Little plates of randomness...
I think my run on Amazon has finally ended for awhile. All the presents are here (a few arrived a bit late), and I couldn't help but jump on some after-Christmas sales and get some stuff for dirt-cheap.
For instance, I've had the movie The Sting on my wishlist forever, but it was always priced at like $23--way too much for a DVD that didn't come with a ten-dollar bill folded up inside. It finally went on sale for like eleven bucks, so I grabbed it. Lots of books and such were also on sale, so I picked up a few deeply discounted items, the last of which arrived today.
One of the things I got were some new earbuds for my iPod. Actually, they're not earbuds at all--I got some Sennheiser noise-attenuating earphones. First of all, the white earbuds that come with the iPod are awfully uncomfortable. And for some reason, I was always having to adjust them--they would never stay put. They sound ok, but the one thing I really don't like about them is the color. Yep, I've always kinda resented the subtle marketing ploy of having white speaker wire to announce to the world how cool and trendy you are because you are using an iPod. Oh yeah, I admit, I love my iPod, but I certainly don't buy into the whole Cult of Apple that so many untanned slackers in skinny jeans do. I don't need to have my coolness validated by the color of my earphones. White is also the color of sheep, people. Ironic, huh?
Anyhow, due to irritating combo of uncomfortableness and the mug-me color, I wanted a change. I've been looking for a suitable replacement for some time, and eventually I settled on the Sennheisers. Of course, all the good reviews come at a price, and they wanted like $45 for some portable frickin earbuds. I decided to wait. When they finally got marked down to twenty bucks last week, I jumped on the deal.
They arrived this morning, and once I finally got that modern day plastic chastity belt known as clamshell packaging removed, I gave them a test drive. First of all, they come with three sized of padding included, and I put the biggest ones on. Before I put them in, I noticed that the cords were asymmetrical beyond the split junction--the left-side one was about a foot shorter than the right-side one.
WTF?
Reading the instructions, I saw that the right side speaker wire is supposed to go around behind your neck. Ah--that makes much more sense, and when you wear them like that, the combination of gravity and shirt buttons doesn't conspire to pull them out of your ears. Very clever!
Anyhow, the sound quality is very good, just like all the reviews say. But the noise dampening of the padding might work just a little too well--it completely blocked out all ambient outside noise, so the only thing I could hear was my own breathing. I can't even imagine trying to eat something crunchy while wearing them. As bad as they'd be for a poker tournament (you gotta be able to hear some outside conversation) they'd be fantastic on a long flight with crying babies. But I still have the other smaller pads, so I'm guessing they would work better in situations where I didn't need to be cocooned in my own personal fortress of solitude.
So yeah, I give them a thumbs-up. Not only do they work very well, but I don't look like I drink the apple-flavored Kool-Aid, either. Besides, black is slimming, and well, you know, I could use all the help I can get...
Mikey
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