Shure SRH 440

My own fault for not updating sooner. The past Holiday season brought many gifts for reviewing, as did my birthday, not to mention several little gifts I purchased myself in the meantime. Maybe I'll start reviewing my frequently. I'll aim for once a month for now, and then perhaps more as time marches on.

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I love music. And for the longest time I had been wanting to buy some really nice sound equipment to fully enjoy my ever expanding music library. Now, after far too long, I broke down and bought myself a decent pair of midrange headphones - the Shure SRH440's.

When I first decided it was time to take the plunge and lay down a few bucks for a good set, I initially started looking at earbuds. I liked the fact that I could pop them in and exercise or walk around listening to my iPod and be able to enjoy my music without any stray glances. the other thing that originally turned me away from traditional headphones was that so many of the popular sets are battery powered. Call me old fashioned, but I just thought it would be a chore to have to worry about charging my music player and my headphones.

Then I started listening. I first tried out a pair of Bose In-Ear headphones that I bought a relative for Christmas. They sounded much better than anything I had heard previously, and was surprised that something so small could produce such a wide array of sounds. But I wasn't about to end my search that quickly. After talking with a work friend, I was recommended to try out a pair of Shure Noise-Isolating earbuds. I liked what I heard, and bought a pair for a friend for her birthday. After spending about a week testing them, I decided they indeed were superior to the Bose set. I also had some experience with some other Shure equipment, most notably a microphone I bought a few years ago, so I knew that the company made high quality products that lasted and tok their share of abuse.

I thought I was all set to make a purchase when I noticed over the ear headphones start to become more common. I was always attracted to them because they looked more comfortable than sticking something in my ear. Even though I realized that I would be losing the ability to work out or run with the headphones in, I decided that the amount of actual exercising I actually did with headphones on wasn't worth factoring into consideration. After all I was looking for sound quality, not size. It was then I tried out a pair of beats by Dre. The bass was much better, if not just much louder, than the small type headphones I had been trying in the past.

Then the breakthrough happened. Shure announced their new SRH line of headphones, which consisted of three different levels of headphones, intended for professional recording. I figured the middle level would fit my needs, and purchased the SRH 440 set. My computer speakers were very upset.

I have been listening to my music solely though the 440's for the past week, and can safely say that they are fantastic. Even if you're not a professional you will love these headphones, and they are very sturdy so don't worry about wearing them out. Wear them like you would your normal headphones. They also fit very snug, so walking is no problem. They are adjustable too, so don't worry about them being too tight.

In the box is a carrying case, a detachable cable with a mini (1/8") jack on one end, and an adapter that screws in to accommodate larger (1/4") jacks. They aren't noise canceling, but they do a pretty good job of blocking out common noises like the washing machine and vacuum. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to test them on an airplane (and probably won't anytime soon) but they make the world fade away when your listening to music.

I can definitely recommend these to the average music listener, so don't let that big "designed for professionals" sticker on the front of the box scare you away. They really are phenomenal. I wish they folded up like their more expensive sibling (the 840), but I wasn't going to spend the extra money for just that feature, since I probably wounldn't be able to tell the difference in audio quality since I'm just using them for personal use (as Engadget would call "poseur" use). I like the fact that they come with the detachable cord, but if I could have had a dream pair they could have come with a USB or Toslink (or mini-Toslink!) adapter to use them digitally. In-line volume control would have been nice, too, but again these were designed for the studio. They really weren't created with the mindset that someone was going to walk around with a pair hooked up to an iPod in their pocket. If you can live with adjusting your volume through your pocket, then these are for you.

The bottom line is that for what they are (and the market they were designed for), the SRH440's deserve the best rating. However, for casual consumer use, these cans get a 4 out of 5. The quality matched with the price point really makes these headphones hard to resist. Negatives from a consumer perspective are the lack of a inline volume control and inability to fold up for travel. Looking for a reasonably priced set of high quality cans, and aren't interested in hitting the gym every day? The Shure 440's definitely deserve a look.

A Card Reader, iPod Dock, USB hub, and a Paperweight?

This month should be a bit busier thanks in part to the holidays coming up (more new gadgets to review!), and also to me starting to abuse my discount at (my unnamed big box electronics retailer) work. In today's (tonight's? Does anyone pay attention to the time stamp on these things?) post I'm going to go over the many benefits of Griffin's latest iPod dock / USB hub / card reader mash-up, and finish with some insight into my music collection. It shall be a good time indeed!

