAqPIBc/s1600/murakami-blog.jpg

this drawing is done by the comic artist grant snider. for the japanese version of the board, click here.

♦ ♦ ♦

i haven’t done phrases in some time, so we will look at the idiom “beyond the pale”. according to the phrase finder, the word “pale” means a stake or a pointed piece of wood back in the day; we see this usage in the word “impale”, a word meaning to pierce with something pointed. like a pointed piece of wood. in the old days (and even now), it was common practice to construct fences out of pales for various purposes, e.g., marking your territory, protection against pests and varmints, etc. in our present day we can buy premade boards from home depot to make fences, but the idea is the same.

using this (now obsolete) definition, “beyond the pale” basically means beyond the fence, or beyond the border. we can think of it as going out of bounds, being out of line, or doing/saying inappropriate things. conversely, when you hear a pool player “riding within his/her fence”, it means the player doesn’t do anything outside his or her ability; in other words, a smart, risk-averse, and percentage-oriented player. 🙂 catch you guys later.