-Audio-Technica
-Beats Audio/SMS Audio/SOUL by Ludacris/House of Marley/etc other artist sponsored brands (please avoid these)
-Skullcandy (please avoid)
-Logitech/Razer/Corsair/Roccat/Steelseries/Astro/etc gaming brands (Logitech is ok, the others are usually way overpriced)
-Apple/Google/Dell/Microsoft/Lenovo/Amazon/etc tech brands getting into audio (usually ok, but lacking) –Samsung (usually partnering with AKG for headphones)
-Creative Labs
-Monster (their non-cable stuff is actually decent value)
-Altec Lansing
-Etymotic
-Fender
-Marshall
-Philips
-V-Moda
-JayBird
-Raycon
-Koss
Midrange ($300-$1000)
-Klipsch
-Bose
-Beyerdynamic
-Shure
-Westone
-Sony (good at every range, but midrange is the best)
-Grado
-AKG
-Master&Dynamic
-Bang&Olufsen
-Bowers&Wilkins
-Sennheiser (good at every range, but midrange is the best)
-Apple/Google/Dell/Microsoft/Lenovo/Amazon/etc tech brands getting into audio
-Samsung (usually partnering with Harman Kardon for speakers)
-LG (usually partnering with Meridian Audio for speakers)
-Creative Labs
-Bose (entry level is better value than their high end)
-JBL
-Altec Lansing
-Pioneer
-Yamaha
-Emotiva
-Audioengine
-Fluance
-Ultimate Ears
-Boston Acoustics
-JAMO
-Libratone
-Edifier
-Tivoli Audio
-Fender
-Marshall
-Philips
Midrange ($300-$1000)
-Klipsch
-Polk Audio
-Harman Kardon
-Definitive Technology
-Sony (good at every range, but midrange is the best)
-Sonos
-Acoustic Research
-Lexicon
-Bowers&Wilkins
-Bang&Olufsen
-Rockford Fosgate
-Infinity
-Nakamichi
-ELAC
-Q Acoustics
I guess continuing from where I left off at my fashion style, and similar yet different than my semi-annual gadget update posts, I just want to list my main gadgets over the years, the ones I carry and use everyday. I’ll also include vehicles, just for kicks because they are also “gadgets” in a way.
Vehicles
I got my first car in May 2009 when I got my internship at Environment Canada. So because Toronto’s TTC system sucks, I had to buy a car for the commute. I liked small, luxury cars so I eventually ended up with a 2002 Acura RSX, paid $6500 for it, with help of my parents.
It was a decent car, and I enjoyed driving with the sunroof down, listening to music and cruising a lot. I had it for a little over a year before I sold it in Aug 2010, to help pay for school, at only $3300 (I scratched up the car alot).
My second vehicle that I used from Nov 2012 to Apr 2016 was my 2011 Honda PCX 125 scooter. This was my primary vehicle in San Francisco, and I loved driving around in it. The freedom I had in it was much more than anything I ever experienced from a car.
Honda PCX 125
Bought it for $2500, sold it for $1300 (because again I crashed it and it wasn’t in good shape).
I can also list my parents’ cars since I drove them around before. The first car I remember our family having was an old 1980s Ford Escort, followed by my dad’s 1992 Ford Taurus, and my mom’s 1994 Mercury Topaz. My dad’s Taurus eventually broke down, and my mom’s Mercury was wrecked in a car accident which I was involved in back when I was 12. I was delivering papers back then and my mom went out to drive me and it was a really cold day with a blizzard so the driver t-boned us and fortunately we didn’t suffer any injuries but the car was totaled.
My dad got a new car, the 2000 Ford Taurus station wagon (he likes big vehicles), and my mom got a 2003 Honda Civic (which was new at the time). My dad drove that Taurus for like 15 years up until last year when it stopped working, and my mom’s Civic got totaled by my brother in a car accident in 2011. My brother was not injured fortunately, and my mom replaced it with a new 2011 Honda Civic. My dad just recently got a new 2015 Acura MDX 2 years ago, which was a really good ride. I think our family became more fond of Hondas/Acuras now (my mom had 2 Civics, my dad the MDX and me the RSX and PCX).
