YO! ~ it’s been a while since I scratched this blog with words. Where have I gone? Nowhere, I’m here, in front of this PC…  watching J-Dorama, anime, youtube, those casual things, and lately, being an audiophile.

It’s not something I could proud of, since this kind of obsession is basically disposing your income. It began when I bought a new set of stereo speakers (Logitech Z2300), replacing my broken old one (Altec VS-2121). Bought it from eBay, refurbished, for $80. Quite a powerful and decent set of speakers actually, but out of nowhere, my hearing became so picky and sassy…

"It sounds… odd. Is it the treble? Or mid range? Too much bass?"

The self-struggling continued, fooled around with equalizers for days, until a brilliant solution popped up in my mind:

"Ah, it’s not the speakers… it’s the sound card!"

(– yes dude, you’re a genius!)

So, I’m the person who never actually care about the Sound card all this long, began his journey to find the best affordable audio card.

My cousin Sandy, told me "Just buy the cheapest SB x-fi series, should be good." — way to go, I bought Creative SB x-fi Xtreme Audio for $64. Brought it home, plugged it in, installed, and the new listening experience was filling up my room.

(– don’t forget how many days you’ve spent, dealing with the equalizer again… dude)

Shortly, at the very next couple days, my 2-years Etymotic ER-6i earphones are breaking. The new mission assigned… fired up your search engine soldier!

"The best affordable earphones," "best noise cancellation earphones," "best cheap headphones," and many other keywords were flooding Google. After struggled with myself, placed a survey, asked few friends, in which is better — earphones VS headphones, I still can’t decide. I want them all! ALL!!

I’ve been using only earphones since about 10 years ago, and I wanted to try headphones instead. So my shopping-adventure has started, again.

These are the headphones I bought for the past 2 weeks:

1. Sony MDR-V150
2. Philips SHS 390
3. Sennheiser PMX 100

I returned those 3 since I wasn’t really satisfied with their either quality, comfortably or portability; however, Sennheiser wins on the audio-quality. The only reason I didn’t like PMX 100, because it’s an on-ear-clip model, which is hurting my ear lobes after an extended use.

So, the next sets I want to buy are these:

1. Sennheiser HD 202
2. Sennheiser PX 100
3. Sennheiser CX 500 (earphones)

I already ordered HD202, which is a full-closed Headphones from Amazon, but do you think this will be the end of my journey?

I’m not even sure myself… My friend told me "Buy headphones where you can tell the difference between 128kbps and 320kbps MP3" — which I could never did — and I never will (I think…).

My other friend also told me "Buy the expensive one, satisfaction guarantee!" –

Well, I’m not that bastard who can waste $500 over for an Audiophile Headphones, beside I’m not really an audio freak, even I’m kind of picky for what quality I always wanted.

So, while I’m still waiting for my order arrival, I stared at my Zen Vision:M (MP3 player), which was look so lonely… Then I remember if I don’t have the wall-charger for my Zen. I looked up on eBay, … found it, the Wall Charger.

But at the end, this is the list in my shopping cart:

1. Zen Vision:M Wall charger
2. Zen Vision:M Car charger
3. Leather Case with Belt Clip
4. AV Cable for Vision:M
5. Wire Remote for Vision:M

"Thank you for purchasing…" came up on my screen — "…Vision:M Wall Charger, plus-plus-plus-plus."

This consumerism, I know, is like an unhealthy obese behavior in keeping your armpit hairless — (woman!)

(– what the heeeeckkkkk~~ @.@)

This case is still open. I might end up owning both of them, earphones and headphones.

I’m not sure, but if you see, in Anime — all of characters look sexier, cuter and cooler when they wear a gigantic headphones. Probably that’s because they have a ridiculous body proportional, with those huge eyes and small face, which in reality you’ll look such a dork by wearing them.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 4:49 pm and is filed under My Noodle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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