How to shop for sound systems.

20Jun08

Let’s start by recognizing the reason for this note.

Bose.

Bose is the name of the most recognizable, “high-end” consumer audio brand in the US.  So why is this note about Bose, you might ask?  Bose is the perfect example of the mistake that 95% of people make when purchasing sound systems:

If it’s expensive, loud and advertised — it must be good.

The primary factor that leads to this misconception is that those 95% of people have never even HEARD “good” audio before.  Now, I know what you’re thinking: “I’ve been to the theater” or “I’ve been to IMAX” — or my personal favorite: “My friend has a good sound system in his car.”

Your typical theater has a mediocre sound system.  Yes, it’s loud, but that doesn’t make it a good sound system.  Your friend more than likely also has a loud sound system, but again, it’s probably not a GOOD sound system.

IMAX?  Ok, IMAX has a better than average sound quality.  It’s probably the best sound that most people have heard or will hear in their lifetimes.  And therein lies the issue: since people have never heard good sound quality, they don’t know how to shop for it.

The next thing we need to address is: what determines good sound quality?  It’s difficult to identify something you have never heard!  Here are some general descriptions to go by.

– CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD SOUND SYSTEM

– Clarity

First and foremost, all speakers introduce “noise” into whatever you are listening to.  This can come in the form of a hiss, a hum, white noise, etc.. an important step in learning to shop wisely is to learn to recognize “noise” AND the difference between noise caused by the speakers and noise caused by other external sources.

External sources can include: compressed (mp3, aac, etc..) low-quality music (i.e. 96kbps mp3), unclean power and background noise from whatever environment you are in.

A good sound system has a low amount of noise, even when the volume is turned up close to the maximum that the speaker is capable of reproducing.

– Accuracy

Believe it or not, it’s likely that you’ve never heard your music or movies the way they were intended to be heard.  Whatever sound system you currently have probably “cuts out” a lot of various sounds.

A good sound system can reproduce sound accurately even at quiet volumes.

– Individual Speaker Quality

So many people think that the epitome of sound systems is a loud, 5.1 surround sound system.  I’m going to let you in on a secret:  if a stereo system and a surround sound system are of equal price, the stereo system will sound better.

No, you won’t have the full surround sound effect (although you may be surprised by how spacious a stereo system can be), but the clarity and accuracy will both be drastically superior.

A good surround sound system will cost much more than an equivalent stereo system.  As an example, a $600 powered (see below) speaker will be louder, clearer, more accurate and have more bass than an entire $600 powered 5.1 surround sound system.

– Powered vs. Unpowered

Amps are what ultimately make music loud enough for you to hear.  Powered systems have amps built-in, unpowered systems do not.  Unpowered systems require external amps or a receiver with amps in order to function.

Amps cost money.  The more speakers you have, the more amp power you need.  Thus, in a cheap 5.1 surround sound system, you’re paying quite a bit for amps, and they aren’t going to be very high quality.  In addition, that means you’re paying less for each individual speaker, and they will also be lower quality.

In the high end, powered speaker’s amps are usually matched to the speakers and are much higher quality than consumer amplification.

– APPLYING THIS KNOWLEDGE

First and foremost, you need a budget.  Then, within that budget, you need to find the best quality sound system you can.  “Best bang for your buck” as they say.

Here are some general price ranges:

$0-250: You are pretty much screwed, but the principal of individual speaker quality applies — go for stereo.

$300-900: If you’re willing to sacrifice surround sound, head over to your local area professional audio store and have them demo some studio monitors in this price range for you.  They will be small, but will pack a huge punch.  If you definitely want surround sound, look for an unpowered system (that needs a receiver or other amplifier source in order to work). 

$1000-1500: Same as $300-900, but you’ll be looking for the larger studio monitors (8″+ woofers).  Unpowered surround sound systems in this price range will be high quality.  Powered systems will be decent quality.

$2k+: Now you’re in with the big boys.  Most anything is going to sound good in this price range.  You’ll want to drop by a hi-fi audio store and have them demo various sound systems for you, which will usually include unpowered speakers with high quality external receivers or amplifiers.

A note on sub-woofers:  Any system can benefit from a sub, but remember that a good sub is going to cost nearly as much as a stereo setup, and at least half as much as a surround sound system.

The #1 thing to gather from reading this note is: try before you buy, and go for quality over quantity!


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WWDC Today! Updates coming soon..

09Jun08

iPhone 3G, AppStore, Apps, Firmware 2.0 and mobileme are all set to release in July 11th.

