6/12/2011Due to the nature of my work (IT Systems Engineer) and being the “mobile device guy” (BES admin, etc) I often get asked, “I am looking into buying a new phone. Which mobile device is right for me?”. “Well it depends”, is what I usually say. If you saw my previous post, I carry around four mobile phones (plus I have an iPad). I have ready access to a blackberry 9700, an iPhone 4, WP7 (Samsung Focus), and an Android (Samsung Infuse). When I show people the different phones, they usually ask, “Which is your favorite?” This is the point where my likes might not be the same as the person asking. I am a geek at heart and like messing around with gadgets, so my take on things might be different than someone who just wants their phone to work without much fuss. Here in no particular order are the pluses and minuses of the different phones. I am not breaking down every single detail of each type of phone OS/device. I am just hitting the high points. iPhone : 
+’s · Lots of polished apps · Great camera* · For the most part it just works · Pretty good phone sound quality · Lots of peripherals -‘s A little restrictive (for example, try adding a custom alert tone like you can do on most any other phone). Personal preference, but current hardware is not that great considering you need a cover to prevent the “death grip” reception issue. Also the phone is made with glass that is on the front and back making it easy to drop and crack. Plan on getting a case for the phone. Lousy camera* Recommendation: If you are a diehard Mac fan, this is your phone. If you want a phone that pretty much works like you want it to, again this is your phone. If you like to “hack” your phone, you can always jailbreak it, but this will void your warranty. Why is “camera” listed as both a plus and a minus? The phone sensor is actually really good and takes crisp, clear pictures, but at the same time, it oversaturates the photos which is to me something that should be left to post processing a pic in say Light Room or another photo manipulation application. Blackberry: 
+’s · Great physical keyboard (if you are into that sort of thing) · Great messaging device · Great phone sound quality · Great reception -‘s · Applications aren’t that good and can be a bit expensive compared to the other manufactures · Phones tend to be on the smaller side which makes the screen kind of tiny and hard to read · RIM seems to be out of touch with its users and not really innovating for the consumer market Recommendation: If all you do is use your phone as a phone and/or for messaging purposes and don’t mind a smaller screen, then this is your phone. Most of the major apps like Facebook and Twitter are available and work ok, but honestly they aren’t nearly as polished as say the iPhone version of the application. If a physical keyboard is a necessity, you can’t beat the keyboard on most blackberries especially their newer high end models like the Bold series, and the Torch. WP7: 
+’s · Fast user interface (UI) · Simple UI · No crashes -‘s · Not as many apps as iPhone and Android · Not as many phones to choose from compared to Android. For example at the time I am writing this there is only one WP7 phone on Verizon while there are over a dozen Android devices again on Verizon. Recommendation: WP7 is not like the older Windows Mobile OS that you might have remembered from a few years ago. It is a complete rewrite. Now that is a good thing and a bad thing. Good because they are getting rid of all the old code and starting over fresh. Bad because all the old apps no longer work and have to be rewritten. Right now there are close to 25,000 apps in the Windows Marketplace with the majority of the well known apps being there. The WP7 is a good OS for an OS that has only been around for less than 9 months. Android: 
+’s · Plenty of devices to choose from on most carriers · Lots of apps · Customizable -‘s · Crash prone · Malware, viruses on the upswing Recommendation: Google Android devices are currently the number one selling mobile phone. Many different companies make the devices and they are available on almost all of the carriers. If you like “hacking” your PC with different skins and launchers and what not, then Android is the mobile OS for you as you can hack it any which way you want. Well Brady, this is all well and good, but if it was your money, what would YOU buy? Ok, this is usually the second question I am asked after which device someone should buy. First, I am not a big gaming fan especially on my phone. The screens are just too small and well I am 43 years old and not into gaming like I used to be ;-). I like to play the occasional game of “Go”, but that is about it. I also don’t browse the web that much on my phone. What I do care more about is email, text, phone sound quality, a good camera (like they say, the best camera in the world is the one you have with you and most people have their cell phone with them all of the time), and a few select apps. I don’t care for Android as it crashes and locks up quite a lot. I shouldn’t have to hack my phone (“root it”), just to make the GPS, wifi, etc work properly. Also the UI is an absolute mess. iPhones are a