What have you bought recently?


Couldn't wait out my phone for a pyra and my iPhone battery was failing me.... So.

Picked up a Samsung note 8 this weekend. Did I really need an expensive phone? No. But I can't justify a phone upgrade unless the specs are an improvement over the old one. Better screen. More RAM. Most importantly though I can use an SD card again.

Less important but lots of fun for me, got the gear VR head set to go with it so I'm happily working away at building my first Minecraft village with no distractions. Just got to figure out how to add all my favourite mobile mods to make it look better
 
Replacement ear cushions for my porta pros. Those really don't last long - the foam starts to crumble :/

Still thinking about proper over ear studio/hi-fi headphones for home use. But I'd need a sound card with spdif out so I can connect my receiver. Reading Amazon reviews about cards under 100 bucks has made me uneasy. Maybe I should stop going by reviews altogether and just shop blindly? Sounds even worse. Curse my indecisiveness.

Also cake. And some Doppelbock beer.

Edit: An entry level safety razor. In order to avoid advertising I'll call it widdershins sabre vintage. I'm pleasantly surprised - it does a great job. No more electric, single use or 5 blade razors for me.
 
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3 26" 1920 x 1200 Viewsonic VX-2640w picked them up for $70 AUD each.... will sell the 2 24" monitors and get most of this back so swap should only cost me $40 to $70 AUD..

early Christmas pressie to myself.
 
I bought a laptop!
Well, quite old laptop, 1985. 16kB of RAM, BASIC, 0.614MHz (But dual-CPU - one takes care of keyboard, memory and display, second controls I/O), 4x20 LCD, built-in printer and micro-tape recorder. Additionally, it came with a base containing parallel digital input.
Required minor cleaning, capacitors and belt replacement, mechanisms lubrication, and of course the proper power supply.
This laptop:
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Yesterday, I was browsing ED's dragonbox shop to see what was on off in the sales, and noticed he'd had another reprint of Sturmwind. So I snapped that up, and even saved 10EUR of the standard price in the sales.

 
Ordered the El Gato stream pad along with the El Gato game capture card. Figured I'd try my hand at a YouTube channel since I've always wanted to give it a go.
 
Bought a GTX 1060 on CyberMonday.
It arrived yesterday. I installed it... boot failed. Needed to update my bios.
Boot to Arch, everything looking good, it just worked, played some Cities: Skyline which had previously been completely unplayable.
Reboot into Windows... need to update the driver. Ok. 5 minutes later, having uninstalled the old driver already, the installer crashed. Had to manually download and run the installer.
Meanwhile, Windows itself is doing updates, because I hadn't booted into Windows since April.
Long story short, I finally got to play around with my new toy this morning, for about an hour.
And now I'm back from work, and the cab will be here to pick me up in about an hour so I can spend a week in German attending lectures.

edit: which is to say, out of about 12 potential hours of play time I only got 1.5 because of all the updates that were required.
 
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Some Headphones , my first pear of this sort, google says „Ironing Headphones „ but I didn’t think this is the right translation
I prefer in ear headphones because there are easy to carry but at home maybe these are better

I noticed that I’m hearing my heartbeat whyle i wear the Headphones, is this something that should happen??

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I think in English those would be called on-ear headphones. I find I can only wear them for about two albums worth of music before my ears start to ache, at least with the ones I have, but the improved sound makes it worth it.

Hearing your heartbeat when you apply pressure to your ears is quite common, although I personally only hear it when I've got something in my ear canal like water. Apparently some people can hear it all the time, which I'd have thought would be rather distracting, but I guess you learn with time to tune things like that out if you want to.
 
i think we call them "headphones" in america, as opposed to "earbuds."

my main problem with headphones, is that i prefer to wear glasses, which give +2 to headaches when worn together.
 
