Sunday, July 30, 2006
Tuesday, June 6, 2006
Monday, June 5, 2006
Shure E2c
It's been a while since I've had a gadget review, but I got these Shure E2c headphones about a week ago, and after breaking them in a bit over the week, I think I can give my opinion about them.
I've been looking to get noise canceling headphones ever since using David's JVC HANC100's. The JVC headphones has some electronics inside of them that generate white noise (powered by a single AAA battery) to block out the external noise outside of the headphones, which worked well for low frequency noise such as a noisy computer fan, and I'm guessing they would work just as well to drown out those mundane tones of an airline flight. The other nifty thing about these headphones is the retractable cord, which makes it convenient to use even if you don't have any sort of music source to plug into. However, the downside of these headphones is its bulkiness, so if you wanted to jog or exercise with these headphones, you're probably better off looking elsewhere. Also, for whatever reason, I was leaning more towards some sort of earbud headphone.
So after sifting through reviews at Amazon, I finally settled on getting the Shure E2c, which were rated pretty highly and pretty reasonably priced (note: For whatever reason, the price of these headphones fluxuate quite a lot, and I managed to snag these for $65 the day I bought them, so your purchase price may vary :P). Instead of using white noise to block out external sound, Shure takes another approach by making the headphones seal in your ear like earplugs. The headphones come with 3 set of earplugs (foam, silicon, and rubber) in 3 different sizes, giving you 9 standard combinations to try or you can mix and match the earplugs. I initially tried the medium-sized silicon earplugs, but I found them to be too hard to wear comfortably, so I switched to the medium-sized rubber earplugs, and I've been a happy panda ever since. Without any music playing, you feel like you're wearing standard earplugs, but once the music starts, your ear pretty much sifts out any background noise and concentrates on the music. I could have the dishwasher running and David watching a DVD at a normal volume next door on our 5.1 sound system and not get disturbed as I worked in my room. In fact, I would say it's probably dangerous to run outside by yourself with these on because you probably wouldn't be able to sense any "dangerous" sounds fast enough to react. In terms of sound quality, these phones provide a very clear and consistent sound, and with the noise-cancellation, you probably will hear parts of your music that you never heard before! Those who are into bass might find these headphone underwhelming, but you'd probably be looking for a different type of headphone altogether if you wanted to listen to bass all the time.
Anyways, if you're looking for a good set of earbuds that can isolate your ears from the rest of the world while you listen to your music, definitely give these a look!
I've been looking to get noise canceling headphones ever since using David's JVC HANC100's. The JVC headphones has some electronics inside of them that generate white noise (powered by a single AAA battery) to block out the external noise outside of the headphones, which worked well for low frequency noise such as a noisy computer fan, and I'm guessing they would work just as well to drown out those mundane tones of an airline flight. The other nifty thing about these headphones is the retractable cord, which makes it convenient to use even if you don't have any sort of music source to plug into. However, the downside of these headphones is its bulkiness, so if you wanted to jog or exercise with these headphones, you're probably better off looking elsewhere. Also, for whatever reason, I was leaning more towards some sort of earbud headphone.
So after sifting through reviews at Amazon, I finally settled on getting the Shure E2c, which were rated pretty highly and pretty reasonably priced (note: For whatever reason, the price of these headphones fluxuate quite a lot, and I managed to snag these for $65 the day I bought them, so your purchase price may vary :P). Instead of using white noise to block out external sound, Shure takes another approach by making the headphones seal in your ear like earplugs. The headphones come with 3 set of earplugs (foam, silicon, and rubber) in 3 different sizes, giving you 9 standard combinations to try or you can mix and match the earplugs. I initially tried the medium-sized silicon earplugs, but I found them to be too hard to wear comfortably, so I switched to the medium-sized rubber earplugs, and I've been a happy panda ever since. Without any music playing, you feel like you're wearing standard earplugs, but once the music starts, your ear pretty much sifts out any background noise and concentrates on the music. I could have the dishwasher running and David watching a DVD at a normal volume next door on our 5.1 sound system and not get disturbed as I worked in my room. In fact, I would say it's probably dangerous to run outside by yourself with these on because you probably wouldn't be able to sense any "dangerous" sounds fast enough to react. In terms of sound quality, these phones provide a very clear and consistent sound, and with the noise-cancellation, you probably will hear parts of your music that you never heard before! Those who are into bass might find these headphone underwhelming, but you'd probably be looking for a different type of headphone altogether if you wanted to listen to bass all the time.