2009-2010: 2002 Acura RSX
2012-2016: 2011 Honda PCX 125
2017-: EcoReco Model R
(main) Phones
In 2005 I had my first cellphone (remember, kids didn’t have cellphones that much in those days!). It was a cheap Sanyo flipphone, and I used it sparingly to text or call my friends. In 2007 I upgraded to a Samsung D900 Black Carbon, which was thin, slim, and had a 3.2mp camera. I used that phone from 2007-2010 until I broke the screen.
Then I had an iPhone 3G from 2010-2011. I got an iPhone 4 after I went to San Francisco in 2011 and used it until it was stolen from me in Apr 2012. Then I upgraded to an iPhone 4S which is still one of my favorite phones, that I would use until Nov 2013, when I upgraded to the iPhone 5S. Because I don’t like big phones, I would stick with the iPhone 5S until Apr 2016, when Apple finally released the iPhone SE. And now the iPhone SE is my main phone. I would also use the Sony Xperia Z3C as my main phone in Korea from Dec 2014 to Aug 2016 when the screen got smashed.
2005-2007: Sanyo flipphone
2007-2010: Samsung D900
2010-2011: iPhone 3G
2011-2012: iPhone 4
2012-2013: iPhone 4S
2013-2016: iPhone 5S
2014-2016: Sony Xperia Z3C
2016-: iPhone SE
2017: Google Pixel
2017: Kyocera Duraforce Pro
2017: BlackBerry KeyOne
2017: HTC 10
(main) Laptops
In 2003 I had my first laptop, the Dell Inspiron 7500 and it was good for the time even having a dedicated ATI graphics card, although it had heating issues.
When I went to university, I changed to the laptop I would use the most, the Gateway CX2724, which I bought in 2007. It was a convertible tablet, and had a digitizer and pen with it, wayyy before Windows 8 came back. It was running Windows XP tablet edition!
I used this laptop until 2008, when I switched to the Dell Latitude E4200, which was a very small, portable, light (only 2.2lbs!) laptop that was very versatile. I would dock it in the docking station and use it with my monitor at home, and it was easy to carry at school.
I would use this laptop until Aug 2011, when I got my HP Envy Beats edition. This laptop had dedicated graphics, which I hadn’t had since my first laptop, so I could finally play games on it!
I would use this laptop until I felt that it was rather heavy to carry around all the time, and made me wish I had a notebook like my Dell again. The screen on it also later broke and doesn’t work anymore. That’s when I got my Lenovo Thinkpad X240 in Jan 2014, which then became my main laptop. I also had a Macbook Pro Retina 13 from 2012-2014 that I used mostly for programming or recording.
I used this until the screen started malfunctioning around Jun 2016. From then on, I used my work Macbook Pro Retina 15 as my main laptop until I got the Lenovo X1 Yoga to finally have my own personal laptop again. It now remains my main laptop as of Dec 2016.
I play music for a hobby; I am a musician part time. As of now I have about 270 guitar/piano videos on my Youtube (which you can check on the media page on the side). So yeah, I care about audio alot and audio tone. The irony is that I care about audio more than I care about video. Mainstream consumers are the opposite. They love their 4K super high resolution displays and stuff, but for me, video quality has always been secondary to audio quality.
I remember when HD first came out (720p / 1080p) I couldn’t see much of a difference between that and 480p DVD quality videos. But maybe my eyes are just used to 240p/480p VHS/VCD/DVDs. All my computer resolutions have been 720p (that is, 1366×768) and lower, until this year. That’s right! It took me until 2015 to get a computer with a full HD resolution! so yeah no 4K for me for a while. I also don’t like 4K because I would have to redownload all my movies and tv shows and anime in 4K which takes up a ton of space. I would prefer just a FHD OLED display instead.