Snow Leopard: Announced.  Will be discussed after lunch.
35% of Fortune 500 participated in iPhone beta.
iPhone: exchange support, push email/contacts/calendars, auto-discovery, global address book, remote wipe, contact filter search, geo-location of other iphones (contacts), NO TASK MANAGER – Apple to provide push service to all developers 
SDK: Same tools Apple uses, same kernel as OS X, cocoa “touch”, optimization technology
More 2.0:  iWork document support (excel, word, powerpoint), bulk delete/move email, save media to library, asian character recognition
App Store: basically, just like iTunes.  Just like AppSnap.  FairPlay, 70% to developers.
Enterprise Store: can distribute applications only usable on their business phones. 
Ad Hoc Store: for developers, shared between 100 iPhones. 

Applications for iPhone:

  • Full version of Super Monkeyball! – ($10 on app store)
  • Social Networking + Geolocation! – (Free on app store)
  • eBay has developed an application for the iPhone!
  • Mobile blogging application (Free on app store)
  • The Associated Press – geolocation, video, news reporting (Free on app store)
  • More games
  • Um.. lots of more apps.  Little concerned now about the OTHER releases I’m wanting to see.
MobileMe – replaces .Mac
“Exchange for everyone else.”  Push email/contacts/calendars.  Me.com, advanced 2.0 interface. Full integration.
iPhone 3G - 
3G networking, more country support (allusion to jailbreaking), metal, flush headphone jack, improved audio, GPS, better battery life, available in 70 countries over the next few months, 

Pre-Keynote Notes:

  • Banners say “OS X iPhone” and “OS X Leopard”.
  • At least 1 covered banner.
  • Based on at&t’s customer service schedule and the number of shipments by the iPhone manufacturer, it is unlikely that the 3G iPhone will be released today.
  • Various portions of the Apple website are becoming “unavailable” (normal for WWDC).
  • Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard” is expected to be announced.
  • .Mac renamed to Me.com?  Apple bought the domain.
Due to the likelihood of a large number of difficult-to-blog announcements related to iPhone/iPod software, OS X and sales figures — I will only be covering what I consider to be the most significant announcements (i.e. iPhone v2, OS X Snow Leopard, etc..).
Stay tuned!

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My new laptop!

03Jun08

I just got the current generation Macbook Pro base model a few days ago.

I love it!

15″ Widescreen LED Display
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB 667MHz DDR2 memory
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB of GDDR3
200GB Serial ATA Hard Drive; 5400 rpm
8x Optical SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

In addition, it has a built-in camera, backlit keyboard, optical audio out, DVI out, and a multi-touch trackpad.

Cost me $2,183 + $50 for a new carrying case and + $25 for a keyboard cover.

I gave my old 17″ Macbook Pro to Chris, and his old 15″ Powerbook is going to his niece.


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My New WordPress Blog

03Jun08

Here it is.  I’m working on it right now..


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Ron Paul

11Oct07

After hearing so much about him I decided to do some investigation on the “issues”.

 

Now.. I’m not saying Ron Paul is bad, or even that another candidate is better.. I agree with many (most) of the things he stands for, but these things I absolutely cannot condone or support:

 

“Americans are justifiably concerned over the government’s escalating intervention into their freedom to choose what they eat and how they take care of their health.”

 

Right, we’re the fattest nation on earth, god forbid that our governmental infrastructure try to improve the health of it’s ailing citizens.

 

“I also opposed the Homeland Security Bill, H.R. 5005, which, in section 304, authorizes the forced vaccination of American citizens against small pox. The government should never have the power to require immunizations or vaccinations.”

 

You should have the right to deny immunization against plague-level afflictions, so that the rest of the civilized world can be in danger of an epidemic, amirite?

 

“I am also the prime sponsor of HR 300, which would negate the effect of Roe v Wade by removing the ability of federal courts to interfere with state legislation to protect life. This is a practical, direct approach to ending federal court tyranny which threatens our constitutional republic and has caused the deaths of 45 million of the unborn.”

 

Let’s concern ourselves with protecting sentient life, k?  Granted, partial-birth abortions are questionable, but in early trimesters a fetus is a fetus.  The fetus doesn’t have the cognitive presence to care whether it has a right to life, and if it’s parents or guardian(s) don’t either — then the GOVERNMENT which you so consistently claim to want to “limit” should have no right to interfere with that.

 

“I share our Founders’ belief that in a free society each citizen must have the right to keep and bear arms. They ratified the Second Amendment knowing that this right is the guardian of every other right, and they all would be horrified by the proliferation of unconstitutional legislation that prevents law-abiding Americans from exercising this right.”

