Damage

Kinda follows the XD line in that the XD-200 (2nd entry) and XD-400 (Top of the Line) are great, whereas the XD-300 isn't all that. While I can see myself happy with the SA-1000 (and maybe making the upgrade to SA-5000 if the price is right), the Qualia 010's are probably the only phones that I'd really need to acquire at this point to complete my Sony Collection (Note: I've just obtained the E888SP, and I'm probably going to mod these). That, and maybe the Qualia MD's and their EX buds. And the MDR-V9s. But those are another story altogether... And the F1s... Damn. atrain: Yes, screw 1/8" plug. I'll snap a shot later today. And you can sort of see the screw plug in one of the shots, it's plugged directly into my NH1. Finally, not so slur the good name of Ishii, but I think he and myself have tha accursed Sony Gene.

MDR-SA1000, the entry phones in the acclaimed MDR-SA ("Super Audio" according to the box) line. Available for sub $150 ($99-$109 is the best price these days), they are quite possibly the best budget phones at any price. Enjoy. Specifications (Lifted from Sony Style) • Audio • Sensitivity --- 100dB/mW • Impedance --- 70 ohms at 1kHz • Frequency Response --- 8-80,000Hz • General • Type --- Open air, dynamic • Headphones --- Circum aural • Headphones --- Urethane Texture type and Low Dispresion • Driver Unit --- 50mm diameter, dome type • Diaphragm ---HD • Magnet --- Neodymium (360kJ/m3) • Cord --- Single sided, 3.5m texture type cord (6N-OFC) • Plug --- Straight stereo unimatch plug (gold) screw type • Headband --- Wire frame with adjusting mechanism • Power • Power Handling Capacity --- 1,500mW (IEC)

Believe it or not. Damage presents MDR-SA1000, quite possibly, one of the best ~$100 headphones. The driver is exposed, interestingly enough.

Generally, it would share some characteristics, but it would not sound exactly the same. Chalk it up to the driver housing used, some uses rounded cups, other uses flat housing, Porta Pros uses almost nothing, etc. The SR40s and the SR60s by Grado purportedly use the same drivers. However, because of the difference in housing shape (SR40s has a cuppish thing whereas the SR60s are totally open), the sound quality ends up being different for both 40s and the 60s.

Why I remember the days when I used to walk to school, miles away, uphill both ways (UCLA campus to dorms is literally uphill both ways). Back then, we used to wait four hours(!) to encode our music in command line encoder and WE LIKED IT! And you know what, back then we used nothing but 128kbps (or 96 if space were tight), and WE LIKED IT! And you know what, back then we only had access to the music on our computers. No fancy iPods, no fancy burners, nothing fancy, and WE LIKED IT! I think I'm showing my age. Get off the LAWN you kids!

MDR-SA1000 - I've listened to these for about 4 minutes today, total. However, I think they deserve to be on the list. More to come in due time, but the soundstage and the utter detail blows the Grados out of the water. Danged comfy too.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml.../13/ngadg13.xml At least in the UK shores, the Sony Bean's no more. Another one bites the dust.

MDR-SA1000 - I've listened to it today for about 30 seconds, and it already deserves a mention on this list.

Actually, you'd not be able to do anything worthwhile since the audio data is presented to the OS as a single huge file. There may be some internal fragmentation, but as far as the OS know or cares, it's a single file. You could move the file here or there, but that itself does not do anything for the internal defragmentation within the file. Finally, unless you literally pick and choose files here and there during uploads (rather than deleting or formatting yoru disc and reuploading your file) you really have no reason to worry about defragmentation.

It benefits more with stronger sources vs. portables, but it's your average sub-$100 Sony Cans, that has plenty of bass (if somewhat bloated or farty), decent vocals, and bright high ends. Using HT sources, it has a warmer overall representation vs. weaker portables. Also, I never get full seal on these because of the round padding thingy. I think that might be its biggest failing, and degrades the SQ accordingly. Like the SR60s, this one has an incredible sound stage. But I think for the same price, I'd recommend the SR60s over these. They are for hard-core (and I mean hard-core) Sony fans only.

It may be that you got a lucky unit, or your phones have a hard time detecting this, or your phones are that sensitive enough (certainly could be the case) and/or inefficient enough to pick up the hiss. If that's the case, then probably better off that you not actively look for it. However, it's not low birtrate that causes this, it's the fact that the player is ON and is playing anything back that causes this noise. You might be thinking of low bitrate associated artifacting, which is more of the swirling, swooshing, warbling, and otherwise a fine mess that you hear in the treble areas (especially with cymbals in the drum set). Those are two separate phenomena that low end Sony units are plauged with, though for the low bitrate files, that's more of a function of the CODEC than anything else. Or more to the point, it's there whenever the internal amp is active. Again, the noise phenomenon is prevalent in any units that are not armed with Digital Amps (such as my low end PCDPs) and all Network Walkmen.

Visual Damage presents Sony MDR-605 + Rio CE2110 Pairing up what is quite possibly the most comfortable phones that Sony's ever created and Rio's last hurrah into the MP3 market, the brilliantly chartruese RIO CE2110. Hey, it could be worse. Click the link on top to see the full album, I'll upload the best shot here: More to be added as they say, this was a rather hurried snapshot. Finally, the title bar was obviously influenced by Ishii, so I shamelessly ripped that off into my own style. You know what they say, something about copying people and complement and all that. Note: More pictures uploaded of the brilliantly chartreuse RIO CE2110.

