For those you are purely interested in Oracle stuff only please skip this entry 😉
For everybody else an update on this blog post from last year regarding my Shure In-Ear phones and my Logitech presenter. I always carry my 160GB iPod with me containing mostly Apple Lossless converted music files. “Only” 5485 titles fit on this device once you convert them lossless. But I like to listen to music in decent quality. Therefore my Shure in-ear phones did quite a good job. Especially when I sleep on airplanes (which I had to do quite often last year) it’s easier with in-ear phones. And they don’t require an extra battery for noise cancelling but still shield quite well from external noise.
Last year both cables close to the headphone drivers broke because the cables get twisted behind the ear to eliminate microphinic effects transported via the cable to the ear. That’s a good concept but they did last only two years 🙁 I fixed them temporarily until I found new headphones. And the trouble of choosing in-ear phones: In most cases you can’t try them on and listen before you have to buy them. I was pretty sure that I don’t like the super-grumpy lows of the US brands such as Koss or Bose (at least Bose let you try their in-ears in the Bose stores). And I wanted to get new ones with an embedded microphone to use it on my cellphone as well. Shure offers an extra device to plug your headphones into it. But this extends the cable length and is just another part to fail.
Hey, and finally a few weeks ago I made my choice (takes always quite a while with tech gear – must be a techie thing 😉 ) Tatatata … here they are: Beyerdynamic MMX 100
Beyerdynamic MMX 100
Just in case you’ve never heard of Beyerdynamic that’s a relatively small German company not this far away from Stuttgart in Heilbronn. They build stage and studio microphones, headsets – and HiFi and HighEnd headphones as well which used to sound very good and last very long. You can get the MMX 100 in Germany and Switzerland with a coupon for your local hearing aid equipment store and they will build you customized and fitted silicone pads for an extra 100 Euro . But I’ve choosen the “simple” ones with 3 different silicone pads included and they work well for me. Actually the speciality compared to other in-ear phones are the huge drivers. The bass is phenomenal deep and still dry and not muffled. The phones sound warm but clear. And they work well with nearly all types of mucis. There’s a huge difference between them and my old Shures. So THESE are my new “friends” during travel – and the mic is helpful as well 😉 The best in-ear phones I’ve ever tried out so far.
For those who speak German: Spiegel Online has tested them a few weeks ago and c’t did a very detailed test I believe two years back. Recently Beyerdynamic has revised them and released the MMX 101 – and there’s also a version available without mic called DTX 100/101 … and I neither get payed by Beyerdynamic nor did I get them any cheaper for writing this blog entry.
Well, my gold old Logitech Presenter died completely after 5 years frequent usage as well last year (obviously not made in Germany 😉 …). The new device again has become a Logitech Presenter R800. The huge difference to my old one: the batteries don’t last this long anymore and the laser spot is not red but green now. And the slip case has still no extra pocket for my set of exchange batteries. So I have to squeeze them in – and once I unpack the device the batteries usually “jump out” as well … always a big fun to search for them on the dark colored carpets in conference rooms.
We’ll see if it will last 5 years as well 😉
Mike
