Month: February 2014

Though it’s something of a cliché, music is something I truly love. I consider myself an audiophile, though a number of people might disagree with my giving myself such a title. I personally spend about eight hours in a typical day listening to music, though it’s likely to be more like 14 hours if I don’t have lectures to go to. With that in mind, I think it’s understandable that I find it frustrating that, in recent years, appreciating music has been reduced to a fashion statement.

Years ago I was sitting in school, a pair of headphones sitting on the desk in front of me (Sennheiser HD250-II linear, to be precise).
“Those headphones look like bin lids, I bet they’re not as good as my skull candies and they look stupid.”
I could only manage a tired sigh in response to this. Those familiar with the now-discontinued HD250s will know that they can easily outperform a pair of £30 ‘cool’ headphones designed to look good when worn around the neck.

A few years later I find myself being informed that my HD25-1 IIs are inferior to a pair of ‘Beats by Dre’ headphones. Whilst I enjoy picturing Dr. Dre hunched over a soldering iron and a set of precision screwdrivers in pursuit of perfect audio, I have a reasonable grasp on reality.
“Oh, Beats are the headphones used to mix in every major studio* are they? You’ve never been in a recording studio, have you?”
As doubtful of their quality as I was, I had to confirm that Beats headphones were only good as fashion statements. I located a pair of Beats headphones in an Apple store and was able to listen to them for all of 20 seconds before the terrible sound became too traumatic.
It troubles me that people buy these things thinking they’re paying for an improved audio experience; whilst the massive bias toward the low-end may prove temporarily pleasing to some, anyone who knows anything about mastering will appreciate that applying a massive bass-boost during sound reproduction does not produce ‘the sound the artist wanted you to hear.’

It seems that enjoying music has been reduced to walking around with a pair of cheap headphones around one’s neck. I’m not sure if it’s coincidence or a reflection upon modern music, which seems to have been reduced to dancing on stage and ‘singing’ a few words at the same time.

Written whilst listening to lossless audio through massive stupid looking headphones which don’t even have a completely non-linear response.

 

* This is genuinely a claim made by the product page for ‘Beats Pro’ headphones

Earlier this week, someone described this blog as being ‘full of anger’.
Whilst, in this case, it seemed to be a positive remark, I don’t want people reading to get the impression that I’m in some sort of perpetual state of rage. So, allow me to present a post marginally different to the sort of thing I usually write:

Anyone who has ever observed me standing on one leg, my other leg resting on a window sill behind me, phone in one hand, morning coffee in the other, will know that I’ve got some sort of interest in figure skating. (That or they’ll just think I have an odd way of standing.)
Having never lived less than about an hour from an ice rink, I looked forward to having a rink nearby when I moved to Bristol. Sadly, the Bristol rink closed barely a month after I moved. Upon arrival I had but time for a few brief skates before the rink closed for good – after many years, it was to be turned into student accommodation.

Fast forward a year and a bit to earlier this week. I find myself in a multi-story car park, a few levels up, and look out over the city to see this:

Those who have been there in the past will recognise the remains of the ice rink on Frogmore Street, Bristol. This sight was one which I found somewhat saddening – thought my visits to this particular rink were infrequent, I spent many an hour in this building, waiting to skate for a few minutes then travel home. It plays venue in a number of memories, and I know I’m not only one who’ll miss having a rink in Bristol.

Yes the ceiling was mouldy, yes the ice was brittle, but, farewell Bristol Ice Rink, you’ll be missed.

I guess this post was sort of about anger…

I don’t drink at all often, and when I do it’s Cognac or wine, so it’s a good thing I’m not the type to be involved in this ‘neck nomination’ thing. That said, if I did choose to ‘neck’ a bottle of Cognac, I’d be disappointed if I were branded anything better than a fool.

A ‘hash tag’ would appear to be the only difference between a reckless criminal drunkenly getting them self killed, and a tragedy where peer pressure leads to the death of an innocent victim.
Perhaps I’m being insensitive here, but I don’t understand why we’re forced to pretend that anyone is a ‘victim’ of a craze where people choose to drink an irresponsible amount of alcohol purely because they were told to by a friend using a social network. And yet, Facebook’s morally superior (read ‘Facebook users’) are crying out to put an end to this terror.

As with many things the media likes, ‘NekNomination’ would appear to merely be a symptom of a more serious problem. In this case that problem is irresponsibility. If someone suggests you drink poison for fun, let’s not pretend it’s anyone’s fault but your own if you do it.