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.

Service Announcement - Music Done Right by Darren Korb

I'd like to direct your attention to the works of Darren Korb.  Previously I put up a Top Tracks post on his song Setting Sail, Coming Home, the ending track to the Bastion soundtrack.  A little over a week ago, on May 20th the game Transistor by Supergiant Games was released which features a brand new soundtrack by Darren Korb.

I implore you to take a listen to the soundtrack even if you don't have the time or want to play the game it belongs to.  Of particular note are the vocal tracks, "The Spine", "In Circles", "We All Become", "Signals", and "Paper Boats".  If the rest of the soundtrack is too esoteric or out of your taste please at least listen to those five tracks.  The vocals by Ashley Barrett are phenomenal and the instrumentation by Darren Korb is flawless.  All five tracks are perfect specimens for how long a track should be, lasting just long enough to make you want more without devolving into repetition.  The entire soundtrack is up on Youtube here.  So what're you waiting for, get listening!  Special shout out, I especially love "In Circles", the complex beat is just so interesting and fun to listen to.

--CsMiREK

Service Announcement - The Number 24

This is a public service announcement for the number 24.  Although everyone knows that it is the number of hours in a day, the number 24 is much more interesting than just that.  Posts labeled 'PSA' or 'Service Announcement' are here to symbolize all those silly things that you will never think about unless you take the time out of your day to think about them.  Ain't that a contrived sentence?

Anyways continuing onwards.  The number 24 is the basis of a young children's game to better arithmetic skills.  Often played with 4 numbers you use various arithmetic sequences to yield 24.  For example, (5+7) * (6/3) = 24.  In music, there are 24 total scales, major and minor meaning.  By that I mean that there are 12 major and 12 minor scales for a total of 24 scales.  Disregard Dorian, Lydian and the like for that number.

Mathematically, the number 24 is extremely interesting.  It is the first number that can be formed by the sums of 3 different pairs of prime numbers, 7 and 17, 5 and 19, and 11 and 13.  It is also 4! = 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 = 24.  To sum up the rest of these mathematical wonders I leave you with this.  Sorry if this post wasn't as interesting as some of the others.  But if you want to know some new things, Wikipedia is pretty awesome as long as you have a starting place.  Hopefully something there helps you down the line, if not, take pride in learning more about a pretty intense number.  I hope that even if you didn't enjoy the post, you'll at least take a look and learn a bit.

--CsMiREK