Category Archives: Music

Albums, concerts, playlists, musicians, and the joy of listening.

Cell Phone Torture Test

Gallery, Music

This has got to be one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time. Basically, it’s a Dutch show where they conduct humorous torture tests on different products. First off, the Dutch language is one of the strangest things I’’ve heard in my life, and that alone made the video worth it, but also they torture test my phone, the T68 from SonyEricsson. You can watch the stream here (WMP link, broadband), or with RealPlayer here. Forward to about 20:30 to see the water thing. For those of you without broadband, let me paint a picture:

Basically they’ve set up what looks like two showerheads, and they give the phone in question to the host of the show who stands under the two showerheads and talks. They did this for about 15 minutes with the T68 and it was still running. At one point they bring him a glass of Coke and he sticks the phone in that and it keeps going. After about 15 minutes I think they got bored, and the guy goes ahead and throws the phone into a bucket of water. Where it keeps going. The phone actually went for another three minutes completely submerged, all the time with that prerecorded voice they had on the other of the line talking. Thinking back the only way I can think of them being on hold that long is if they called Sony tech support :).

Aural Bliss

Music

I just got back from the store and I purchased a set of Logitech Z-560 speakers. They’re absolutely amazing, the sound is so crisp and clear, and the bass is incredible. Not to mention the volume, at 400 watts I have to keep it turned down almost all the way to be bearable. The subwoofer is gigantic, and you can hear the difference. The first thing I popped in was En Vogue’ Never Gonna Get It to hear how it sounded with heavy vocal and bass, and also that song has some neat stereo stuff, and is very well produced. The result was everything I imagined it to be; I can’t express how having four channels of sound really makes a difference.

Right now I’m listening to Joshua Redman and Mark Turner on Leap of Faith. In the a cappella intro I could actually hear Turner’’s keys as he played. Since the song is a battle of sorts Turner and Redman are divided into the right and left channels, respectively. Listening to it closer than I really have before, I think Mark Turner really shines the brightest on this song.

Houston

Design, Meta, Music, Personal, WordPress

Back in Houston, finally, and it’s nice adjusting back to old habits and comforts. Besides family and pets, I think the thing I missed most were my speakers, and it’s bliss to hear high fidelity sound again. Uploaded the last day from the trip, so enjoy! I’m also working on some layout/design changes for this site. The plan is to have a different theme for every month.