good phone, but they are too restrictive. If you want to change your alert tone, you had better like the built in selection because that is all you are going to get. To me it is just too much of a controlled environment. Blackberry is a pretty decent phone, but it lacks a few apps that I like to use. For example I like going geocaching, but the geocaching app isn’t available for blackberry. Blackberry does a good job with every other function that I look for in a phone. I am looking forward when RIM releases their QNX based phones (maybe by this time next year). This leaves WP7. My next phone will more than likely be a WP7 device. I really like the UI and the speed. They have all of the apps I need and email on the device works great. I think Microsoft is in this game for the long haul and have committed to a minimum of five years to the launch of the new mobile platform. From what I understand developing for the WP7 platform is relatively easy which should help increase the amount of apps available. Summary: In the end when purchasing a mobile phone is a personal decision based on many factors like cost, performance, carrier choice, etc. What is the best phone for one person might be the worst for another. At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself what do you see yourself using the device for the most and make sure that the device you are purchasing is tops in that category. Due to the nature of my work (IT Systems Engineer) and being the “mobile device guy” (BES admin, etc) I often get asked, “I am looking into buying a new phone. Which mobile device is right for me?”. “Well it depends”, is what I usually say. If you saw my previous post, I carry around four mobile phones (plus I have an iPad). I have ready access to a blackberry 9700, an iPhone 4, WP7 (Samsung Focus), and an Android (Samsung Infuse). When I show people the different phones, they usually ask, “Which is your favorite?” This is the point where my likes might not be the same as the person asking. I am a geek at heart and like messing around with gadgets, so my take on things might be different than someone who just wants their phone to work without much fuss. Here in no particular order are the pluses and minuses of the different phones. I am not breaking down every single detail of each type of phone OS/device. I am just hitting the high points. iPhone :
+’s · Lots of polished apps · Great camera* · For the most part it just works · Pretty good phone sound quality · Lots of peripherals -‘s A little restrictive (for example, try adding a custom alert tone like you can do on most any other phone). Personal preference, but current hardware is not that great considering you need a cover to prevent the “death grip” reception issue. Also the phone is made with glass that is on the front and back making it easy to drop and crack. Plan on getting a case for the phone. Lousy camera* Recommendation: If you are a diehard Mac fan, this is your phone. If you want a phone that pretty much works like you want it to, again this is your phone. If you like to “hack” your phone, you can always jailbreak it, but this will void your warranty. Why is “camera” listed as both a plus and a minus? The phone sensor is actually really good and takes crisp, clear pictures, but at the same time, it oversaturates the photos which is to me something that should be left to post processing a pic in say Light Room or another photo manipulation application. Blackberry: +’s · Great physical keyboard (if you are into that sort of thing) · Great messaging device · Great phone sound quality · Great reception -‘s · Applications aren’t that good and can be a bit expensive compared to the other manufactures · Phones tend to be on the smaller side which makes the screen kind of tiny and hard to read · RIM seems to be out of touch with its users and not really innovating for the consumer market Recommendation: If all you do is use your phone as a phone and/or for messaging purposes and don’t mind a smaller screen, then this is your phone. Most of the major apps like Facebook and Twitter are available and work ok, but honestly they aren’t nearly as polished as say the iPhone version of the application. If a physical keyboard is a necessity, you can’t beat the keyboard on most blackberries especially their newer high end models like the Bold series, and the Torch. WP7:
+’s · Fast user interface (UI) · Simple UI · No crashes -‘s · Not as many apps as iPhone and Android · Not as many phones to choose from compared to Android. For example at the time I am writing this there is only one WP7 phone on Verizon while there are over a dozen Android devices again on Verizon. Recommendation: WP7 is not like the older Windows Mobile OS that you might have remembered from a few years ago. It is a complete rewrite. Now that is a good thing and a bad thing. Good because they are getting rid of all the old code and starting over fresh. Bad because all the old apps no longer work and have to be rewritten. Right now there are close to 25,000 apps in the Windows Marketplace with the majority of the well known apps being there. The WP7 is a good OS for an OS that has only been around for less than 9 months. Android:
