?Bang bang bang?
It felt like I had just fallen asleep when someone taking a sledgehammer to my door rudely awakened me. I checked the time on my shiny new phone (see here), 8.14am on a Saturday morning (this morning in fact). I had been up till 5am playing (and losing) at online Poker (more on that in a later update), a lie-in was planned, then into town for some brekkie/lunch before settling down in my favourite watering hole to watch the footie.
?Bang bang bang?
There went that bloody sledgehammer again.
?I?m coming, I?m coming, hold your horses chief? ? I call everyone chief when I have just woken up, probably due to constantly dreaming about Native American Squaw?s (see how P.C. I can be when I put my mind to it).
Stumbling down the stairs, I have my usual wrestling match with the dog whilst trying to open all three deadlocks. In hindsight I realise that it was a bad move letting the dog watch Wrestlemania with me when it was a pup, the little bastard thinks it is Brett Hart now, trying to wrap around my legs and get me into the Sharpshooter position. I defeat the mutt by drop-kicking it into the living room, and quickly shutting the door before it could dart back at me.
?Bang bang ba?.?
I snatch open the front door. It wasn?t a sledgehammer after all, just a pissed off postie with a couple of parcels for me. I quickly scrawl my signature and shut the door in his face.
Opening the first parcel reveals a pair of earphones I ordered a week ago. After 3 pairs of Sony Fontopia?s breaking on me, all 3 with the exact same problem (left-hand earpiece going dead) I had taken the plunge into putting a ton (one hundred English pounds for those who don?t know) onto a pair of Etymotic ER-6i earphones. Supposedly specially designed for the iPod (as in they are white), the ER-6i are ear-canal phones, which look like industrial ear-plugs. Placing them into your ears requires pulling your earlobe up and out, and then pushing the phones all the way in. Comfy they aren?t (and I am used to pushing the Fontopia?s into my ears for the past 18 months).
So why did I pay one hundred pounds for the sensation of walking around with a couple of ear-bud cleaners pushed into the side of my head? The answer is simple. According to the various reviews I have read on the interweb, the ER-6i give a pure sound which comes close to eclipsing head-phones from the likes of Sennheiser and Grado (both manufacturer?s of high-quality audiophile hardware). I wanted the best I could possibly get for the price, and comfort be damned.
An hour later, and the discomfort factor was gradually rescinding. My body appeared to be adapting to the phones, whether I had flukily found the ?sweet spot?, or due to possible nerve damage I don?t know, but the feeling had changed from being slightly painful, to just knowing they are there when I moved my jaw. For that full hour I had been slowly ?burning? in the phones, with an eclectic assortment from my music collection. The reviews were indeed correct, everything sounded so much clearer through these phones. I could hear the different instruments perfectly, vocal arrangements were precise ? I could hear sounds in the music which had been muddled together using a cheaper set of earphones. Bass wasn?t as deep as I would normally listen to, but the bass was markedly different from anything I have experienced. Instead of ?feeling? the bass, vibrating against my ears, I heard the sound directly in my brain. It was, what my dad would call, a ?****-licking grin? moment (if anyone knows what a ****-licking grin is, please let me know ? I expect that I am using it out of context, like ?visceral? that one time)
?What the frack is this idiot on about? I can hear you all cry. What exactly does a pair of earphones have to do with gaming?
The answer, my dear friends, is that as well as use these earphones to listen to music from my iPod, they will also be used when playing both PSP and NDS.
For some strange reason, Sony ? those ex-kings of portable music ? decided to ship the PSP with some absolutely **** earphones (if you bought the Value pack). They sound ****, they feel ****, if you have ears like mine the bastards won?t stay in place (falling out with the slightest movement). They are as useful as the totally **** things that came with the iPod.