 

We no longer live in the world they did.  Guns have become drastically more lethal and life has become drastically less dangerous.  Shooting someone requires far less mental willpower than stabbing them or clubbing them to death.  Putting this lethal weapons in the hands of everyone does not improve our personal security — it increases the likelihood that gun violence, whether offensive or defensive, will occur, period.

 

So, again, all this being said, I agree with probably 80% of what this guy stands for — but the things above I find deplorable.

 

He might still be the best candidate for president, but what a sorry state I feel the nation is in, when I have to pick a candidate who stands for things I find to be horrible because he’s the best choice available.


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leopard impressions

24Jul07

so, i have a beta copy of leopard.  shh.

here’s my impressions (bearing in mind that it is a beta)
-) the unified look they discussed at WWDC (no more brushed metal) is GREAT.  the operating system looks much more professional and puts vista to shame.  it doesn’t try to be super flashy, just clean, and clean is good.
-) stacks are neat.  it’s a good idea, but right now it’s implementation is a little buggy.  some of this might be logical flaws, but most of it is probably mere oversight that will be fixed in a later revision or at release.  it’s not a revelation like expose was, but it’s definitely useful.
-) time machine is superb.  it is very easy to set up and i have already saved my ass twice with it.  i have yet to test installation from a time machine backup, but i will just as soon as a newer version of leopard is released.  i have had at least 1 major bug with it, but fortunately it doesn’t affect any data.. it’s just obnoxious and requires you to back up again from scratch, and i’ve only had it happen once.
other things to note about time machine (that you may not know)
- it backs up to a folder, so you do not need a dedicated drive
- that folder is readable and searchable (and human-readably organized)
- the backups are VERY fast after the initial one, but vary depending on how much your data has changed
-) cover flow in finder IS useful for directories full of images or videos.  again, not amazing, but useful.
-) everything is faster.  especially spotlight.  applications load quicker, things run faster.. overall everything seems to have received a speed boost.  you’ll be amazed at how much faster spotlight is.
-) spaces is unfortunately a disappointment to me.  i want true multiple-desktops.. with multiple sets of files, different docks, different wallpaper (yeah, i know, not important, but it’s to illustrate a point).  what apple is GIVING you with spaces is just a way to organize windows.  that’s effectively all that spaces does, and at the moment it’s a bit buggy.
-) widgets have some compatibility issues.  some of them aren’t working right and most of them don’t look right.  maybe it’s the new safari engine?
-) leopard comes with appletv’s front row software, and it’s awesome.  there are some issues with quicktime and full screen, however.  and there’s a bug with external monitors that makes your screen go black when you try to play videos larger than the external monitor.
-) force quit, R.I.P.  if you are familiar with force quit pre-leopard.. you know that it, in almost all cases, instantly murders the application you are quitting.  well, this is no longer the case.  
force quit operates much like windows “end process” now: never know how long it’s going to take to work or if it’s going to work at all.  i find myself having to go into terminal fairly frequently (primarily due to leopard-incompatible apps crashing) to halt processes.
-) mail.  is.  awesome.  mail is the piece of software which, as of tiger, i consider to be lagging farthest behind the others.  serious bugs, and overall just not as polished as the other cocoa apps mac os x comes packaged with.  don’t try the RSS tho — it’s buggy as hell — stick to safari.
-) speaking of safari, it’s still not on par with firefox where standards are concerned, but i prefer it as a software.  it’s more well designed, faster and easier to use.  i still have to open firefox sometimes.
-) you didn’t think i was going to forget the finder, did you?  absolutely AMAZING.  finder finally gets the overhaul it deserves.  i love it, it’s the primary reason i am still running a pretty buggy beta of leopard (and will probably continue to until it is released) — finder is THAT much better than tiger’s.
-) networking seems to have several improvements to it.. not the least of which is ease of use.  connecting to other computers is nowhere near as convoluted a task as it used to be, and the networking system preferences have been rearranged to be more friendly as well.
-) ichat.  well.. um.. same ‘ole same ‘ole, really.  i will say that the tabs is a huge improvement, however.. but that’s more of an expectation than an innovation — ichat has needed that for years.
-) quick look, another non-revolutionary but very useful tool.  i already hate using a pc due to it’s poor capability to preview anything.  this is going to make me hate it even more.
so, what are my overall impressions?
leopard is good.  it is somewhat revolutionary (for apple), and here’s why:
- the best file browser i have ever seen, something that is important, ya know?
- powerful, easy method of backing up your computer with little investment.
- improved networking, arguably one of mac’s weakest areas (albeit, due to windows).
- improvements across the board to web browsing, chatting and using email.
- vastly unified and clean interface throughout the entire OS.
welp, thanks for letting me waste your time ;) and i hope this convinces you to get leopard shortly after it comes out — remember — mac os updates are not like windows updates, you don’t have to run and hide in a corner, they’re usually good!

