It's holiday time and that means headphones (not that it isn't headphones time all the time). To kick off the holiday headphone times I'll cover a pair of headphones I've recently come to owning, the Beats Studio Wireless.
So, what are the Beats Studio Wireless headphones? Most obviously, they're headphones produced by the often controversial company Beats (now owned by Apple). Equally obvious is that they're wireless headphones. What else can be easily gleaned about the Beats Studio Wireless? Well, they're over ear, closed back headphones that also sport ANC (active noise cancelling). Now let's get to it and get on with the review.
Friday, December 19, 2014
Saturday, December 6, 2014
M50 vs M50x: Changing of the guard?
Back in February of this year, Audio Technica released a followup to their wildly popular Audio Technica ATH-M50 headphones, now labelled the ATH-M50x. About a month ago I caved and decided to get a pair expressly for the purpose of figuring out what has changed. With that, let's get started.
Both the M50 and M50x are closed back over ear headphones, that much has not changed. In fact, overall, the sound and design are really quite similar. So what has changed? First, the M50x has a removable cable, which is awesome. In the box, it comes with three different length cables and the addition of having a removable cable is really quite great. Second, the pads on the M50x are initially more comfortable and less stiff than the original M50's ear pads. After extended wearing though, they both feel about the same. The carrying case that comes with the headphones is the same as before. That pretty much sums up the external differences. Let's move onto the sound.
Both the M50 and M50x are closed back over ear headphones, that much has not changed. In fact, overall, the sound and design are really quite similar. So what has changed? First, the M50x has a removable cable, which is awesome. In the box, it comes with three different length cables and the addition of having a removable cable is really quite great. Second, the pads on the M50x are initially more comfortable and less stiff than the original M50's ear pads. After extended wearing though, they both feel about the same. The carrying case that comes with the headphones is the same as before. That pretty much sums up the external differences. Let's move onto the sound.
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Gear Days - Fall On Ear Classic
This year's Fall On Ear Classic featured 8 entrants and honestly was quite surprising to me with the end results. As a note, the Fall On Ear Classic may be a biannual thing as I don't find myself liking on ear headphones all that much. In general, I find on ear headphones to be quite uncomfortable. Another note is that my views on how bassy particular headphones are may be quite biased, both personally and as an effect of the gear with which I am doing my testing, it tends to give all headphones a not insignificant bass boost. Anyways, onto the results.
From top left to bottom right, the Beats Mixr, Yamaha PRO 300, Sennheiser Momentum, Harman Kardon CL, Voxoa HD (Bluetooth), Outdoor Tech Privates (Bluetooth), Grado SR80i, and UrbanEars Plattan.
Exact numerical breakdowns can be found in the headphones spreadsheet under the On Ear tab but let's get to some reviewing.
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| How very colorful, just missing purple |
Exact numerical breakdowns can be found in the headphones spreadsheet under the On Ear tab but let's get to some reviewing.
Monday, November 10, 2014
Musical Discovery (genre) - Math rock
I'm aware it's been a long time since my last post and I'll eventually get to giving my conclusions of the summer 2014 anime season. It might not be until I clear up the fall 2014 anime season though. In the meantime, I'm gonna put up some music related posts to come back a bit more to how I started off this blog.
The topic of the day is math rock. Math rock is a derivative of post rock and progressive rock that focuses on interesting and different uses of time signatures. While most music currently (both rock and otherwise) follow a relatively strict 4/4 beat, meaning the beat is in 4 beat cycles, math rock employs shifts in time from 3 beats to 2 beats. It is also common for math rock to use more exotic time signatures like 7/8 or 11/8 as well as abrupt or frequent time signature switching.
The thing about using 7 or 11 beats to a cycle is that it makes it difficult to count. 3 beats or 2 beats are short enough that it is obvious when listening to a 3 or 2 beat passage. 7 or 11 beat passages on the other hand blend in, being just one beat shy of a 4 beat cycle (8 or 12). This leads to some interesting interactions where beat can be obscured greatly while appearing to have a relatively static sounding 4 beat.