Now we have smartphones rocking 4K resolution. Which is absolutely ridiculous because 4K is questionable even on a flat screen TV. At the distance we sit from the TV I doubt many people notice the difference in resolution. Having super high resolution also impacts another big factor in battery life. I like my stuff with good battery life thats why I chose a regular 720p laptop which gets me 20 hours of battery life (thanks to the dual batteries in the Thinkpad X240!) and a regular 720p phone as well, the Sony Xperia Z3C which gets me 2 days of battery life. For my 17 inch gaming laptop I “only” have a full HD resolution. Having Ultra HD 3200×1800 resolution on a laptop will both kill the battery life and alot of windows apps don’t scale well beyond FHD anyways.
Anyways for me audio quality has always been more important, thats why I own tube amps and a record player and 180gram vinyl LPs. I listen to FLACs (lossless) whenever possible (My Sony Xperia Z3C has a built in walkman and support for high res and lossless audio), and have owned countless pairs of headphones and earphones. The irony is the average consumer doesn’t really care about audio that much. They are happy listening to their lossy MP3s, listening on their Mac or PC with a terrible built in DAC, or using cheap quality iPod or Beats headphones.
Let me take a head count here. How many of you have heard of these audio companies: Bose, Sennheiser, Fender, Marshall, IK Multimedia, Apogee, AKG, Beyerdynamic, Shure, Etymotic, Ultimate Ears, JBL, Altec Lansing, Cambridge Audio, Boston Acoustics, Polk Audio, Klipsch, Onkyo, Dynaudio, Denon, Pioneer, Philips, Creative Labs, Monster, Beats, Hifiman, Woo Audio, Linn Audio, Meridian Audio, Apple, Audioquest, Focusrite, M-Audio, SRS Labs, Jays, Dolby, DTS, Audyssey, Wave Audio, Grado Labs, Audeze, THX, Grain Audio, Audioengine, Master & Dynamic, Audio Technica, Skullcandy, Sony, Samsung, LG, Harmon Kardon, Bowers and Wilkins, Bang and Olufsen, Infinity, Sol Republic, Yamaha.
I even know most of the various amp, effects, and guitar pickup makers: Fender, ESP, Gibson, Jackson, Ibanez, Dean Martin, Epiphone, G&L, Gretsch, Rickenbacker, Kramer, Vox, Marshall, Mesa Boogie, Dr Z, Two Rock, Victoria Amps, Tone King, Line 6, Digitech, Orange, Crate, Boss, Behringer, BBE, Korg, Roland, Maxon, Dunlop, MXR, Way Huge, Xotic, Lovepedals, Keeley, Dimarzio, Seymour Duncan, Lace, Lindy Fralin, Bill Lawrence, TV Jones, Fishman, Electro Harmonix, Visual Sound, Teese, Fulltone, Analog Man, I could go on and on….
That’s a wide range of audio companies, from mainstream to boutique, from headphone makers to DSP and effects makers. But anyways you get my point; I know all these companies because I care alot about audio. I even made an article about the best portable bluetooth speakers, and the Best over ear headphones.
Audio recording equipment:
Shure MV88 iphone mic
Shure MV51 computer mic
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB interface
IK Multimedia iRig 2
MXL 770 Condenser Mic
Shure SM58 Dynamic mic
Behringer XENYX502 Mixer
Listening equipment:
Philips Fidelio X2 open back headphones/monitors
Sennheiser Momentum closed back headphones
Master & Dynamic ME03 Earphones
Bose Quietcomfort 25 Noise-cancelling headphones
Creative Soundblaster E5 USB DAC/Amp
Creative Soundblaster Roar 2 bluetooth speaker
Audio Technica LP60 Turntable
Creative T4W Speakers (for connecting to anything including record players)
Klipsch R10B Soundbar
Not a bad setup. Unlike some people, I don’t have particular brand devotion to anything. Some people like to have all their equipment the same brand, but I actually embrace diversity of brands. I like experiencing difference. My TV is Panasonic. My phone is Sony and Apple. My tablet is Apple and Nvidia. My computer is Asus and Lenovo. My keyboard is Aorus. My mouse is Logitech. My microphones are Shure. My speakers are Creative and Klipsch. My headphones are Sennheiser, Philips, and Bose. My camera is Nikon and Canon. So yeah I am not a ‘fanboy’ of anything although you could say the closest I come to that is Sony. I have a Sony phone, Sony camera, Sony UMPC, Sony PS4 and Sony PS Vita. But even then.. I like to diversify.