Well, you still have to distinguish them between the over-ear headphones that are like headphones were in the 1970s, and the on-ear type. And with the little earbud style things, you have to distinguish between those that are moulded to fit to the head of the ear canal and the earbuds that simply sit in the outer ear, and the sports type that have a clasp or a band that makes them less liable to fall out when running. And on top of that there's also the type you used to get with early walkmans that sat on the ear and were connected with a band, but were very lightweight and cheap and leaked sound rather badly. I even remember having a pair in the early days of earbuds that were two sort of earbuds on a band, but the buds were just D-shaped appendages that projected sound out of the front and you stuck them in your lugholes without any attempt at sealing, and were about as uncomfortable to wear as they sound. But I don't think we need a name for those as nobody in their right mind would buy them these days.

But yeah, between earphones, earbuds, sports earbuds, on-ear headphone, over-ear headphones we almost have enough words to cover the panoply of different portable hearing devices (that take an external input, so aren't hearing aids).
 
I prefer the big ol' over the ear ones that don't touch my ears, as squished ears hurt. Like ible said, glasses make it worse. I can't remember if glasses are as bad with these as the next ones. The cushiony ones are awesome, and I really enjoy them, as best I can remember. The hard rubbery or plastic cups on some can really suck (seems like they like to use them for hearing tests), and cause instant headaches. Maybe those are the on ear ones, I don't remember. I don't currently own any of these.

The on ear ones that were popular in the 80s and 90s, with the foam stuff around them, are maybe a little better than other ones that are bulkier and press on the ears. I probably have some of each type kicking around somewhere, but since I usually wear glasses I can't really stand them for very long.

The earbud type that just sit in your ears and are ok, but again they get irritating after having them in for a bit. I think these were the ones that skipped with the original GB and iPods. The hard plastic is probably the problem with these for me.

The sport type earbuds that grab your ears...NO! I tried out one set, and they we're the worst for comfort. They pushed against my skill behind my ears, and were also uncomfortable where they touched my ear. The kind that connect I have no experience with. When I have used ellipticals and treadmills the in ear kind stayed in place just fine unless the elliptical handle thingy grabbed the cable when I tried to change songs or videos and ripped it out of my ear. On the street I prefer to have my ears open so I can hear cars and such, but I might consider those 80s style ones since they let a good amount of outside sound in.

The ones that go into the ear canal can be the best or worse. It really seems to come down to the insertable part they ship with, or that you but for them. The foam ones are awesome for blocking outside sound, and as long as they are the right size are quite comfortable for extended periods. Unfortunately the foam breaks down. If the foam piece is too big it leads to an aching pain. The cheap single flange (?) ones can be ok, however I find that I usually have to go up a size beyond comfortable to keep them from slipping out, and even then they tend to fall out too often for me. This is what I typically use right now (I have just the earbuds and a headset with inline mic, and both have decent sound quality, despite having lost or destroyed the foam tips that came with each, and the earbud only ones being nearly 10 years old). I think I will look into getting replacement foam pieces now that the topic has been mentioned.

What I want is something that allows me to listen to music while trying to sleep. I am a side sleeper, so none of these really work for me. Having music playing in the room isn't an option since my preference for sleeping music can be bothersome to others. Coil, for example, can be ok during one song, but the next one might be too noisy or something. Blue Rats? Should be fine but I have never asked. Solar Lodge is a definite no. :(


As for the hearing pulse in ears, sometimes I can hear it without anything on or in my ears. Whenever I try to do it I fail, and sometimes I notice it at inopportune times, such as when trying to listen for a very quiet sound. Certain headphones definitely make it more obvious. If you are in decent health I wouldn't worry about it much. Just turn the music up (@ matzesu based on your musical taste I don't think this would be a problem for you).
 
