That Shopping Mood

It turns out I'm in the thrall of yet another of those shopping moods. I tend to get the variety that drives me to get all sorts of weird technological stuff. In this case, I drew up a wishlist of sorts: Headphones, new speakers, tablet, pc overhaul. Now, if I were to actually indulge myself, I would effectively blow all my internship savings and more. Not exactly a nice prospect, considering I'd be back to the square one I was before commencing the internship...plus some serious goodies. Actually, that does sound pretty good. Anyway, the priorities turned out to be: Headphones (essential), speakers (fairly essential), tablet (luxury, since I may or may not make full use of those), PC overhaul (luxury. Gona be a big ego boost, but I guess I can live with the performance of the current rig till my next semester, when I get to do the serious gaming =p)

Naturally, something had to give, so I opted to get myself a pair of Sennheiser HD202's. They were to replace the ratty Philips SBC HS520's. Not that much of a comparison considering the two are in entirely different price brackets, with one being plain headphones and the Sennheisers being solid closed earphones.

I was really second guessing myself at first, wondering whether it was really better than the other two I was considering: The Audio Technica SJ3's and Philips SHP2500's. They actually looked pretty good on paper, with both having a greater frequency range than the HD202's. The SJ3's were more fascinating by virtue of the greater portability and ability to do one-ear monitoring. The Philips pair were significantly cheaper.

Upon checking out the reviews and from personal experience of those brands, the Audio Technica would have to be out. In a way, swivel headphones were also more likely to break. The Philips simply didn't have good reviews, and I was skeptical about something costing half the price being quite as good. In the end, it was really the 2-years warranty of the Sennheisers, and the brand's reputation that won me over.

All I could say about the new phones was "Wow", but that isn't saying much considering that I was used to bottom scrapers and my dying 2.1 speakers. Then again, they probably beat the 2.1's since I'm hearing way more detail in the audio than I used to. However, the bass is nowhere near as good as that of a full subwoofer, but I guess that's to be expected considering the size and price of the unit. I am hearing more detail on these than from the 2.1's. I'd attribute that to its closed ear design. Not noise canceling, but sufficient that I can roughly hear what is going on around me but cutting out the small annoying sounds like that of a ticking time bomb and my computer's fans.

Comfort wise, I was a bit put off by the weight, but it turned out the padding at the underside of the headband was really handy to keep the phones from sliding off, yet redistributing the weight away from the ears. Surprisingly comfortable, though I will take some time to get used to the warmth.

These things probably grow on you or something. I was really questioning the wisdom of my purchase, yet I started warming up to these. Ah, well. One down, and...quite a lot of shopping to do. Kardon speakers, anyone? =p