After I felt the earphones had ?burned? in sufficiently, I grabbed my PSP. The UMD in the machine was Ridge Racer. As soon as the game loaded I realised my first mistake, the volume was too high. Due to the ER-6i being closer to my ear drum than any other earphones I had tried, the volume needs to be much lower than usual, so as to preserve my hearing in the long-term. Dropping the sound to a few clicks away from fully mute was more than enough for my gaming needs. Exactly the same as listening to my music, everything was much clearer. Once again I could hear sounds which appeared muddled using my last pair of earphones, and the difference between the built-in speaker and ER-6i?s is similar to lying in the bath with your head submerged and hearing the phone ring, and getting out of the bath to answer that bloody phone. It?s the exact same sound source, and yet its different in the way that nothing is muffled. I have used this before, but the term ?crystal clear? is the only phrase which springs to mind.
Removing Ridgey, it was time to try out Lumines. The trance-like soundtrack suits the ER-6i sound perfectly, and almost immediately I am in the zone. A thing I haven?t commented on yet is that when the ER-6i?s are properly inserted into your ear canal, a seal forms which gives exceptional noise isolation. To put it one way, don?t wear these ear phones and try crossing a road of busy traffic, you won?t hear the squeal of the brakes on the car that eventually hits you. Once they are in, you can?t hear jack ****. A ?zone? game works perfectly here, nothing aurally will disturb your focus from the job at hand.
My final test was Wipeout Pure. Again, a soundtrack which suited the sound of the earphones, and another game in which the ?zone? was found instantly. I was flying around the tracks with ease, better than I ever have before on this version of Wipeout.
I have played Wipeout Pure with a variety of headphones since I bought the game, and in the past I have experience ear fatigue after an hour or so. Today three hours flew past, with my ears feeling as fresh as when I picked up the PSP earlier in the morning.
There you have it, a mini-review of some earphones which I think add an extra dimension to hand-held gaming (or, a thinly veiled ?look at me and my new earphones? piece ? you be the judge). Anyone looking for some quality ear/head-phones, which don?t draw attention to yourself and make you look like a nobber, need look no further than the ER-6i?s. They come with a 1 year warranty, a cleaning kit (with extra filters), two variety of plugs (foam and tri-flange soft plastic) and a little carry case (into which a couple of UMD?s will fit perfectly).
Now to open that second parcel?.
It felt like I had just fallen asleep when someone taking a sledgehammer to my door rudely awakened me. I checked the time on my shiny new phone (see here), 8.14am on a Saturday morning (this morning in fact). I had been up till 5am playing (and losing) at online Poker (more on that in a later update), a lie-in was planned, then into town for some brekkie/lunch before settling down in my favourite watering hole to watch the footie.
?Bang bang bang?
There went that bloody sledgehammer again.
?I?m coming, I?m coming, hold your horses chief? ? I call everyone chief when I have just woken up, probably due to constantly dreaming about Native American Squaw?s (see how P.C. I can be when I put my mind to it).
Stumbling down the stairs, I have my usual wrestling match with the dog whilst trying to open all three deadlocks. In hindsight I realise that it was a bad move letting the dog watch Wrestlemania with me when it was a pup, the little bastard thinks it is Brett Hart now, trying to wrap around my legs and get me into the Sharpshooter position. I defeat the mutt by drop-kicking it into the living room, and quickly shutting the door before it could dart back at me.
?Bang bang ba?.?
I snatch open the front door. It wasn?t a sledgehammer after all, just a pissed off postie with a couple of parcels for me. I quickly scrawl my signature and shut the door in his face.
Opening the first parcel reveals a pair of earphones I ordered a week ago. After 3 pairs of Sony Fontopia?s breaking on me, all 3 with the exact same problem (left-hand earpiece going dead) I had taken the plunge into putting a ton (one hundred English pounds for those who don?t know) onto a pair of Etymotic ER-6i earphones. Supposedly specially designed for the iPod (as in they are white), the ER-6i are ear-canal phones, which look like industrial ear-plugs. Placing them into your ears requires pulling your earlobe up and out, and then pushing the phones all the way in. Comfy they aren?t (and I am used to pushing the Fontopia?s into my ears for the past 18 months).