The two bands in particular I've been listening to in the math rock vein are 'toe' and 'how to count one to ten'. Both bands are based out of Japan and are mainly instrumental bands. The thing that strikes me about both bands is how well they are able to layer sound. Honestly, I am quite poor when it comes to hearing and listening to beats. However, their ability to layer different rhythms and lines fascinates me. If you want lyrics and a catchy line, don't listen to either of them. However if you want well formed and interesting musical ideas and good clean guitar sound, they're both fantastic. At the current moment I'm tipping towards 'how to count one to ten' because I find the music more refreshing, but that's my opinion and if any of this sounds appealing I recommend you check both bands out. Until next time.
--CsMiREK
The topic of the day is math rock. Math rock is a derivative of post rock and progressive rock that focuses on interesting and different uses of time signatures. While most music currently (both rock and otherwise) follow a relatively strict 4/4 beat, meaning the beat is in 4 beat cycles, math rock employs shifts in time from 3 beats to 2 beats. It is also common for math rock to use more exotic time signatures like 7/8 or 11/8 as well as abrupt or frequent time signature switching.
The thing about using 7 or 11 beats to a cycle is that it makes it difficult to count. 3 beats or 2 beats are short enough that it is obvious when listening to a 3 or 2 beat passage. 7 or 11 beat passages on the other hand blend in, being just one beat shy of a 4 beat cycle (8 or 12). This leads to some interesting interactions where beat can be obscured greatly while appearing to have a relatively static sounding 4 beat.
The two bands in particular I've been listening to in the math rock vein are 'toe' and 'how to count one to ten'. Both bands are based out of Japan and are mainly instrumental bands. The thing that strikes me about both bands is how well they are able to layer sound. Honestly, I am quite poor when it comes to hearing and listening to beats. However, their ability to layer different rhythms and lines fascinates me. If you want lyrics and a catchy line, don't listen to either of them. However if you want well formed and interesting musical ideas and good clean guitar sound, they're both fantastic. At the current moment I'm tipping towards 'how to count one to ten' because I find the music more refreshing, but that's my opinion and if any of this sounds appealing I recommend you check both bands out. Until next time.
--CsMiREK
Friday, August 1, 2014
Summer 2014 - Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun
More anime, 4 to go for me. This time we've got Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun. Nozaki-kun is about a high school mangaka or manga writer/artist known for shoujo manga, in English terms, manga aimed towards girls. However, contrary to the stereotype of a female mangaka we get a completely deadpan male.
From that description, it's pretty obvious that Nozaki-kun is a slice of life anime. However, it also starts off with a bit of a gag scene where another main character, Sakura Chiyo, tries to confess to Nozaki. It's too bad that he construes this as her wanting his autograph. Somehow this leads to Chiyo becoming an assistant to Nozaki. As much as that setting sounds like the back drop for a full out romance, at least from the first episode, it seems that that might just become a recurring gag. To add to the comedic effect, we find out that Nozaki really seems like a complete airhead when it comes to romance even though he's shown as one of the best shoujo mangaka.
Overall, I'm a bit torn on how to rate Nozaki-kun. On the one hand it is a generally well crafted gag based slice of life/comedy anime. However, on the other, it doesn't seem to have characters strong enough to really shine. Nozaki feels a bit lifeless and Chiyo feels like the personification of a girl in love trope. That said, there's really not much offensive about the anime as a whole. I would say that it's worth a watch but if you don't immediately like it, I can't really say it would be worth watching how it continues. For a rating I'll just go with a 5/10 as it's honestly quite middling for me, I'm not offended by it nor do I think it's particularly good. I could put up a picture but I'm not sure there's too much of interest here. Let's power through the remaining anime reviews. Until next time.
--CsMiREK
From that description, it's pretty obvious that Nozaki-kun is a slice of life anime. However, it also starts off with a bit of a gag scene where another main character, Sakura Chiyo, tries to confess to Nozaki. It's too bad that he construes this as her wanting his autograph. Somehow this leads to Chiyo becoming an assistant to Nozaki. As much as that setting sounds like the back drop for a full out romance, at least from the first episode, it seems that that might just become a recurring gag. To add to the comedic effect, we find out that Nozaki really seems like a complete airhead when it comes to romance even though he's shown as one of the best shoujo mangaka.
