PPPP - Little Deli and Pizzeria

The first place I went to for PPPP is a little place called Little Deli and Pizzeria.  Little Deli is a small shop in one of the suburban areas of north Austin off Anderson Lane.  As I was driving over I almost missed it because there are no extra signs and the direction I was coming from had it almost out of view.  However, as I rounded the corner I was met with a really large crowd even though it was a Tuesday night.  As an establishment, it's really quite a small place.  If you can imagine a small deli place that would be the right size.  As you walk in, it really does look just like a deli place.  The only difference is that there's pizza up and an assortment of random cakes in the window.  They also have outside seating which was packed.  It's also apparently a BYOB place, which if that's your thing is pretty cool.  I ended up getting a 14" pepperoni pizza which came out to $15.16 which is a bit on the more expensive side.  I also ended up taking about 30 minutes to get my pizza which considering the length of the line isn't so bad.

In terms of pizza they serve a nice and simple New York style pizza, their site says New Jersey pizza but it's a thin crust pizza regardless.  From crust to sauce to toppings, overall the pizza is quite good.  But that's a cop out so let's go more in depth.

Prospecting for Purveyors of Perfect Pizza

As a young single who is often too lazy to cook, I, like many others greatly enjoy the simplicity of pizza.  Simply order a pizza from a place, wait some amount of time, generally 10-20 minutes and you have food for generally 2 to 3 meals.  More than simplicity though, pizza has always evoked a sense of community for me, even when eaten alone.  From pizza parties to sharing a pizza with family, the idea of a pizza has always been one I enjoyed.  Moreover, the variety that comes with pizza is immense.  Get some dough, some sauce, traditionally marinara but sometimes white or bbq depending on your tastes, cover with cheese and you have a basic pizza.  From there add any multitude of toppings from onions to pepperoni, ricotta to mushrooms, anchovies (yuck) to prosciutto or meatballs.

So what exactly does prospecting for purveyors of perfect pizza really mean and what am I gonna do about it?  Well one, I really like alliteration because it makes for fun sounding phrases.  I was also inspired by the burrito bracket running on Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight.  While I don't have a wealth of chefs and food writers to give me recommendations, I do have time, the time to visit as many pizza places as possible.  Why pizza in particular?  Well I want to see just what makes good pizza and what makes great pizza.  So let's get to it, what am I gonna rate these pizza on?

Gear Days - Audio Technica Noise Cancelling Showdown

More headphones GO!  This time I'm gonna do a head to head between Audio Technica's ATH-ANC7b and their new noise cancelling headphones the ATH-ANC70.  The ATH-ANC7bs sell for around $130-$150 new while the ATH-NC70s sell for $200 new which is their MSRP as they are new headphones (they came out in December 2013).  A good thing to note is that both of these headphones can play music without a battery which is always a plus especially in the realm of noise cancelling headphones.  As a review it'll be just about the same as most others just with head to head comparisons.  So let's get started.

First off, as with all reviews is form, comfort, and accessories.  Thankfully, in this particular category the two don't vary much.  Both headphones are over ear closed back headphones.  The build quality on the ANC7b feels more sturdy regardless of the lower price.  Both headphones have memory foam cups but I find that the ANC70's cups are more comfortable and the ANC70s are more comfortable to me.  A thing to note though is that I feel like both pairs are somewhat small.  If your head is large I might not recommend these.  Personally, I find the headband to push down on my head more on the ANC7bs leading them to be less comfortable in that respect as well.  In terms of accessories, both pairs of headphones come with a carrying case, airplane adapter, and 1/4" adapter.  The ANC70s come with one 1.2m (3.9') cable while the ANC7bs come with a 1m (3.3') and 1.6 (5.2') cable.  These cables are standard 1/8" to 1/8" cables so it's relatively easy to replace them if you have to.  A couple of nice things about the ANC70s in particular are that it has a volume fader on the left earcup which can be useful and that it has a built in microphone to answer calls with.  To use the microphone, or pause/play music you hit the logo on the left earcup which doubles as a button.  Overall pretty cool although I haven't tried taking a call with them.

Before jumping into the differences in sound quality, as these are both noise cancelling headphones it makes sense to compare how well they cancel noise.  As I was reading up on reviews of the ANC70s I came across this review which I agree with in some parts and wholeheartedly disagree with on others.  Most importantly I completely disagree with how she portrays the noise cancelling, saying that they cancel higher pitch frequencies better than low.  First off, it's not true.  I'm typing this review on a mechanical keyboard with MX Blue switches, which if you don't know what that means, means that there is a really loud audible click every time I hit a key.  These clicks are pretty high pitched.  Regardless of whether I have noise cancelling on or off, the clicks are quite audible.  In fact, while wearing my ANC7bs, the clicking is louder with noise cancelling on than off because the other sounds are muted more than the clicking of my keyboard.  The reason why it makes sense that higher pitches aren't affected by noise cancelling as much is that higher pitch sounds tend to be louder and easier to hear, up to a point, and because higher pitch sounds travel faster.  Noise cancelling also does relatively poorly with voices since those are quite variable.  Also, what's the point of noise cancelling headphones if they can't cancel out the low drones of airplanes?  It's a weird statement by the reviewer for sure.  In regards to how well these cans do in ambient noise cancelling, both are pretty respectable.  The large majority of fan noise from my desktop is removed as well as all of the other non-keyboard clicky noises.  Voices don't get cancelled all that much but being closed back headphones, there is still a decent amount of general noise isolation to both cans.  If you run the noise cancelling without any music on, there is an audible hiss on both headphones that's just about the same loudness which is just the signal that the headphones are using to cancel the outside noise.  All that said, given what I hear, the noise cancelling on the ANC7bs is better than the ACN70s regardless of price but neither are as good as what you can get from Bose.

Service Announcement - Shopping For Headphones

I've been writing this blog for about a year and a half now, and although I've reviewed many pairs of headphones and written up jargon filled pages to assist the average consumer, I find that I have yet to say anything about how to shop for headphones.  So here I am to assist and serve.

For most people, my general methods to gathering many headphones and having the best come to the top won't work.  One it's too expensive and two it's just plain silly if all you want is one good pair of headphones.  I do hope that from reading this blog you realize that headphones do sound different from each other in completely objective ways.  But let's get down to some details on how to shop for headphones.

Step one.  Determine why you're buying new headphones.  Are you just looking to replace stock Apple earbuds and don't really care about the sound?  Well I have no idea why you're reading this unless you really like my writing.  In that case buying whatever the hell you want, it's not gonna matter anyways.  Do you want fashionable headphones that won't break the bank?  Do you want to truly enjoy your music or do you want to drown the world out, maybe both?

Step two.  Price.  This is potentially the most important step for most people.  When you are looking for headphones, realize that the prices you initially see are almost never what they could be.  Sales inevitably crop up as with most buyable objects.  If you're passively looking for headphones, make sure to check out websites like Lifehacker who usually post sales for the day posts which usually have a pair of headphones or two on sale in various places on the internet, not necessarily always the best headphones, but headphones nevertheless.  If you really need to get a new pair of headphones and are on a constrained budget, ask yourself, what is the greatest price I could spend on a pair of headphones?  When you establish this number, your options lessen.  However, it is important to note that price does not equate to performance.  There are plenty of great options in the lower end of the price spectrum as much as there are plenty of not so great options in the higher end of the price spectrum.  Case in point, the Noontec Zoro HD headphones rate as some of the nicest sub $100 headphones with a similar aesthetic to Beats iconic Solo HD headphones yet are half as expensive.  There is no need to sacrifice sound quality and performance for aesthetics.