+’s · Plenty of devices to choose from on most carriers · Lots of apps · Customizable -‘s · Crash prone · Malware, viruses on the upswing Recommendation: Google Android devices are currently the number one selling mobile phone. Many different companies make the devices and they are available on almost all of the carriers. If you like “hacking” your PC with different skins and launchers and what not, then Android is the mobile OS for you as you can hack it any which way you want. Well Brady, this is all well and good, but if it was your money, what would YOU buy? Ok, this is usually the second question I am asked after which device someone should buy. First, I am not a big gaming fan especially on my phone. The screens are just too small and well I am 43 years old and not into gaming like I used to be ;-). I like to play the occasional game of “Go”, but that is about it. I also don’t browse the web that much on my phone. What I do care more about is email, text, phone sound quality, a good camera (like they say, the best camera in the world is the one you have with you and most people have their cell phone with them all of the time), and a few select apps. I don’t care for Android as it crashes and locks up quite a lot. I shouldn’t have to hack my phone (“root it”), just to make the GPS, wifi, etc work properly. Also the UI is an absolute mess. iPhones are a good phone, but they are too restrictive. If you want to change your alert tone, you had better like the built in selection because that is all you are going to get. To me it is just too much of a controlled environment. Blackberry is a pretty decent phone, but it lacks a few apps that I like to use. For example I like going geocaching, but the geocaching app isn’t available for blackberry. Blackberry does a good job with every other function that I look for in a phone. I am looking forward when RIM releases there QNX based phones (maybe by this time next year). This leaves WP7. My next phone will more than likely be a WP7 device. I really like the UI and the speed. They have all of the apps I need and email on the device works great. I think Microsoft is in this game for the long haul and have committed to a minimum of five years to the launch of the new mobile platform. From what I understand developing for the WP7 platform is relatively easy which should help increase the amount of apps available. Summary: In the end when purchasing a mobile phone is a personal decision based on many factors like cost, performance, carrier choice, etc. What is the best phone for one person might be the worst for another. At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself what do you see yourself using the device for the most and make sure that the device you are purchasing is tops in that category. 4/8/2011I think I have too many phones to lug around in my “man bag”. From left to right: iPhone 4 with Mophie Juice Pack, HTC Thunderbolt, Samsung Focus, Blackberry 9700  The iPhone is mine. The Thunderbolt (Android OS) is on loan from the nice folks at Verizon. I should be getting one permanently soon though. The Focus is my Windows Phone 7 test device for work. The blackberry is also for work as I am the “BES” admin. 4/5/2011While at work today I attended an "All Hands IT Meeting". During the meeting a picture came up on the overhead in a PowerPoint slide that looked kind of like San Francisco. The picture looked like you were standing on Jefferson or Beach Street and looking West up towards Ghirardelli Square. Kind of bored and not being one to let things go, I quickly logged onto my iphone and brought up the Google Mobile app: http://goo.gl/eO3q. I took a picture of the PowerPoint slide and let the Google Mobile app do its thing. Now understand I snapped the pic very quickly and was quite a distance from the wall that the PowerPoint was being projected onto. There were also people in the way, so again this wasn’t the best of situations. Once the Google App finished, it came up with a link: http://goo.gl/QtkP2. The shot I was looking for was in the “Images for traffic at night” link at the top of the results page: http://goo.gl/lYRTo. I clicked on that picture and found out that it was a picture of “Harrogate town centre”. Realizing that it wasn’t a picture of San Francisco, I selected the text and copied and pasted it into the Google search engine. I learned that this picture was actually in Harrogate, North Yorkshire England (if I had been more observant, I would have noticed the cars headlight trails were on the “wrong side” of the street. Duh). I then saved that Google link into another app called “Read it Later”: http://goo.gl/KsDm. When I got home at night, I did some reading about the area and learned something about Harrogate England. This sequence of events utterly amazes me that things like this are possible. I work around technology all day and stuff like this keeps me energized with the type of work I do. 2/13/2011I was asked if I wanted to test an extended battery pack for iphone 4’s that we might deploy to our iphone fleet at work especially field support people who are on the go a lot. Test…cool…gadget….hmmmm…Where do I sign up?  