Overall, I'm a bit torn on how to rate Nozaki-kun. On the one hand it is a generally well crafted gag based slice of life/comedy anime. However, on the other, it doesn't seem to have characters strong enough to really shine. Nozaki feels a bit lifeless and Chiyo feels like the personification of a girl in love trope. That said, there's really not much offensive about the anime as a whole. I would say that it's worth a watch but if you don't immediately like it, I can't really say it would be worth watching how it continues. For a rating I'll just go with a 5/10 as it's honestly quite middling for me, I'm not offended by it nor do I think it's particularly good. I could put up a picture but I'm not sure there's too much of interest here. Let's power through the remaining anime reviews. Until next time.
--CsMiREK
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Summer 2014 - Tokyo Ghoul
Tokyo Ghoul is up next. If I were to give Tokyo Ghoul a genre, I'd probably have to say supernatural action. The basic premise is that the world is full of humans and ghouls. Ghouls are beings that eat humans and have supernatural powers but there is no indication in the first episode of why they exist or how. However, ghouls remain hidden in the world, disguised as normal humans.
Getting into the episode, we have a young boy (again really?), Kaneki who is interested in a woman at the coffee shop he frequents. They go out on a date where he finds out that she's actually a ghoul. At this point, she attacks him and tries to kill him so she can eat him. Unfortunately for her, something happens, probably not an accident, where construction equipment falls on her, killing her. Afterwards, Kaneki, in critical condition goes to the hospital where he needs organ transplants. Thankfully, he can get organ donations from the now dead crazy ghoul who just tried to kill him. Too bad for him though, now he's half ghoul and apparently when ghouls try to eat anything that isn't human flesh, it tastes like shit, which makes Kaneki go crazy. The episode ends with a fight caused by Kaneki wandering into another ghoul as he's eating.
Getting into the episode, we have a young boy (again really?), Kaneki who is interested in a woman at the coffee shop he frequents. They go out on a date where he finds out that she's actually a ghoul. At this point, she attacks him and tries to kill him so she can eat him. Unfortunately for her, something happens, probably not an accident, where construction equipment falls on her, killing her. Afterwards, Kaneki, in critical condition goes to the hospital where he needs organ transplants. Thankfully, he can get organ donations from the now dead crazy ghoul who just tried to kill him. Too bad for him though, now he's half ghoul and apparently when ghouls try to eat anything that isn't human flesh, it tastes like shit, which makes Kaneki go crazy. The episode ends with a fight caused by Kaneki wandering into another ghoul as he's eating.
Summer 2014 - Akame ga Kill
Back to action we have Akame ga Kill. If I were to describe Akame ga Kill in one word it would obviously be assassins. Expanding on that, Akame ga Kill is really a story about a boy from the boonies who travels to the city in an attempt at more wealth for his village. He finds out quickly that the city is no place for naivety as he is tricked and almost killed by his 'benefactor' who's really a sadistic bitch. This leads him to meet a group of assassins known as Night Raid who he ends up joining.
Wow, didn't expect to put that all into one paragraph. Well, I guess it's time for an image.
Animation wise, Akame ga Kill is pretty good. Some of the more dramatic shots are drawn in the style above which is kind of cool. Plot wise, it's not terrible. The fight against the corrupt capital isn't horribly original but it's not an overplayed plot either. The action itself is quite good although there isn't much except at the end of the episode. The music is done by Taku Iwasaki, which if you know much about him, means that you get pretty non intrusive music that is quite good and fits the atmosphere well. All in all though I'd give this episode a solid 7.5/10 for being a good introduction to something that could be good. Stay tuned for the next anime update, Tokyo Ghoul.
--CsMiREK
Wow, didn't expect to put that all into one paragraph. Well, I guess it's time for an image.
--CsMiREK
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