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The Griffin Simplifi iPod/iPhone dock is pretty simple, and the brushed aluminum look is undoubtedly spiffy as well. The USB 2.0 hub is a very nice touch, especially since the iMac (not to mention the entire MacBook line) isn't exactly covered with USB ports like some PC's. So now I can have my keyboard, iPod, external hard drive (for Time Machine), and a printer hooked up at one time! What an accomplishment. Sarcasm aside (since, for the millionth time, the iMac should have more than 3 USB ports) it's a welcome feature to an otherwise bulky dock. The camera card reader on the front works wonderfully, seemingly much faster than my old one (which was part of my older HP printer). I'm glad they chose for a simple two-slot approach, instead of four different holes (like some other readers and most "photo" printers) for all the types of memory cards that it can read (Secure Digital, xD, MemoryStick, and CompactFlash).

One of my biggest problems stems from the card reader, and perhaps by the fact that they chose the more elegant two slot method over the more practical multi-slotted one. I am one of those people who sometimes chooses style over substance, like my choice of camera - a Sony T series. So when I got my new dock all hooked up, I decided to test it out and slide my MemoryStick Pro Duo into it. Come on Griffin! It's 2008! If you're making an all-in-one dock that has MemoryStick support you have to throw in Pro and Pro Duo compatibility! I'm sure that the SD slot accepts SDHC, and to have it any other way would be moronic. Long story short the card did read, but I needed a paperclip to get my Duo card out. Fortunately I have a Pro adapter, but at this point in time I really shouldn't need it.

Another tiny complaint that I have is this blue light that is always on. You probably can't see it in the picture (because I'm a horrible photographer) but in the top right corner there is this blue light that is on all the time regardless of whether or not the dock is actually doing something. iPod or no iPod, USB's on the back or not, that damn blue light is always shining. It flickers a little when you put a card in it to tell you that it's reading it, but other than that it's just a static light. I understand that most things have a light to indicate when they're on (my desk looks like a control panel from Star Trek when I turn the lights off) but it would be more helpful if it were dimmer or actually did something useful.

The bottom line: Griffin's Simplifi is a very attractive (I love how the aluminum matches the iMac's) and useful dock that does what it's suppose to (what a world we live in where that's a nice feature).

It loses half a point for the MS Pro Duo issue, and half for that blue light, bringing the final score to a 4.0 out of 5.

If you're tired of cluttering up your desk, or the idea of saving yourself some USB ports tickles you pink, this is definitely the dock for you.

Off Topic: Emily Haines and her Gift to the World

My iTunes library has just recently passed the 51 day point, and I will soon have 20,000 songs (right now I'm hovering just under at 19,745).  I'll admit that a good portion of that isn't from CD's or the iTunes store, but when I hear a catchy song I have this desire to be able to listen to it over and over.  That's not to say that I never buy a CD; I do most of my  purchasing at the various shows I attend, and I have quite a collection of band memorabilia (t-shirts and such) and ticket stubs.  I guess my point is that I don't mind spending my money on good music (and please note that there is a very thick black line between "catchy" and "good").

Back to my original train of thought - of those 19,745 songs, I have to admit that only a generous handful of them were ever at once considered my favorite (probably something like 1 or 2%, if that).  When I do find the "next greatest thing" in my opinion, I take it upon myself to make sure everyone I come into contact with knows about it.  My tastes change a little every year, but one band that has constantly been my "favorite" is a band from Canada/New York called Metric.

Metric produces mainly rock music, but there's an occasional synthesizer-heavy dance track on their albums.  They have been in the studio for the past few months (read: freaking eternity) working on their art, and recently (apparently) lead singer Emily Haines has been in South America doing a little song writing.  And finally, according to their official website (www.ilovemetric.com), they have finished up recording their new album.

Long story short (I probably will start to say that too much if I haven't already) they released an unofficial single to a radio station in Canada (lucky northerners; they don't know how good they have it!) and I just happened to be lucky enough to find it on the World Wide Web.  It's called "Help, I'm Alive" and while it's a little different from their more recent punk-infused guitar-heavy very pop-sounding songs, it certainly wonderful to hear Emily back at what she does best.  It sounds like it could almost be a B-Side from Old World Underground, Where Are you Now? (their first official album) in tone, but it showcases a more confident and matured Haines while retaining that Metric flavor.