I already did a round up of the top 20 best portable bluetooth speakers in the $100-$200 range, now I want to shift over to headphones.. for on the go listening. I’m going to be taking a look at the $200-$300 range of over-ear headphones, which generally produce the best sound quality compared to on-ears or in-ears.
If you have read my previous posts, like this one, or my other gadget collection posts, you would know that I love collecting gadgets. In fact I should probably be a full time reviewer from the number of gadgets I collect.
I love collecting small electronic devices, with these criteria:
-The device should be usable for many years. It should not rely on any data servers that might be outdated. For example, the Tmobile Sidekick relied on Danger’s servers for data, else it was a paperweight. I want devices that are just as usable 10 years ago as now.
-It should be really portable, and the screen size <= 7 inches. 7 inches is probably the maximum.
-weighs under 2lbs
-It should have something special or unique about it, either hardware wise and/or software wise. For example, if the tablet looks just like any other tablet out there, then its not going to be as desirable as say, a tablet that can turn into a laptop or has a slide out keyboard.
-Unique software is always a plus. For example, if the device runs Maemo, or Linux or MeeGo or Firefox OS.
-Reasonably obscure and rare. So, an iPhone wouldn’t really score as high as a Nokia N9 for example.
With that in mind, let’s look at the some of these devices:
Price: $65 on eBay Device type: Palm sized PC Special features: touchscreen, special build of Windows CE 3, easily hackable OS: Modified Windows CE 3.0 related: Casio Cassiopeia Pocket PCs, HP Jornada Pocket PCs
Price: $100 on eBay Device type: netbook Special Features: the original and first netbook ever, runs Windows CE .NET OS: Windows CE 4.2 .NET Related: HP Jornada Handheld PCs, Toshiba Libretto Handheld PCs, NEC Handheld PCs, Psion handheld pcs, Sony CLIE PDAs
Price: $200 on ebay Device type: Handheld PC Special features: one of the last handheld pcs, runs linux, unavailable in USA, touch screen, camera, keyboard, screen rotates, last Zaurus made OS: Linux Related: Psion Handheld PCs, NEC Handheld PCs, Toshiba Libretto Handheld PCs
Price: $60 on eBay Device type: smartphone Special features: dual slider, camera, one of the greatest non touchscreen phones OS: Symbian Related: Nokia E series, Sony Ericsson walkman & cybershot phones
Price: $200 used on eBay Device type: UMPC Special features: most powerful UMPC ever, slide out keyboard, touch screen, runs full Windows OS: Windows XP Related: OQO model 2, Samsung Q1, Viliv S5, Vulcan flipstart
Philips PMC 7230 (2006)
Philips PMC7230
Price: $90 on eBay Device type: PMP Special features: last Media Center OS PMP, has kickstand, built in TV recording abilities OS: Media Center OS Related: Creative Zen Portable Media center, iRiver PMC
Price: $60 on eBay Device type: PMP Special features: The last hard drive based mp3 player from Creative, one of the most best mp3 players ever, touch strip, plays many video/audio formats, FM radio recording and voice recording OS: Creative OS Related: Apple iPod, Archos PMPs, Cowon PMPs, iRiver PMPs
Price: $100 on ebay Device type: Smartphone Special features: the last communicator made, dual screens, dual touchpad and keyboard OS: Symbian Related: Nokia N series
Price: $200 used on eBay Device type: PMP Special features: the last PMP with DVR recording capability, plays many video/audio formats, touchscreen, can go on internet, can be GPS and FM radio OS: Archos OS Related: Apple iPod, iRiver PMPs, Cowon PMPs, Creative Zen Vision W
