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Lesson Learned

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fancy-schmancy audiophile by any means. But I have concluded that even for my very very low standards for casual office music listening, $4.99 headphones do not cut the mustard.

Of course, once you get above the $15 range, headphones come with a dizzying array of specifications for impedance, noise cancellation, frequency response, you name it. I thought I left all that nonsense behind when I took my last systems engineering class.[1] Cutting through all the technobabble, the only real question about headphones is: do I want to look like a refugee from the 70s, or do I want to jam small plastic objects deep into my ear canal? Choices, choices.

BONUS Lesson Learned: Just because a book has time travel, and dinosaurs, and interplanetary warfare, and Martians does not mean that it will end up being any good.[3] My friend told me this before I borrowed the book, but I ignored his warning. Serves me right.

1. In retrospect, my parting words to the fine, hard working members of the Engineering department were ill-advised. Of course, I wasn't serious; I mean, I don't even have the power to damn someone's progeny unto the seventh generation[2], and even if I did, it all seems excessive. Nowadays I'd say, second generation at best.

2. That authority rests with Pat Robertson.

3. Of course I'm sure there are people out there thinking, "A book with time travel, dinosaurs, interplanetary warfare, and Martians -- that sounds like the dictionary definition of a horrible book!" Just another painful reminder to the rest of us: if you are in fact dead inside, you really can't be helped.

Posted by Evan Goer on May. 22, 2006 at 9:55 AM | Comments (9)

Comments

  1. Personally, I'm strongly in favor of the '70s padded monstrosities. I hate earbuds.

    BTW, should you ever decide you do want audiophile-quality speakers, the speakers that I have as the rear channels in my set are kinda overkill. They're <a href="http://www.focal.tm.fr/home/en/profile/">Focal Profile</a> 908s. The SR-908s, which are smaller and intended for rear or side channels, would've been fine, but I was picking up whatever stock they had on-hand at the closing of their retail outlet. I'd be willing to part with the 908s (and their stands) for whatever it would cost me to replace them with the SR-908s. (I'd have to call up the guys that sold the set to me and check what the number would actually be...)

    I'll have to get you to take a listen to the 918s I have as my front channels some time, to sell you on the idea. The 908s deliver most of the same benefits, with slightly less stage-depth, and slightly less power at low frequencies. g

    Posted by Auros on May. 22, 2006 at 2:52 PM

  2. BTW, did I miss, in the conversation last night, exactly which book it is that you're referring to? Because I'm failing to identify it from the description.

    Posted by Auros on May. 22, 2006 at 2:53 PM

  3. Well, it couldn't hurt to listen the speakers. I'm kind of tired of hauling out my computer speakers every time I have a barbecue... but not thousands-of-dollars tired.

    As for the book, it's Robert J. Sawyer's <cite><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312876939/sr=8-1/qid=1148336132/ref=sr11/103-4624144-2902204?%5Fencoding=UTF8">End of an Era</a></cite>. It was almost as irritating as his <cite>Calculating God</cite> -- same flat characters, same plot holes, same stale pop culture references, same annoying doughy paleontologist protagonist. It just lacked <cite>Calculating God</cite>'s high school sophomore-level theological debates.

    Sorry about being oblique about the book -- I was doing that on purpose, in some kind of halfhearted attempt at politeness. But today I just remembered Sawyer's <a href="http://slashdot.org/articles/04/09/11/1344234.shtml?tid=214&amp;tid=166&amp;tid=1">patronizing little rant</a> about the simplicity of fantasy, so the heck with it. (This is not to say that his interview poisoned my view of his books -- on the contrary, I can think of several SF authors who have said even <em>more</em> embarrassing things in essays and interviews, and yet I still like their stuff.)

    Posted by Evan on May. 22, 2006 at 3:44 PM

  4. Wait, I take it back... now that I think about it, <cite>End of an Era</cite> hinged on everybody's favorite theological principle, "The Strong Anthropic Principle for Dummies". So on further reflection, both books were equally annoying.

    Posted by Evan on May. 22, 2006 at 3:54 PM

  5. I made the mistake of picking up Hominids, a while back. My tendency to need to finish series is still warring with my discovery that it kinda sucked...

    Posted by Auros on May. 23, 2006 at 12:01 PM

  6. You must embrace that tendency! There are authors whose entire careers, thousand-page-tome after thousand-page-tome, are supported by that tendency. You wouldn't want those poor authors to starve, would you?

    Posted by Evan on May. 23, 2006 at 12:59 PM

  7. The Wheel of Time series is one my lifes greatest regrets. I would like to see Robert Jordan starving in the streets.

    Posted by Sam on May. 23, 2006 at 4:38 PM

  8. I would agree that the Wheel of Time was a waste of time, except that when I was 16 years old I got a temp. job as a receptionist. The first few books in the series saved me from terminal bordem. But then...that was 14 years ago and it still goes on.

    I vote for the '70s headphones if you are not mobile. If you jog with your ipod, you should jam this buds in your ear. (I think that Apple's earbuds are less comfortable than most. Maybe my ear canals are a weird shape....)

    Posted by Anon on May. 25, 2006 at 1:04 AM

  9. I ended up getting some <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006B486K/103-4998064-6170253">Koss KSC75</a> headphones for about $13 including shipping. They aren't super-high end, but they sound about a million times better than the airplane-quality headphones, so I'm very happy.

    Posted by Evan on May. 26, 2006 at 6:00 PM

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