Anyway it's certainly worth checking out, and I apologize for cluttering up this "tech review" blog with a personal rant. Cheers!

iCame, iSaw, iMac

Can we have some "real talk" for a second?  How hard can it be to make a mouse?  Honestly.  Left-click, right-click, scroll wheel, some side buttons, and presto!  I don't want to even talk about other fancier features like being wireless or having rechargeable batteries.  Get the mouse part right, and you're golden.  So why has it been so hard for Apple to produce a mouse that's halfway decent?  More about my gripes with Apple's Mighty Mouse later - now for a quick review of my new-ish iMac.

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Over the past decade or so, Apple has been producing All-In-One desktops under the iMac moniker.  There was the original CRT version that came in a ridiculous amount of colors (which I learned to hate in middle school).  Next was the groovy half-sphere one with the Pixar-like LCD monitor that swiveled (and stuck out it's tongue). Most recently have been two models that look like nothing more than a monitor with an Apple logo on the front; the first came in a white body, and the second in an aluminum case which was much thinner, and also gave quite a few folks a tingle inn their pants (due to the sexiness, in case you missed that train).

After my first foray with the new Intel based Macs with a Mac mini, and then last year with a MacBook, I decided it was about time to give Apple's flagship computer a spin.  Out I went to the Apple store, and back I came with the midrange iMac model ($1499.99, 20 inch / Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz / 2GB RAM / 320GB HD; MB324LL/A). 

Even after being around them at work so often, once I got it set up on my desk I was still in shock about it's size - it's incredibly thin.  Much thinner than the simlarly priced HP TouchSmart PC ($1499.99; KQ437AA#ABA) or Sony's VAIO All-In-One ($1449.99; VGC-JS190J/B).  The iMac does carry a price tag similar to it's peers however, and at first glance it may seem like it lacks any special features;  it only has a standard DVD/CD SuperDrive compared to the Blu-Ray on the Sony, and it certainly doesn't have a touchscreen like HP's offering.  However the processor speed is pretty modest (The HP comes stock with a mere 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo, awhile the Sony includes a quicker 3.0GHz).  Both the HP and the Sony come with 4GB's of RAM at the same price point, and having Apple upgrade the memory isn't exactly cheap.

So what motivated me to take the geeky girl to the prom?  Really?  OS X, duh.

In all fairness, Leopard hasn't exactly been the angel it's made out to be in those spiffy Mac ads.  I sometimes miss Tiger - how it booted faster, I didn't have to worry about the network crashing (yes, I'm still having issues), Spotlight was a little cleaner looking in the Finder, and so on.  And I'm not going to go off and bad-mouth Vista either.  I can navigate through Explorer just as well as the next guy, but even in Vista it seems like it doesn't have that extra coat of polish that Leopard brought to the table.  Front Row trumps Media Center andy day in my book, and iLife integration in something that Windows computers could benefit from (for example, if i need to open a photo that's in iPhoto, I don't have to go to my pictures folder and click through folders until I find it, I can simply click on the 'Photos' tab and the iPhoto interface appears right in the Finder, and I can view my entire photo library with ease).

Aside from my software preference, let's get down to business.  This computer simply is a joy to use.  It's lightning fast - everything from browsing the internet and checking my email to watching television shows I've recorded and looking at pictures and listening to music happens when I want it, and all at the same time on occasion.  The screen is nice and bright and, like I stated before, leaves me with plenty of real estate on and around my desk.  The built-in iSight camera is a nice feature that I got used to on my MacBook.  At first I didn't use it, but when I found out how easy it was to take pictures and video chat I couldn't find a reason not to iChat with my girlfriend at 2 in the morning on weekdays.  A few other nice features are the Firewire 400 and 800 ports on the back, the mini-DVI out, the built-in Airport wireless card (802.11 Draft-N), and the fact that really all I needed to do to set it up was plug the power cord into the wall.  The keyboard is also fantastic.  Yup, one helluva nice keyboard.  I never use the "media keys" that sit on top of the F keys (except for maybe to mute the volume), but I've they could come in handy for launching Dashboard or controlling iTunes if you took the time to get familiar with them.