Price: $100 on eBay Device type: Pocket PC Special features: touchscreen, one of the last and best Pocket PCs, last iPAQ made OS: Windows Mobile 6 Related: Dell Axim pocket pc, Palm Treo pocket pc
Price: $60 used on eBay Device type: PMP Special features: Last Zune model, multi touch screen, can go on internet, inspired Windows 7 Phone OS OS: Zune OS Related: Apple iPod Nano
Fujitsu UH900 (2010)
Fujitsu UH900
Price: $500 used on eBay Device type: netbook Special features: smallest and best netbook, runs full windows, 2 usb ports, 2gb ram and SSD, multitouch high res screen OS: Windows 7 Related: Sony Vaio P series, Asus EEE PCs, Viliv S7/N5
Price: $700 on eBay Device type: UMPC Special features: Last Libretto PC made, one of the last UMPCs, dual 7inch touchscreens, virtual keyboard OS: Windows 8 Related: Netbooks, Fujitsu LOOX, Fujitsu Stylistic
Price: $40 on eBay Device type: Smartphone Special features: Dell’s last smartphone, multitouch screen, slide out keyboard, one of only 2 windows phones to have a keyboard OS: Windows 7 Phone Related: HTC 7 Pro
Price: $80 on eBay Device type: smartphone Special features: slider, camera, keyboard, the last phone to use WebOS OS: WebOS Related: Blackberry, iPhone, Android phones
Price: $100 on eBay Device type: smartphone Special features: multi touch screen, camera, only phone to run MeeGo OS: MeeGo Related: Blackberry, iPhone, Android phones
Price: $130 used on eBay Device type: tablet Special features: the only tablet that can be folded, dual screens, multi touch screen OS: Android 3.1 Related: Apple iPad, other Android tablets
Price: $130 used on eBay Device type: tablet Special Features: combination game console/tablet, built in controller, multi touch screen, game streaming from PC OS: Android 4.2 Related: Wikipad, Archos gamepad 2, Sony Xperia Play
Price: $200 on eBay Device type: smartphone Special features: multi touch screen, dynamic 3D perspective, Firefly, Mayday, runs Fire OS OS: Fire OS Related: Blackberry, iPhone, Android phones
Neptune Pine (2015)
Neptune Pine
Price: $300 on eBay Device type: smartphone/smartwatch Special features: Smallest phone/tablet to run full Android, touchscreen, camera OS: Android 4.2 Related: Moto 360, Apple Watch
I’ll have pictures and video up soon for these gadgets, as I own most of them. Stay tuned!
Edit: review is up!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UdDM83Spm0
Second edit
One of my pipe dreams is to build one of those old school like UMPC devices except with modern components. The problem with new tablets these days is that they still can’t match up with the old UMPC form factor – like the old OQO model 2 or Sony Vaio UX, its just cool to have a 5inch Windows PC with keyboard in the palm of your hand.
Its fully possible to build a much slimmer, much faster PC, with better battery life these days using modern components. Unfortunately with Windows 8 tablets, there’s still no tablet thats 8″ and below and has full USB and keyboard support. You can use bluetooth sure, but thats not the same. That’s 2 devices you have to carry. I’m talking about one device. If I build a device it would have the following components:
-5″ IPS FHD capacitative touch display (1080p)
-a sliding keyboard form factor a la the OQO model 2 / Sony Vaio UX or a convertible display a la the Sony Clie UX-50 or Fujitsu U820
-an HD front camera for web conferencing
-an 8MP back camera for pictures
-micro-HDMI output
-miniUSB for charging
-SD card reader
-2 USB 3.0 slots
-Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11ac wireless
-fingerprint reader for security
This won’t be a tablet.. its a full PC running Windows 8.1
Running internally:
-Intel broadwell processor ensuring its fanless – speed should be ~1.3-1.6Ghz
-4GB RAM
-256GB SSD
…I’m sure if Lenovo can make a fanless 13″ convertible, then they can make this.
