I underestimated it. I was walking to the cafe around the corner to get some breakfast -- and I mean literally around the corner, i.e. I need not even cross a street to get there -- and the sort distance convinced me that my headphones would remain below critical levels of wetness. I am at a loss as to why the short distance didn't also convince me that there was no real point in even listening to music along the way. That said, I nonetheless walked down the stairs listening to solo piano versions of Satie's Gymnopedies, starting the walk with #1 just moving into its non-trademark portions.
Lovely! Honestly: "Gymnopedie #1" in massive slow-falling still-virgin snow? Substitute the auto-repair shop and the awfull obedience-school-slash-kennel (this thing has turned our entire block into a crapyard) for an abandoned barn and a meandering creek, and the whole thing would have been like a Wyndham Hill sampler come to life. Only pleasant.
I bought the headphones in San Francisco's Chinatown for $25, about which I barely bothered to haggle 'cause it wasn't a bad deal at all. I learned thereafter that it was indeed a bad deal, as the headphones I got were definitively not the headphones I was shown, but rather a model down, lacking the on-wire volume control and more comfortable fit of the model I thought I was purchasing. All of this is now irrelevant, though, because I apparently got a little bit shall we say "distracted" toward the end of the first Gymnopedie and wound up just sort of standing in place for long enough for the headphones to soak through and short out.
R.I.P., rip-off headphones. It was worth it, though.
― Nitsuh, Saturday, 2 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― helenfordsdale, Saturday, 2 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Tomorrow I am going to go to the hilarious "Who Wants to be a DJ?" store I usually get headphones at and probably invest in some superfab $75-$100 set (justification: they're for recording use! only the best for my music!). Please don't post and point out that any headphones that cost under $700 are obviously for amateurs, as that doesn't really help me at all.
― David Inglesfield, Saturday, 2 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
They're worth it though.
Or there's another model - can't remember the exact name...it's HD25 plus 'SP' or something. They look very similar and they're supposed to be almost as good, but they're half the price!!! I couldn't really get a straight answer from the salesman as to what the difference was. I think perhaps the build isn't quite so rugged. Price wasn't an issue for me at the time (would be now) so I went 'top-of-the-range' as it were.
― Momus, Saturday, 2 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 2 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Actually, I programmatically started reducing listening volume a little while ago, and am now tuned into fairly decent levels for most things. I already have one terrible ear-pressure condition (anyone who met me in Chicago or New York and thought I had some sort of facial tic -- no, it's just this ear thing), so I'm trying to avoid anything further.
― paul barclay, Saturday, 2 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
I remember reading that Pete Townshend blamed his hearing problems on long transatlantic flights in the 60s with headphones on full throughout.
I used to abuse my eardrums but I'm far more sensible now. Luckily I seem to have suffered no ill effects (no tinnitus). It's nice to whack the headphones up for short periods though.
― mike hanle y, Saturday, 2 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Ron Hudson, Saturday, 2 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Todd Burns, Sunday, 3 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
http://home.earthlink.net/~rjameshudson/images/kid_head02.jpg
(original headphone kid from Yo-Yo Records)
― Ron Hudson, Sunday, 3 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Funny, though, that Nitsuh should talk about listening to Satie, as I experienced his works (consciously) for the first time - did NOT know that Gymnopedies #1 was that particular piece of music. Very nice. (Family Fodder? Whahuh?)
― David Raposa, Sunday, 3 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
$70 to 100 for headphones? Part of me is slightly jealous of you, Todd:>
Re: that frightening "tinnitus" monster: After I'd seen Siouxsie and the Banshees at their last show (in the mid-90's at Roseland Ballroom in NYC), my ears didn't stop ringing for two days straight. Didn't help that I had been up front, next to the speakers...Thank god it seemed to disappear, by mid-week.
Lesson learned? Earplugs in the hip pocket;>
Is it fair to talk about those 'toys' we want, but don't yet have? I still have to consider my answers. Yet, I open the floor to the rest of you....?
― Nichole Graham, Sunday, 3 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
I like to think of myself as, you know, savvy with such things, or at least cautious when I know I'm not savvy. My only other Chinatown purchase, years ago, was a fabulous watch that's been worth every penny. And these headphones would have been well worth it had they actually given me the headphones I asked and paid for. So they are less rip-off artists than just outright item-switching thieves. I suppose I should allow for the slim possibility that it was just a mistake ... but that's far less fun.
― Nitsuh, Sunday, 3 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Alas when I got home I realised my earphones had been caught in the door all day and streaming behind the car gloriously. It must have been funny for the people who were laughing at me.
― Ronan, Sunday, 3 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Graham, Sunday, 3 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― mike hanle y, Sunday, 3 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Actually, it might be my ear-pressure problem that makes earbuds such a horrible experience for me. Still, though, everything's so tinny and compressed on them ... and they're so uncomfortable!
Ah, but the earbuds that Graham mentions (the EX-70LPs) sit someway into yr ear canal (which may not be any more good news on the comfort front), and come with three different-sized attachments (i.e. experiment and choose one pair) to provide the bass-enhancing world- excluding seal. Get 'em right and they need no bass boost from the playback device. Like a cheaper version of those fancy Etymotics things.
I use Grado SR-125s at home. Being supra-aural, they're not all that comfortable, but they do sound the business.
― Michael Jones, Sunday, 3 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link