It's not all peaches and cream though.  It only has two USB ports, but advertises five.  Apple gets away with this by saying that there are two additional ports on the keyboard.  To use these ports however, you actually have to have the keyboard plugged in, thus taking up on of your "five."  The mouse then plugs into the keyboard, and was meant to, made obvious by the length of the wire.  The only thing I can really think of plugging into the keyboard on the other side is perhaps a game controller, but it's not like the Mac sports a very extensive game library.  It would be unfair to say that OS X doesn't have any games as more game companies are starting to jump on the Apple bandwagon, but they still have a long way to go, and for the most part if you're buying a Mac in the first place you're not expecting it to be a hardcore gaming computer anyway.  But back to the USB point, I have my keyboard, iPod, printer, and external hard drive plugged into my computer; the drive and printer connected with a cheap USB hub that I had lying around.  I want to take a guess and say that most Mac owners have an iPod or an iPhone, or at least some kind of MP3 player, and a wired printer is pretty standard as well.  So most people may only use the three included ports, but when the day comes where they need to connect a camera (thankfully said printer has a camera card slot) or another USB device, they're going to have to reach behind their iMac and unhook something.  A small complaint, but I think it's mostly valid.

Now back to that mouse.  This will be my third Apple Mighty Mouse, and with each one I come into contact with, I have the same complaints.  For starters, what the heck is up with that scroll ball?  Has anyone owned one of these things for more than a year and not had the ball get stuck?  The connected to the Mac mini in the other bedroom takes turns making scrolling up or down not work - you have no idea how frustrating it is to be able to scroll down a webpage only to not be able to scroll back up.  The side buttons are also kind of sensitive.  Whenever I attempt to do any kind of video or photo editing (anytime I have to hold the mouse button down for long periods of time, sometimes even when I'm just dragging a file) I will accidently squeeze the button, and there goes Exposé.  The tracking is fairly decent, and being able to right-click with out a physical button is kinda cool, but neither compensate for the shoddy scroll ball.  Just bite the bullet and throw in a wheel for goodness sake.  Oh, and by the way, the included mouse pad is a joke.

The built-in speakers are just on par with it's competitors - if you're going to use it to listen to music or watch movies you're going to be buying external speakers.  The DVD/CD SuperDrive is nice to have, but once again so would having a Blu-Ray drive (and I might be biting my tongue come this holiday season).  I don't really mind it not having a built-in TV tuner because I happened to have one I bought for the Mac mini, but it would be appreciated, especially if Apple teamed up with someone like Pinnacle and Elgato.

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If you're in the market for an All-In-One and you're looking purely at specs, you might find yourself looking at the Sony.   And for first time switchers I still think the best option would be a Mac mini.  But overall the iMac is a very impressive computer - it's quick, can handle pretty much anything you throw at it, and is "stylish" just for the hell of it.  I could easily recommend this over the HP model in any case, unless you have a longing desire for something with a touch screen.  The VAIO is very comparable, and has that Blu-Ray drive, so if you already have a PlayStation 3 or want to get into the whole High Definition scene sooner rather than later, you're going to have a tough choice on your hands.  But Apple's known to surprise people, and everyone's going to be on the look out for a Blu-Ray option on the next version of the iMac.  The iMac is the ultimate "show off to your friends" computer, and Mac OS X is a dream come true for average users, so that might put it over the top of Sony for some people.

The bottom line is that the iMac is awesome, end of story.

I'll give it a 4.5 out of 5, my main concerns being the mouse and the lack of Blu-Ray support.

If you have a solid mouse already, and you don't have a mountain of Blu-Ray movies by now, I can't imagine what you'd be hesitating for in picking one of these bad boys up.

Off Topic: Photoshop, or Something Like It

I really have been putting this thing off;  not just posting, but posting something like this.

My original intention was to keep a little tracker of my technology purchases, with relatively small reviews to accompany them.  There's so much out there in the electronics field today, and a growing majority of it is absolute garbage, so I figured I'd document the good stuff that I find, and give a few reasons why it may or may not be better that the rest.

This being only my second entry, one would assume that it would pertain to said topic.

The truth is that while I have made a purchase or two, I haven't really gotten around to reviewing anything yet.  But I did have the time to open up Photoshop and mess around a little.

Yes Donnie, I suck at Photoshop.

