headphones

Infatuation

When it comes to 2020, “I have tried to keep my sanity is by finding mini-obsessions,” my dear friend Shri writes on her blog. She has been obsessed with bonsais and mechanical keyboards, and she has gone into a rabbit hole, which even she finds challenging. For Shri, for something to count as a mini-obsession:

  1. It has to be multilayered, complicated, and can you into a deep dark dive. 
  2. And these objects are modestly priced. 

I liked her post because I have been a long proponent of small joys. As I wrote earlier, “Staying at home is a good opportunity to really savor things – you are not in a rush, and as a result, you can linger over words, images, sounds, and senses.” It is how I have kept my sanity during the pandemic.

While I won’t call them mini-obsessions — my infatuations in 2020 have included cheap and cheerful in-ear

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Musings
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Give AirPods Pro A Boost

It has been over a year since I first got Apple’s AirPods Pro earphones. They have been a constant companion on numerous phone calls and conference calls. However, when it comes to music, they didn’t match up to my tastes. I wanted better quality — even if it was from Spotify streams. One option I had was to plugin the AudioQuest’s DragonFly (Red) USB headphone DAC/AMP and use either one of my in-ear-monitors — custom Ultimate Ears Live or Noble Audio’s Django. Both IEMs are spectacular and gave a nice boost to the music coming from Spotify. 

But I wanted to carry just the AirPods Pro. I always thought — wouldn’t it be great if I could get good sound from AirPods Pro. Apple’s earphones, great as they are, weren’t a perfect fit for my ears. I mean, they are good, but not great, and after a couple of hours,

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OMakase
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[Podcast] Audeze CEO Sankar Thiagasamudram

Sankar Thiagasamudram is the co-founder and CEO of Audeze, a maker of high-quality headphones, which are all the rage with audiophiles and music professionals. Sankar, who started his life working for a high-end 3D graphics company, is an engineer by training and audiophile in real life. He co-founded the company with Alexander Rosson. They were pioneers in putting (a proprietary) planar magnetic designs with extremely thin-film driver materials and powerful custom magnets inside their headphones. I experienced the Audeze magic when I got EL-8 as a gift from a friend.

I recently caught up with Sankar to talk about their new gaming headphone, Mobius, and more importantly about Apple’s HomePod, computational audio, the headphone boom and how head-fi changing our expectations of music. He shared his tips on how to buy headphones, his thoughts on other headphone brands including fashion/luxury headphones such as Master & Dynamic.

You can listen to

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Podcast
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Tyranny of choice

One of the downsides of living in a small place is that you have to learn how to live with less, otherwise you end up living inside of a curio shop. Add to that self-imposed constraint that you are going to buy stuff based on longevity and how long it will last, buying just about anything in today’s world becomes an adventure.

After almost four years, it is time to acquire new linens for the bedroom. At the same time I am seeking a new blanket, new towels and also trying to buy a pair of high-end headphones — I don’t have the luxury to listen to Miles on my speakers as I live in an apartment building.

Frankly I don’t know anything about those three things and how to buy ones that last for a longtime. Despite constraints and budget limitations, I have been unable to deal with the

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Musings
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