The test unit is a Mophie juice pack air for iphone 4. The device looks like a plain phone case but actually has a 1500mAh battery inside of it (there is also a 2000mAh model available called the juice pack plus). The standard iphone 4 battery utilizes a 1420mAh battery. So, technically this battery pack should double my phone’s lifespan between charges. Looks: The case comes in two pieces. The larger piece which contains the battery has a bypass switch on it which allows you to draw from the Mophie juice air battery or the iphone’s internal battery. There are 5 white LED charge lights on the bottom with accompanying button that when pressed shows the battery strength. There is a micro USB connection port that allows the device to be charged and sync with a computer via itunes. There is no need for disassembly of the case to sync and charge both the phone and the battery in the case. Once the iphone slides into the bottom piece and mates up with the connector that looks like the connector on a standard iphone/ipad/itouch cable, you can then slide the top piece down to cover the top of the iphone. The two pieces come together slightly past a third of the way down from the top of the iphone. The sides on my juice pack are silver and the back is a matte black. There are also two other back colors available (red and white). The back part of the juice pack is a rubbery material that provides some tactile support to help you keep from dropping the phone. There are cutout slots in the case for the volume controls, mute switch, power button, headphone jack/upper mic, and the camera on the back. The Good: The most important question here is does the juice pack well, deliver the juice? In my testing, the device almost but not quite doubled my battery life. Normally after a full day of use, my battery is around 50% used up. I typically have all the antennas on, (3G, GPS, bluetooth, and wifi). With the mophie juice pack, it doesn’t kick over to the internal battery on my phone until around four in the afternoon. Realistically, if I pushed it, I probably could get a day and a half of usability from the combination of internal phone battery and the Mophie juice pack. The documentation says you should get ~500 FULL charges out of the juice pack. Three recharges of the juice pack while it was at 1/3 battery battery strength counts as one full charge. The styling is quite nice. I like the rubberized back on the device. The juice pack adds about 1cm of length to the phone which isn’t too bad although there is a downside to this as you will see below. Additionally the back on the juice pack adds about another 5mm of depth to the phone back which isn’t too bad. I really like how you can charge and sync the device with a micro USB cable. I have plenty of those floating around from other devices and this makes it easier to sync and charge the device. I have never liked the proprietary iphone connection cable. The Bad: As mentioned above, the length of the juice pack is only increased about 1cm, but that seems to be enough to make the balance of the device “off” in your hand. When you hold the phone with the juice pack on it, it feels like it going to tip over the top of your hand (and I have fairly large hands). It isn’t that bad, but it is noticeable. The phone becomes big enough with the juice pack installed that getting it in and out of jeans pockets takes a little more work. Again, it isn’t too bad, but those of you wearing tight “lawmen” jeans might want to think twice about getting this battery pack/case. I wish the case had some sort of latching mechanism for where the two parts of the case come together. I don’t think it is too big of an issue, but I have already pulled the top piece of the case off pulling the phone out of my pocket. I would be a little concerned dropping my phone with the juice pack attached to it. I think my phone would be ok, but I don’t think the juice pack would survive the fall. With the weight of the phone plus the battery pack and the fact that the silvery band around the case is just colored plastic, I have a sneaking suspicion that it would break quite easily. The Ugly: The price. The list price on the Mophie website is $79.95 at the time of writing. That is a bit spendy for my tastes. If it were say around $50, I think this would be a much more reasonable price. Verdict: If you are looking for a nice extended battery for your iphone 4 and money isn’t an object, I recommend the Mophie juice pack air. It pretty much doubles your iphone 4’s battery life, it is built well, and it looks great. ******* 7/10 stars Some pics: (Note, the LED’s aren’t on all of the time. I just turned them on to show what they look like)      
 