I have many different headphones and earbuds, I found that usually in headphones cheap purchase = too expensive purchase.
Of course high-end = high-end but those prices aren't available for most people, including me :)
but there's some really nice mid-range stuff available.

these two are my favorites

For listening to music and gaming, Beyer Dynamic DT-990 PRO (open)

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They're a little colored in the low-end of the spectrum which makes it real nice and warm sounding headphones.
For studio/reference I'd recommend the DT 880 which has a flatter response but lack the warmth.
I like these when listening for pleasure. Music sounds clear, defined, and warm.
Big chance you'll hear stuff you have never heard before in the music you've been playing for years already when using these after always having used cheap headphones.

They have big replaceable over-ear cushions of very light and soft material. The fabric is velvet-ish and feels real comfortable. The weight of the headphones lies on the top of my head.
No pressure on my ear shells at all, they fit right in there and the open construction doesn't make my ears too hot either.
I could wear them all day. :cool:


For outdoor or in bed I mainly use the sennheiser CX 300-II precision.
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They're very small, sound very nice and can be found for under 50 euro. Because theyre so small I can even lay on my cushion with one ear to watch something on my phone.
The build quality is very good too. I've been using these almost daily, for over 4 years already.

I also have some great sounding Sure in-ears but they're big and uncomfortable. Better for in-ear monitoring on stage.
I also have some Sony's that sound good but they're mainly nice outdoor, not in bed for instance because they stick out.
And a lot of cheaper ones that just sound bad.
These sennheisers are the ones I use most because of the sum of their size, comfort and sound quality.
The wire does have a nasty tangle tendency though, there's no microphone or music control but hey, can't have it all for under 50 :)



An exception to the cheap purchase = too expensive purchase was, to my big pleasant surprise; this:

The Edifier R1280T
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At 89€ I would have never suspected them to sound this good.
Nice clear sound in the mids and high, and a good solid bass.
The high is very directional though so speaker placement is preferred at ear height and a little further away, but man... the sound/build quality vs price ratio... I would have never suspected this...
They sound better than the Teufel speakers I have in my living room.

I'd really recommend these over any other bookshelf or desktop speaker in the same price range and even over a lot more expensive ones too.
 
My Musical Taste is pretty wide spread, Rock from 60s to today, some Hip Hop, metal, german pop, but also medievil rock, volk rock etc..
The Headphones i chose for this arend the best, but good enought for me,
One Reason i chosed Cable Based Headphones is, that i ditnt need to recharde they when i listen to musik while i lying in bed, and somethimes i fall asleep bevore the musik stopps, so they arend recharged when i awake the next morning, so headphones whit cable are a bit better in this case..
 
kuru said:
Went to a flea market today. Saw a PS3 but skipped it because there was no info on the FW version.

Pulled the trigger on a neat little 2.1 speaker set for my PC though. Haggled the price down to 7€, bloody good value.

Edit: New battery for my old phone. Here's to another 2 years of service from the bugger.

Edit: USB mic
Click to expand...

I actually DID go to a flea market over the weekend and got real fleas. No joke. I've been scratching for days....
 
Yeah, sounds like stuff people prefer to listen to loud. I will probably always stick with wired for music. The over the ear ones mentioned above are exactly the kind I like. I don't plan on getting any anytime soon, however if I were liking those ones would probably be on my list. I usually try to keep things flat to get the sound as close to how it was intended. Having said that, my goto earbuds are both a bit heavy on the low end, especially the headset. I don't have the money to go for the really expensive stuff, so I also can't buy a whole bunch to find what I like best. I knew they would be bassy, but they were well reviewed compared to others that were twice their price, and sound quality seemed like it would be good. I still don't like the cable (flat, red and rubbery). At least they are L shaped near the connector, unlike my other ones. That will probably help when listening to music on my Pyra.
 
@rygD - I agree. I trust my old headphones and mics - they are all wired and nobody is messing with my tunes. With wireless/bluetooth earbuds and such?..it's sporadic. It's good for an impromptu party, but not for serious audiophiles.
 
@Eight Bit , those Beyer Dynamics look nice but too expensive for me... $200 to $250 AUD. the cheap end being with shipping from amazon USA!! i used my wireless PS3 headphones for years until the left side stopped working...
 
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