So in addition to any (eventual) technology ramblings, I would also like to use this wonderful service provided by Google to showcase my spiffiest (for the lack of a better descriptor) JPEG's I've created.

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I recently found out about this handy program called Iconic that helps in the creation of custom folder icons in Mac OS v10.5.  It's not a fancy icon creator; it basically takes any image file and "stamps " it onto a folder.  Some people hate the new "flat" folders in Leopard, but I don't mind them, and even though Iconic can be a pain in the butt sometimes (the images have to be very clean, and for the most part only black & white images give decent results).  After playing with it for a while, the results can be pretty neat.  So here's one I made for The Office, for your viewing pleasure.

I have a few of those floating around my computer now - I made one for Pushing Daisies, too.  They really make OS X look polished.  Or, at least, just a little bit cooler.

So the other thing I wanted to share is sort of a gag.  Over the past summer I spent most of the rainy days sitting in my room with the girlfriend playing through Kingdom Hearts.  I had both of the PlayStation 2 games sitting on the shelf for a few years and it was damn well time I actually broke down and played them.  anyway my girlfriend couldn't get enough of them, and I used to send her little pictures of Birth by Sleep and 358/2 Days, yada yada.  There hasn't been a lot of information recently, so today before work I made a quick mock-up of an ad for KH3.  I know it hasn't been announced yet, but come on, it's bound to come out, right?

Yeah, really quick, and yes that's just a weird font that says "AEIO," but it fooled her, and that made me chuckle a little.  And I even took the time to type out a little copyright disclaimer, which added a little bit of "authenticity."  Because who takes the time to fake a copyright notice just to get a little laugh?  (And another yes - that's just the back cover from the manual of KH1.  You try googling for a better "mysterious" KH picture).

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Next time (hopefully) - a review of my shiny new iMac!

Reorganizing

I kinda missed Spring Cleaning this year, and what better way to make up for not cleaning then by having a go at it now?  My thoughts exactly.

Actually this whole cleaning bit started with a search for my mouse.  I've been forced to use my grandma's computer for a while, and I can't stand her mouse.  She has one of those Apple Wireless Mighty Mice, and that scroll ball drives me up the wall.  I guess the ball is kind of a good idea, but there has to be a better way to make sure that dirt and dust stay on the outside and not inside near the ball.  Scrolling up stopped working last week, and it is endlessly annoying being able to scroll down but having to click the sidebar to scroll back up.

Anyway I  had this old bluetooth mouse that I bought a few years ago for use with my old computer (which thanks to an unfortunate placement of a glass of water is sadly no more).  It's a Logitech MX1000.  I actually don't think you can buy them outside of a set (I got mine from the Logitech Cordless Desktop MX5000 laser set), and I guess the closest thing to it would be something like the new-ish MX Revolution Logitech makes now.  There are probably better corded mice on the market, but as far as bluetooth mice go this one is a personal favorite.  It has all these side buttons that work seamlessly with Expose (did I mention I was using a Mac? A Mac mini 1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo to be precise.  It's not the fastest computer in the world (it was the slowest Mac being sold at the time my grandma got it), but it gets the job done), and it's held up pretty good over the year or two that I've been using it.

Back to my story... So I was fed up with the Apple mouse not working and I ventured back to my room to find mine.  No luck the first glance over.  So after my grandma left for Canada (she's on vacation from this Monday - Friday) I decided it would be a good time to tear the house apart and look for it.  I'm one of those people who keeps all the boxes for everything neatly tucked away under the bed, so I pulled them all out thinking that maybe my mouse got stuffed away under there by mistake.  After every box was taken out (and I shook all the heavy ones to hear for any mouse sounding thumps) I figured I would try looking somewhere else.  On my way up from the floor, my eyes happened to wander over to the keyboard shelf on my desk.  I was completely vacant.  Except of course for my mouse that was sitting smugly on the edge.

I popped it on the charger, and came up with a great idea for what to do to all the boxes that were now strewn all over the floor - make a cute little tower in the living room so that I could brag about all my crap, duh.

And then came this beautiful idea for a blog.  With my new iPhone and all those groovy applications, I feel like I have to be more connected now.  I have a Twitter account, I actually started to update my Facebook status, and now this?  Well now I need to go find things to post about... Woo-hoo!