I was asked if I wanted to test an extended battery pack for iphone 4’s that we might deploy to our iphone fleet at work especially field support people who are on the go a lot. Test…cool…gadget….hmmmm…Where do I sign up?  The test unit is a Mophie juice pack air for iphone 4. The device looks like a plain phone case but actually has a 1500mAh battery inside of it (there is also a 2000mAh model available called the juice pack plus). The standard iphone 4 battery utilizes a 1420mAh battery. So, technically this battery pack should double my phone’s lifespan between charges. Looks: The case comes in two pieces. The larger piece which contains the battery has a bypass switch on it which allows you to draw from the Mophie juice air battery or the iphone’s internal battery. There are 5 white LED charge lights on the bottom with accompanying button that when pressed shows the battery strength. There is a micro USB connection port that allows the device to be charged and sync with a computer via itunes. There is no need for disassembly of the case to sync and charge both the phone and the battery in the case. Once the iphone slides into the bottom piece and mates up with the connector that looks like the connector on a standard iphone/ipad/itouch cable, you can then slide the top piece down to cover the top of the iphone. The two pieces come together slightly past a third of the way down from the top of the iphone. The sides on my juice pack are silver and the back is a matte black. There are also two other back colors available (red and white). The back part of the juice pack is a rubbery material that provides some tactile support to help you keep from dropping the phone. There are cutout slots in the case for the volume controls, mute switch, power button, headphone jack/upper mic, and the camera on the back. The Good: The most important question here is does the juice pack well, deliver the juice? In my testing, the device almost but not quite doubled my battery life. Normally after a full day of use, my battery is around 50% used up. I typically have all the antennas on, (3G, GPS, bluetooth, and wifi). With the mophie juice pack, it doesn’t kick over to the internal battery on my phone until around four in the afternoon. Realistically, if I pushed it, I probably could get a day and a half of usability from the combination of internal phone battery and the Mophie juice pack. The documentation says you should get ~500 FULL charges out of the juice pack. Three recharges of the juice pack while it was at 1/3 battery battery strength counts as one full charge. The styling is quite nice. I like the rubberized back on the device. The juice pack adds about 1cm of length to the phone which isn’t too bad although there is a downside to this as you will see below. Additionally the back on the juice pack adds about another 5mm of depth to the phone back which isn’t too bad. I really like how you can charge and sync the device with a micro USB cable. I have plenty of those floating around from other devices and this makes it easier to sync and charge the device. I have never liked the proprietary iphone connection cable. The Bad: As mentioned above, the length of the juice pack is only increased about 1cm, but that seems to be enough to make the balance of the device “off” in your hand. When you hold the phone with the juice pack on it, it feels like it going to tip over the top of your hand (and I have fairly large hands). It isn’t that bad, but it is noticeable. The phone becomes big enough with the juice pack installed that getting it in and out of jeans pockets takes a little more work. Again, it isn’t too bad, but those of you wearing tight “lawmen” jeans might want to think twice about getting this battery pack/case. I wish the case had some sort of latching mechanism for where the two parts of the case come together. I don’t think it is too big of an issue, but I have already pulled the top piece of the case off pulling the phone out of my pocket. There is a very slight degradation in voice quality due to the ports used in the bottom of the juice pack that funnel the speaker sounds up and through it. Also, callers reported they can hear something when I got a text or email notification and my phone was set to vibrate. The vibration through the juice pack could be heard according to callers. The Ugly: The price. The list price on the Mophie website is $79.95 at the time of writing. That is a bit spendy for my tastes. If it were say $50, I think this would be a much more reasonable price. Verdict: If you are looking for a nice extended battery for your iphone 4 and money isn’t an object, I recommend the Mophie juice pack air. It pretty much doubles your iphone 4’s battery life, it is built well, and it looks great. ******* 7/10 stars Some pics: (Note, the LED’s aren’t on all of the time. I just turned them on to show what they look like)        
2/8/2011This morning I was eating some breakfast while surfing the web, checking work email, the usual stuff. Cassandra was in the kitchen doing some dishes. Cassandra looked out the back window and made a comment about the poor neighbors being outside with their dog for 15 minutes (waiting for the dog to do its business). About 5 seconds later I hear over my right shoulder about where the staircase is a child say, "15 minutes" in kind of a light hearted tone. It didn't quite sound like Cameron, but it didn't quite sound like Lauren either. I asked Cassandra if the kids were awake. She replied they weren't (I later went upstairs to brush my teeth and their door was closed and both were sound asleep). I also asked if she repeated saying "15 minutes". Nope.