So why did I pay one hundred pounds for the sensation of walking around with a couple of ear-bud cleaners pushed into the side of my head? The answer is simple. According to the various reviews I have read on the interweb, the ER-6i give a pure sound which comes close to eclipsing head-phones from the likes of Sennheiser and Grado (both manufacturer?s of high-quality audiophile hardware). I wanted the best I could possibly get for the price, and comfort be damned.
An hour later, and the discomfort factor was gradually rescinding. My body appeared to be adapting to the phones, whether I had flukily found the ?sweet spot?, or due to possible nerve damage I don?t know, but the feeling had changed from being slightly painful, to just knowing they are there when I moved my jaw. For that full hour I had been slowly ?burning? in the phones, with an eclectic assortment from my music collection. The reviews were indeed correct, everything sounded so much clearer through these phones. I could hear the different instruments perfectly, vocal arrangements were precise ? I could hear sounds in the music which had been muddled together using a cheaper set of earphones. Bass wasn?t as deep as I would normally listen to, but the bass was markedly different from anything I have experienced. Instead of ?feeling? the bass, vibrating against my ears, I heard the sound directly in my brain. It was, what my dad would call, a ?****-licking grin? moment (if anyone knows what a ****-licking grin is, please let me know ? I expect that I am using it out of context, like ?visceral? that one time)
?What the frack is this idiot on about? I can hear you all cry. What exactly does a pair of earphones have to do with gaming?
The answer, my dear friends, is that as well as use these earphones to listen to music from my iPod, they will also be used when playing both PSP and NDS.
For some strange reason, Sony ? those ex-kings of portable music ? decided to ship the PSP with some absolutely **** earphones (if you bought the Value pack). They sound ****, they feel ****, if you have ears like mine the bastards won?t stay in place (falling out with the slightest movement). They are as useful as the totally **** things that came with the iPod.
After I felt the earphones had ?burned? in sufficiently, I grabbed my PSP. The UMD in the machine was Ridge Racer. As soon as the game loaded I realised my first mistake, the volume was too high. Due to the ER-6i being closer to my ear drum than any other earphones I had tried, the volume needs to be much lower than usual, so as to preserve my hearing in the long-term. Dropping the sound to a few clicks away from fully mute was more than enough for my gaming needs. Exactly the same as listening to my music, everything was much clearer. Once again I could hear sounds which appeared muddled using my last pair of earphones, and the difference between the built-in speaker and ER-6i?s is similar to lying in the bath with your head submerged and hearing the phone ring, and getting out of the bath to answer that bloody phone. It?s the exact same sound source, and yet its different in the way that nothing is muffled. I have used this before, but the term ?crystal clear? is the only phrase which springs to mind.
Removing Ridgey, it was time to try out Lumines. The trance-like soundtrack suits the ER-6i sound perfectly, and almost immediately I am in the zone. A thing I haven?t commented on yet is that when the ER-6i?s are properly inserted into your ear canal, a seal forms which gives exceptional noise isolation. To put it one way, don?t wear these ear phones and try crossing a road of busy traffic, you won?t hear the squeal of the brakes on the car that eventually hits you. Once they are in, you can?t hear jack ****. A ?zone? game works perfectly here, nothing aurally will disturb your focus from the job at hand.
My final test was Wipeout Pure. Again, a soundtrack which suited the sound of the earphones, and another game in which the ?zone? was found instantly. I was flying around the tracks with ease, better than I ever have before on this version of Wipeout.
I have played Wipeout Pure with a variety of headphones since I bought the game, and in the past I have experience ear fatigue after an hour or so. Today three hours flew past, with my ears feeling as fresh as when I picked up the PSP earlier in the morning.
There you have it, a mini-review of some earphones which I think add an extra dimension to hand-held gaming (or, a thinly veiled ?look at me and my new earphones? piece ? you be the judge). Anyone looking for some quality ear/head-phones, which don?t draw attention to yourself and make you look like a nobber, need look no further than the ER-6i?s. They come with a 1 year warranty, a cleaning kit (with extra filters), two variety of plugs (foam and tri-flange soft plastic) and a little carry case (into which a couple of UMD?s will fit perfectly).
Now to open that second parcel?.
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