Quick Answer - yes. More to that point - There were anecdotal evidence in this (and other, more Orange MD related) forum that the unit isn't rather smart about charging units, that some damage could've been done. The most notable I remember was that the battery got fat as it was charging in the unit and become stuck in the unit. Unfortunately, the next best solution is to purchase a dedicated Gumstick charger, which in the US (outside of Online purchase) is about as plentiful as brand spanking new 5 1/4" floppy discs, or 1GB HiMD discs in its original debut. Even the Sony Style Stores (one here in Beverly Center, CA) has Gumsticks but no chargers. Google up Battery University for a full Rechargable 101 course.

Get yourself and your gear to a quiet place to try this test. It's more apparent on units that does not employ a "Digital Amp" vs. analog amps (that is, it's more apparent on low end units vs. the typical high end units). However, there are some units, most encountered with CD Walkmen, that reproduces the low level hiss/noise irregardless of the amp used (D-NE520 comes to mind). I think it also matter what headphones you use as well, though I've been able to reproduce this on all of my D-NE units outside D-NE20 (which uses Digital Amp) using all sorts of phones. Of course, I rarely use earbuds, and those buds may do a better job not reproducing said noise... I can also find no noise on my MZ-NH1 and RH910, both of which employ some sort of digial amplification for their headphone jack. Overall, you're not going to find it in normal, noisy listening situations. At night, when you're listening to it in lower volume, you're more likely to notice this however. Hope this helps.

WinXP Personified... err... Anthropomorphosized... um... Animesized... Whateverized. Replete with stereotypical measurements.

Why, you're going to have to read my blog to find out now, won't you? Just to say though, I can't tell with my collection of phones whether or not the 330s are louder than D-NE1, 900, and the 20. I can say for certain that they've cut back a bit on the bass (though added ClearBass 3), and that's about what I can tell at this given moment. I still want a HD Amp to go with my D-NE9/30 though...

DANG YOU! I was going to post this first, considering I did drop $49.99 + sales tax on it tonight. Ah, wait, I'm day late and a dollar short. I'll get a review up soon, but I'm getting a bit excited about D-NE30 after all, and hopefully they've fixed that terrible firmware bug that made the D-NE20 useless. One interesting note. The unit does not ship with any software at all (at least my unit didn't). No Connect (which I think was probably the candidate until player was aborted), no SonicStage 3.x. Instead, it comes with 5 track download coupon for Connect Store, which I don't think did come with other low end units in the past. Second note. Nevermind that... Initial impressions: Leaner bass seems outright apparent vs. other D-NE units. The Codec seems improved from the past, but not certain (I'm using a A3P CD that's at least couple gen old from the SS2.0 days). And for the curious, the unit's made in Malaysia. For all that's its worth (note, all of my D-NE units are made in... Malaysia)

Dunno how dangerous this worm/virus has been in the past, but from what I can gather, it didn't do much compared to the other big worms that hit in the past, or compared to the traditional Virii such as the Michangelo (which got bigger press and did bigger damage IIRC). I wonder if this all insecure bit and media hype is helping to make computers (by that I mean Windows systems in large) more secure? Of course, with better security policies (such as not disabling normal USER to a point where to do anything remotely productive, he has to log in as admin), this could be moot. However, one should be aware that the Windows as a whole was designed for single user in mind.

Expensive does not necessairly mean better. See Bose Trap for more detail. OR try a pair of Grado SR60s to see what I mean. Becareful with Shures. The E2s are better sounding than the EX71s (but then again...), however, they tend to be very uncomfortable because of their large bulbous driver housing. By contrast, the E3s are very comfortable, but lacks bass and must be compensated with bass strong source or with EQ Bass Boost. Again, just to point out, expensive != better.

Who said that gears had to be practical (as so long as it sounded good most of the time) to be of use?

I hope so. I dearly hope so. You might be the only person I know of that uses Nano with those Qualias (so would I if I had one, mind you, I wonder if you can transmit the jealousy that I have at this moment)... At anyrate, now that I've been kicking it with the iPod since October, November, I can say that I like it when I pair it with something that gives a nice bass kick to it. Otherwise, I tend to gravitate to my Rio CE 2110 (the most brilliant Chatruese DAP ever) more often.

My old skool Clie NR-70 now works primarily as a remote control. Considering that I've seen remotes cost more than what I paid for the NR-70 ($300), not bad. It also works as a pinch as a Gameboy, multi-bible, and a MP3 player. So can't complain.

You know, you just signed your own death warrant, as Chuck had that footaged ordered to be destoryed. Now that you have it... you will eventually feel the coldness of space as Chuck... Ah you know.

Probably some random OEM, I have a similar pair that came with my Sansa E140s, and they're nothing exciting. Speaking of those OEM Clones, they're the best pack in buds I've gotten, by far, but they're heavy on bass and fairly lite on everything else.

A Random Fark thread about Chuck Norris, but for some reason, this is really hilarious. And I have it on good sources that if you don't check it out, he will roundhouse kick you to stone age. So you've been warned.