I have no idea who or what said the second "15 minutes". I guess this is just another one of those quirky things in life that goes unexplained.
1/22/2011We are at the beginnings of another watershed moment in personal computing folks. Motorola displayed the “Atrix” phone running the Android operating system at CES 2011 a couple of weeks ago: http://engt.co/eFkLlf. This “phone” is actually more than just a phone. With the docking station plugged into your monitor, it can become a desktop PC or TV. With a laptop shell that the phone plugs into, it becomes a sort of netbook. The key is this phone will have a dual core 1Ghz processor. Soon there will be quad core processors coming out for small form factor devices: http://engt.co/ifwI4q. This is huge! Why? Think about it. You will only need one device (and some accessories) to do all of your computing. You go to work and plug this device into its docking station and through the Citrix interface connect to VDI backend. Basically VDI is a server running in your companies or third party datacenter that has multiple desktop sessions running on it. You then connect to your desktop that is running on the backend server via the Citrix interface over the network and do what  you normally do like opening up Word documents, fill out Excel spreadsheets, check your email, etc. All of the heavy lifting is done on the backend servers with your phone just displaying the graphics. You undock your phone and go out to lunch all the while staying connected just as you would with any full featured smartphone that is available today or over a 3G/4G network stay connected to your work desktop session if need be or running locally stored apps and games as you do now. Later that day you need to take a plane flight to a customers site. You grab the laptop accessory and plug in your phone and finish your presentation in route. Later when you get home, you plug your phone into the docking cradle at home and watch Netflix on your large screen HD TV and check your email. If you think about it, this will also reduce the impact on the planet as theoretically you won’t need multiple PC’s and laptops anymore. Now will you be able to play a very graphic intense game or do heavy photo or video editing on these types of devices? Certainly not (for the the foreseeable future anyways). These devices will appeal to road warriors looking to trim down their necessary equipment to take on a trip and people that need simple machines to check their email, browse the web, etc. This is what cloud computing is all about (well mostly). It means a simple device that gets you connected to the wireless network be it 3G/4G or WIFI and then you are off and running. Sounds like science fiction huh? Years from now this device will be remembered as THE device that changed computing….again. 9/28/2010
During this past Labor Day, I was cleaning out some old computer parts. Lauren happened to be playing nearby and fell on an old computer CD-ROM. She cut herself pretty good near her wrist. At first I didn’t think it was so bad, but after Cassandra cleaned it out, it was decided that it might be deep and wide enough for stitches, so off to the doctors we go. Because it was Labor Day, her regular doctor wasn’t available, so we had to go to the emergency room. The nurse practitioner decided that stitches weren’t needed and after a thorough cleaning and what amounted to some glorified crazy glue applied to seal the wound and a small bandage was applied, we were sent on our way.
The bill came today:
You have GOT to be kidding me. I know my insurance sucks big time, but I didn’t know it sucks this bad.