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Biding my time

15Feb07

*starting over*

I hate biding my time, and that’s what I feel like I’m doing. I don’t believe in any afterlife or any particular meaning in life, so that makes it doubly unpleasant to know that I’m discontent with my current life situation.

I mean.. I only have one life to live.. I would rather it not be filled with discontent. I know that many of my desires are unreasonable. Indeed, many are definitely impossible.. but I’ve slowly been X-ing things off the list of my possible.. “goals”.

  • Obviously I can’t live in non-reality. Reality is boring, explicable and about as far from “wondrous” as one can get. That being said, it is also inescapable.
  • “Love.” Right. As-if. I don’t mean to sound jaded, but I really don’t see the kind of love I desire existing… anywhere, or for anyone, much less myself.
  • Peace… while obtainable, requires me to forfeit my life as it is in order to have it at a later time. I don’t want a job that consumes my life just so I can have a happy retirement, and I would much rather work until I die and have my early years free than have my early years weathered away by business. Alas, such is the way the world works.
  • Knowledge.. Philosophy.. Wisdom. Worthless seems to be the next logical word. Is there a point in any of those things? There is nothing hidden to be unveiled, neither is there merit in that which expires on my deathbed.
  • Money, possessions? Well that never really was on my “goals” list.. but it would be convenient to have. Not particularly something I care about. I care about some of the things money could buy (it could very well buy the kind of peace I desire), but not about having all the money I could ever need. I think that would make things considerably worse.
  • Friendship comes to mind, then quickly fades away. I haven’t had a real friend.. ever that I’m aware of. I’m too secretive, and honestly, probably too deep to pick up a random friend and carry a serious conversation with them. I don’t think I really care to have those conversations either.

Well anyway.. guess that was a minor emo-vent. More of an escape valve, I suppose.

Not sure what I’m going to do. “Something’s gotta give”, but there’s not really anything to give.


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Prejudice defines mankind.

15Feb07

“Well, you know, I hate gay people,” Hardaway said in response to Le Batard. “I let it be known I don’t like gay people. I don’t like to be around gay people. I’m homophobic. It shouldn’t be in the world, in the United States, I don’t like it.”

http://cbs4.com/sports/local_story_046004532.html 

It’s a little sad to see how deeply prejudice defines humanity, even to the extent that an African American whose race has been historically mistreated for prejudicial reasons, does not think twice about treating others the same way. But then again, I guess that describes humanity pretty well: if it’s not like you, hate it.

read more | digg story


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Must-have Software for Mac

08Feb07

I have compiled a new list of must-have items for Mac OS X, items in bold are most important (yeah, yeah.. most of them):

3ivX – Video Codec
Adium – Multi-service Chat Client
$Cocktail – System Maintenance & Hidden Options
DivX – Video Codec
Firefox – Web Browser
Flip4Mac – Quicktime Plug-in for WM Video/Audio
Growl – Plug-in-based System Notifications
Handbrake – DVD Ripper
iAlertU – Macbook Pro Motion Sensor “Car Alarm”
MenuMeters – Activity Information in Menu Bar
$OmniOutliner – Outline Creation
Renamer4Mac – Regex Bulk File Renaming
Sharepoints – File Server Software (Basically)
$SubEthaEdit – Code Editor
Think – Focuses one app in foreground
Toast Titanium – The Best Disc-Burning Utility
Transmission – Bittorrent Client
Transmit – FTP Client
UnRarX – RAR Extraction
VLC – Reliable Video Player
$VMware Fusion – OS Emulation


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walmart’s "bundle" scams

31Jan07

step 1: walmart obtains a high-profile hard-to-find item.

step 2: walmart sells this item only as a “bundle” with accessories to increase their profit.

step 3: some douche like me buys one.

step 4: walmart ships all the accessories and charges you for them.

step 5: walmart delays the shipping date of your hard-to-find item, consistently, akin to “chasing a rainbow”. the item is basically on back-order.

step 6: you’re screwed, and have to either deal with having the worthless accessories or go through a bunch of shit with walmart to return them.

so yeah. walmart can suck my balls, and they can take all their accessory shit back.


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