Ok I haven’t formally updated for a while (just made lists of NBA players and gadgets) so here’s whats been going on:
Life…
I’ve been increasingly irritated these days, but not sure of the exact reason. Ever since I came back from Korea, I’ve been depressed and thinking about it everyday and wanting to go back.
I’ll finally get my chance to go back this weekend (finally!). But I’m not sure why I’m so moody these days. I’ve been getting into a lot of arguments with my friends over silly things and swearing a lot more and its just not like me.
I think I really started getting irritated from the beginning of this year, when my iPhone5S was stolen by a douchebag while I was sitting at a bus stop (I chased him down with my parkour skills but the phone was broken). Ever since then, I’ve not only been more paranoid, checking around me all the time, but also have more of a hatred towards American society. I can’t stand the way Americans do things anymore, I can’t even listen to English unless I’m at work anymore. This has caused me to be more irritated at life in general, just because I’m stuck in America and want to go to Korea.
This, and all the stress at work with my micro-managing co-worker. You can tell I really need a break.
Korean
I haven’t been studying Korean as much as in Feb/March which is sad. I blame this on Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls [shakes fist at game]. And I finished my second semester at Sejong Institute (where I had to sing and rap CNBlue at the ending presentation and take a quiz show).
And also working on my Korean app. The main blocking issue for that is now I have to upload an Apache configuration snippet up to my server which required me to switch to a VPS for Bluehost so I have to pay $300/mo but on the plus side, this site should be more stable. I have to upload that Apache snippet because my Korean app is using AJAX for everything and thus Google won’t be able to crawl it unless I make the server return escaped fragments via Seo4ajax.com. So yes working on that…
Tech stuff
I bought a NAS storage! A NAS storage is basically a networked array of hard drives that can serve as your personal “cloud” storage, if you will. Anyway I bought a Synology DS412+ and filled it with 4 3TB WD Reds so now I have 12TB of total storage that is networked and RAIDed, so 6TB of RAID 1 storage.
Synology DS412+ w/4 WD Reds
I had about 5 external hard drives I was using before, and now I just put all the data onto my NAS server now so it has everything on it :). And its also DLNA compliant so I can hook it up with my WDTV Live and BAM! I get to stream all my videos, movies, shows, etc from my NAS!
WDTV Streaming from the NAS
Oh and did I mention the Synology Linux-based OS is awesome? There’s video managers, photo managers, music managers, iTunes integration, a Torrent download client(!), and can be also used as a web server too. AND you can also access it from anywhere! Amazing purchase.
Synology OS
Gadgets
Yup! I got more gadgets to review again! I got a Sony P-series VAIO (came out in 2009) and a Sony UX-series VAIO (2006) for review, and also I did a little bit of hardware mods: First I modded my HP Envy 14, replacing the 6GB of Stock RAM for 8GB of Corsair Vengeance, then replaced the 500GB 7200rpm HDD with a 250GB Samsung EVO SSD, so it runs alot faster now :). Also I modded the UX VAIO I just got as well, replacing the 40GB 4200rpm HDD with 1.8″ 60GB MX Nano SSD. Not bad. It was a hell of a time dis-assembling it though, and given that it only accepts PATA ZIF connectors instead of the standard SATA/mSATA/PCI-e connectors, it was tough to find and replace. Here’s my handiwork:
HP Envy modSony UX mod
Reviews
I have a lot of reviews! I try to do at least one music video or review per week.
Diablo 3 & Starcraft II & Blazblue CP CE Review:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBUSRFghCb4
Sony P series + Sony UX series Review:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of-ZS1jASuE