It is amazing to me that a visit to the emergency room for what amounted to a band-aid costs nearly $900! I feel so bad for all of the people out there for whatever reason don’t have any insurance and would have to decide whether or not to take their child to the doctor or not because they couldn’t afford it.
As a country we can spend almost a trillion dollars a year on a defense budget yet we have some of the crappiest health care on the planet. We seriously have our priorities screwed up! 8/28/2010I am partially color blind. Most of what I see is in shades of grey. As such, my sense of hearing is more acute than most people I think. I really focus in on hearing things more than seeing things. A lot of people don’t hear things that I hear especially with regards to music. One thing I really like to do is listen to music. I mean REALLY listen to music. Sure it is nice to have some music playing in the background, but there are times (especially late a night on weekends between 11pm and 1am) I like to turn the lights down low, sit in a big comfy chair and listen to some of my favorite music. The type of music I mostly listen to is Electronica, Ambient, and 80’s. I do listen to many different types of music though including alternative, reggae, 70’s, hard rock, and new age. I love deep bass. When I listen to music, I like to listen with headphones. Headphones allow me to listen to music at relatively loud volumes without disturbing anyone. Also, a good pair of headphones will sound better than speakers unless you have several thousands of dollars for a pair of quality speakers. I have a decent setup with some Polk speakers upstairs and some Bose downstairs for the home theater, but I can’t blast those late at night. My old Sennheiser 545 headphones are 15 years old. For the past year, they have been starting to sound a bit “frayed” as best I can put it. Low ends aren’t that tight and high ends have a slight crackle/hiss to them. It was time for a new pair. I tried listening to several brands including some Audio Technica’s, Grado’s, Sennheiser, Denon, Beyer Dynamic, Bose, and Sony’s. I don’t need any noise cancelling headphones as I tend to listen to music in a quiet room. I looked at some wireless models, but they seemed to be a little expensive for what you were getting. As I walked around the showroom, I noticed a few times the wireless models would pop or lose connection to the base station. No thanks. I finally settled on a pair of Denon AHD2000’s. These headphones are a closed back design. My old Sennheiser’s were an open back model. I decided to go with a closed back model due in part to the extended bass end that these types of headphones have. ![0020522000_3331[1]](/bradyblog/Lists/Posts/Attachments/89/0020522000_33311_3_660CF602.jpg "0020522000_3331[1]") Bass is definitely the strong point of these headphones. The sound is tight and clean. I have had the headphones about a week now and I haven’t heard any distortion on the low end. Mid range is about average. Voices are clear, but not terribly so. Hi end is crisp and bright. I think my old Sennheiser’s might have had a little bit better mid range, but not by much.
Fit and finish are superb. The ear pieces are plastic (I believe), but they feel like metal and are quite solid. The frame is made out of magnesium, light and strong. The ear pieces are a leatherette material (leather would have been nicer). There is a standard mini plug that screws into a full size plug. The cord is wrapped in a thick material that coils fairly easily. I have a fairly large head. The headphones fit quite well on my head. There is no pressure on the top of my head from the headphone band. The ear pieces fit perfectly over my ears (I do have rather small ears though). I was a bit nervous getting a pair of closed headphones wondering if they would be too warm during extended listening periods. I am glad to report that I have no problems listening to these headphones for many hours with just a slight bit of heat build up and fatigue. The ear pieces are fairly large and when I am laying back against a pillow, they tend to push the headphones forward a bit, but not too much. Even though these are closed ear headphones, some sound does leak out. Not as much as my Sennheiser’s, but more than I thought would from this type of headphone. I am very pleased with these headphones. They are a treat to listen to. Songs I have listened to for years sound brand new and alive. I keep hearing new things in songs that I hadn’t heard before in any other headphones or speakers I have owned. Most headphones require a break in period before you start to hear what they will eventually sound like. If I hear anything different after the break-in period, I will update my post. |
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