Anyways, if you're looking for a good set of earbuds that can isolate your ears from the rest of the world while you listen to your music, definitely give these a look!
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Life update
I know I haven't been really good at updating this blog with life events (hence, the numerous spamming links with random stuff :P), so I figured it's time to take a step away from research (as a 460 meg file is being downloaded to my laptop :P) and do some real blogging for a bit. As you can probably realize, research has been busy as of late, but progress has been coming slowly but surely, and I got a paper accepted to the IEEE AP-S conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico this year, so I'll be flying down there in July to do a presentation on my anisotropic time-domain hybrid method. I've never been to New Mexico, so hopefully I'll be able to do some sightseeing as well.
In friends' news, my friend Yan got married last weekend to his fiancee Lisa. The wedding was up in Massachusetts, so David and I and another friend took a road trip up there. They had more of a traditional asian wedding ceremony, but since Lisa is vietnamese and Yan is chinese, I got to see two different asian wedding ceremonies in one day. After the ceremonies, they got some pictures taken at Phillips Academy, which served as a nice background drop with its open areas of grass. After the pictures, it was off to the wedding reception at Jin Cuisine, which is probably the biggest Chinese restaurant I've ever seen, for a 10 course meal, which included plenty of duck and seafood :) Man...you know you're getting old when you're seeing your friends get married :P But I'm happy for both of them. They've had some tough times in the past, but they managed to put their differences aside and be together for the rest of their lives.
Yan and Lisa (with Lisa's vietnamese wedding dress)
Yan and Lisa (with Lisa's chinese wedding dress)
Yan and Lisa (in traditional wedding attire)
Under a tree
So...that's how things are in married life...
Yan also got a pretty interesting wedding band, consisting of a titanium ring gripping a small diamond. Apparently, the ring is engineered so well that you'd have to use some sort of machinery to get the diamond out. For the trip, I drove about 1.8k miles and about 34 hours of driving over a 3 day period, but hey, I'm dedicated to my friends :)
In friends' news, my friend Yan got married last weekend to his fiancee Lisa. The wedding was up in Massachusetts, so David and I and another friend took a road trip up there. They had more of a traditional asian wedding ceremony, but since Lisa is vietnamese and Yan is chinese, I got to see two different asian wedding ceremonies in one day. After the ceremonies, they got some pictures taken at Phillips Academy, which served as a nice background drop with its open areas of grass. After the pictures, it was off to the wedding reception at Jin Cuisine, which is probably the biggest Chinese restaurant I've ever seen, for a 10 course meal, which included plenty of duck and seafood :) Man...you know you're getting old when you're seeing your friends get married :P But I'm happy for both of them. They've had some tough times in the past, but they managed to put their differences aside and be together for the rest of their lives.
Yan and Lisa (with Lisa's vietnamese wedding dress)
Yan and Lisa (with Lisa's chinese wedding dress)
Yan and Lisa (in traditional wedding attire)
Under a tree
So...that's how things are in married life...
Yan also got a pretty interesting wedding band, consisting of a titanium ring gripping a small diamond. Apparently, the ring is engineered so well that you'd have to use some sort of machinery to get the diamond out. For the trip, I drove about 1.8k miles and about 34 hours of driving over a 3 day period, but hey, I'm dedicated to my friends :)
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
How do you beat a room full of chess masters?
Like so! Although, if you sit down and think about it, it'll come to you how it works.
Edit: On a totally non-related note, here're some more amusing dance videos I found on the net today.
Guild Wars Dance
The Evolution of Dance!
Edit: On a totally non-related note, here're some more amusing dance videos I found on the net today.
Guild Wars Dance
The Evolution of Dance!
Friday, May 5, 2006
It's a wonderful internet!
Click here to listen to the interactive story. Move your mouse cursor around the pictures for different sounds.
Wednesday, May 3, 2006
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